Facebook and Instagram’s most engaging brands in key Asia regions revealed

Singapore Airlines, JD Sports Malaysia, Super Soccer TV and Ari Football were the top performing brands on Instagram in four key Asian markets over the first half the year, according to Socialbakers data.

The social media marketing firm analysed brands’ Facebook and Instagram pages in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to identify those which have garnered the most engagement.

Engagement was evaluated on the volume of interactions (likes, comments, shares etc) the brands' posts achieved.

Retail and ecommerce brands are among the top performers on both Facebook and Instagram across all four markets, but each market has its nuances. In Singapore for example, airline and accomodation brands rate highly on social, while Thailand is the only market where auto brands reach the top 10.

Streaming services feature in the top 10 in three markets, including Mediacorp's OTT service Toggle in Singapore, Malaysian SVoD Iflix in Malaysia, and Netflix in Thailand.

The lists are mainly dominated by local brands, showing the importance of having boots on the ground in market when it comes to tailoring social media strategy.

Singapore

In Singapore, Shilla Duty Free was identified as the most engaging brand on Facebook for the first half of the year, garnering more than twice the number of interactions compared to its closest competitor, Pioneer Car Rental.

The travel and hospitality industry dominated the Facebook charts, securing four out of 10 spots. This was led by Rendezvous Hotels, which received 674,234 interactions.

While Singapore Airlines was tenth in the Facebook charts, it dominated Instagram interactions over the six month period. Viu Singapore managed to retain its middle position within the top 10 for both Instagram and Facebook. Toggle secured the 10th slot.

Overall, the retail and ecommerce industries saw the most interactions on Instagram. 

Indonesia

The top performing brands in Indonesia on Facebook feature Malaysian-founded brands Mr DIY and Grab.

Local fashion e-tailer Sorabel is the clear leader in engagement on Facebook, gathering almost 1 million more interactions than Mr DIY at number two. Smartfren is one of the few telecom companies that made it to the top 10 in any of the regions.

On Instagram, the top 10 brands with the exclusion of Glints Indonesia are all online retailers.

There is less of a gap in engagement between the top three brands on Instagram than on Facebook, with Super Soccer TV leading the way. None of the top brands on Facebook made the list on Instagram.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, local brands performed especially well on Facebook.

Malaysian publisher Oh! Media leads the Facebook chart, having almost four times as many interactions than the next brand in the list, JOOX Malaysia. Fashion brands that made the list are all local, while Malaysian-headquartered streaming service Iflix secured the ninth slot.

Fashion and retail make up most of the most engaging brands on Instagram in Malaysia, while Vivo Malaysia is the only electronics brand to make the top 10 on Instagram.

Thailand

Only in Thailand do auto brands (Lenso Wheels and Raiden Tires) make up two of the top 10 most engaging profiles.

On Instagram, there is a relatively even distribution of interactions at the upper level of brands on the list. Retail brands dominate the top of the list on Instagram, led by Ari Football. 

Netflix features as the ninth most engaging brand on Instagram, suggesting its localisation strategy is paying off.