The explosion of social media in China is putting pressure on marketers to increase their spending, learn to navigate key platforms like Tencent and Sina, and forge alliances online with local key opinion leaders, known in China as KOLs.
One fascinating aspect of China's digital landscape is how openly netizens take to the cyber-streets to offer thoughts, opinions and guidance. Of China's 500 million online users, half claim to be active bloggers. China now has 580 million people active on that country's top social network, Tencent's QZone, out of 712 million registered users. QZone is followed in popularity by Twitter-like Tencent Weibo, with 507 million registered users, and Sina Weibo, with 400 million. Next are PengYou, also owned by Tencent, with 259 million users, and Facebook-like RenRen at 172 million.
Brands are looking to develop their own brand fans at a more practical level rather than just purely looking at weibo queens like [Chinese actress] Yao Chen. China has four main types of key opinion leaders: Celebrities, commercial accounts, grassroots folks [who] are building a name for themselves, and industry experts in a particular field."
Microblogs called weibo are one of the fast-growing activities, along with e-commerce. Fashion and luxury brands are among the most active industries using social media. The leading players on Sina Weibo today include brands like Cadillac, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Coach, Dior, Burberry, Audi, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Ferrari, but most Western brands are eager to expand their social media presence and align with opinion leaders who act as brand ambassadors.
One challenge for advertisers is the rise of fake fans sold by vendors exploiting a quick business opportunity-selling virtual "followers" that artificially inflate the fan base of bloggers and brands. Market pressure pushes bloggers to drive more followers if that is the key indicator as to whether or not they are influential. It is important for brands to look at the context of what KOLs are talking about, the level of engagement, re-tweets, comments, and then the amount of interaction they have with their fans.
|
