1. Engaging in Chinese Social Media
-- Best Practices in China’s Social Media
By
Dr. William J. Ward
@Dr4Ward
Xiaoye Zhou
@yierzhou

2. Social Media Landscape Worldwide
Source: www.marketer.com

3. Social Media Landscape Worldwide
Source: ComScore
Reach of Social Network in Total Internet Users (2013)

4. Source: Business Insider

5. Source: Business Insider

6. Social Media Landscape Asia Pacific
Source: www.sysker.com

7. Why China is different?

9. Source: CIC

10. Source: Appintochina
Who are they?

11. Where are they?
Internet Penetration Rate
Source: CNNIC

12. Source: Appintochina
How Much Do They Spend on Social?

13. (in USD)
Salary Ranges of Chinese Internet Users
Source: CNNIC
1300 Plus
830 -1300
500 - 830
300 - 500
250 - 300
160 - 250
80 - 250
80 or less
No income

14. Who Uses Which?
Source: TechRice

15. When Do They Use It?
Source: McKinsey Quarterly
When do most official media accounts post
on Sina Weibo during weekday?

16. When they use it?
Source: McKinsey Quarterly
When do most official media accounts post
on Sina Weibo during weekday?

17. Source: www.dr4ward.com
Social Media Timeline
U.S. v. China

18. Source: www.dr4ward.com
Social Media Timeline
U.S. v. China

19. Source: www.dr4ward.com
Social Media Timeline
U.S. v. China

20. Social Media Timeline
U.S. v. China
Source: www.dr4ward.com

21. Social Media U.S. v. China
Source: Ashphere

22. Source: Internetworldstats
Social Media U.S. v. China

23. Social Media U.S. v. China
Source: Internetworldstats

24. Who are they?
Source: Chinaskinny.com, Mashable
45.6% 53.3%

25. Who are they?
Source: Chinaskinny.com, Mashable
28.7% 24.4% 31.1% 15.6%

26. How many have mobile access?
Source: CNNIC, IDC
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
U.S.
China
Number of Mobile Internet Users (in million)

27. How Powerful Social Media Is ?
Source: Edelman Digital

28. How Powerful Social Media Is ?
• A reporters advocated via
Weibo in April 2011
• Raised USD 2.8 million in 9
months
• China’s State Council
launched National Free Lunch
Pilot Program in 2011

29. How Powerful Social Media Is ?

30. How Powerful Social Media Is ?
• April 5th, 2014: Sina Weibo filed with the SEC to
sell 20 million shares at a price of $17 to $19 a
share in an IPO that could raise as much as
US$380 million.
• May 2000: Sina Corp succeeded in raising
US$68 million in Nasdaq.
Source: CNN

31. How Powerful Social Media Is ?
“I have brought this upon
myself. A mistake is a
mistake. This has nothing to
do with anyone else.
Today, I am willing to
accept all the
consequences. ”
1,236,366
Repost
1,920,471
Comment

32. Partnership
Jan. 2014
• WeChat: 270 million active users
• WeChat users can bind LinkedIn profiles to
WeChat account
Feb. 9, 2014
• LinkedIn launched a
Chinese-language website
Source: Edelman Digital

33. Partnership
Derek Shen, President of LinkedIn China
• 3 rules: follow gov’t restrictions; be transparent
about how those restrictions affect the user and
the site; protect users’ data.
• Biggest obstacle isn’t censorship, but culture
Source: Tech in China

34. Partnership
Feb. 19, 2014
• Facebook bought Whatsapp for $19 billion
• The deal is the world's largest tech acquisition
since Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) $124 billion
merger with AOL in 2001
• Whatsapp is a relative non-player in China –
Doug Young, South China Morning Post
Source: Business Insider

35. Partnership
October 9, 2012
• Sina Weibo was added as an app to
dashboard
April 25, 2013
• Tencent Weibo Joined HootSuite App
Director
Mar 31, 2014
• Refreshed set of Chinese app integrations in
its App Directory: Sina Weibo, Tencent
Weibo
• Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo Analytics.

36. What We Have Done
- Chinese Social Media Data
No. of Tweet No of Following No. of Follower
0 160 / / / /
144 299 1006 201 213 4105
205 296 294 287 294 287
31 184 146 18 30 45
Jan 31 – May 6

37. What We Have Done
- Chinese Blog
http://blog.sina.com.cn/dr4ward

38. What We Have Done
– Sina Verification
http://weibo.com/dr4ward

39. What We Have Done
– Tencent Verification
http://t.qq.com/DR4WARD

40. What We Have Done
– Renren
http://www.renren.com/509385770

41. Next Step
 Need more experiments in different content
 More time to observe popularity of different
content
 More interaction with followers
 Encourage other people to try themselves
 More visual and images

42. Our recommendations in using
Chinese Social
 Mandarin speaker
 Make difference in different platforms
 Chinese Weibo allows 140 Chinese
characters, which equals 280 letters
 Hashtag in Chinese social media needs
Hashtags on both side of keyword
 What should never been talked: religion and
politics
 Interaction and Internet language are highly
needed