The document discusses China's digital strategy and censorship policies. It provides an overview of the Golden Shield Project and Great Firewall of China, which censor sensitive words and block certain websites. It then discusses strategies for marketing in China, including having a .cn domain, ICP license, hosting websites within China, optimizing for Baidu search, and using major Chinese social media platforms like Sina Weibo, WeChat, and Baidu instead of Google. Payment systems like Alipay and attracting Chinese tourists are also covered. Third-party agencies that can help with digital strategies in China without knowledge of Chinese are recommended.

1. China Digital Strategy:
Got One?
Social Media Camp May 23, 2015 – 11:00 am
Scott McDonald - @ScottinVictoria

2. About me
 Digital strategist at The Butchart Gardens
 Coordinate the English, Chinese and Japanese digital efforts at
The Gardens
 @ScottinVictoria – Twitter, Pinterest, Weibo
 scottmcdonald@butchartgardens.com

3. Golden Shield Project
 The political and ideological background of the Golden Shield Project is
considered to be one of Deng Xiaoping’s favorite sayings in the early
1980s: "If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some
flies to blow in.” 打开窗户，新鲜空气和苍蝇就会一起进来。 Surveillance
and censoring 1993-2006 – mostly using Cisco Systems architecture.
 IP blocking, DNS filtering – VPNs etc can be used to get around blocking
 Great Firewall Project (防火長城; fáng huŏ cháng chéng), is different,
coined in an article in Wired magazine in 1997.
 Communist Party blocked CDN Edgecast last year, Akamai, Sony, Drupal,
etc completely down/VPN/DNS routing on a routine basis
 Google blocked almost completely last June

4. Blocked in China?

5. Censorship
 Sensitive words and phrases often censored
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/06/sensitive-words-the-
tiananmen-edition/
 Jianada fayu (Canadian French) – code for Falun Gong, mao larou
(hair bacon), Victoria – weiduoliya – HK’s Victoria Park
commemorates 1989 Tiananmen Square. Victoria Park (维园)
 While sensational and antithetical to us in N. America, it doesn’t
present major marketing issues with creativity

6. Website: hosted here or in
China?
 CNNIC Chinese Internet Network Information Centre
http://ewhois.cnnic.cn/
 ICP license (abbreviation for Internet Content Provider; Chinese: ICP
备案: ICP bèi'àn; literally: "ICP record") is a permit issued by the
Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to permit
China-based websites to operate in China
 What you need: .cn domain, ICP compliance, behind the Firewall,
Chinese local content/language, Baidu optimisation, and mobile
friendly
 Mobile is key in China – KFC – order and pay, as it detects your
location within a certain number of meters, prepares and bags your
order for pick up
 www.butchartgardens.cn

7. Butchart Chinese Site

8. Google or Baidu 百度?
 Google barred from internet in China (won’t play ball)
 PPC campaigns  Baidu http://www.baidu.com/
 Operates like Google
 Baidu Analytics, also known as Baidu Tongji or 百度统计 (but put
Google Analytics on your site too!)
  Integration with Baidu Tuiguang (Baidu pay per click marketing)
  Baidu tracks each individual user, allowing you to see all the
pages they visited
  Heat maps

9. Social Media in China
 Correspond to the West’s
 Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging service, similar to Twitter, but
with a much richer set of features for end users and brand marketers
– http://www.weibo.com/
 Tencent Weibo - http://t.qq.com/
 Huaban – Chinese Pinterest - http://huaban.com/
 RenRen – Social networking platform for students -
http://www.renren.com/
 Youku - http://www.youku.com/ - the Chinese answer to YouTube
 WeChat | Weixin is a mobile text and voice messaging service. It is
like a Chinese version of Line or WhatsApp, with more social features
- http://weixin.qq.com/

10. Sina Weibo www.weibo.com
 500 million active users
 Here’s a specific section of the Sina Weibo platform called Huati – which literally
means topic – to monitor the most popular hashtags and follow conversations based on
topic- or people-related hashtags
 #hashtag# driven, can ‘own’ a hashtag – each hashtag as a page – you can become the
host
 Badge system – how long, how active | Get a verified account
 KOLs – key opinion leaders – entice them to follow/comment on your content
 http://blog.reach7.com/why-all-global-marketers-should-be-using-sina-weibo/
 The Butchart Gardens on Sina Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/ButchartGardens
 Note: up to 20% of users are outside of mainland China
 Add it to HooteSuite http://socialmediaaok.com.au/blog/hootsuite-and-weibo/

11. Butchart Weibo Page

12. Weibo Post – Late Spring

13. Alipay (and
China Union Pay – CUP)
 Alipay global payment system -
http://global.alipay.com/ospay/home.htm
 E-commerce – payment gateway – transaction
happens outside of China in Renminbi
 In concert with China Union Pay, a billion users

14. Tourism Notes
 What do Chinese tourists look for? (Destinations, destination
attractions, maps, travel guides, tickets to attractions, reviews,
local products, food and restaurants, hotels)
 Make sure they can access these in Mandarin
 DaoDao - http://www.tripadvisor.cn/
 CTrip - http://www.ctrip.com/
 Engage your local, provincial and the CTC on their Chinese
platforms

15. Canadian Tourism Comission in China
http://zh-keepexploring.canada.travel

16. Third Party Management
 Don’t read/write or speak Mandarin?
 KAWO - http://kawo.com/
 Dragontrail Interactive - http://dragontrail.com/
 Attract China - http://www.attractchina.com/