Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube make you a K-Drama fan and two friends prove it!
“Annyeong! Saranghae! Daebak! Jinjja?”
IF YOU’VE SENT THIS IN THE GROUP CHAT WITH YOUR FRIENDS, IT’S OFFICIAL — YOU’RE A KOREABOO.
K-Dramas have been rising in popularity over the past year (Wow, thanks COVID-19! Just kidding). With everyone stuck at home, binge-watching content on Netflix has been the daily routine for many Filipinos. In particular, K-Dramas have become such a trendy genre among us, that we’ve decided to dedicate an entire blog post to it. Yup, that’s how much we love it!
To make things more interesting, we’ve interviewed Annie and Erin, who are two hardcore K-Drama fans. Let’s find out how their K-Drama journeys began and how social media played a BIG part in it!
Q: How long have you been watching K-Dramas?
E: It’s been a year I think. But honestly, I never thought I’d end up like this one day, as someone who used to judge K-Pop and K-Dramas so hard.
A: IKR, it’s so amazing how you’ve completely converted in less than a year! As for me, I’ve been watching for about four years, but last year was on a whole new level.
E: Quite interesting too actually because I fell into the trap thanks to—
A: MY PEER PRESSURE!?
E: Okay, yes, but also SOCIAL MEDIA!
A: Oh yeah, I totally agree!
So it looks like social media has played a big role in creating the K-Drama fans we know today. For this post, we’ll explain how sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube have produced hundreds of thousands of Koreaboos like Annie and Erin in the Philippines!
Let’s start with how K-Dramas are promoted on Facebook.
In the digital report of Data Reportal, Facebook ranked as the top mobile application in the Philippines in terms of monthly active users as of January 2021. Advertising on the social media platform can reach as much as 83 million people, which is roughly 75% of the entire population. These are impressive numbers, but let’s see if they translate well to the experiences of our two friends.
Q: How did Facebook influence you to watch K-Dramas?
E: TBH I first saw a bunch of posts on subtle asian traits & subtle asian dating about Crash Landing On You. I got so intrigued because thousands of people were talking about it, so I Googled it and read some articles about the drama.
A: OMG I remember that. You didn’t even listen when I asked you to watch it. I can’t believe you trusted a bunch of random strangers over my personal reco!
E: No, it isn’t just because of that! So much K-Drama content started to take over my feed—it was all so sudden! There were sponsored articles from popular media websites and previews from Netflix, so I couldn’t help but check them out, too.
Yup, that’s a thing! It sounds a bit creepy, but Facebook has a feature called Facebook Pixels. It essentially tracks your activity on different websites to optimize the ads you see on your Facebook timeline. This is probably what Erin experienced. After she went on sites that had Facebook Pixels, they were able to track her activity and show her ads related to that category on her timeline. In this case, it was about K-Dramas. Pretty cool, right?
A: Don’t forget the Annyeong Oppa Group!
E: Oh man, ever since you asked me to join that group, I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent every day just reading the posts there.
Q: Can you tell me more about this Annyeong Oppa Group?
A: Annyeong Oppa is a great way to learn about K-Dramas! There are over 380k people in the group, so as long as you write about a drama you’re interested in or currently watching, admins will approve it, then the people will see it already!
E: OMG I remember you posted something about Hospital Playlist there, and it got over 20k likes?!
A: Yeah, the engagement in that group is insane! Hundreds of people were also tagging their friends, telling them to start watching the show already. I honestly felt like an influencer when that happened!
E: These Facebook groups are so effective in getting you to try new things. I remember Globe also had an event where they invited Kim Seon-ho to a virtual fan meet, but we first had to join their Facebook group called Kmmunity PH. Getting to see my ultimate K-Drama crush was on the line, so I obviously joined the group!
A: OMG, yes! I remember when that group started, there were only around 10k people? Now there are close to 120k people and the group’s growing every day!
Apart from conventional ads, another gem Facebook holds is the ability to create a community through exclusive Facebook groups. These give you the opportunity to build connections with thousands of people who enjoy discussing similar topics. Annie and Erin found themselves immersed in fan-made K-Drama groups like the Annyeong Oppa Group, wherein they organically engaged with other members inside.
Taking it a step further, Globe’s Kmmunity PH group benefited greatly from this initiative. By requiring people to join the group to engage in an exclusive fan meet, they were able to get thousands of members in a single day, who have continued to actively engage with both branded and organic posts in the group. Pretty nifty life hack if you’re planning to build a community around your brand, too!
We’ve learned a lot about Facebook’s influence on K-Drama fans, so let’s move on to another popular social media site—Twitter!
Q: So how did you discover K-Dramas on Twitter?
E: Oh, that’s Annie’s expertise.
A: *laughs* Guilty! Yeah I’m on Twitter, like, 24/7. Well, since I’ve become so addicted to K-Dramas, I’ve created an account just to follow K-Drama content. I have to say that Stan Twitter is pretty active! They post every other minute about an ongoing K-drama—be it filming updates, sneak peeks, or even fan theories. I send their posts to my friends too, which leads them to watch those K-dramas as well.
Q: Oh wow, we didn’t know Stan Twitter existed. Can you tell us more about it?
A: Trust me. It’s a trap. But I think that Stan Twitter has really helped people get exposed to more K-Dramas. When the more established accounts post about any ongoing show, it really gains a lot of engagement.
With this, it’s an undeniably known fact that Twitter is a good way to market K-Drama. As of January 2021, the site sits in the top 10 websites with the most traffic, with around 36 million total visits and 7.8 million unique ones. Moreover, Twitter users are on their phones most of the time as it is mentioned that the channel gathers about 80% of traffic from their mobile site. With just a simple scroll and follow on Twitter, this merely proves the good engagement K-Dramas can get from users in the Philippines.
Congrats for making it halfway! Wanna know more about social media metrics? Check this post here.
Now, let’s look at Instagram and see how it influenced our two guests K-Drama.
Q: Let’s talk about Instagram. What kind of content swayed you to watch more K-Dramas?
E: While I was watching It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, I followed Kim Soo-hyun on Instagram.
A: As you should have!
E: Duh! Anyway, after that, K-Drama content instantly started to appear on my Explore page. One post by The Swoon was a video of the It’s Okay to Not Be Okay cast’s Jenga game. I was intrigued so I followed The Swoon’s account after that.
The Instagram Explore page is a pretty unique feature of the platform. It allows users to see content that they prefer, based on their behaviors on the app. This is exactly the kind of execution that values and incorporates the consumer journey into the overall experience. Once Erin viewed content by a K-Drama actor, her Explore feed naturally filled up with posts related to that actor and his other shows. This ensures that Erin stays on the app longer and consumes more content.
A: The Swoon is a pretty interactive account. It gives followers sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes clips of their fave K-Dramas. It’s super fun, actually! They have quizzes and polls for K-Drama awards on their Instagram stories, so those are some of the ways they connect with their followers. With the poll answers, they’re also able to create more content that their followers prefer.
That’s another great benefit of social media marketing. Instagram Stories allows you to try a host of interactive features like polls, quizzes, and Q&A. When you engage with your audience this way, you’re able to foster positive relationships with them that they will forever associate with your brand. It’s even better when you take advantage of these practically free resources to conduct research about your followers. By asking them what content they prefer and actually producing that afterward, you involve them in the creation process and give them a voice.
A: The Swoon is also associated with Netflix, so they usually show teasers and trailers for upcoming Netflix shows, as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes clips! The Swoon also produces videos featuring celebrities from popular K-Dramas on their YouTube channel, which they cross-promote on their Instagram account. I think I’ve watched all of their videos already.
E: Dude, where do you find the time?
A: I told you, they’re really effective in engaging with people! Don’t you love watching their content also?
E: Okay, true. I started watching more K-Dramas after seeing short clips of the cute actors on The Swoon’s IG account! From Start-Up to Vincenzo, all of their videos were super good!
Lastly, we touch on a popular streaming site where you can easily find K-Drama videos—YouTube.
Q: Can any of you share a K-Drama encounter you had on YouTube?
E: I watched Sweet Home back in December because it was trending on Netflix. When I finished the series, I searched The Swoon on YouTube to find videos of the cast members. I loved Song Kang there, so I ended up binge-watching videos of him with cast members from other shows like Love Alarm the whole day.
A: Wait, didn’t you end up watching Love Alarm because of that?
E: YES! I saw so many recommended videos of Kim So-hyun, the actress from Love Alarm, that day, so I ended up watching another popular drama she starred in—The Tale of Nokdu. This was the first time I ever watched a K-Drama because YouTube influenced me, and not because my friends suggested it!
When it comes to YouTube’s algorithm, it has a scoring-matching process for giving the right video recommendations. As they aim for users to stay longer on the streaming channel, YouTube does its best to provide quality videos in terms of performance and potential interest to the users, and this is exactly what happened to Erin. Apart from this, the more videos users watch, the more ads they see as well (unless you have YouTube Premium, go you!). Given this, advertised brands have more chances of gaining customers through the site with over 54.2 million potential people reached.
A: Adding to what Erin said, I do notice Netflix ads popping up mid-video whenever I try to watch K-Drama content. I think this is a good way to pull people into watching K-Dramas onto their platform, specifically. Smart move by Netflix to plug their ads on YouTube!
In conclusion:
With everything that’s been said, it’s clear that social media has played a key role in the lives of K-Drama fans in the Philippines.
But the things we’ve mentioned don’t just apply to K-Dramas, they can be used by anyone who wishes to promote something—whether that’s a person or a brand. As Filipinos continue to reign as the top social media users in the world, it is with no doubt that channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube will keep growing. With that, it’s important to keep up with the trends in the digital world.
We hope this blog helped you in one way or another. ‘Til next time, chingu!
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