MSL China Executive Whitepaper

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

Creating a Weibo That Supports Your Business

By Stephy Liu, Johan Bjorksten, Fiona Shen, Jason Zhou

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

About MSL China

Following the union with Eastwei MSL, MSL China is now a top 5 international strategic communications agency in Mainland China. With 200 colleagues across 4 offices, MSL China brings together over 20 senior consultants with more than 12 years of strategic communications experience in this key global market. Part of MSLGROUP Greater China, the largest PR & social media network in the region today, MSL China provides knowledge driven, integrated campaigns and advisory services spanning nearly every industry and communications discipline. MSL China has received recognition from the International Business Awards, The Holmes Reports PR Agency of the Year, the China International PR Association and Chinas New Media Festival for its creativity and effectiveness in strategic communications and industry-leading social media offering.

In February 2011, MSL China published the whitepaper Best practices in Chinese microblogs which discussed a hot topic: should organizations leverage the new weibo phenomenon for communications, and if so, how? Half a year later, most companies in China, from consumer electronics, lifestyle and automotive brands to industrial equipment providers and other business-to-business companies are tweeting away to reach target audiences with corporate and marketing messages. Some brands are doing this successfully, generating wide attention and word-of-mouth from online communities. But many corporate weibo accounts seem unable to engage with the online community, dont generate a lot of commentary. In fact, after the initial rush of interest, we are starting to see users defect from company accounts; some brands have fewer and fewer followers. Some promotion methods that seem to have produced initial results forward this tweet to three friends and receive an award are now often viewed by initial brand fans as an increasingly counterproductive irritant; even when a few people do participate, they have learned to immediately cancel their subscriptions after receiving the award. Because of this, our clients are no longer asking us should I launch a weibo initiative?, but rather how can I ensure that my weibo account stays fresh and continues to attract increasing numbers of users, so as to remain a sustainably cost-effective promotion channel

for our brand? Against this background, and given the fast developments in the weibo arena, we felt that it is again time to summarize the most useful recent best practices in microblog communications to achieve what we might call a passing grade on the corporate weibo account. In this whitepaper, we will take the most popular Chinese microblogging service, Sina, as our point of departure. We will then look at the reasons why local readers choose to follow or cancel corporate microblogging accounts. Against this background, we will share some best practices from MSL Chinas experience of managing weibo accounts for a large number of Chinese clients. More specifically, in order to get a passing grade for your weibo, we believe marketers need to Objectively assess the current status of their weibo effort Analyze the reasons targets groups follow or cancel their accounts Master six key weibo management tactics Create a sustainable platform for daily maintenance.

About MSLGROUP
MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupes PR, speciality communications and engagement group, advisors in all aspects of communication strategy: from consumer PR to employee communications, from public affairs to reputation management and from crisis communications to event management. With more than 2,900 people, its offices span 22 countries. Adding affiliates and partners into the equation, MSLGROUPs reach increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries. Today the largest PR network in Greater China and India, the group offers strategic planning and counsel, insight-guided thinking and big, compelling ideas followed by thorough execution. Learn more about us at: www.mslgroup.com+ http://blog.mslgroup.com+ Twitter+ YouTube

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

Understanding the status of your weibo

5 Typical Types of Brand Weibo Communications
By looking at a large number of corporate and organizational weibo accounts, we have found that they can be classified in order of maturity into what we ca ll a imless, tr a ditiona l, content-driven, interactive and strategic/business-driven. The graph lists some of the typical characteristics of each type, with the most primitive efforts to the left and the most advanced to the right. Most current microblogs in China fall into the traditional and

Traditional
These microblogs are the result of old-school PR methods: basically, shortening press releases or other corporate content to 140 characters to fit the new weibo medium, but keeping the formal tone of voice. Accounts in this category can be spotted by the fact that there is almost no interaction, discussion and forwarding. This is a very common phenomenon. In fact, the majority of company weibo efforts currently fall into the traditional category. The root cause is corporate conservatism and a fear of experimentation, and often a failure to understand how social media function. Traditional weibos are often made fun of online; in our opinion, they usually have an adverse effect on the brand.

from Taiwan) and @QiongYouWang (famous travel review and discussion website).
Banana Taipei, a fashion brand from Taiwan, is one of the best examples of how to leverage KOLs and consumer generated content. The weibo account has also been successfully integrated with the brands Taobao store to drive sales.

Aimless
Blindly maximizes number of followers

Traditional
Communicates using PR methods from traditional media

Contentdriven
Pushes interersting and relevant content

Interactive
Provides platform for interaction with audiences

Strategic
Content and interactivity support communications and business goals

content-driven categories, while the weibo that tend to really attract target groups are interactive or strategic. Let us have a look at the reasons for this.

Content-driven
A content-driven weibo effort shows that the company already has a fundamental grasp of social media and how to leverage them for communications efforts; a lot of fast-moving consumer goods, consumer technology and IT, and lifestyle brands have already entered this space. The brand tells interesting stories and has developed a close rapport with readers. The account is managed by a professional team who update specially created content on a daily basis: content is rich and varied, often contains a blend of text and pictures, and has an informal tone-of-voice that feels natural to the online audience. A good example is Louis Vuittons acclaimed weibo account.

Strategic
The highest-value microblogs combine content and interactivity based on the brand personality to drive a targeted and measureable online marketing effort. The whole microblogging effort is aligned with sales and branding objectives to become a long-term, sustainable business tool. When we analyze these accounts, it is clear that content is being generated according to a long-term (more than six-month) plan. We also find that they are usually closely integrated with other communications channels and activities. In order to achieve these results, the weibo team must have firm objectives, a sustainable strategy, a well-defined online brand positioning, and a detailed execution plan for content and interactivity. Of course, the team must also be experienced and have the staffing to execute the strategy on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. Moreover, the communications team must be structured in such a way that weibo content can be aligned with other social media, traditional advertising and PR, as well as sales campaigns and other marketing efforts. Some examples in this category are award-winning accounts such as @mini China (Mini Cooper China), @durex, @Singapore Tourism Board and @IKEA.

The Suning Campus Club brand account displays over 700 posts but all are nearly identical, and there is no audience interaction.

whereas a normal or live account would have a much higher proportion. There may two reasons for this discrepancy: the number of followers has been faked, or content quality is not interesting to followers. Many clients spend large sums on hiring so-called digital consulting companies who achieve a seemingly high activity in whats called astroturfing: using automated programs or college students. To senior managers who do not understand the mechanics o f m i c r o b lo g s , results may look good, but in fact, such efforts rarely provide real value for money to the co m p a n y. T h e potential adverse effect can be serious: users resent being duped, and when they find out, companies in China have recently found themselves in the midst of a media crisis or even litigation.

Aimless
The two main reasons that some weibo fall into this category are lack of persistence.The company opens a weibo account without systems in place to ensure long-term content or a basic failure to grasp the real benefits of a microblog. The latter often results in so called zombie accounts. The easiest way to spot zombies is to compare the number of followers with the number of forwards per tweet : the account may have over a hundred thousand followers, but there may be as few as three or four forwards of each tweet,

Interactive
In order to reach this level, the company must leverage an experienced weibo team that is capable of launching content that actively drives interaction: interesting activities and engaging discussions that hook followers and foster a close and lively relationship with them; @ANNASUI is a good example. Taken to the highest level, such interactivity allows the weibo to rely mainly on UGC, User Generated Content and generate IWOM, Internet Word-of-Mouth; examples are @BananaTaipei (a stylish bag company

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

Why users follow or cancel weibo accounts

Let us now look at the reasons that the above categories are so important for our analysis. Why is it that most company efforts fail to reach the strategic level? The reason is simple: marketers fail to understand user preferences, are unable to establish real dialog and interactivity. Because of this, there is no strategy to talk of, and the weibo account fails to generate business results. So just as every good marketer starts by looking at consumer needs, These answers are very much in line with our own experience from managing accounts: if you want to succeed, you need to use themes that are logical and relevant to users and interesting content that is in line with the brand image. Thats easy to say, of course but how should one go about achieving it? Lets have a look at some concrete tactics. the professional weibo communicator needs to understand what makes online audiences tick.

Why do people follow a brand account?

The Weibo Poem

A popular internal MSL China posting on the principles of weibo management. The posting quickly went viral amongst our consultants a great example of how creative format generates buzz and increases the impact of communications.

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

Getting to the passing grade designing a high-ROI company microblog

Six pillars of brand weibo operation

movie itself. If you dont do this right, you risk diluting the brand or giving it a split personality. Establishing the tweet image avoids this by explicitly deciding the tone of voice, style and positioning of weibo content. Some companies hire legions of students to fill their microblogs with content; if this is your approach, you will need to spend significant effort training a bunch of teenagers to adopt a style that is engaging and for other age groups: if you want to attract and keep 2835 female consumers, you need to make sure your tweets are at the right maturity level. You may need to train your actors to be versatile enough to support a variety of brands aimed at different target groups.

Weibo contents

Tweet content Tweet tone

You need to listen before you can tweet. Before you launch the weibo, you must establish a daily listening system which takes in not only what followers are saying on your own account (which is often influenced by your own editorial activity) but also listens to whats going on in the microblogging environment at large: what your target group are saying when they are in their own forums. Continuously analyzing the larger blogosphere is the most important input for your strategy. Once you understand what your audience needs and what they care about, in essence allowing you to balance your supply with the demand for various types of content. Our colleague Gaurav Mishra calls this finding the Social Heartbeat.

Tweet image
In this respect, weibo marketing is no different from traditional marketing: in the end, you are trying to create a clear image and positioning in the minds of your target group. Building a brand is like building up the image of a personality in a movie: the script determines how the actor should interpret the role; if the script is good enough, you can exchange the actor without changing the style of the
The IKEA weibo image Love family, love life at home Simple, honest Pragmatic Always provides small surprises Helps you find the happiness and beauty in everyday life

Content is king nowhere is this m o re tr u e tha n i n s o ci a l m e d i a . Brands and users communicate through content and activities. As a result of the weibo revolution, marketers are rediscovering the need to market great content in addition to great products. You need to begin by understanding what kind of information, entertainment and other content users will be looking for in your online brand space. One example is the analysis from DCCI below on usage habits in the 70s, 80s and 90s generations; the differences between age groups are clearly significant. Since microblogging is a high-frequency communications channel, the need for content becomes huge. We categorize content as company-generated, usergenerated, timely and opinion leader cooperation. As a very general rule of thumb, a ratio of 6:2:1:1 is about right; but this of course varies significantly between different companies, products and brands. Company generated content can be produced using what we call the tweet content matrix: this includes positioning and style, target group characteristics and the business and communications needs of the company. The tweet content matrix ensures

The brandsweibo positioning sets the stage for content, tone-ofvoice, design of interactive activities and follower management @IKEA is a good example of a microblog with a personality that accurately reflects the brand image. This clear positioning is one of the reasons that the IKEA weibo is currently ranked higher than any other home furnishing brand on Sina. The positioning also helps us maintain a relaxed, natural flow of tweets that gain user comments such as IKEAs weibo content is sweeter than first love and every time I get an IKEA tweet I feel like building myself a home.

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

that your weibo maintains a consistent editorial style despite the fragmented nature of the channel, makes it easier for the weibo team to execute on the strategy as well as launching opportunistic tweets based on ongoing events without compromising the look and feel of your account. The clearest example is the use of #XX# tag series (in general, we recommend using tags for themed campaigns; these can be designed according to a topic tag creation process which is illustrated below together with the tweet content matrix. In addition to the company-generated content, leveraging a certain amount of user-generated content is an effective tool. By finding ways of encouraging audiences to contribute, which can include active campaigns to solicit contributions, you should generate at least the minimum level needed to ensure that the weibo is truly interactive and doesnt degenerate into a one-way loudspeaker.

results if you plan it well. Audiences tend to be increasingly turned off by simple send this to three friends and get a prize activities, so you need to find a theme and reason to participate that is not trivial.

Brand account cooperation

It sometimes makes sense to implement co-branding efforts with other official brand accounts, allowing the to build on each others popularity, just as when two people introduce each others circles of friends to each other. There are several types of cooperation: Brand cooperates with sub-brands or brands in the same group is a ususal approach. A typical example is th e co o p e r ati o n b et w e e n th e H o n g Ko n g Tourism Board and local commercial brands; by leveraging the popularity of local brands, and multiplying their effect under a common umbrella, the marketer creates a win-win situation. This also creates an official endorsement of the individual commercial brands, providing support for their credibility and loyalty.

Brand cooperates with brands accrosing industry can make surprise towards follows. This can create an image of openness, liveliness and participation for the brand, by leveraging common interests in the target group. Such activities are not easy to design; they must be carefully selected not to give a forced impression. For this reason, it is used rather sparsely, but we believe it is worth spending more effort in this area. A successful example is the cooperation between Trendmicro and Durex.

engagement and involvement; in order to attract weibo followers, we need to create an interactive or, better yet, viral, promotion. We also need to coordinate and integrate all online platforms:brand weibo account, home page, campaign minisite, SNS pages and so on.

Competitions and awards

Tweet interactivity
As we have seen, content and interactivity are the two key components that dovetail to make a weibo truly attractive to users. There are many kinds of interactivity; in order to build your weibo into a marketing powerhouse, you need to choose those activities that will attract your particular target group. In this way, the account will come alive and become a platform of two-way interchange. In our experience, some of the most useful activities are:

This may be one of the most hackneyed and overexploited online tools, but it can still generate good
Using weibo to distribute content from influential KOLs is a great way of promoting products and events. The Puma Social campaign featured celebrity model Pace Wu, who already had a large weibo following, in real-life events. Her weibo posts generated strong online buzz and wordof-mouth.

Combining weibo activity with traditional media and other offline promotions. Many brands currently do Brand cooperates with brands in the same industry is conducive for winning fans.The Singapore Tourism Board cooperates with travel and tourism portal eLong in a fans interactive activity using awards and other straightforward incitements to participate, generating substantial attention for both accounts within an hour of the activity. this successfully, but there are two especially easy ways of doing this which companies often disregard: You can promote successful online activities such as awards to generate print publicity in real-life interviews, forums and panels; we can also leverage digitial tools such as weibo to engage traditional stakeholders journalists, experts and officials before the physical activity takes place.

Minisites and apps

If yo ur b u d g et a llow s , a n d co nsi d er in g th e characteristics of your target group, launching a fullblown campaign supported by advertising on minisites or apps can still generate good value. However, you need to align the activity carefully with the positioning of your brand. But even if the campaign relies mainly on advertising, we still need to ensure that it encourages

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

Coordinating with other online platforms

Many of our clients ask us to support in driving traffic to the home page or e-commerce platform; we have found social media, and weibo especially, to be a great complement to traditional traffic support like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and click-through advertising. This is confirmed by the DCCI figures below. Coordinating the brand's entire online presence is becoming a must for successful internet marketing. When you search for the brand online, you will often find that the weibo receives high rankings on the search engines, in essence becoming the brands second face in addition to the home page. By considering how target groups look for information, and in particular their search behavior and search terms, you can create tweets that frequently contain the most popular phrases that users are looking for.

Technical tools like this weibo voting widget used by Hotel.com can effectively help brands to understand consumer preferences and behavior. The campaign provided incentives to consumers who fed their information into the widget.

Tweet follower relations

By relations, we mean the way the brand responds to online commentary and how well it understands the needs and behavior of followers. As a rule of thumb, no question or negative comment should be left unanswered for more than 48 hours. We always try to involve the clients PR department and often Customer Service department in drafting a standard weibo discussion FAQ document. This document is usually an adaption of traditional standard operating procedures from customer service documents, where the language has been revised to better suit the online environment. We also try to ensure that the style reflects the personality of the brand itself. The content of replies should be practical, focused and to the point; but also

straightforward, personal and colloquial, making it easy to read. Address users by their online nicknames and avoid using polite forms of address. Actively responding to questions and criticism is useful both as a way of increasing interaction and dialog, and as a way of adapting content to user interests and needs. In addition, analyzing followers in depth is also an important part of managing the account. One way is to simply conduct surveys and voting activities on the account itself. We also recommend using add-ins or

(), Weibo Fan Analysis () and Wei Fenxi () as analysis tools.

widgetssuch as the Weibo Positioning Billboard

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

KPI
In our previous whitepaper, we explained how to use a number of generally applicable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as number of followers, and number of forwards. But as the weibo marketing environment matures and companies establish more specific goals for their weibo activities, these metrics are no longer enough. To capture the ROI of our weibo effort, we need to combine several qualitative and qualitative metrics that better reflect our marketing objectives and can provide input for ongoing strategic improvements. Based on experience, we suggest using a set of practical KPIs, including influence of followers; proximity of followers to marketing target group; content attractiveness; and degree of interactivity. These measures are interrelated: no matter how influential our followers are, if we want to achieve marketing objectives, we must also understand how closely they reflect our target group.

KPI of Weibo Account Influence Analysis

Follower Quality Index
Number of followers Active followers Verified followers Popular followers Number of sub-followers Zombie followers Number of followers Number of active followers Percentage of active followers Number of verified followers Percentage of verified followers Number of popular followers Percentage of popular followers Analyze the number of sub-followers (followers of each follower) using theappropriateplug-in Number of zombie followers Percentage of zombie followers

Brand weibo checklist

A clear strategy is not enough; an effective weibo initiative also relies on professional and efficient day-to-day management. Based on experience, the MSL China team has collated a checklist of the most important tacticts, listed in chronological order from inception to measurement. Depending on which of the five categories the companys weibo belongs to, there will be different tasks and priorities. Most of our clients ask us to strive for the most advanced option: a strategically integrated weibo initiative that directly supports the companys communications and business objectives.

Follower relevance
Demographics Topical Interest Brand Interest Age, gender, education, income, geographical distributtion, etc Analyze follower interest and preferences from comments and questions on our content Users comments and voting to analyze the level of brand liking and loyalty

Brand Weibo Checklist

Engagement with content

Average number of forwards of original postings Average number of comments on original postings Average participation in activity, for example uploads, forwards,comments. Increase in follower number as result of activity As a rule of thumb, proportion of original and user-generated content should be 3:1, but this depends on specific circumstances

Proportion of original and user-generated content

Relative proportion of positive, negative and neutral comments

Engagement with brand

Relative proportion of positive, negative and neutral comments Direct effect of the weibo marketing effort this can be analyzed using consumer survey tools, focus groups or informal gatherings of weibo followers

Integration with other social media platforms

Consumer dicussion and buzz around brand outside the brand account. Number of external links Store traffic and sales

MSL China Executive Whitepaper

In this whitepaper, we have tried to provide a strategic recipe for weibo success. But in the end, no matter how good the strategy, the extent to which your companys employees embrace microblogging will be the key to success. The MSL China weibo team consists of a bunch of expert weibo enthusiasts, but we have found that this is not enough; we must get all employees to become weibo ambassadors of the company. Today, many of our employees are active on our own @MSL China account. Even our hoary old directors have joined the weibo craze. @them if you have the chance!

Weibo management is like a love affair: even if you can achieve instant
passion using a few short-term marketing tricks, the real challenge is to build longterm attraction. You need to nurture trust and emotional rapport between your brand and its followers; every now and then, you also need to provide a surprise or especially romantic moment to keep the flame alive. Successful brands dont try to generate love at first sight; they devote themselves strategically to creating those deep and honest interactions that foster life-long relationships.