At the end of 2012, Neat Interactive added Chinese social media marketing to its list of services. For businesses wishing to use social media to reach Chinese consumers, it is important to remember that social media is different in China than what we are more accustomed to outside of China. To begin with, the social networks common to everyone outside of China are not available in China.
Instead China offers SinaWeibo, Kaixin, RenRen, Douban and a host of others. Also, non-traditional forms of social networking are emerging in a unique manner, namely through mobile messaging apps, like WeChat (Weixin in China). Not only must you now contend with new social networks, but you must be able to use these social networks in Chinese.
Hiring an agency to manage the social networking sites you choose is a good idea, but you must be sure to properly vet the agency before signing a contract. The challenge here is that the content they post on your behalf will be in Chinese, which you most likely do not speak, read or write. So you are leaving your brand in someone else’s hands. Also, how do you know that the agency is attracting the appropriate audience? As you can see, there are a number of challenges to overcome in order to successfully enter and manage Chinese social media.
