At KAWO we often hear about the difficulties brands and agencies have finding people to manage their social media. To understand this challenge better, it’s important to get to know social media executives in China. A good place to start is a new report released by four major players in Chinese social media (运营研究社，人人秀，新媒体管家，上线了). In… Keep reading…
“Content is King, but distribution is Queen and she wears the pants” – Jonathan Perelman, BuzzFeed So it applies to your social media marketing on Weibo. Creating awesome content is the first step to success, but just as much effort should be put into promoting your content to make sure it is seen by the… Keep reading…
Toutiao, or Jinri Toutiao (literally “Headline Today”) is a fast growing Chinese social media platform that you can’t overlook. Powered by artificial intelligence, it analyzes content and user behavior and tailors the feed to users’ interests. In September 2017, Toutiao announced to had achieved 120 million of daily active users. Single user in-app time reaches… Keep reading…
Before you get mad at Siri and smash your iPhone, read on to find out how 5 common marketing roles might change in the next 5 years. For the past 100 years technology has been changing how we work and with AI on the horizon we can expect the rate of disruption to increase. Recently… Keep reading…
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… Keep reading…
Moments ads on WeChat were released at the beginning of 2015 for a few selected companies – like Coca Cola or Mercedes-Benz. In simple words, it allows these companies to put ads on users moments feed without detracting from the user experience. The rules are clear: ads will only appear every 48 hours if there… Keep reading…
One of the most frequently asked questions raised by social media managers using WeChat is how they can include links in the body of their WeChat articles. As most users have found out, the backend of WeChat is unfortunately without a hyperlink button in an article’s toolbar. It’s a frustrating as everyone involved in content… Keep reading…
For the past 6 months we’ve been presenting our vision for social media management in China to Shanghai’s top agencies, with the hope that just a few of them share our vision with KAWO – to deliver greater transparency, more accountability, and better results for everyone. What started out as a learning exercise, soon made… Keep reading…
Everything in this world exist for a reason, and the same goes for #hashtags. The most common function of hashtags that people know about is how they’re used to engage in topics and find pictures of a similar category. True enough, but hashtags actually have so much more to offer. For example, on Weibo, you… Keep reading…
KAWO was announced last week as a shortlisted candidate for Campaign Asia’s Campaign Innovate award, which seeks to recognize top technology that’s innovating the marketing and advertising industry. Along with 11 other candidates, KAWO will compete to be one of the four finalists who will then go head-to-head via a video pitch session with the… Keep reading…
We’ve mentioned it a number of times on our blog, but the importance of KOLs is a topic worth revisiting. A KOL has nearly unrivaled influence on the masses when it comes to promoting your product or message, and they can assuage the process of achieving viral status on social media, which tends to be… Keep reading…
Running an effective digital marketing campaign is one of the trickiest steps in the vast number of issues faced by Western brands and agencies seeking to enter the Chinese market. Western firms often fumble as they try to apply their tried-and-tested advertising tactics to Chinese social media channels such as Sina Weibo. At KAWO, we’ve… Keep reading…
Users are constantly overwhelmed with social media content, making it difficult for your content to resonate with your followers and have a lasting impact. Planning plays a key role in producing high quality social media content. There are many factors that go into a successful social media strategy, from content, to posting time, meaningful use… Keep reading…
600 million registered users. 167 million monthly users. 69.7 million daily users. This is Sina Weibo. While the people are certainly there, how do you effectively reach them? Weibo gives you two options – Fengsitong (in-stream ads) and KOLs (key opinion leaders). Fengsitong The purpose of Fengsitong is for companies to push out information about… Keep reading…
TL;DR: When you click the publish button it must just work. Achieving this simple goal has required relentless dedication to robustness. In the early days, similar to so many other companies, we made the classic error of constantly pushing to add new features. We assumed these additions would translate into satisfied customers. No matter how… Keep reading…
By: Yujun Wu Have you ever wondered how to make popular Weibo posts? There are several ways to make posts stand out and help your brand interact with your fans. Keep it simple Although 140 characters may already seem very short, making your post under 10 characters can work surprisingly well. Keep in mind: sometimes,… Keep reading…
With the increase of disposable income and longer holiday periods, Chinese tourists are looking for more ways to spend their vacation time. To better attract these potential tourists, companies must meet them where they are – the Internet. In 2013, the number of Internet users jumped 2.3% from 618 to 623 million users. Of that… Keep reading…
By: Wenxin Huang Similar to western social media, Chinese Internet shorthand is comprised of idioms, acronyms, clever double meanings, etc. There is a wide variety ofChinese Internet slang, below are the main categories that currently exist. Acronyms and Initialisms: Trends of using acronyms and initialisms by Chinese Internet users startedwith SF, derived from Sofa, which… Keep reading…
By: Yujun Wu As the premier social media platform in China, Sina Weibo does a good job of integrating hashtags into the use of the platform. As is the case with the use of hashtags in Western social media, hashtags make it easy to track and monitor the amount of buzz a topic creates. By… Keep reading…
By: Micey Song What is the top platform in China? Where can people find the latest Chinese trends? Who has the most weibo users in China? The answer to all of these questions is the same: SINA weibo. As the top platform in China, SINA weibo is always developing new features to give users the… Keep reading…
After only four years of existence, Tencent’s WeChat is now one of the top mobile messaging platforms in the world. While some apps place most of their focus on one-to-one communication, WeChat distinguishes itself through its bevy of unique features. With everything from the quirky “Drift Bottle” feature to the ever-practical “Walkie Talkie” option, WeChat’s… Keep reading…
Contests are a great way to increase followers and engagement on Sina Weibo (who doesn’t like free stuff?). You’ve got your catchy post, your prize, and thousands of entries- all you have to do is pick the winner. Simple enough, right? Nope. Here’s where it gets complicated. Your first thought might be to choose a… Keep reading…
Like Twitter, popular phrases and topics are tagged with hashtags. Unlike Twitter, however, on Weibo, hashtags are preceded and followed by “#,” like #this#. Hashtags make it easy to follow a conversation stream and monitor the buzz around a topic. Not only is it a good idea to include hashtags you’ve created for events and campaigns… Keep reading…
WeChat has launched a lottery platform for sports betting, just in time for the abundance of Chinese fans to guess match results for the FIFA 2014 World Cup. WeChat’s users, which number over 300 million, can access the betting platform and pay through the WeChat payment system. WeChat makes adding the exciting element of betting… Keep reading…
A question we’ve gotten a lot is something along the lines of “We’re a foreign company, how can we register for a verified business account on WeChat?” It’s easy enough to sign up for a personal account WeChat- you can download the app on your mobile from the app store and register with your phone… Keep reading…
On January 15th, Manchester United launched their official account on Tencent Weibo – one of the leading social networks in China – with KAWO. Just 10 mins after launch the account had 5,000 followers, rising to 20K only a few hours later. China is a key demographic for football clubs, as evidenced by the growing… Keep reading…