Chinese celebrities, when attending overseas events, have become increasingly politically sensitive about certain issues including China’s position vis-a-vis Tibet (and the Dalai Lama), Japan and Taiwan. They have learnt lessons of their peers, either in China or overseas, who were blocked or boycotted due to their “inappropriate” comments unwelcomed by the Chinese authorities or Chinese consumers.

The same seems to go for luxury and fashion brands that operate and do marketing in the Chinese market. Lancôme, Hermès and the Italian luxury carmaker Fiat have all learned the hard way that “political correctness” is an absolute must if you’re doing business in China.

Even when issues arise that have little to do with the brands themselves, they still have to bear the brunt of the negative outcome not only from the Chinese government but from consumers as well.

Following are five times when the political positions or views of celebrities have had repercussions on the luxury and fashion brands they represent in China. Hopefully brands can learn—what not to do—from their examples

1. Dennis Ho and Lancôme

In mid-2016, the French cosmetics brand Lancôme was involved in a public relations (PR) battle after Dennis Ho, a Hong Kong singer who had publicly expressed anti-China remarks online, performed at a mini-concert hosted by the brand. The case even caught the attention of Global Times, the state-run newspaper, who wrote a critique of the collaboration. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers residing in the company’s home country, France, launched an online petition calling for a boycott of the brand. Even though Lancôme immediately cancelled Ho’s attendance and released a public apology to Chinese consumers, the brand lost many loyal customers for the issue.

2. Jane Birkin and Hermès

Created by the French luxury powerhouse Hermès in homage to British actress Jane Birkin, the classic Birkin bag was dragged into an unexpected spat in 2016， When Birkin’s personal involvement with Tibet and the human rights movements crossed a line. The actress was banned from getting Chinese visa to participate in a concert in Shanghai in 2016. Commenting on the issue, Global Times mentioned in an article that the actress participated in a protest against China in 2008 while carrying her namesake signature bag. To a certain extent, this put the spotlight on Hermès.

3. Sharon Stone and Christian Dior 

In 2008, Hollywood star Sharon Stone, who was at the time the face of Christian Dior’s beauty products, put the brand in a tailspin when she made a public statement that the 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province on May 12 (which killed nearly 70,000 people) was the result of “karma” from Beijing’s Tibetan policy. Chinese consumers were so furious over the statement that they boycotted her and Dior. In the end, the brand issued an official apology and dropped the collaboration with the actress.

4.Richard Gere and Fiat

In 2008, the Italian luxury carmaker Fiat was attacked by Chinese consumers for featuring the Hollywood star Richard Gere in its commercial ad campaigns. Gere is a long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, and a vocal supporter of the independence of Tibet. The brand dropped Gere and apologized for its choice.

5. Vivian Xsu and Chando

The collaboration between Taiwanese actress Vivian Xsu and the local Chinese premium beauty brand Chando also ceased when Xsu’s inappropriate remarks on the Sino-Japanese relationship caught the public’s attention.  At the 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival, which Xsu attended on behalf of Taiwan, when the Chinese delegation at the festival requested the host country add “China” before “Taiwan” instead of listing Taiwan as a separate country, Xsu, who also was active as a celebrity in Japan in the 1990s replied, “Japan is like my stepmother…. I would never set foot in mainland China.”

She was completely blocked out at China’s Social Media Weibo. All existing ad were pulled off and all music and songs related to her were completed wiped out.

 “Sorry, there is no search result related to Vivan Xsu, QQ music recommends you whether you have input a correct keyword.”

The controversy is where brands have been always taking extreme cautions when choosing their brand ambassador in their advertising/marketing campaigns, however brands have got no control over what their comments would be in future. Some people may argue it is shameful to bend over to the new powerhouse. While from marketing perspective alone, any brand would have already done their homework of SWOT analysis and have been aware of macro risk assessment. It is a one of the key factors to take into account when chasing your china marketing goals.

About Wechatapply

Wechatapply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechatapply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post 5 Deadly Celebrities Backfire Impacting Luxury Brands’ Marketing in China appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

How to get your first 10,000 Weibo followers without a cent on paid Ad

Like any matured powerful social app, Weibo, you can call it a Chinese version of Instagram+Facebook, has already makes heaps ads revenue from their social advertising tools for business to spend on, however, given Weibo has reached 340million monthly active users in 2017, 30% up on the previous year, is there an organic marketing approach to grow followers and turn your fan base into a lead funnel?

Over the past year, our WeChat Apply social team helped a B2B software company client starting with an empty account and zero followers. In the brief span of just 50 weeks, we accumulated more than 14,000 followers for the client. As a result, my client now gets about 15 to 20 leads a month from Weibo for their supply chain enterprise-grade software services targeting China-based corporations in China market.

How would you like to do that?

Let me explain how you can follow our example and build up your Weibo Chinese audience that will help you market your business in China

1. Start with Goals

As with so many other things in business, it all starts with a set of goals.

What do you want to do on Weibo? What are you hoping to get out of it?

You might decide that you want to use Weibo as a cost effective way to penetrate into China market without large capital investment？Or you might be thinking that Weibo is a great way to share pictures, videos, stories or announcement of your products or your business because it’s rich media focused. Maybe you’re just looking to land some direct purchases from your Weibo account cross border?

Whatever your goals are, make sure you approach Weibo marketing with an eye toward fulfilling it. Then start looking for ways to gather your audience.

On Weibo, you have two demographics: partners and customers.

Partners are people in the same industry or in an industry related to your niche. They’re not necessarily competitors, though.

For example, if you’re a web developer, then people who design WordPress themes might be among your partners. They complement, rather than compete, with your business.

They can also help you promote your business.

How? By commenting on and liking your updates. They help give your Weibo account the appearance of authority.

Then, there are Weibo followers who are in your target market. Those are the people whom you want to become customers.

Once you’ve identified partners and people in your target market, it’s time to start gathering information about them. What are their typical qualities? Where do they spend their time online?

And this is important: Whom do they follow on Weibo?

That’s important because you want your Weibo account to attract them. Fortunately, you can do that by imitating other accounts that they already follow.

Find between two and five Weibo accounts that your distributors and potential customers follow and analyze them. What kind of content do they post online? Who follows them?

Also, take a look at their bio. How do they describe their business? What does the profile photo look like?

Go through their posts and look at the hashtags they use. Make a note of the most popular hashtags. You’ll probably want to use those in your own posts.

It’s important, though, to make sure that the post corresponds to the hashtag you use. Otherwise, you’ll be branded a spammer.

Finally, take a look at their most popular posts. Make a note about the types of photos used in those posts and the topics they cover.

Now that you’re armed with that information, it’s time to get to work.

2. Build a Profile That Converts

Your profile is where you’ll put the link to your landing page. That’s why it has to be optimized for conversion.

Weibo does allow links on stories, though. Those are collections of photos and videos put into slideshow format (an idea Weibo “borrowed” from Snapchat).

If you think you can promote your brand best by marketing with stories, then you can add links outside of your profile.

So how do you produce a profile that converts? Follow a few simple steps.

First of all, give yourself an appealing bio. Remember the basic rule of marketing here: Emphasize what you do for customers. Tell people that you fix their problems and make their lives better.

In other words: Don’t just talk about what you sell. Instead, tell people how your products or services benefit them.

Also, give yourself a fabulous profile photo. Go professional with the picture if you have to. It’s your one chance to make an outstanding impression and convince people that you take your business seriously.

You should also give people a reason to click on your link. Whet their appetites with a tease such as a discount or a freebie. Then, tell them they can learn more by clicking on the link.

Keep in mind: There’s nothing wrong with having a landing page dedicated solely to people who arrive at your site from Weibo. In fact, you’ll probably make your Weibo visitors feel special if you do that.

You can also do the “Mashable trick” with the link on your profile page. As the name implies, that’s a technique perfected by the website Mashable.

Here’s how it works: When you post a photo, add a caption that explains the photo and include text like: “For more information, click on the link in our profile.” Here’s the important part: After posting the photo, change the link in your profile so that it goes to a part of your site relevant to the Weibo post.

In other words, change the link in your profile with each update.

3. Create an Editorial Calendar

If you want to move ahead of your competition on social media, create an editorial calendar. Many brands don’t bother with that.

An editorial calendar is a schedule of your upcoming posts. It tells you what you’ll post and when you’ll post it.

Get the ball rolling on your editorial calendar by going over the successful posts you learned about in step 1. Then, go and do likewise.

Yes, copy the type of content that others have used successfully and use it yourself. Imitation isn’t just the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a great way to promote your brand.

Keep in mind: Some stuff is copyrighted. You obviously don’t want to run into a copyright dispute or lawsuit.

You can, however, post content very closely related to the successful posts of others. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Also, don’t come across like a sales rep on Weibo. If you just post content that’s trying to make a sale, you’re going to have trouble gaining and keeping followers.

Instead, mix up your content a little. Post some humorous memes now and then. Share lifestyle tips. That will help you add some personality and humanity to your brand.

Make sure that some of your content uses the hashtags you found in step 1. You especially want to use the more popular hashtags, because they should give your posts greater exposure.

4.  Publish and Engage

Once you’ve got your editorial calendar in place, it’s time to start following it. Promote your business by publishing content on a regular basis.

There’s more to being successful on Weibo than just posting content, though.

Remember: Weibo is part of social media. It’s called “social” media for a reason.

You need to be social on social media.

That means you should engage with other Weibo users. Follow accounts in your niche and accounts related to your niche. Like and comment on posts you appreciate.

If you’re viewed as an active member of the Weibo community, you’ll come across as a genuine user and not somebody who’s just trying to sell something.

Also, you’ll often get a follow back from the people you follow. That’s especially true if they’re interested in your business.

Here’s another thing to do: Look at the top profiles in your niche. Then, go through some of their posts. Follow people who are commenting on those posts. These are the most engaged people, so there is a chance they will engage with you also.

All of this will help your posts show up in Weibo Search, which can send more people to your profile and business.

5. Analyze, Scale, and Promote

After a few months of Weibo marketing, take some time to review what’s working best for you.

Go over your analytics. Make a note of the types of posts that receive the most engagement. Be sure to publish posts with similar themes in the future.

Also, make a note of what types of posts are receiving the least engagement. Scratch those kinds of posts off your editorial calendar if there any more like them coming up. Replace them with the kinds of posts that are more successful.

Finally, consider running ads on your top posts. That will give you a chance to effectively add a link to them.

6. Rinse and Repeat

Repeat step 5.

Go through your analytics constantly to find your top performers. Then, add more posts just like those to your editorial calendar.

Also, keep on engaging with other posts. Remember, you’ll appear “real” if you’re liking, following, and commenting on the posts of other Weibo users.

Finally, focus on growth. Keep working to build your audience so you can reach more people. Then, customers will find their way to your website.

About WeChatapply

Wechatapply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechatapply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post How to get your first 10,000 Weibo followers without a cent on paid Ad appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.