Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

How does marketing on Sina Weibo work?

As we saw in some of our previous posts, the Asian market keeps on growing and evolve, for what concerns business models, and also the way companies are approaching brand communication.

We covered the subject several times, talking about the Chinese social media ecosystem and also analyzing the bigger picture, with an insight on what is happening in other Asian countries.

The fast growth of web 2.0 in China is strictly related to the users’ need for real-time technologies, to gather and share any sort of info, and from the need of many European and American companies to enter the Chinese economy using platforms that are suitable for the target.

As an example, luxury brands have been able to quickly understand the importance of sharing the values of the brand by getting closer to consumers – that are increasingly influenced by the online brand reputation and always more prone to purchase products in the digital environment.

Analyzing this infographic, we can see that Sina Weibo is one of the major digital platforms in China. Weibo means microblogging (amongst the biggest competitors we can count Tencent Weibo and Sohu Weibo). This relatively new social technology – that arrived in China after the huge success of Twitter in the US – have been able to replace blogs in being the biggest digital venue for content production.

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

The social network, owned by SINA Corporation, counts today more than 300 million users, acquired in a short span of time: in fact, Sina Weibo started in 2009, and has been able to attract millions of people thanks to its features, and to the presence on the platform of major worldwide consumer brands, together with a number of local and international VIPs.

Among the first to interact with the millions of Chinese fans we can count Tom Cruise, suddenly followed by many other celebrities: the NBA star Kevin Durant, the actress Emma Watson, and the British rock band Radiohead, just to mention a few.

We must not consider this rapid growth just as a temporary craze: Sina Weibo’s value on the market is already considered to be around 2 or 3 billions of dollars.

Sina Weibo has been initially presented as a response to Twitter and Facebook censorship in Cina; despite this, the Chinese government is still trying to control the conversations on the platform.

Just a few days ago there has been a temporary block of the comments on Sina Weibo and other local platforms – such as the main competitor Tencet Weibo – by Chinese authorities, officially to “clean-up” the rumors spreading on the network of a coup d’etat, reinforced by the eventual presence of tanks in Beijing. The blackout generated strong protests online, with many people sharing satiric images on the social network – since comments were disabled:

How does Sina Weibo work?

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

Its structure is similar to the Twitter one: users can create their own profile and share info, that are organized in a stream. They can comment updates and share them with their followers – an action similar to “retweets”.

Since the beginning, the Sina Weibo team started offering a wide range of services, in order to not make the platform look like a mere “Twitter Chinese copycat”: they integrated some of the Facebook functionalities, such as the chat, together with the possibility to share more than 140 characters and upload images and videos visible on the stream.

Conversations can be related to a main subject, working the same way hashtags work; users just need to include the text inside two # (e.g.: during a promotional event Adidas used #adidas is all in# as the official hashtag to let people comment and follow the live streaming on Sina Weibo).

Despite the relatively young age, Sina Weibo could be easily compared to “western” social media, in terms of innovation. And there’s more, as this article by Tech in Asia says, insinuating a quite paradoxal doubt: what if the recent Twitter redesign was inspired by Sina Weibo graphics?

Other than that, Sina Weibo offers a full social gaming platform (game.weibo.com) on which is possible to use a virtual currency, called Weibi.

Who are Sina Weibo users?

Who is the average Sina Weibo user, and how does he use it? Here’s a brief analysis of the SW user base, taking in consideration both qualitative and demographical aspects:

o Chinese users are not very likely to create original content; on the other hand, they show a really strong attitude for sharing and commenting contents created or posted by others;

o they have a really high engagement rate with “content creators”: these can be influential friends, acquaintances that are considered “experts” in a certain field, celebrities or well known brands;

o they are more and more connected via mobile devices: just a few days ago China reached a billion mobile users, 144 million of those connected via 3G;

o most of them live in big cities, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu (source);

o 57% of them are male, 43% female (source).

All these features lead us to think that Sina Weibo is the right place where to structure the brand communication with high possibilities of success in terms of engagement.

Nevertheless, something that could potentially discourage the user base is happening: the platform is asking users to use their real name through a “real-name system”, in order to better control what people talk about – and, of course, any sort of political info they share. Users will be forced to verify their presence to keep their profile active, and this could possibly endanger the great potential Sina Weibo has, as explained in this video.

How does marketing on Sina Weibo work?

Let’s get to the point, then: more than 130,000 brands are active on Sina Weibo, amongst them Coca-Cola and LVMH. According to Mindy Sun – account director at Sina Weibo – “it currently is the platform that better lend itself to putting in a direct relation brands and consumers in China, creating deeper and stronger connections, and this is what consumers want and need right now.”

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

There is not a proper business model for companies on Sina Weibo yet, though brands can create their own profile and take advantage of the advertising platform, with banners (on Sina Weibo and SINA home page) and promoted accounts. In the next future an advertising system specifically crafted around companies needs will be launched.

The platform enables brands to create an official presence through a verification system (verified account are marked with a “V”, very similar to the Twitter ones). Profiles can be customized through the background and the possibility to share graphic elements such as pictures and videos. Here’s IKEA profile:

Huang Chao – a social media consultant I’ve been collaborating with – told us that brands on Sina Weibo can choose different content strategies. Louis Vuitton leverages on its history, announces its shows and cultural events, shares the outfits of stars, posts videos about catwalk backstages, interviewas and product teasers.

The high class wine producer Remy Martin mainly uses Sina Weibo to organize and promote events, talking to different targets through different accounts, each one dedicated to specific products.

Amongst the most efficient activities to enhance users engagement we can count contests and sweepstakes, and we cannot avoid to mention the rewards e badges system: Nike chose gamification as the main strategy to make branded content spread around the platform, offering branded badges to those followers that “retweet” products and events info a lot.

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

I also got the chance to work with Xiaobin Liang (project manager at the agency Same Same Paris) on some projects dedicated to luxury products in China, and we realized how important is for brands to find a consistent positioning in terms of contents.

A good strategy is to create “micro-subjects” through specific hashtags (a tool that brands use very often), as in the case of Lancome: they share interesting tips about make-up and personal style, and educate consumers on how to choose and use products to get the perfect look. Louis Vuitton chose tho focus on high-standards, sharing high-quality videos, pictures and previews of their classy events.

Integrating Weibo with the Youku video platform (the Chinese version of Youtube that recently announced the intention to buy the main competitor Toudu for a a billion dollars) Louis Vuitton has been able to switch its positioning towards the world of first class traveling, through tips and micro-documentaries about the best places to visit, shared on the LV City Travel channel.

We can mention some simple yet very efficient examples of brand activities, such as the low lactose milk ShuHua, that during the World Cup 2010 animated its profile with news and polls

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

about the soccer matches, asking to predict scores and choose the best player of the match. They then gave coupons and gifts to the first 50 followers that responded.

Starbucks – that counts over 500 stores in the country – engages the community by asking questions every day, and inviting followers to share contents with friends. Starbucks marketing department took Sina Weibo very seriously: they recently used the platform to announce the rising of prices for some of their products, thus generating a tremendous reaction on the weibosphere.

And DELL – one of the brands at-the-time pioneering marketing on Twitter – is using the Chinese platform to share coupons, flash codes and special promotions.

But there’s not only marketing: Sina Weibo is turning into the perfect instrument for market research. The fashion magazine ELLE China frequently involves the community on the social network in choosing which star or which model to put in the cover for the next issue.

The explosion of e-commerce platforms, the difficulty in generating a long-lasting brand loyalty and the increasing attention to the price factor are forcing brands to focus on innovative engagement mechanisms.

Even brands like Burberry and VANCL (a very popular cheap e-commerce service that shows one of the highest engagement rate on the entire platform) firmly believe that conversation is the key to good performances on Sina Weibo: they ask questions and organize polls related to the brand and to consumers’ lifestyle, and – most important thing – they listen to their online communities, often re-sharing contents that their follower post.

Sina Weibo is today an answer to all these needs, due to its huge penetration in terms of users and its wide range of functionalities. A big opportunity for retailers to create a continuous and consistent engagement, through contents and advices offered to consumers: “It’s all about involving them every single day” stated Jeff Yurcisin, manager at Shopbop.com.

Andrea Colaianni : @womarketing www.womarketing.com Guido Ghedin: @guido_ghedin www.youngdigitallab.net

And since we’re talking about sharing, we want to share with you this interesting tab found on labbrand.com, synthesizing Sina Weibo’s features compared to the Twitter ones:

I’m sure on the long-run Weibo will be a crucial asset for brands, not only for what concerns communication, also for a new social business model enabling companies to attract Chinese consumers through a localized experience (like events in Chinese cities); it will also be an answer to all the needs Chinese Internet users clearly express (engagement and interest towards influencers), and a big occasion to offer an efficient customer service.

Andrea Colaianni (in collaboration with Guido Ghedin)