Sina Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) is one of the largest social network in the World. But with content exclusively in Chinese, it is difficult for most of us to integrate this important tool into our digital marketing strategy. Online presentation (with sound): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=173tubkEmVc

1. XQ. February, 2013

2. Agenda
• Re-cap: Sina Weibo Statistics
• How Does Sina Weibo Work?
• How to Engage with Target Audience?
• How to Track Weibo Account Performance?
• Our Services

4. 500 million users 46.2 million daily active users
* Source: Sina 2012 annual report
SINA WEIBO IN 2012

5. 2012 London Olympics
SINA WEIBO IN 2012

6. • February: 82 million posts on Valentine‟s day
• May: 300 million “thank you parents” posts during
“Mother‟s Day” and “Father‟s Day”
• July: 6 million “Xiao Mi” mobile phones sold
• November: Tmall transaction reached RMB 1.9
billion in one day.
• November: 42 million posts discussing Diaoyu
Island incident
SINA WEIBO IN 2012

7. OVERSEAS ENTERPRISE ACCOUNTS

8. “400 million accounts, over 130 thousand corporate accounts,
millions of international and domestic celebrities, businessmen
and politicians are on Weibo, including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Bill
Gates, Gregor Robertson, Kevin Rudd, Christine Lagarde, etc.
Sina Weibo has been a darling of both domestic and international
brands. The platform offers brands a quality, diversified target
audience and sophisticated engagement tools. 56% of Weibo‟s
400 million users follow at least one brand.
100 million new posts a day.”

9. USERS ARE YOUNG
AND WELL-EDUCATED
 Although most registered users are
male, active users are female.
 65% active users are female.
 70% content concerning brands from
woman.

10. PURPOSE OF USING SINA WEIBO

11. Entertainment and
“fun” content are
reposted most often
compared to twitter
Magnitude of reposts
are also much higher
than twitter

12. HOW DOES SINA WEIBO
WORK?

15. • 140-character limit
• Mention or talk to other people
using "@UserName" format
• Add hashtags with
"#HashName" format
• Follow other people to make
his/her posts appear in users'
own timeline,
• RT @UserName
• URLs are automatically
shortened using the domain
name t.co.
• Users are allowed to insert
graphical emoticons or attach own
image, music, video files in every
post.
• Comments to a post can be shown
as a list right below the post
• Brand page
Sina Weibo Twitter Facebook
140-character limit 140-character limit No
Mention or talk to other people using "@UserName" format Mention or talk to other people using
"@UserName" format
Mention or talk to other people using
"@UserName" format
Add hashtags with "#HashName#" format Add hashtags with "#HashName" format No
Follow other people to make his/her posts appear in users'
own timeline, like people‟s posts
Follow other people to make his/her posts
appear in users' own timeline,
Follow other people to make his/her
posts appear in users' own timeline, like
people‟s post
Re-post with “@UserName” RT @UserName No
URLs are automatically shortened using the domain name
t.cn
URLs are automatically shortened using
the domain name t.co
No
Users are allowed to insert graphical emoticons or attach
own image, music, video files in every post.
No (Insert a picture) Users are allowed to insert graphical
emoticons or attach own image, music,
video files in every post.
Comments to a post can be shown as a list right below the
post, the commenter can also choose whether to re-post
the comment, quoting the whole original post, to
commenter's own page.
No Comments to a post can be shown as a
list right below the post

16. TIME LINE
Status updates
Recommended accounts to follow
Instant
Message
Updates
from people
you follow

17. PROFILE PAGE
Registered
personal
information
Number of
followers,
posts and
accounts
that I follow
Verification
Accounts
I followed
recently

18. Personal Accounts Enterprise Edition
Verified Accounts
VIP Membership
Accounts
“DaRen” (Experts)
Accounts
Verified Weibo accounts are the same as
Twitter‟s, displaying a „verified‟ badge to make it
easy for the public to recognize an account
(mostly public figures who have a certain
popularity or reputation). Need ID card
registration.
VIP Membership have six levels while all start at
Level 1 (VIP1) at 10 yuan a month or 108 yuan for
annual payment. As the member logins more
often, the level will go up.
Interests based real-identity registration
system, majority of the registers are young people.
Sina Weibo Enterprise Edition is a
Weibo upgrade version for
enterprise accounts. With multi-
function page and a management
dashboard, it provides more
functions and features including
personalized page display, data
analysis, and more social CRM
elements.
ACCOUNT SYSTEM

19. Verified Account
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
• Real-name registration
• Categorized by
professions, industries and
specialties
• Verified badge
• Expose to new users in the
• same industries or have the
same professions has Sina
randomly promote verified users
on Sina Weibo front page.

20. PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
VIP Membership Accounts
• VIP Membership have six levels while all
start at Level 1 (VIP1) at 10 yuan a month or
108 yuan for annual payment. As the
member logs in more often, the level will go
up.
• VIP members get four types of privileges:
status showoff, extra functions, mobile and
security features.
• VIP Only Mobile Features: VIP Sina Weibo
members can use voice posting to Weibo
account by dialing 950 138 333 on mobile,
receive SMS alerts when specified user logs
in and followed users‟ birthdays arrive.
• Security Privileges: VIPs will receive security
alert via SMS, probably when things like
login at unusual location takes place.

21. VIP Membership Accounts
Extra functions VIP members get include:
• Accelerated growth of Weibo Levels (normal user
grows to a higher level by accumulating more
login hours)
• Increased limit of maximum number of users one
can follow (non-VIP can follow up to 2,000 users
on Sina Weibo); VIP1-VIP3 can follow up to
2,500 users and VIP4-VIP6 up to 3,000
• Higher priority to be recommended to other users
• Increased limit of maximum number of users one
can “quietly” follow (currently any user can follow
up to 10 users without being found) to 15 for
VIP1-3, 20 for VIP 4-5 and 30 for VIP6
• Increased limit of maximum number of users one
can “block” from showing his or her posts on
timeline (normal member can “block” up to 5″) to
50 for VIP1-3, 80 for VIP 4-5 and 100 for VIP6

22. PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
DaRen Accounts
• Have a real self-profile photo.
• Bond to a mobile number, so he/she
can send Weibo via mobile phone.
• Follow a minimum of 100 people.
• Have a minimum of 100 followers.
• Follow back at least 30 people (this
may impose a 30% follow back
rate) required to select 3 interests.

23. ENTERPRISE EDITION
The platform enables
brands to create an official
presence through a
verification system
(verified accounts are
marked with a “V”, very
similar to the Twitter
ones). Profiles can be
customized by adjusting
the background and the
possibility to share graphic
elements such as pictures
and videos.

25. ENTERPRISE EDITION

26. ENTERPRISE EDITION

27. ENTERPRISE EDITION

28. ENTERPRISE EDITION

29. HOW TO ENGAGE WITH
TARGET AUDIENCE

30. • Content Calendar
• Q&A
• Small and ongoing
campaigns
• Weekly statistic analysis
• Social data and CRM
DAILY COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

31. TOP 10 BRAND WEIBO POSTS IN 2012
1. Nike: Olympic
2. BMW: Single‟s Day
3. McDonald: Consumer Day
4. Arsenal
5. Mini: Censorship
6. Vancl
7: Bestguard
8. Burberry
9. Durex
10. The Best

32. INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT
• Identify industry thought
leaders
• Closely monitor influencers‟
posts and engage in a
creative and fun way
• Celebrity endorsement
(paid service)
• Offline engagement (Live
update on Sina Weibo)

33. REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE

34. HOW TO TRACK WEIBO
ACCOUNT PERFORMANCE

35. THE WEIBO ANALYTICAL DASHBOARD
• Fans:
• Number of fans, growth
rate.
• Demographic
• Interaction
• Behavior
• Keyword monitoring
• Trend analysis
• Page view
• Click through of embedded
short links.

36. OUR SERVICES
•Marketing plan for Chinese market
•Website translation to Chinese
•Weibo account set up
•Content writing & adaptation of existing
content for Chinese readers
•Followers engagement
•Lead nurturing
•Reporting & analysis