| Authors: |
Will Moss
|
| URL: |
http://www.asiaperspective.com/communications_in_practice/10.html |
| Description: |
May08 |
| Tags: |
PR
blog
blogging
online_PR
public_relations
|
| Abstract: |
Companies across Asia increasingly find themselves reacting to events
springing unexpectedly out of the internet. Emboldened by the new
technologies at their disposal and a sense that they now have a say,
people are busily swapping notes on poor quality products, second-rate
customer service and a host of other opinions. But nowhere are the
noise-levels higher than in China. It is the headline figures that
grab your attention:
210 million users as of January, 2008, up fifty percent in a year.
An instant messaging platform, QQ,that reaches eighty percent of those
users.
47 million bloggers.
Countless social networking and video sharing sites.
And then there are the forums, the topical bulletin boards that are
the heart of China’s Internet, getting about ten million new posts
every day.
That’s a lot to keep up with. It seems like a PR no-brainer. How can
any company doing business in China afford not to use the Internet?
Behind those headline numbers lurk some daunting obstacles. For one
thing, although China’s absolute number of Internet users is high,
overall penetration remains relatively low, at about 16 percent (although
concentrated in the economically important major cities). Many people,
especially students, access the Internet irregularly using shared
computers at schools or Internet cafes. Unlike in the US, where a
handful of heavyweight sites rule, China’s Internet market is relatively
fragmented.
In addition, the regulatory environment is changing by the day. New
rules governing content and ownership of video sharing sites were
introduced in January, and further regulatory shoes may yet drop
into the midst of carefully planned online marketing programs.
The challenges are real, but so are the opportunities. The trick with
the Internet in China, as with anywhere else, is to be systematic.
Consider where your comfort zone is, which audiences are relevant
to you, and what influence they might have over mainstream media
or offline audiences. Once you have a clear idea of what you want
to accomplish and who you need to reach, the landscape can look a
lot more manageable. Some of the key things to consider are:
Listening
There are literally hundreds of thousands of different topical forums
in China receiving tens of millions of posts a day. Many of these
are hosted on big content sites such as Douban, Tianya and Sina.
Every newspaper and magazine in China also hosts forums, not to mention
those affiliated with universities and such. Most of these sites
don’t support RSS subscriptions, so it’s not always practical to
set up an automatic dashboard. Some of the major Chinese search engines,
such as Baidu, support RSS for specific searches, however, which
can help.
Consumer products, especially mobile phones, cars and laptop computers,
are among the items most passionately discussed, making monitoring
the forums is a good way to catch issues early. But they can also
be a good source of insight into what people like and don’t like
about your products and how they stack up against the competition.
Consider it the world’s largest focus group, there to be listened
in on. There are companies that do a good job using software to monitor
and analyze vast swathes of the forum space. But an easy way to start
can be to identify a few of the most important and active forums
and to follow them manually, checking in once or twice a day to see
what’s driving the conversation.
Blogs are increasingly important in China, but they haven’t displaced
the forums as the main form of online participation as has happened
elsewhere. But as with forums, it makes good sense to do a little
research to identify a few of the most influential bloggers with
regard to your company or industry and to follow them.
Marketing
Big consumer companies are increasingly using the Internet in China
for interactive marketing campaigns. Chinese users can be enthusiastic
about sharing ideas and content, especially if there is an incentive
involved. We’ve helped computer, food and consumer electronic firms
to develop campaigns that encouraged users to submit creative ideas
and judge other submissions, and otherwise participate directly.
When integrated with mainstream marketing and PR these programs can
be great ways to build awareness while directly engaging potential
customers. The good news is that these kinds of programs rely on
your fans (ideally) for content, so you don’t need to worry about
recruiting hassled executives to blog.
Media Relations
While blogging hasn’t knocked the forums off the top of the Chinese
Internet hill, there is one audience for which it has become increasingly
important: Journalists. Many of China’s most influential bloggers
are full-time journalists who use the Internet to express ideas and
opinions that don’t always make it into official channels. One example
of this is CCTV9 anchor Rui Chenggang, who in January 2006 helped
seal the fate of Starbucks’ Forbidden City shop with a critical post
on his blog.
But it’s not only TV celebrities who are doing this, and it’s not
always a crisis. Many trade journalists blog on the side. This provides
an opportunity to start exploring less formal kinds of communication,
making podcast or online video material available and holding specialty
events just for bloggers. And don’t be shy about reaching out to
influential non-journalist bloggers as well, although as elsewhere
you’ll want to reach out informally to establish a rapport and ascertain
interest before engaging.
Some Chinese blogging engines and aggregators are now in the business
of delivering widespread blog coverage on their networks for a fee.
It can be a tempting offer, consolidating the legwork of identifying
influencers and making personal outreach. But beware: Chinese Internet
users are sophisticated, and getting good at spotting pay-for-play
coverage. Nothing beats earned coverage, even in blogs.
Company Blogging
This is an area that is still only emerging in China. Today there
are three main kinds of practitioners: Small, overseas consultancies
that want to raise their profiles with analytical English blogs;
Chinese branches of big technology firms; and Chinese CEOs who often
blog on a mix of personal and company topics (although the two can
sometimes be synonymous).
For companies concerned about the investment or risks of broad based
blogging, identifying a specific audience to reach out to can be
a good start. Many of the technology firms running blogs in China
have R&D labs here and use their blogs to reach out to the development
community. We’ve done something similar for one of our software industry
clients, helping to build a “group blog” on which their executives,
industry analysts and journalists all contributed posts on a particular
development topic. There are also companies in China that use internal
blogs to reach out to employees across the nation, or even extended
groups like partner networks.
We expect company blogging to grow in popularity over time, as companies
are discouraged from taking a direct role in forums. Those caught
“seeding” forums with planted posts can be ruthlessly savaged. Copying
and pasting of articles and blog posts is common in the forums, however,
and having a blog is one way to take advantage of this and help your
point of view to get represented.
Everything Else…
There is more. Video sharing is already widely popular in China, and
videos are often shared in blogs and forums. Social networks are
also growing in popularity, with local heavyweights such as Xiaonei,
51.com, Mop and others dominating the scene and foreign players just
beginning to edge in.
With all of this going on, there is no one solution to communicating
on the Internet in China. But it’s growing in importance and companies
operating in China need to pay attention to how discussions on the
Internet can affect their reputations. After that, engagement can
come one step at a time.
It’s OK to start small. It’s OK to just listen.
But ignore it at your peril. |
@article{Moss2008WWE,
title = {Wild Wild East...Are you ready for online PR in China?},
author = {Will Moss},
journal = {Asia Perspectives},
url = {http://www.asiaperspective.com/communications_in_practice/10.html},
year = {2008},
description = {May08},
abstract = {Companies across Asia increasingly find themselves reacting to events
springing unexpectedly out of the internet. Emboldened by the new
technologies at their disposal and a sense that they now have a say,
people are busily swapping notes on poor quality products, second-rate
customer service and a host of other opinions. But nowhere are the
noise-levels higher than in China. It is the headline figures that
grab your attention:
210 million users as of January, 2008, up fifty percent in a year.
An instant messaging platform, QQ,that reaches eighty percent of those
users.
47 million bloggers.
Countless social networking and video sharing sites.
And then there are the forums, the topical bulletin boards that are
the heart of China’s Internet, getting about ten million new posts
every day.
That’s a lot to keep up with. It seems like a PR no-brainer. How can
any company doing business in China afford not to use the Internet?
Behind those headline numbers lurk some daunting obstacles. For one
thing, although China’s absolute number of Internet users is high,
overall penetration remains relatively low, at about 16 percent (although
concentrated in the economically important major cities). Many people,
especially students, access the Internet irregularly using shared
computers at schools or Internet cafes. Unlike in the US, where a
handful of heavyweight sites rule, China’s Internet market is relatively
fragmented.
In addition, the regulatory environment is changing by the day. New
rules governing content and ownership of video sharing sites were
introduced in January, and further regulatory shoes may yet drop
into the midst of carefully planned online marketing programs.
The challenges are real, but so are the opportunities. The trick with
the Internet in China, as with anywhere else, is to be systematic.
Consider where your comfort zone is, which audiences are relevant
to you, and what influence they might have over mainstream media
or offline audiences. Once you have a clear idea of what you want
to accomplish and who you need to reach, the landscape can look a
lot more manageable. Some of the key things to consider are:
Listening
There are literally hundreds of thousands of different topical forums
in China receiving tens of millions of posts a day. Many of these
are hosted on big content sites such as Douban, Tianya and Sina.
Every newspaper and magazine in China also hosts forums, not to mention
those affiliated with universities and such. Most of these sites
don’t support RSS subscriptions, so it’s not always practical to
set up an automatic dashboard. Some of the major Chinese search engines,
such as Baidu, support RSS for specific searches, however, which
can help.
Consumer products, especially mobile phones, cars and laptop computers,
are among the items most passionately discussed, making monitoring
the forums is a good way to catch issues early. But they can also
be a good source of insight into what people like and don’t like
about your products and how they stack up against the competition.
Consider it the world’s largest focus group, there to be listened
in on. There are companies that do a good job using software to monitor
and analyze vast swathes of the forum space. But an easy way to start
can be to identify a few of the most important and active forums
and to follow them manually, checking in once or twice a day to see
what’s driving the conversation.
Blogs are increasingly important in China, but they haven’t displaced
the forums as the main form of online participation as has happened
elsewhere. But as with forums, it makes good sense to do a little
research to identify a few of the most influential bloggers with
regard to your company or industry and to follow them.
Marketing
Big consumer companies are increasingly using the Internet in China
for interactive marketing campaigns. Chinese users can be enthusiastic
about sharing ideas and content, especially if there is an incentive
involved. We’ve helped computer, food and consumer electronic firms
to develop campaigns that encouraged users to submit creative ideas
and judge other submissions, and otherwise participate directly.
When integrated with mainstream marketing and PR these programs can
be great ways to build awareness while directly engaging potential
customers. The good news is that these kinds of programs rely on
your fans (ideally) for content, so you don’t need to worry about
recruiting hassled executives to blog.
Media Relations
While blogging hasn’t knocked the forums off the top of the Chinese
Internet hill, there is one audience for which it has become increasingly
important: Journalists. Many of China’s most influential bloggers
are full-time journalists who use the Internet to express ideas and
opinions that don’t always make it into official channels. One example
of this is CCTV9 anchor Rui Chenggang, who in January 2006 helped
seal the fate of Starbucks’ Forbidden City shop with a critical post
on his blog.
But it’s not only TV celebrities who are doing this, and it’s not
always a crisis. Many trade journalists blog on the side. This provides
an opportunity to start exploring less formal kinds of communication,
making podcast or online video material available and holding specialty
events just for bloggers. And don’t be shy about reaching out to
influential non-journalist bloggers as well, although as elsewhere
you’ll want to reach out informally to establish a rapport and ascertain
interest before engaging.
Some Chinese blogging engines and aggregators are now in the business
of delivering widespread blog coverage on their networks for a fee.
It can be a tempting offer, consolidating the legwork of identifying
influencers and making personal outreach. But beware: Chinese Internet
users are sophisticated, and getting good at spotting pay-for-play
coverage. Nothing beats earned coverage, even in blogs.
Company Blogging
This is an area that is still only emerging in China. Today there
are three main kinds of practitioners: Small, overseas consultancies
that want to raise their profiles with analytical English blogs;
Chinese branches of big technology firms; and Chinese CEOs who often
blog on a mix of personal and company topics (although the two can
sometimes be synonymous).
For companies concerned about the investment or risks of broad based
blogging, identifying a specific audience to reach out to can be
a good start. Many of the technology firms running blogs in China
have R&D labs here and use their blogs to reach out to the development
community. We’ve done something similar for one of our software industry
clients, helping to build a “group blog” on which their executives,
industry analysts and journalists all contributed posts on a particular
development topic. There are also companies in China that use internal
blogs to reach out to employees across the nation, or even extended
groups like partner networks.
We expect company blogging to grow in popularity over time, as companies
are discouraged from taking a direct role in forums. Those caught
“seeding” forums with planted posts can be ruthlessly savaged. Copying
and pasting of articles and blog posts is common in the forums, however,
and having a blog is one way to take advantage of this and help your
point of view to get represented.
Everything Else…
There is more. Video sharing is already widely popular in China, and
videos are often shared in blogs and forums. Social networks are
also growing in popularity, with local heavyweights such as Xiaonei,
51.com, Mop and others dominating the scene and foreign players just
beginning to edge in.
With all of this going on, there is no one solution to communicating
on the Internet in China. But it’s growing in importance and companies
operating in China need to pay attention to how discussions on the
Internet can affect their reputations. After that, engagement can
come one step at a time.
It’s OK to start small. It’s OK to just listen.
But ignore it at your peril.},
timestamp = {2008.06.01}, owner = {afeld}, __markedentry = {[afeld]},
keywords = {PR blog blogging online_PR public_relations }
}
::