SNS China: What Can You Do When Everyone is Playing?

The major function of SNS, or social networking sites, is pretty self-explanatory: networking, and building and reflecting social relations. In China, where internet is considered as an entertainment highway for some 340 million web users, SNS has two main focuses- networking and entertainment.

According to a 2009 research by iResearch, China's top market research firm specializing in customer behavior in internet media, e-commerce and online games, 48.6% of SNS users in China use SNS to keep in touch with old friends, and 32.2% of them use SNS for entertainment, more specifically, playing casual/webpage/interactive games provided as SNS applications.

To be more specific, many college students and young white collar employees (two most important demographic groups of SNS population in China) kill time by selling SNS friends for virtual money, stealing each others' vegetables in the SNS farms (extreme cases involve people setting up spreadsheet for effective farm stealing!), 0r competing for virtual parking spot. They don't care to add a company/brand as friends; they don't pay attention to organizations on SNS; they just want to have fun with mostly people they know, which brings a question for organizations aiming to build relationships on SNS- do we still have a shot?



The answer is yes. Entertainment elements highlighted on Chinese SNS give a lot of potential to interactive marketing communication. Organizations may think in way: if it is hard to be invited to play a game and get entertained with SNS users who happen to be their key audience, it is easier to be part of the virtual game and help your audience realize the real value of the brands. Citroën China successfully penetrated into the popular SNS game of competing for parking spots. The player who earned the msot virtual money can win a real car. Players interact with the brand in this most played SNS game in osmosis. Though Citroen is not "friended", it has successfully got into many SNS social circles. This case tells us that creative and entertaining measures need to be sought to communicate with key publics on SNS in China... perhaps also elsewhere- what do you think?

Location-Aware Text Messaging

Text-messaging is getting more and more location aware. Mobile phones influence how we interact with space when mobile interfaces “know” their location. By being able to connect to satellites, cell phone towers or wireless routers, mobile devices acquire geospatial coordinates which allow users to access location-based information about that space and to find other users in the surroundings, depending on their relative distance to one another. The trend, which Dr. Silva describes as "network locality" (being connected to a network with local information embedded) can be found in corners of lives. I'd like to bring to you an application in China.

Municipal governments in China often utilizes the database that contains all mobile phone numbers, sets up a public text messaging terminal and sends one-to-all SMS for various administrative purposes. During the Beijing Olympics, the Beijing municipal government frequently sent messages to all mobile users within the network of Beijing, notifying them of temporary transportation issues. Also, mobile phone users who take an intercity trip in China will receive automatic text messages as soon as they cross a city limit (departing one city and entering another). The text messages welcome them to the new city and provide local information such as famous places of interest, weather forecast, and accommodation hotlines. The government-initiated one-to-all text messaging can be seen as a unique appropriation of the Chinese society because on the one hand, it is enabled and complies with the centralized authority, and on the other, it reflects the cultural orientation of collectivism that bases decision-making on what is best for a group.

I believe location aware text messaging is a promising application not only for government initiated public administration. Welcome text message travelers receive as they reach new cities benefit local commerce, tourism and the general city branding. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the possible organizational use of location aware text messaging. Thanks!


P.S. Above is an example of the possibilities of being location smart for organizations. Mobile phone users who pass by the billboard can scan the QR code (something similar as bar code but more advanced) on the billboard with their mobile phone and access a website embedded. Instead of sending text messages to everyone, you can let others go to you.

Weibo, Scarf, and Microblogging

Since Day One of microblogging, many questions have been raised about current and potential organizational usage, a major one being how can organizations achieve two-way symmetrical communication when using microblogging? I want to share a success story of VANCL, an online fashion retailer in China, as its microblogging strategies have gained many thumbs-up from PR and marketing professionals.

In 2009, Sina.com, one of the biggest online portals in China launched a microblogging service called Sina Weibo (Sina Microblogging). Sina cleverly punned on the likeness of “wēi bó” (microblogging) and “wéi bó” (scarf) in Chinese pronunciation. Thus, instead of asking people “have you microblogged today?” Sina asks “got your scarf today?” The naming created a buzz, and attracted thousands of netizens to come and get their scarves.

VANCL were among the first companies on Weibo. Their first updates were about giving free VANCL scarves to new followers. Relevant and fun, the campaign helped VANCL gain initial attention and followership. Many of VANCL’s updates later were also about freebies and bargains- giving gifts, time-limited ￥1 purchase for some ￥888 apparel for followers who leave comments the earliest, etc.

But that was not all. Besides good at giving away scarves, VANCL also made efforts to connect with followers/consumers emotionally. What they did included:
- Sharing designers’ new creative ideas for new seasons
- Sharing photos of office, studios, team activities and energetic friendly looking new VANCL employees
- Answering followers’ questions in a timely manner
- Asking for and rewarding design suggestions
- Recruiting catalog models
- Reminding people to dress warm and travel safe for Chinese New Year.

Several good lessons could be learned from VANCL on organizational usage of microblogging to interact with key audience in dialogues and interactions:

1. Find a good bonding point between your organization and the microblog. For VANCL, it was on Weibo because its target consumers (young people in the early years of career who like to shop online) are comfortable with microblogging. What makes the reason for your organization to be on Twitter?

2. Introduce yourself. Tell organizational stories. Help people know what you do and what you believe. Build emotional ties.

3. Listen and be responsive. Microblogging is not another place to put news and news releases. It enables organizations to directly communicate/interact with the audience. Value their feedback by ingratiating and responding it on time.

4. Prepare incentive packages to encourage participation. Everyone can use a giveaway or a few coupons, so give a wéi bó (scarf) for their “wēi bó” (microblogging)!

Don’t be Evil… Says Who?

My previous blog about Pizza Hut’s viral marketing through social media in China brought Paromita and I into a very interesting discussion about ethics of social media marketing. Was it unethical of Pizza Hut not to disclose that it was the creator of the original post? If you were on the team that strategized and implemented this campaign, knowing that self-disclosure was not essential with the local law and industry regulations, plus absolutely tempted by the fact that the campaign would sell much better if “astroturfed”, what would you do? Where would you place ethics for an organization such as a corporation? What would be your priority, and at the same time, how would you define your bottom line financially and ethically?

How I wish there were a universal ruler that measures ethics, but after all, life is never a black-and-white, good-or-bad dichotomy. In the business world, ethics is a challenging issue full of gray areas, entangled with variables. Yet, for organizations, attempts must be made to answer these questions, because publics of interest care to know what kind of player you are in the market before they decide what kind of relationship they want to have with you. To help with the thoughts, I’d like to share Google’s word about ethics.

“Don’t be evil,”

says Google in their organizational philosophy. As a technology/service provider that integrates information, Google believes that it is unethical, evil to manipulate information. This ethics standard can be seen as an underlying motive of Google’s recent statement about leaving China (by closing its google.cn domain) when Gmail accounts of several pro-democracy dissidents’ were censored and hacked. While many thought it was a morally advantageous excuse to shut a poorly performing line of service (google.cn’s market share has been disappointing), many believed Google was a hero. As the picture below shows, some people even presented bouquets (as a way to say goodbye to the beloved) to Google’s Beijing office when the announcement was made.



I tend to believe that Google’s ethical practice in China has largely combined interest of itself and the key publics. Google’s revenues rely on a stable service that reflects natural unmanipulated information flow, which serves as a legitimate reason for Google to stick to the ethical standard. More importantly, Google’s key publics (users, investors, the press, etc.) expect to see consistent execution of “don’t be evil”, even when it means making clear the core values against the "Great Firewall of China" (Government PR efforts are much needed after that though.) It reassures them that Google is trustworthy, protects the brand, and in the long run, it helps cultivate the Chinese market. Thus, what Google did in China was both a moral bottom line and a moral high ground for its stakeholders and itself.

What I’ve learned from this incident is that, for organizations, ethics can be and should be strategic. Ethic standards should direct organizations to developing positive relationships with their key publics. Organizations need to decide the ethical DOs and DON’Ts in a big picture thinking about long term consequences, and in the eye of the publics on whom an organization's success or failure depends.

Eat up Pizza Hut

I’d like to share a story about Pizza Hut in China, but before I do, I’d give some background information: 1) with many remarkable efforts, Pizza Hut has successfully upmarketed itself in China. It is relatively expensive, but offers happy exotic dining experience. Therefore it is typical to find young couples going on a date or celebrating Valentine’s in Pizza Hut (to get a feel of its branding strategy and target consumers in China, here are some commercials of Pizza Hut China); 2) on its menu, there is this all-you-can-eat fruit salad. It is self-served, comes with a tiny bowl, can be fetched from the salad bar only once, and costs ￥30 which is not inexpensive at all considering its regular amount.

Anyway, some three years ago, a post titled “How to Eat up Pizza Hut” became extremely popular and got forwarded onto thousands of discussion forums, blogs and SNSs in China. In fact, a search of the title in Chinese still generates 48,300 exact results now.

The post begins by complaining that Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat fruit salad is ridiculously expensive. Then it gives detailed instructions on how to take steps to pile up the salad really high so as to maximize the amount. Here are some crazy pictures from the post-







So the post became sensationally viral, and everyone after reading the post wanted to go and try eat up Pizza Hut. It wasn’t learned until last year that the one that called on eating up Pizza Hut was Pizza Hut itself.

In my opinion, the most amazing part of this social media campaign is that NOBODY, for two years, felt it was a campaign! People went to Pizza Hut out of curiosity. They believed it was one of them that had sent the original message.

Three lessons I’ve learned from Pizza Hut:

Research Comes First.
Pizza Hut obviously had learned what held their consumers back from buying the yummy salad (i.e., the price/amount ratio). When it becomes so tempting to just use the social media to make a buzz (as if such a function were automatic), it is important to make sure that you have carefully listened to and thoroughly understood your consumers.

Choose the Right Channel.
Being able to differentiate various social media technologies and employ them appropriately is also crucial. Pizza Hut ‘made the wave’ (thanks everyone for liking the metaphor!) through discussion forums, blogs and SNS as these social media spread entertaining contents very rapidly, and congregate the most young audience among whom many are Pizza Hut’s target consumers.

It’s a Conversation.
Social media is about communication, connecting, and sharing. Thus, instead of treating it as a one-way marketing channel and directly pushing messages across the board, organizations need to engage in conversations with the audience. Like the post by Pizza Hut, it encourages people to come with ideas of how to pile up the salad higher. In response, many netizens posted their Pizza Hut triumphs. Some even posted salad piling structural charts to teach people how to build a stable salad foundation! The orange bars in the second chart were supposed to mean carrot sticks :)





FYI, the campaign was so successful that recently Pizza Hut China had to take all-you-can-eat fruit salad off the menu. Pizza Hut is happily eaten up.