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It is broadly known that within China, access to the leading Western social media sites are blocked by the Chinese Government (most notably, YouTube, Facebook &Twitter). But does this have any impact on the activities of social media marketers? What are the implications to marketing practitioners and their abilities to reach a Chinese/Western audience?
Without access to the majority of social media used elsewhere in the world, the Chinese have created their own copycat networks modeled on the leading Western ones.These sites were initially intended as replacement sites for Chinese speakers and tended to only be available in the Chinese language. That was a few years ago and just like in the West, destination sites need to evolve or die. Chinese social media sites are no different in this regard and we see them moving into other areas like SNS's supporting eCommerce/Group buying or micro-blogs offering location based coupon deals.
1. When did the censorship of the Internet in China occur?
2. What does the Chinese social media landscape look like?
3. What opportunities exist for brands?
4. What are the implications for me, the Internet Marketer?
Censorship of the Internet in China
The official name of what is often called the Great Firewall of China is the Golden Shield project and this project goes back to 1994 when the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Public Security completed the "National Crime Information Center." This information center would become the monitoring part of the Golden Shield Project. This was the first steps in creating the Great Firewall of China. (a full history)
However, rather than acting as a firewall (the Great Firewall), it’s actually mirroring content and manipulating DNS connection management and URL redirections to implement its goal of restricting what internet users inside China can access.
Chinese social media landscape
There is a lot written on this subject and I won't rehash this. If you want more information then a simple search on Google/Baidu and you will get a list of Chinese social media sites.
One thing that I want to argue is the folks who do a simple mapping between Facebook to Renren or MSN to QQ are creating an over simplification of the landscape and although the mappings highlight the core functionality between the platforms, the user behaviours and engagement practices are different between the East and West. Marketers in the US or Europe already understand that one SNS is not like another so don't fall into the trap of assuming Facebook and renren are the same or Weibo and Twitter (both micro-blogs) are the same.
Opportunities for Brands
Of course there are opportunities... your customers are spending time on social media sites so it makes complete sence to build your Brand's presence and engage with your customers and potential customers. Social Media isn’t going to change your Brand tomorrow. Therefore, you need to develop a carefully crafted plan to particiapte in this medium and connect with your target audience. If you’re not there, another brand will be, which means you might lose your opportunity to connect with consumers in that media space entirely.
Look for social media tools and destinations where your target audience already spends time, and focus your brand building efforts on those sites. For example, niche blogs or Ushi, renren or kaixin groups related to your business are great places to connect with your target audience.
Bottom-line, embrace new media opportunities and make them an integral part of your branding strategy and marketing plan. However, be prepared to change as the world of social media evolves very quickly. Just as being absent from social media is a lost opportunity for your brand, so is jumping onboard and then falling behind the progress of new media.
Implications for the Social Marketer
I am always amazed when I see highly sucsessful Agencies take a Facebook campaign from the West and try to replicate it in Renren. Then wonder why the approach did not achieve the sucsess it may have had in the Western market. I am not talking about the maintaining the Facebook group but the custom tabs that can be created within the group to provide additional interactions and information. Not only consider the type of apps/games and content (including layout, color and language style) that you choose to engage with the Chinese audience but the site. Facebook 'like' copycats exist in a number of forms and hold differing audiences.
Let me know in the comment section below what else you would consider important for the social marketer wanting to particiapte in the Chinese context... or if we will see a greater divergence of social media practices to accomadate for the differing Internet landscapes...
Written on Saturday, 21 May 2011 09:57 by Matt McDougall