Here’s a freebie: your Chinese social media strategy should include the use of KOLs. Chinese social networking sites (SNS) are not like the social networking sites you are accustomed to outside of China, like Facebook and Twitter. Chinese SNS like Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and WeChat, RenRen, Kaixin and others are unique to China, fully in Chinese, and get used on a scale unlike we see outside of China.
There are over 550 million Internet users and almost every one of them has at least one social media account.
Sina Weibo is the most popular SNS with a user base larger than the population of the USA. Offering both personal profile pages and official business pages, users flock to celebrities profile pages and official brand pages.
This wave of popularity has introduced a new kind of celebrity, the key opinion leader, aka Weibo Star, aka KOL. KOLs attract followers from a few thousand to a few million based on their posts. Some are travel professionals, magazine editors, journalists, hobbyists, business people, photographers, chefs and the list goes on. Followers trust the opinions of these KOLs and are thus influenced by them in their own decisions, from where to travel, to what to wear, to what to eat.
By now you see why your Chinese social media strategy should include KOLs; to reach a large targeted audience via a source that audience already trusts. If you would like to learn more about working with Chinese KOLs, contact us here.
