A new study has revealed the growing importance of social media as a marketing tool in Asia, with Facebook and Twitter leading the way.

Buddy Media surveyed 125 brands and agencies across a number of industries in 18 different countries across Asia, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand, and discovered that Facebook (88.8 percent), Twitter (66.4 percent) and YouTube (62.4 percent) were the social platforms of choice amongst all respondents.

LinkedIn (40 percent) finished fourth, ahead of blogs (39.2 percent) and Pinterest (20.8 percent), with Google+ being used by just 12.8 percent of Asian corporate marketers.

Overwhelmingly, marketing departments are responsible for social media in Asia companies, although corporate communications and public relations are also active.

Respondents indicated that an increase in reach and brand awareness was the biggest benefit of social media marketing, ahead of increased website traffic and better knowledge of customer insights.

Growing fans and followers was pegged as the number one ROI measure for social marketing, ahead of fan engagement and generating buzz.

“Though social media marketing is still developing across Asia-Pacific, it is clear that brands and agencies are finding value in social media strategies,” concludes the report. “As barriers are removed, the amount of time, effort and money spent on social media marketing is likely to increase. Already, we see that many brands plan to devote more of their advertising budgets to social media in the coming months. As digital and social adoption continues to rise in the region, it will be interesting to watch brands adjust and adapt their social campaigns.”

You can read the report in full here (PDF).

(Source: Buddy Media. Social media image via Shutterstock.)