There is a big difference between a Weibo account managed by a professional and one managed by a novice. A professional will have a better understanding of what content to post and when to post it in order to engage their audience. They will also be better at using social media tools to grow their following. Novices, on the other hand, may not have the same level of understanding or skills when it comes to using social media for business purposes. This can lead to them not being as successful with their Weibo account. Let’s have a look at some of the biggest mistakes done by Weibo Marketing Novice by comparing different brands’ accounts.
Professional Weibo for Companies
.According to the statistics from Sina, there are more than 130,000 companies that had Weibo accounts by the end of February 2012. Most of them manage their Weibo accounts by themselves and a small part of them use professional companies to manage.
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What is the difference between these two kinds of accounts?
Two condom companies: Durex and Donless will be taken as examples.
Durex is a worldwide famous condom producer.14 years after it entered the Chinese market, Durex has taken over 30% of the market share in 2012. Durex uses a professional team to manage its Weibo account.
The other brand taken as an example here is called Donless. As a Chinese company, Donless was established in 1998 and now it has occupied 10% of the market. On Weibo, it manages its account by itself.
2. Design of the accounts
The Weibo account for Durex is shown below:
On the top, you can see its display picture, banner, following, follower and number of posts. If you scroll down, you can also see its bulletin board, links to its website, other accounts in its parent group and tags of this account.
The other account, Donless account takes the same layout, but they don’t have links to the other accounts in its parent group.
3. Comparison
- Background color:
Durex picks a dark blue background and Donless uses the default white background. As a product kind of taboo in China, a dark background helps create an environment of safety for customers.
- Display picture:
Durex uses a DP with Durex logo and month, balloon, a cup cocktail.
Donless just put their logo as its DP.
Obviously, the former one feels more intimate and relaxed. On the contrary, Donless DP looks cold and
- Banner:
Durex takes a banner with a joke, describing the size of their condoms as the size of pants.
Donless uses its banner as a billboard, what it put in its product description.
According to a report from Sina, the posts about humorous and funny stuff are the most interactive type of content on Sina Weibo.
- Bulletin board:
The content Durex puts in its Weibo bulletin board is “best fans”(an activity held by Durex: one best fan is elected every week and the winner can get some gifts from Durex). And only the title of this activity without explanation is put on the board.
Donless also puts content about its activity on the bulletin board. Different from Durex, Donless puts a long explanation with it. However, it is not convenient for visitors to read because of the limit of the size of the bulletin board.
- Tags:
The tags Durex uses are:
| 内涵 | obscure |
| 最粉丝 | best fan |
| 新至尊超薄 | supreme ultrathin |
| 亲密0距离 | intimacy0distance |
| 创意无限 | unlimited creativity |
| 安全放心 | safe relieved |
| 世界第一 | world no.1 |
| 大胆爱 | brave love |
| 尽情尽性 | release all emotion and sex |
The tags Donless use are:
| 激情 | ardor |
| 超薄 | ultra-thin |
| 优质进口 | high-quality imported |
| 时尚 | fashion |
| 性福 | happy sex |
| 避孕套 | condom |
| 成人用品 | adult products |
| 健康行业 | health industry |
The difference between their tags is:
Durex uses tags which is close to the customer. All its tags surround visitors and potential users.
The tags Donless uses surround its products and the positioning of the company.
4. Analysis
From the comparison, it is quite obvious that the account run by a professional company is much more customer-oriented. From the design of the background, display picture, banner, bulletin board, and tags, the professional team takes customers’ feelings, user experience into consideration.
In this case, the theme of the Durex Weibo account is easy, safe, and relaxed. The design of this Weibo account is based on this theme.
It shows the professional company put profound knowledge and experience of Visual image design, consumptive psychology, and other fields into the management of the account. For companies, it is not so easy to develop a team to consider as many details as a professional team does at the same time. For example, a professional Weibo company can have experience in many industries at the same time which helps it to keep its leading position in knowledge. On the contrary, companies who run their Weibo account by themselves, usually only focus on their industry or even their own company.
However, it is very difficult to measure the effect of the difference because it is the difference in Weibo users’ feelings.
Not only the design of a Weibo account, creating content and its promotion on Weibo is also very important.
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