Invite colleagues
Everyone in Chinese digital marketing knows of Sina Weibo. So, for Western marketers working in the Chinese market need to make a choice, do we get involved or do we watch from the sidelines as this platform becomes more and more legitimate as a marketing channel.
Further, Sina Weibo no longer fits the Twitter-dominated conception of a ‘microblog,’ as it continues to mix in more elements of social networks and instant messengers. For example, Sina Weibo’s groups are fully supported by multimedia sharing plugins (open API) and cloud storage for larger files.
I would argue that it is a 'must' now to have a Sina Weibo account. Every client wants one and almost all Chinese marketers seems to be busy knocking out short posts.. So I thought the time is right and a I would make the personal effort to use this platform and try and understand what would be the issues from a Westerns perspective. In this post you will find some early observations and a directory listing of marketers using Weibo.
My first major hurdle was completing the registration form (I can't read/write Chinese) so when I went to the Sina Weibo site all I found was an intimating form. Some ways to resolve this;
- Get your nearest Chinese friend to help
- Install the 'Google translation' function and that form suddenly becomes manageable.
- Bill Bishop has produced a 23-screen Google doc that takes you through all the features of the site.
At this time you can use a false name but I think in the very near term you will need to register with your real name.
Once you are logged in you will notice that the interface is similar to "Twitter" but don't let this superficial appearance fool you. Deeper exploring in the app, groups and other menus will expose a rich set of functions unique to this microblogging platform.
I created a new group (DMIC) to find out how difficult this was but I found this was easy to create and then invite my followers. This was a similar process to creating a group on many of the other social media platforms (like Facebook).
Digital Marketing - Weibo Directory
If you would like to be listed in my Digital Marketing Weibo Directory (or know of someone that should be included) then please drop me a note or write yours in the comments below.
Sina Weibo version 4.0 will launch soon. Stay tuned for previews of more key features.
Written on Sunday, 28 August 2011 10:07 by Matt McDougall