In this whitepaper, we will take the most popular Chinese microblogging service, Sina, as our point of departure. We will then look at the reasons why local readers choose to “follow” or “cancel” corporate microblogging accounts. Against this background, we will share some best practices from MSL China’s experience of managing weibo accounts for a large number of Chinese clients. www.mslgroup.cn

1. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Creating a Weibo That
Supports Your Business
By Stephy Liu, Johan Bjorksten, Fiona Shen, Jason Zhou

2. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
In February 2011, MSL China published the whitepaper for our brand?” Against this background, and given the
Best practices in Chinese microblogs which discussed fast developments in the weibo arena, we felt that it is
a hot topic: should organizations leverage the new again time to summarize the most useful recent best
weibo phenomenon for communications, and if so, practices in microblog communications to achieve
how? Half a year later, most companies in China, what we might call a “passing grade” on the corporate
About MSL China from consumer electronics, lifestyle and automotive weibo account.
brands to industrial equipment providers and other
Following the union with Eastwei MSL, MSL China is now a top business-to-business companies are tweeting away to In this whitepaper, we will take the most popular
5 international strategic communications agency in Mainland China. reach target audiences with corporate and marketing Chinese microblogging service, Sina, as our point
With 200 colleagues across 4 offices, MSL China brings together messages. of departure. We will then look at the reasons why
over 20 senior consultants with more than 12 years of strategic local readers choose to “follow” or “cancel” corporate
Some brands are doing this successfully, generating microblogging accounts. Against this background,
communications experience in this key global market. Part of
wide attention and word-of-mouth from online we will share some best practices from MSL China’s
MSLGROUP Greater China, the largest PR & social media network in communities. But many corporate weibo accounts experience of managing weibo accounts for a large
the region today, MSL China provides knowledge driven, integrated seem unable to engage with the online community, number of Chinese clients. More specifically, in order
campaigns and advisory services spanning nearly every industry and don’t generate a lot of commentary. In fact, after the to get a “passing grade” for your weibo, we believe
initial rush of interest, we are starting to see users marketers need to
communications discipline. MSL China has received recognition from
defect from company accounts; some brands have ● Objectively assess the current status of their weibo
the International Business Awards, The Holmes Report’s “PR Agency fewer and fewer followers. Some promotion methods effort
of the Year,” the China International PR Association and China’s that seem to have produced initial results “forward this ● Analyze the reasons targets groups “follow” or
New Media Festival for its creativity and effectiveness in strategic tweet to three friends and receive an award” are now “cancel” their accounts
communications and industry-leading social media offering. often viewed by initial brand fans as an increasingly ● Master six key weibo management tactics
counterproductive irritant; even when a few people do ● Create a sustainable platform for daily maintenance.
participate, they have learned to immediately
cancel their subscriptions after receiving the
award.
Because of this, our clients are no longer
asking us “should I launch a weibo initiative?”,
About MSLGROUP but rather “how can I ensure that my weibo
MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe’s PR, speciality communications account stays fresh and continues to attract
increasing numbers of users, so as to remain a
and engagement group, advisors in all aspects of communication
sustainably cost-effective promotion channel
strategy: from consumer PR to employee communications,
from public affairs to reputation management and from crisis
communications to event management. With more than 2,900
people, its offices span 22 countries. Adding affiliates and
partners into the equation, MSLGROUP’s reach increases to 4,000
employees in 83 countries. Today the largest PR network in Greater
China and India, the group offers strategic planning and counsel,
insight-guided thinking and big, compelling ideas – followed by
thorough execution. Learn more about us at: www.mslgroup.com+
http://blog.mslgroup.com+ Twitter+ YouTube

3. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Understanding the status of your weibo Traditional
These microblogs are the result of “old-school” PR
from Taiwan) and @QiongYouWang (famous travel
review and discussion website).
methods: basically, shortening press releases or other
Banana Taipei, a fashion brand from Taiwan, is one of the best
5 Typical Types of Brand Weibo Communications corporate content to 140 characters to fit the new examples of how to leverage KOL’s and consumer generated content.
weibo medium, but keeping the formal tone of voice. The weibo account has also been successfully integrated with the
By looking at a large number brand’s Taobao store to drive sales.
Accounts in this category can be spotted by the fact
of corporate and organizational
that there is almost no interaction, discussion and
weibo accounts, we have found
Aimless Traditional Content- Interactive Strategic forwarding. This is a very common phenomenon. In
that they can be classified in
driven fact, the majority of company weibo efforts currently
order of maturity into what we Blindly Communicates Pushes Provides platform Content and fall into the traditional category. The root cause is
ca ll “a imless”, “ tr a ditiona l”, maximizes using PR interersting and for interaction with interactivity
number of methods from relevant content audiences support corporate conservatism and a fear of experimentation,
“content-driven”, “interactive” and followers traditional media communications
and business
and often a failure to understand how social media
“strategic/business-driven”. The
goals function. Traditional weibos are often made fun of
graph lists some of the typical
online; in our opinion, they usually have an adverse
characteristics of each type, with
effect on the brand.
the most primitive efforts to the
left and the most advanced to the “content-driven” categories, while the weibo that tend to really attract
right. Most current microblogs in target groups are “interactive” or “strategic”. Let us have a look at the Content-driven Strategic
China fall into the “traditional” and reasons for this.
A content-driven weibo effort shows that the company The highest-value microblogs combine content and
already has a fundamental grasp of social media and interactivity based on the brand personality to drive
how to leverage them for communications efforts; a lot a targeted and measureable online marketing effort.
whereas a “normal” or “live” account would have a
The “Suning Campus Club” brand account displays over 700 posts – of fast-moving consumer goods, consumer technology
but all are nearly identical, and there is no audience interaction. much higher proportion. The whole microblogging effort is aligned with sales
and IT, and lifestyle brands have already entered this and branding objectives to become a long-term,
space. The brand tells interesting stories and has sustainable business tool. When we analyze these
There may two reasons for this discrepancy: the
developed a close rapport with readers. The account is accounts, it is clear that content is being generated
number of followers has been faked, or content quality
managed by a professional team who update specially according to a long-term (more than six-month) plan.
is not interesting to followers. Many clients spend
created content on a daily basis: content is rich and We also find that they are usually closely integrated
large sums on hiring so-called “digital consulting
varied, often contains a blend of text and pictures, and with other communications channels and activities.
companies” who achieve a seemingly high activity in
has an informal tone-of-voice that feels natural to the
what’s called “astroturfing”: using automated programs
online audience. A good example is Louis Vuitton’s In order to achieve these results, the weibo team
or college students. To senior managers who do
not understand acclaimed weibo account. must have firm objectives, a sustainable strategy, a
the mechanics well-defined online brand positioning, and a detailed
Aimless o f m i c r o b lo g s , Interactive execution plan for content and interactivity. Of course,
The two main reasons that some weibo fall into this results may look In order to reach this level, the company must the team must also be experienced and have the
category are lack of persistence.The company opens good, but in fact, leverage an experienced weibo team that is capable staffing to execute the strategy on a daily, sometimes
a weibo account without systems in place to ensure such efforts rarely of launching content that actively drives interaction: hourly basis. Moreover, the communications team
long-term content or a basic failure to grasp the real provide real value interesting activities and engaging discussions must be structured in such a way that weibo content
benefits of a microblog. The latter often results in so for money to the that hook followers and foster a close and lively can be aligned with other social media, traditional
called “zombie” accounts. The easiest way to spot co m p a n y. T h e relationship with them; @ANNASUI is a good example. advertising and PR, as well as sales campaigns and
zombies is to compare the number of “followers” with potential adverse effect can be serious: users resent Taken to the highest level, such interactivity allows other marketing efforts. Some examples in this
the number of forwards per tweet : the account may being duped, and when they find out, companies in the weibo to rely mainly on UGC, User Generated category are award-winning accounts such as @mini
have over a hundred thousand followers, but there China have recently found themselves in the midst of a Content and generate IWOM, Internet Word-of-Mouth; China (Mini Cooper China), @durex, @Singapore
may be as few as three or four forwards of each tweet, media crisis or even litigation. examples are @BananaTaipei (a stylish bag company Tourism Board and @IKEA.

4. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Why users “follow” or “cancel”
weibo accounts
Let us now look at the reasons that the above the professional weibo communicator needs to
categories are so important for our analysis. Why understand what makes online audiences tick.
is it that most company efforts fail to reach the
“strategic” level? The reason is simple: marketers These answers are very much in line with our own
fail to understand user preferences, are unable to experience from managing accounts: if you want to
establish real dialog and interactivity. Because of this, succeed, you need to use themes that are logical and
there is no strategy to talk of, and the weibo account relevant to users and interesting content that is in line
fails to generate business results. So just as every with the brand image. That’s easy to say, of course –
good marketer starts by looking at consumer needs, but how should one go about achieving it? Let’s have a
look at some concrete tactics.
Why do people follow a brand account?
“The Weibo Poem”
A popular internal MSL
China posting on the
principles of weibo
management. The posting
quickly went viral amongst
our consultants – a great
example of how creative
format generates buzz and
increases the impact of
communications.

5. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Getting to the “passing grade” –
designing a high-ROI company movie itself. If you don’t do this right, you risk diluting
the brand or giving it a split personality. Establishing
Weibo contents
microblog the “tweet image” avoids this by explicitly deciding the
tone of voice, style and positioning of weibo content.
Some companies hire legions of students to fill their
microblogs with content; if this is your approach, you
Six pillars of brand weibo operation
will need to spend significant effort training a bunch
of teenagers to adopt a style that is engaging and for
other age groups: if you want to attract and keep 28-
35 female consumers, you need to make sure your
tweets are at the right maturity level. You may need to
train your “actors” to be versatile enough to support a
variety of brands aimed at different target groups.
Tweet content
Content is king – nowhere is this
Tweet tone Tweet image m o re tr u e tha n i n s o ci a l m e d i a .
Brands and users communicate through content
You need to listen before you can tweet. In this respect, weibo marketing is no
and activities. As a result of the weibo revolution,
Before you launch the weibo, you must different from traditional marketing: in
marketers are rediscovering the need to “market”
establish a “daily listening” system which takes in not the end, you are trying to create a clear image and
great content in addition to great products. You need
only what followers are saying on your own account positioning in the minds of your target group. Building
to begin by understanding what kind of information,
(which is often influenced by your own editorial a brand is like building up the image of a personality
entertainment and other content users will be looking
activity) but also listens to what’s going on in the in a movie: the script determines how the actor should
for in your online brand space. One example is the
microblogging environment at large: what your target interpret the role; if the script is good enough, you can
analysis from DCCI below on usage habits in the 70’s,
group are saying when they are in their own forums. exchange the actor without changing the style of the
80’s and 90’s generations; the differences between
Continuously analyzing the larger blogosphere is
The IKEA weibo image age groups are clearly significant.
the most important input for your strategy. Once
·Love family, love life at
you understand what your audience needs and what home
·Simple, honest
they care about, in essence allowing you to balance
·Pragmatic
·Always provides
Since microblogging is a high-frequency communications
“small surprises”
your “supply” with the “demand” for various types of ·Helps you find the channel, the need for content becomes huge. We
happiness and beauty
in everyday life
content. Our colleague Gaurav Mishra calls this finding categorize content as “company-generated”, “user-
the “Social Heartbeat”. generated”, “timely” and “opinion leader cooperation”.
The brand’s“weibo positioning” sets the stage for content, tone-of- As a very general rule of thumb, a ratio of 6:2:1:1 is
voice, design of interactive activities and follower management about right; but this of course varies significantly
@IKEA is a good example of a microblog with a personality that accurately
between different companies, products and brands.
reflects the brand image. This clear positioning is one of the reasons that Company generated content can be produced using
the IKEA weibo is currently ranked higher than any other home furnishing
what we call the “tweet content matrix”: this includes
brand on Sina. The positioning also helps us maintain a relaxed, natural
flow of tweets that gain user comments such as “IKEA’s weibo content positioning and style, target group characteristics
is sweeter than first love” and “every time I get an IKEA tweet I feel like and the business and communications needs of
building myself a home”.
the company. The tweet content matrix ensures

6. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
that your weibo maintains a consistent editorial results if you plan it well. Audiences tend to be Brand cooperates with brands accrosing industry
style despite the fragmented nature of the increasingly turned off by simple “send this to three can make surprise towards follows. This can create
channel, makes it easier for the weibo team to friends and get a prize” activities, so you need to find a an image of openness, liveliness and participation
execute on the strategy as well as launching theme and “reason to participate” that is not trivial. for the brand, by leveraging common interests in the
“opportunistic” tweets based on ongoing events target group. Such activities are not easy to design;
without compromising the “look and feel” of Brand account cooperation they must be carefully selected not to give a “forced”
your account. The clearest example is the use of It sometimes makes sense to implement co-branding impression. For this reason, it is used rather sparsely,
“#XX#” tag series (in general, we recommend efforts with other official brand accounts, allowing but we believe it is worth spending more effort in
using tags for themed campaigns; these can the to build on each other’s popularity, just as when this area. A successful example is the cooperation
be designed according to a “topic tag creation two people introduce each other’s circles of friends between Trendmicro and Durex.
process” which is illustrated below together with to each other. There are several types of cooperation:
the tweet content matrix. Brand cooperates with sub-brands or brands in the
same group is a ususal approach. A typical example
In addition to the company-generated content, is th e co o p e r ati o n b et w e e n th e H o n g Ko n g
leveraging a certain amount of user-generated engagement and involvement; in order to attract Tourism Board and local commercial brands; by
content is an effective tool. By finding ways of weibo followers, we need to create an interactive leveraging the popularity of local brands, and
encouraging audiences to contribute, which can or, better yet, viral, promotion. We also need to multiplying their effect under a common umbrella,
include active campaigns to solicit contributions, you coordinate and integrate all online platforms:brand the marketer creates a win-win situation. This also
should generate at least the minimum level needed weibo account, home page, campaign minisite, SNS creates an official endorsement of the individual
to ensure that the weibo is truly interactive and doesn’t pages and so on. commercial brands, providing support for their
degenerate into a one-way loudspeaker. credibility and loyalty.
Competitions and awards
This may be one of the most hackneyed and over-
Tweet interactivity exploited online tools, but it can still generate good
As we have seen, content and interactivity
are the two key components that dovetail Using weibo to distribute content from influential KOL’s is a great way of
to make a weibo truly attractive to users. promoting products and events. The Puma Social campaign featured
celebrity model Pace Wu, who already had a large weibo following, in
There are many kinds of interactivity; in order to build real-life events. Her weibo posts generated strong online buzz and word-
your weibo into a marketing powerhouse, you need to of-mouth.
choose those activities that will attract your particular
target group. In this way, the account will “come alive”
and become a platform of two-way interchange. In our
Combining weibo activity with traditional media and
experience, some of the most useful activities are:
other offline promotions. Many brands currently do
Minisites and apps this successfully, but there are two especially easy
Brand cooperates with brands in the same industry ways of doing this which companies often disregard:
If yo ur b u d g et a llow s , a n d co nsi d er in g th e
is conducive for winning fans.The Singapore Tourism You can promote successful online activities such
characteristics of your target group, launching a full-
Board cooperates with travel and tourism portal eLong as awards to generate print publicity in real-life
blown campaign supported by advertising on minisites
or apps can still generate good value. However, you in a fans interactive activity using awards and other interviews, forums and panels; we can also leverage
need to align the activity carefully with the positioning straightforward incitements to participate, generating digitial tools such as weibo to engage traditional
of your brand. But even if the campaign relies mainly on substantial attention for both accounts within an hour stakeholders – journalists, experts and officials –
advertising, we still need to ensure that it encourages of the activity. before the physical activity takes place.

7. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Technical tools like this “weibo voting widget” used by Hotel.com
can effectively help brands to understand consumer preferences
Coordinating with other online platforms and behavior. The campaign provided incentives to consumers
Many of our clients ask us to support in driving traffic to the who fed their information into the widget.
home page or e-commerce platform; we have found social
media, and weibo especially, to be a great complement to
traditional traffic support like Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) and click-through advertising. This is confirmed by
the DCCI figures below. Coordinating the brand's entire
online presence is becoming a must for successful internet
marketing.
When you search for the brand online, you will often find
that the weibo receives high rankings on the search engines,
in essence becoming the brand’s “second face” in addition
to the home page. By considering how target groups look
for information, and in particular their search behavior and
search terms, you can create tweets that frequently contain
the most popular phrases that users are looking for.
Tweet follower relations
straightforward, personal and colloquial, making it
By “relations”, we mean the way the easy to read. Address users by their online nicknames
brand responds to online commentary and avoid using polite forms of address.
and how well it understands the needs and behavior
of followers. As a rule of thumb, no question or Actively responding to questions and criticism is useful
negative comment should be left unanswered for both as a way of increasing interaction and dialog,
more than 48 hours. We always try to involve the and as a way of adapting content to user interests and
client’s PR department and often Customer Service needs.
department in drafting a standard “weibo discussion
FAQ document”. This document is usually an adaption In addition, analyzing followers in depth is also an
of traditional standard operating procedures from important part of managing the account. One way is
customer service documents, where the language has to simply conduct surveys and voting activities on the
been revised to better suit the online environment. account itself. We also recommend using add-ins or
We also try to ensure that the style reflects the widgets插件such as the Weibo Positioning Billboard
personality of the brand itself. The content of replies (微博风云榜), Weibo Fan Analysis (围脖粉丝分析)
should be practical, focused and to the point; but also and Wei Fenxi (微分析) as analysis tools.

8. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
KPI
KPI of Weibo Account Influence Analysis
In our previous whitepaper,
Follower Quality Index
we explained how to use
Brand weibo checklist
Number of Number of followers
a number of generally applicable KPI’s followers
(Key Performance Indicators) such as Active followers Number of active followers
Percentage of active followers
number of followers, and number of
Number of verified followers
forwards. But as the weibo marketing Verified followers
Percentage of verified followers A clear strategy is not enough; an effective weibo the five categories the company’s weibo belongs
environment matures and companies initiative also relies on professional and efficient to, there will be different tasks and priorities. Most
Popular followers Number of popular followers
establish more specific goals for their Percentage of popular followers
day-to-day management. Based on experience, the of our clients ask us to strive for the most advanced
weibo activities, these metrics are no Number of Analyze the number of sub-followers (followers of each
sub-followers follower) using theappropriateplug-in MSL China team has collated a checklist of the most option: a strategically integrated weibo initiative that
longer enough. To capture the ROI of
important tacticts, listed in chronological order from directly supports the company’s communications and
Zombie followers Number of zombie followers
our weibo effort, we need to combine Percentage of zombie followers inception to measurement. Depending on which of business objectives.
several qualitative and qualitative
metrics that better reflect our marketing Follower relevance
objectives and can provide input for Age, gender, education, income,
Demographics
geographical distributtion, etc
ongoing strategic improvements.
Based on experience, we suggest Analyze follower interest and preferences
Topical Interest
from comments and questions on our content
using a set of practical KPI’s, including Brand Weibo Checklist
Users comments and voting to analyze
influence of followers; proximity of Brand Interest
the level of brand liking and loyalty
followers to marketing target group;
content attractiveness; and degree Engagement with content
of interactivity. These measures are Average number of forwards ●Average participation in activity, for example
of original postings
interrelated: no matter how influential uploads, forwards,comments.
Average number of comments ●Increase in follower number as result of
our followers are, if we want to achieve on original postings activity
marketing objectives, we must also
As a rule of thumb, proportion of original
understand how closely they reflect our Proportion of original and and user-generated content should be
user-generated content 3:1, but this depends on specific
target group.
circumstances
Relative proportion of positive, negative and
neutral comments
Engagement with brand
Relative proportion of positive,
negative and neutral comments Integration with other social
media platforms
Direct effect of the weibo market-
ing effort – this can be analyzed Consumer dicussion and buzz around brand
using consumer survey tools, outside the brand account.
focus groups or informal gather-
ings of weibo followers
Number of external links
Store traffic and sales

9. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
In this whitepaper, we have tried to provide a strategic recipe for weibo success. But in the end, no matter
how good the strategy, the extent to which your company’s employees embrace microblogging will be the
key to success. The MSL China weibo team consists of a bunch of expert weibo enthusiasts, but we have
found that this is not enough; we must get all employees to become weibo ambassadors of the company.
Today, many of our employees are active on our own @MSL China account. Even our hoary old directors
have joined the weibo craze. @them if you have the chance!
Weibo management is like a love affair: even if you can achieve instant
passion using a few short-term marketing tricks, the real challenge is to build long-
term attraction. You need to nurture trust and emotional rapport between your
brand and its followers; every now and then, you also need to provide a surprise
or especially romantic moment to keep the flame alive. Successful brands don’t
try to generate love at first sight; they devote themselves strategically to creating
those deep and honest interactions that foster life-long relationships.