Along with the advanced development of IT technology, social media has played an increasingly important role in people’s daily life. In 2022, social media has developed as one of the most powerful marketing channels owing to its popularity. On social media platforms, companies could interact with customers and prospective consumers to build brand reputation, establish brand trust and express brands’ core values and cultures. There is no doubt that proper use of social media would contribute to a company’s brand building and business booming. Here we introduce Sina Weibo, the second largest social media platform, to help you better understand China’s current social media trends.
What is Weibo
Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. Regarding its market position, Sina Weibo works more like a Chinese version of Twitter, focusing on real-time content publishing. According to a recent survey by Statista (2022), the monthly active users of Sina Weibo have reached the number of 582 million, increasing 51 million compared with the last quarter. The massive number of monthly active users implies Weibo’s significant influence and wide popularity. UK universities recently also value the significance of social media in their student recruitment process. Zhu (2019) researched the degree of social media engagement in Chinese international student recruitment. According to the research result, around 73% of UK high education institutions (HEIs) now have their official accounts on Weibo and there is a significant positive relation between the change of Weibo account followers and the number of Chinese students recruited. In terms of the study result, every increase of 100 followers from 2012 to 2018 might contribute to an increase of the recruitment of 1 Chinese student.
How to promote via Weibo?
Unlike other social media platforms, Weibo pays attention to building a community for users with common interests. There are unique functions like “popular topics（超话）” that allow users with similar interests could interact and communicate with each other. On Weibo, PSBA companies could easily find a group of potential customers, such as Chinese students interested in student accommodation, owing to the Weibo community service. Therefore, Sina Weibo could be a fantastic platform for PSBA companies to identify prospective customers and specifically promote customised content.
To promote vis Sina Weibo, here are the main ways of increasing brand awareness among prospective customers:
- Promoting via Weibo paid advertisements
Displaying advertisements is a traditional but effective way of promotion. On Weibo, advertisements can be displayed on different pages, such as the destination page, the search page, and the user page. Prices on advertisements also vary on page placement, size, and keyword association.
- Cooperating with Weibo Influencers
Weibo influencers, also known as “key-opinion leaders (KOL)”, are still playing an essential role in Weibo marketing. By cooperating with influencers, companies could reach a broader range of potential customers and build a good brand reputation thanks to the recommendations from influencers. According to recent statistics, the top Chinese influencer on Weibo could produce a Media Impact Value (“MIV”) of $1.68 million, generating significant value for brands that work with her.
- Holding lotteries on Weibo
Weibo lottery is now a common and effective way to increase brand awareness. By holding lotteries, the organiser usually posts like, “Follow me and repost, and you will get a chance to win XXX.” As reported by WALKTHECHAT (2019), the lottery activities could attract more Weibo users to be involved in the marketing campaign and therefore achieve the marketing objective of increasing brand awareness and popularity.
What can we do for you on Weibo?
As a digital marketing expert, we provide a one-stop service for you to start digital marketing on social media platforms. Regarding your marketing objectives, we offer customised and various sets of service packages to ensure your needs can be satisfied. Here are the currently available services we provide for the social media marketing
- Account Set up
- Account Verification
- Content Translation
- Content Creatives
- Video Creatives
- On-site Live Streaming
- Customer Promotion
- Reputation Interaction
Apart from the services mentioned above, we could make customised marketing plans based on your personal goals and make corresponding adjustments per your business requirements. We have rich experience in helping overseas companies explore the Chinese market. We are confident that we could provide you with the unique industry insights to achieve your final business objectives.
About Rollzoom
Rollzoom is one of the leading marketing service companies with rich experience in helping PSBA companies explore the potential Chinese market and build company brands among Chinese students. We offer complete services for the social media marketing channel, including setting up your social media accounts, creating high-quality content, producing video/audio content, and so on. We aim to help customers achieve business goals, initiate and implement marketing plans and support your every move in the Chinese market. If you are ambitious to expand your PSBA business in the Chinese market but are still confused about how to make the first step, choose Rollzoom as your working partner and build your personalised business plan. In the past few years, we have become reliable partners for many PSBA brands, such as aparto, Unilife, and Collegiate. We will devote ourselves to providing you with the most satisfying experiences and exceeding your expectations. Feel free to contact us if you want to learn more information. We are always here and looking forward to seeing you.
