WeChat

If only 10% of your WeChat followers read each article you are still probably doing better than you think.

Both WeChat & Weibo have reached maturity making them a real challenge for marketing teams all over China, but the data clearly shows there are ways you can win.

KAWO analysed 20 million data points to answer every marketers top questions.

WeChat’s Time Capsule launch has failed.

That’s what my instincts were telling me. I had seen less and less of the tell-tale blue circle throughout my contacts. So I had 10 different volunteers document how many time capsules they saw per week.

In the 14 days we captured usage declined by 34%. Weekends saw increased activity but during the week time capsule usage is minimal. As each volunteer had over 600 friends (some as many as 1400), there is a minimum of 6000 points of reference for TC creation.

We also surveyed 87 people to see if we could gauge the sentiment towards the Time Capsule feature.

In May, a pop-up tea store named Sang Cha (丧茶), roughly translated into ‘depressed tea’, opened in Shanghai for four days. This store was instantly a huge topic filling my WeChat moments and Weibo feed. Young people shared photos and jokes about the quirky concept which says mean things to their customers like…

You’re already so fat. Refraining from one cup of milk tea won’t make any difference

If this already sounds absurd, more controversy is offered on their menu which lists…

The wait is over: you can now buy fake reads on WeChat. We’re by no means supporting this practice; however, it’s interesting and prudent to observe how it’s done and how you can hold your team accountable. In attempts to grow accounts, a number of companies, predominantly local Chinese ones have taken to buying “fake reads” in order to create an illusion of popularity. This is how these groups are going about creating deceitful posts and how you can recognize what’s real and what isn’t.

For most companies, launching into China’s social stratosphere can seem like a daunting task. Among the ever increasing number of platforms, brands are often forced to enter the debate between China’s social goliaths, Weibo and WeChat.

How are they different? Which is better? Is one replacing the other?

To begin with let’s get this straight, you can’t link from Weibo to WeChat and the cross platform functionalities leaves something to be wanted. However, when harnessed correctly these platforms can be used in unison, not just as separate entities, but in a complementing manner to achieve marketing goals.