How companies which sell on e-commerce (should) use Chinese social media?
A lot of foreign companies are using Tmall or other platforms to sell their product in China. The only problem is that they don’t know how to use Chinese social media to boost their sales. Every brand has to be on social media, even if you do only B2B. Here we are going to show you how to do it.
A huge number of Chinese people look for information on social media
Chinese customers use social media not only to stay in touch with their family and their friends but also in order to find information about a product. It’s the best way to have post product review. A study by KPMG showed us that 40% of online consumers are used to checking on social media before buying a product they need. So it’s very important for you to be there in order to know about what your customers want and influence their behavior towards your products.
Different platforms, different Strategies!
In China, a lot of companies did not succeed in social media because they have just copied and pasted posts from western social media to Chinese ones.
Every social network has the vocation of targeting different people. The social media landscape is fragmented and most of them are not in direct competition with each other. It means that you need to know how consumers are using different social media to reach them in the best way. Moreover, using any social media depends on what you need, if it’s to have more traffic or to answer customers’ questions and complaints, you will have to use a different one.
Influencers allow you to improve your branding among their circle
Using KOL (Key opinion leaders) is one of the best strategies to interact with your Chinese target. The KOL is able to bring to your brand all its community so you need to bring them something different and show them how your product is better than your competitors. Then the KOL will promote your product by using or showing it on social media.
So, communicating with the help of influencers is a way to attract a large audience in China!
As an example, we can talk about luxury brands like Dior or Louis Vuitton which are among the brands that collaborate with Chinese bloggers. The blogger will write a post on social media (mainly Weibo) to bring its fan to the page of the brand and improve brand awareness.
Mustang China KOL Web Video – Ma Liang from Mark Ng on Vimeo.
Finally, it’s very important for the brand to follow advice from KOL about the brand content because consumers in China are more likely to believe in the KOL than the brand.
More information is here and here.
Social media: The key to the visibility
A brand that sells products online has to promote itself online, it’s logical. So in order to do that you need to be present on social media. It will bring you a lot of leads and traffic to your e-commerce website.
Weibo is really suitable for that now.
We are specialized in social media and e-commerce in China, if you want to try to get into this huge market, you can contact us.
4 comments
Yang
Of course it is the perfect macth. We Chinese use a lot Wechat and check celebrities on Weibo, and we listen to recommandations of our friends when we buy products.
So of course, it is important to have good review of your products on social media .