Sina International’s GM has said: “If you want to enter China with social marketing; Weibo is the only tool.” SinaWeibo has 56 million daily active users in China. SinaWeibo boasts over 130,000 corporate accounts and 56% of users follow at least one account. It offers the content sophistication of a social network such as Facebook with the engagement and interaction levels of a pure micro-blogging service such as Twitter.
“If you want to enter China with social marketing and broadcasting; Weibo is the only tool.”
Relevance Web Marketing knows how important social media in China is becoming for your brand. Here we introduce the two account systems of SinaWeibo – the personal account and the enterprise edition.
The Personal Account (on the left: StTropezHouse) vs. The enterprise Edition (on the right: Ritz-Carlton)
The Personal Account
- Verified accounts
Verified Weibo accounts are similar to Twitter’s. There is a “Verified” badge for public to recognise an account whose user has a certain popularity or reputation. The verified accountoffers exposure to new users in the same industry or in the same professions. The system randomly promotes verified users on the SinaWeibo front page.
- VIP membership accounts
The VIP membership account costs 10RMB(1.25€) a month or 108RMB(13.5€) a year. The VIP members enjoy the privileges of their status being highlighted, extra functions, mobile and security features.
- “Daren” (expert) accounts
The “Daren” accounts require a real-identity registration. Users of “Daren” accounts are usually young people who are very active on SinaWeibo. With the “Daren” badge, they can participate in many activities both on-line and off-line.
The Enterprise Edition
The enterprise edition is a personal Weibo upgrade for enterprise accounts. With a multi-function page and a management dashboard, it provides more features. The most notable changes include personalised page display, data analysis, and more social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) elements.
- Personalised page display
Users can adjust the background and share pictures and videos on the top of the page to promote the brand image. It plays an important role in the very first seconds of contact between the brand and the page viewers.
- Data analysis
The enterprise edition adds a management dashboard based on the personal account. The elements on the dashboard include fans, keyword monitoring, trend analysis, page views, and click through of embedded short links. With these tools, brands can better assess the quality of interactions and measure the traffic towards outside websites generated by links posted on their page.
- CRM features for advertisers
The CRM enables brands to track sales through the enterprise solution platform. For example, the “Weibo fans subscription service” allows brands to service their customers at scale. The “Promoted Headline” promotes a specific feed to their followers to pay attention to their posts. In addition, the enterprise version allows marketers to launch different promotional events, special offers, and manage numerous campaigns through the platform.
Chinese Weibo users are most interested in new products, sales promotions and user experience sharing. The acceptance level of sales and marketing-related messages is quite high. Now Weibo is an effective online marketing tool in China.
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