Most Brands want Social Media Marketing in China, but different targets have different strategies. Our agency’s purpose is to help implanted companies in China to be more known in a peaceful and difficult market.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram… They are all blocked in China. This very particular context has given a chance to local business to develop app of their own that perfectly fits the expectations of Chinese netizen. Weibo, Wechat, Douyin, Toutiao, Xiaohongshu … they will be your tool to win the Chinese market! Lets deep-dive right into it.
Social Media Marketing in China

1. Social branding
It is no secret, social media have taken a very important place in our everyday life but also more and more in companies’ development strategies.
However, using social media does not mean you will automatically succeed. As with any other marketing weapon, it needs to be mastered before you can get the most results out of it.
Randomly posting on a Weibo page won’t be enough. It’s important to build a social media strategy with an editorial line and a brand image. You want to build and promote that image.
For instance, d’Auchel contacted us to build its Social Media strategy in China. We focused on E-reputation via PR and KOLs. To build the brand e-reputation, we used 3 different Chinese social media apps.
- Wechat to neuter the brand’s followers,
- Weibo to communicate commercial info and engage with people via contests, discounts etc
- Little Red Book to run KOLs campaigns in order for D’auchel to gain in credibility.

2. Community Management
Social media are a powerful tool to communicate with consumers. Deciding not to use them may be one of the biggest mistakes made by a foreign company in China.
Furthermore, social media also help to better know its customers and understand them. Understand them to target them more efficiently and satisfy their needs by building a long-term and trusting relationship with them. It’s through this customer satisfaction and interaction process that companies’ value is built on social media.
Using social media helps to create communities and depending on the company’s activity, these communities are quickly becoming essential to get the trust of the consumers.
In order to build a sustainable strategy, it is necessary that all your marketing actions follow a same goal but also to develop a different approach adapted to each social media.
Then, in Community Management, our work is to :
- Create, optimize, and develop necessary social media for your brand
- Write and plan content with values and storytelling
- Manage and animate interactions, exchanges, and conversations in the communities
- Establish operational marketing actions to qualify, develop and transform potential customers in the communities into effective customers or subscribers.
- Establish bloggers relations, safe and sustainable to show your expertise in grabbing visibility on the web and in social media
Durex is the perfect example of Community Management in China.

3. Using Social Media to make more sales
Selling online has never been that easy and popular. It is easy and convenient for buyers. Apps in China work within an ecosystem that allows their users to navigate smoothly between them. The buying process is fast and efficient.
For instance, when a user is using Xiaohongshu to research information or reviews about a product they can just click on the link that will send them to Tmall or Taobao, or the e-commerce section of the app. The same goes for Weibo where brands can just link their product to their post.
The web provides a huge information base, diversified, relevant or not, coming from providers, consumers, media, bloggers, Kols, etc The information netizens will find about your brand are valuable. The more there will be the better. Your job is to control this content, to make sure it answers the questions of your target audience but also is coherent with your brand image. This is called Undercover SEO and it is powerful, in B2C, I’ll risk myself saying that it is even more important than driving people to your website.

When we work with a new client we will identify the following point before starting any campaigns:
- What is the goal of the company/Brand?
- Which Chinese social media should the company/Brand be?
- What kind of content the company/Brand needs?
- What are the weak points of the company/Brand and how can we improve?
In the past Beats realized a good Weibo campaign, engaging Artists to sell their Products via their E-commerce platform.

This Chinese Brand used the star Angela Baby to direct traffic to their Tmall store.
Check on the top topic Weibo and their Tmall store


We are THE Social Media Marketing Agency in China
More information about Gentlemen Marketing Agency,
- check our Corporate website
- and our Case Studies.
5 comments
Phillip Page
Hello,
I’m a new musician that’s located in the United States. I’m going to be releasing music and a music video in January 2018. Are there is any services that will allow me to promote music and music video on social media platforms in China?
Erik
Very interesting article that show your expertise Gentlemen
Olivier
Thank you Erik.