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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Apple, a leading tech company with arguably some of the most innovative products on the market right now, is a trailblazer when it comes to consistently offering products that feel uniquely personal to the consumer. From their annual #AppleEvent to the iStore experience and everything in between, Apple has managed to turn their customers into brand advocates without even sharing a single tweet on their Twitter account that has 6.2 Million followers. Apple's marketing strategy has a way of encouraging its consumers to be brand advocates, without actually asking them to do so. 

So, how can you implement brand advocacy into your own PR strategy in order to convert customers into loyal advocates for your company? Keep reading. 

The Importance of a Brand Advocacy Program

Organic vs. Manufactured: Brand Advocates or Brand Ambassadors?

How to Find and Nurture Organic Brand Advocates

Brand advocacy is about promoting your brand by word-of-mouth marketing. Consumers who tend to share their positive reviews and experiences of your brand on social media can help promote your company to new customers, and positively influence your sales. 

Brand advocates influence around 50% of purchasing decisions. This could be done through social media or by word-of-mouth, where 90% of consumers say that a word-of-mouth recommendation also influences their purchasing decision.

This may come as a surprise, but your consumers may not trust your brand all the time. In fact, only 1 in 3 consumers believe that they can trust the brands they buy. If someone can't trust your brand, how can you expect them to purchase a product or service from you? Managing your brand reputation is important to your business's bottom line — not only for your marketing objectives. According to the World Economic Forum, a quarter of a company’s market value can be directly related to its reputation. 

If you have a good reputation and offer a valuable product, customers will buy from you again and again. Plus, they'll tell their friends to buy from you. 

Without really knowing it, brand advocates often become marketers for your brand as they create user-generated content and give you free publicity. From product video reviews to blog posts specifically mentioning your brand,  incorporate brand advocates into your PR campaigns to not only boost brand awareness but gain publicity and user-generated content at the same time.

So, you need to ensure that your brand, products, and services are being positively perceived by others. This is where brand advocacy comes into play, and why you should care about it. 

If you manage to establish a loyal customer base, you'll want to nurture those customers. After all, you've probably heard about the 80/20 rule, which states that about 80% of company sales come from about 20% of its customers. 

So how can you effectively build trust in your brand where consumers genuinely speak positively about you and their loyalty to your company? The short answer: Implement a brand advocacy program. 

Brand advocacy programs provide consumers with incentives for speaking positively about your brand and company. The goal is to encourage them to promote your company and reward the consumers who do so. Essentially, this is influencer marketing — only your influencers are your existing customer base, not a group of models in L.A.

According to Marketing Charts, a brand advocate will reach an average of 150 people every time they speak about your company. So if you have four brand advocates, that is around 600 people that could be exposed to your brand. Organic reach like this, alongside the free publicity and increased sentiment around your brand, can all make for compelling reasons to implement a brand advocacy program. ﻿Some things you would need to consider are:

How will you continue to foster community-building through the program?

How will you enable customers to be personal in their advocacy?

When you can answer these three questions, you have the makings of a brand advocacy program that can truly help turn customers into advocates. 

Tip: Tailor your content marketing activities toward your brand advocates. By having a plan for how you to encourage and leverage user-generated content you'll hopefully be able to build that community of brand advocates you are after. 

A typical sales funnel stops at the purchase, but an ideal customer journey actually ends in advocacy. Relationship marketing disciplines like social media typically touch consumers at both the top and bottom of the sales funnel.

Brand advocates have immense brand value, but how does PR play a role? A quick look at a standard customer purchase funnel helps to illustrate where PR comes into play at every stage.

Awareness: PR activities drive brand awareness, which is the first step a consumer takes in the customer purchase funnel. The PR that makes your potential customers aware of your product or brand has a significant impact on their initial impression of your brand.

Consideration – Loyalty: PR plays a major role in shaping your corporate image. As a customer moves from consideration to loyalty, the corporate image becomes a key component in how that customer feels about your brand.

Advocacy: It is the holistic brand experience that builds a brand advocate. Elements of advocacy include product experience, customer service, and brand image, to name a few.

PR professionals are always looking for others that are praising their company or executive leaders. We all love it when a journalist or blogger writes about our company — but PR & Communications teams even more so. Getting endorsement from a brand advocate is no different than being featured in an article on an online news publication; they are telling the world about your brand and doing so authentically.

One of Meltwater's South African clients, Primedia Broadcasting, shared insights into how they use our Meltwater consumer intelligence capabilities to attract radio listeners. It was a great article about the benefits they have experienced in using Meltwater. Comments like "Audience, gives us live, actionable insights into listener interaction with the stations," provide organic social proof of the value of our platform. This is just one example of the value brand advocacy for companies.

An article like this conveys the value to other potential customers who may be researching Meltwater and our products.  Whether prospective clients read the Primedia Broadcasting article organically after finding it through a search engine or after being directed by a sales rep, it has all the value of a 3rd party endorsement.

Whenever the topic of brand advocacy comes up, a question that almost always arises is: “Are you talking about brand ambassadors or advocates, organic or manufactured?”

The difference between the two is simple: are you paying them? If you are, they are brand ambassadors. If not, they brand advocates.

Organic brand advocates become advocates on their own, based on their experience with your brand. These are the consumers who have worked their way through the funnel and just LOVE your product or service. 

Organically grown brand advocates would be willing to post about your brand on social media (or even get a tattoo of your brand's logo) without you having to ask them to do so. If you have to pay someone to get a tattoo of your brand logo, well, then that's an advertisement. 

Manufactured advocates (aka brand ambassadors) are the people you find and pay to advocate for your brand. They fall into many different categories, but the most common example would be celebrities, promotional models, spokespeople, and even macro-influencers. Michael Jordan may love Nike, but he doesn’t endorse the product for free – he is a paid ambassador of the brand.

The good news is that you probably already have advocates speaking about your company on social media. They are your customers, employees, and partners, and there is a good chance that they represent you, to some degree, online. A good social media monitoring tool will help you identify organic brand advocates who are already in action.

The best steps to take in building relationships with advocates are generally the same as those you would take to build a strong business, amongst them:

Thoughtfully listen to what consumers are saying

Engaging with them in conversations online

Having great products and great customer service

Having differentiators customers care about

Other ways that you could find brand advocates include using social media listening and social media community management. You want to find advocates that not only speak positively about your brand, but are active community members that are already engaging with you. For a more in-depth look into finding your advocates using social media, read this blog post. 

As a customer moves through the purchase funnel, they encounter PR in various forms along the way, but the magic happens when they reach the end and become brand advocates. As a customer evolves into an advocate, they go from consuming your company’s PR to helping to create PR for your company on social media. They become aligned with your branding, they represent you in a positive way to their own online audience, and the organic influence they have really will benefit you. A strong brand advocate becomes an influencer, and – as we’ve discussed - in today’s digital world an influencer can be just as valuable as a journalist.

To learn more about how a social media listening tool can help with your brand advocacy programs and PR campaigns, complete the form below for a free demo today.

Brand Advocacy: What It Is And Why It Is Important For PR

Want to learn how to do customer segmentation right? Look no further than these examples of customer segmentation from real-world use cases.

Customer segmentation stands out as one of the most effective ways to reach the right people at the right time. 

Your customers aren’t one-size-fits-all, so your marketing tactics shouldn't be either. Segmenting your customers allows you to customize your approach and reach them with precision and relevance.

Using customer segmentation examples can help inspire your own strategy. You’ll learn more about what segmentation means and how to go about it to get the results you expect.

Implementing Customer Segmentation with Meltwater

Tip: Learn more about the different customer segmentation models you can use.

B2B customer segmentation serves the same purpose as B2C customer segmentation — to divide a customer base into groups based on shared characteristics. 

However, the B2B approach is a little different because it focuses on customers serving a professional role. There are usually more decision-makers involved in purchases. Buying cycles are generally longer. Customers aren’t buying based on their personal needs or preferences, but rather those of an entire department or company.

For these reasons, typical customer segmentation criteria like age, gender, and income don’t usually apply. Instead, you’ll focus more on behaviors, values, and company demographics.

A few B2B customer segmentation examples include:

Creating different website journeys for different roles or industries

Tailoring messages and offers based on company size

Marketing based on the products or services purchased

Take Meltwater, for example. Our home page features a By Need menu that breaks down our services by industry (e.g., technology, education), role (e.g., marketing, C-suite), or company type (e.g., enterprise, small and medium businesses). Each of these areas focuses specifically on those customer segments, speaking to their unique needs and priorities.

We also see examples of B2B customer segmentation on pricing pages. For example, HubSpot features various pricing tiers based on business size and needs. They also have different package options for individuals and small businesses compared to mid-market businesses and enterprises.

You can apply similar approaches to your email marketing, social media campaigns, and paid ads. 

Salesforce offers a good example. Their marketing automation software is trusted by many industries, but the company also runs industry-specific PPC ads, like the one below.

Retail stores (even niche ones) typically have a varied customer base. Customers come to you for a myriad of reasons, and you can lean into this variety to improve your marketing (even when all these differences might feel overwhelming).

Retail customer segmentation examples include:

Campaigns for loyalty program members or first-time customers

Marketing based on how they found you online (e.g., organic search, social media, PPC ads)

Segmenting email campaigns based on product purchases and usage patterns

Cleaning retailer Grove uses customer segmentation in email campaigns. For example, this email campaign targeted everyone who had previously bought a certain item that became available as a free gift.

Cosmetics brand Urban Decay also uses email for segmentation. In the example below, the retailer sent an email to subscribers who hadn’t purchased in a while. They included a discount to encourage customers to open the email and make a purchase.

Look for common denominators among customers, then tailor your messaging to pique their interests in unique ways.

Further reading: The Retail Customer Experience Guide

Demographic customer segmentation is like separating a bag of jelly beans by color — it's all about categorizing customers based on their characteristics. From age and gender to income level and education, companies can use these details to better understand who’s buying from them.

Demographic segmentation examples may include:

Featuring high-end luxury goods or budget-friendly options

Makeup brand Il Makiage sends special offers to their customers during their birthday month.

But here's the twist: demographics don't tell the whole story. Just because two people are in the same age group doesn't mean they share the same interests or buying behaviors. 

Millennials are a perfect example — some spend their time exploring and mastering the latest technological gadgets while others are busy building million-dollar startups. Demographics are a great starting point for understanding your audience, but don't forget to dig deeper and find other connections. 

Tip: Learn how using customer segmentation tools like Meltwater's consumer intelligence solution can help you drill down on customer behavior and affinities, beyond simple demographics.

Behavioral segmentation is like cracking the code of human behavior. You investigate to learn what makes people tick and use that knowledge to create targeted campaigns. When you get behavioral segmentation right, you can build deeper connections with your audience and drive sales like never before.

Examples of behavioral segmentation include:

Tracking the user’s website journey (e.g., what products they viewed, what they clicked on)

What element(s) made them convert, such as a pop-up or a discount code

For example, Maurices sends emails to customers who added something to their cart but didn’t check out. The discount provides an extra incentive to complete the purchase.

Amazon also uses behavioral segmentation to reach customers in the inbox. For example, the company detects purchasing trends to identify potential customers for a business-only account.

By diving deep into the rabbit hole of behavioral segmentation, you uncover hidden patterns and trends that allow you to anticipate your customers' needs — sometimes before they realize those needs themselves.

Want to see how Meltwater's Customer Intelligence solution can help you be smarter about your customer segmentation? Get a free tour of our platform today!

If your target audience were characters in a movie, psychographic segmentation would be a plot that unravels their deepest desires, fears, and aspirations. 

These are their personality traits, interests, lifestyle choices, values, and attitudes. These elements allow you to build emotional connections and show who you are behind the brand.

Examples of psychographic segmentation may include:

Highlighting the eco-friendliness of your company and products

Celebrating Pride Month in your creative campaigns

Promoting messages of inclusivity and diversity

Making religious holiday-specific campaigns

Using niche language or slang that’s popular among a specific audience

Coca-Cola’s "Ramadan is Coming" campaign is an excellent example of psychographic segmentation. The rich, colorful media aligns with the brand’s core image while focusing on customers who celebrate Ramadan.

Learn more about how Coca-Cola collects consumer insights and more.

Aerie’s AerieREAL campaign promotes diversity and body positivity by using models with disabilities and body shapes that don’t fit the traditional definition of “model.”

Psychographic details can be harder to identify than behaviors or demographics. They’re not always as obvious, and you’ll need to do some digging and truly get to know who your customers are and what they care about.

If you’ve ever explored a big city on foot, you know how different neighborhoods have unique vibes. They each have a distinct look and feel, along with different attitudes and values of the people who live there. 

If you do business with customers beyond your local neighborhood, you should know this same idea applies to your customer base. People’s preferences, needs, and values can vary from region to region, country to country, and even neighborhood to neighborhood. 

By using geographic segmentation, you can add local flavor to your marketing that connects with people no matter where they are.

Examples of geographic segmentation might include:

Using local imagery in your creative elements

Aligning fashion items to the local weather in a particular region

Catering to differences in cultural norms, languages, or religions

A clothing brand embraced this idea by creating an ad that echoed the rainy weather its customers in Ireland were experiencing.

If you want to add an extra layer of authenticity to your customer segmentation, enlist the help of local influencers. Meltwater customer Domino’s France used our platform to find and partner with influencers in the French market for a Halloween campaign. The brand found food and humor influencers who could connect with customers based on location and interests.

These customer segmentation examples prove the power of non-generic marketing messages. By catering to the unique aspects of your customer base, you can build deeper connections and speak directly to their needs and interests. 

Meltwater's Consumer Intelligence solution helps you segment your audience in ways that matter most. Going beyond the basics of age, marital status, and gender, Meltwater analyzes billions of data points to help you find hidden connections within audiences. Learn more about their interests, values, and other factors that motivate behaviors, and tap into the power of digital data that shows you who your customers really are and how you can effectively reach them.

Learn more when you request a demo by filling out the form below:

13 Customer Segmentation Examples to Grow Your Business

Note: This blog is based on the Global Digital Report 2024 – produced in partnership with Meltwater and We Are Social. See Simon Kemp's article about The Changing World of Digital in 2024. Download the Global Digital Report 2024 and the Global Digital Report 2023 for free.

In the modern digital era, social media has undergone a significant transformation, becoming a space where marketers have continued to understand dynamic trends to engage their customer base. Effective utilisation of social media platforms can significantly elevate a brand, promoting client interaction, audience expansion, and successful conversions. This article aims to shed light on the most recent social media statistics for Indonesia heading into 2024, seeing how online user behaviour is changing and what these changes mean for businesses and marketers.

Social media usage statistics in Indonesia

Digital marketing statistics in Indonesia

What's ahead for social media in Indonesia in 2024?

As we begin to explore Indonesia's digital landscape, we discover a lively ecosystem where digital connections form the foundation of daily interaction and commerce. Indonesia stands out in the APAC region due to its distinctive digital footprint, a prominent feature of its broad online base. Discussing the nuances of Indonesia's social media environment allows advertisers to understand better and connect with this dynamic and diverse audience.

When looking at Indonesia's general social media statistics for 2024, the numbers show that internet usage remains relatively constant. The amount of internet users has increased slightly by 0.8%, or around 1.5 million more than the previous year, bringing it to 185.3 million. Similarly, the number of cellular mobile connections has risen by 0.7%, reaching 353.3 million, with 2.5 million more connections added since last year. Because some people may have more than one mobile phone subscription for other purposes, such as work, the ratio of cellular connections to the total population is 126.8%.

These numbers demonstrate Indonesia's slow yet consistent growth in digital connectedness, which is essential to comprehending the nation's present social media and internet usage patterns.

As we can see from the data collected concerning Indonesia's internet usage statistics in 2024, there has been a slight decrease in the amount of time people spend online. Over the past year, there has been a 1% drop, or 4 minutes, in the average amount of time spent online across all devices daily. Still, over two-thirds of Indonesians have access to the internet, as over 66.5% of the country's population use it regularly.

Knowledge, interaction, and inspiration remain the main drivers of internet use among Indonesians. Firstly, 83.1% of users go online to find information, making the internet the average Indonesian's go-to place for news and statistics. As we'll see later, with WhatsApp being the country's top social media network, keeping in touch with friends and family is a priority for 70.9% of Indonesians online. This reason for using the net highlights digital communication's vital function in sustaining social relationships. New ideas or inspiration are sought after by 70.6% of Indonesian internet users, demonstrating that the internet also serves as a centre for innovation and discovery for them.

Internet usage across a range of devices in Indonesia has decreased, reflecting the slight decline in online engagement discussed earlier. Notably, tablet devices and feature phones have experienced the most significant declines, with 18.2% and 27.9% decrease, respectively. This development suggests consumers are moving towards more integrated and multipurpose devices, such as the old reliable mobile phones, as their continued go-to internet-accessing device.

Internet usage in Indonesia through mobile devices has been relatively stable, increasing by 0.6% over the previous year. This is supported by mobile internet connection speeds in the country, which have improved significantly, with download speeds going up by 42%. This indicates better network capabilities, which may contribute to the continued use of mobile phones for internet-related activities. This is coupled with a 16.4% increase in internet download speeds overall, leading to a more efficient and better user experience. In line with worldwide trends towards mobile-centric internet consumption, this supports the notion that Indonesians value the immediacy and convenience of mobile phones while accessing the web.

Statistics on social media use in Indonesia show a subtle change in how the internet is used. Compared to a year ago, Indonesians on social media - which account for 49.9% of the total population - now spend an average of 7 minutes fewer each day online. The overall trend of social media's reduced significance in brand discovery is reflected in this decrease in engagement time. More specifically, in the past year, there has been a marked decline in the number of people using social media to learn about new brands and products.

Compared to the previous year, there has been a 1.8% decline in the total use of social media platforms for brand research. Blogs and vlogs, content-driven platforms, have seen a steep decline of 28.0% and 19.5%, respectively. Indonesia's advertisers and social media influencers face a challenge as the country's audience becomes increasingly selective when discovering new companies online. Heading into 2024, Indonesian marketers must adapt to and engage with a customer base that shows less interest in using social media to learn about and connect with brands.

Three factors stand out as primary drivers of social media use in Indonesia heading into 2024. 

With 58.9% of Indonesians using social media for leisure, it's clear that this platform is mostly used as a source of entertainment. The social nature of these platforms is further supported by how 57.1% of users say they use them to keep in contact with friends and family. As we'll see, WhatsApp is the social media platform Indonesians spend the most time on, with the most monthly app sessions and being users' favorite network. Meanwhile, 48.8% of users turn to social media to see what's being talked about, establishing social media as an essential source of information for Indonesians online in addition to conventional media channels. 

As Indonesia's most used social media platform and messaging application, WhatsApp is utilised by 90.9% of the country, with Instagram second at 85.3% monthly usage. Although not as popular in Indonesia, the percentage of individuals using Facebook remains relatively high at 81.6%, while the percentage of people using TikTok is 73.5%. These social media platforms cater to Indonesian users' needs in terms of communication, information, and entertainment, three of the chief reasons discussed earlier.

One reason for WhatsApp's popularity in Indonesia is the high rate of mobile phone usage in the nation. With so many people relying on their mobile devices for everyday tasks, it's unsurprising that WhatsApp is designed to be user-friendly and optimised for mobile devices. Statistics reveal that users open WhatsApp over 1,347.8 times each month, almost four times more than the next-highest used app, TikTok, which is at 373.7 times opened monthly, further demonstrating WhatsApp's popularity. This significant distinction highlights the function of WhatsApp in Indonesians' everyday interactions through their digital lives. 

Take note that WhatsApp is much more than simply a chat app; small businesses may reach a large audience and promote their products and services via WhatsApp business, taking advantage of the messaging app's widespread adoption. Given the nation's steady usage of mobile devices, this contributes to Indonesia's social media statistics, including the number of monthly uses and the amount of time spent on the application, streamlining commercial transactions via its user base and facilitating communication through the platform.

As mentioned, Indonesians use social media for communication, content discovery, and enjoyment. Instagram, the second most used social media network in Indonesia, has many features that appeal to all three. Users can also keep in touch with loved ones, follow their favourite celebrities, and immerse in these activities in an aesthetically pleasing and engaging format—all in one convenient location.

The opportunity for marketers is shown by the platform's advertising reach, which surpasses 100.9 million individuals, further emphasizing the social media app's usage in Indonesia. Instagram is one of two Indonesian social media platforms seeing significant increases in ad reach, along with TikTok, which is demonstrating extensive and rising exposure. Supported by a 13.2% growth in ad reach from the previous year, Instagram has become an ideal platform for advertising efforts in Indonesia due to its growing popularity and capacity to attract and engage a large and active audience.

TikTok is the most popular social media app in Indonesia in terms of time spent on the platform, with users using it for an average of 38 hours and 26 minutes every month. Meanwhile, YouTube, with its high advertising audience, follows, with consumers spending 31 hours and 28 minutes monthly on it. WhatsApp and Instagram are third and fourth, at 26 hours and 13 minutes and 16 hours and 10 minutes, respectively. 

TikTok has the most significant increase in advertising reach from the previous year and is also where most Indonesians spend their time on social media. Compared to Instagram, whose ad reach has declined over the last quarter, Tiktok's ad reach has increased by 19.1% over the same period and 15.4% over the previous year overall. TikTok provides marketers with an ideal platform to reach a large and engaged viewership thanks to its entertaining mix of features and the ability for social media influencers to create videos to promote products. The swift and steady increase in its ad reach highlights TikTok's increasing impact on Indonesian consumers, demonstrating how it's become an important application to monitor moving forward.

Meanwhile, considering YouTube in particular, the platform has a noteworthy ad reach, capturing the attention of 75% of Indonesia's total internet users and a potential reach of 139 million users, both of which are the highest among all the social media networks in Indonesia as of this study. With the most considerable reach of any social media network, YouTube allows advertisers to reach a diverse range of Indonesians.

The top demographics of Indonesian social media users by age comprised of a younger audience, giving advertisers a clearer idea of where to target their efforts. Males make up 20% of the advertising reach, and females 17.7% in the 25-34 age group, making it the largest segment when it comes to social media usage. Next are those in the age bracket of 18–24, where males account for 13.1% and females for 14%. The third comprises Indonesian users aged 35–44, with males making up 11.5% and females 9.3%.

Advertisers can tap into the tastes and routines of this younger demographic by adjusting their marketing efforts to appeal to them specifically. Marketers looking to take advantage of TikTok's jump in ad reach entering 2024 should think about interacting with users through fresh, short-form video content that is authentic, entertaining, and fitting of the social media platform's tone. By utilising social influencers that cater to their specific demographic, incorporating dynamic visuals, and creating engaging content, they can attract a younger audience and cash in on current trends. 

Along with the high engagement rates on WhatsApp, it raises the possibility for marketers in Indonesia to take advantage of cross-platform strategies that reach and influence people in this age bracket more deeply. Keeping an eye on what kinds of content use social media statistics such as these and making adjustments based on that data is key. Marketers should monitor social chatter and engagement metrics to determine the most effective content formats. This allows them to make quick, real-time adjustments to their strategies based on what's being discussed, ensuring their campaigns are highly engaging and relevant to Indonesia's young and active users.

Amidst the tide of shifting digital behaviours, Indonesia's mobile landscape in 2024 has remained stable. With 353.3 million cellular connections—more than its population—and a mobile phone penetration rate of 126.8%, mobile phones are, as mentioned, a necessary aspect of many people's lives in Indonesia. 

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