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MAY 2015 INSIGHT 33 BY NATALIE LOWE SOCIAL MEDIA Look Before You Leap Y ou probably don’t need to hear it again, but participating in social media is becoming even more critical to business success than ever before. Increasingly, more and more brands are using social media to talk to and engage their customers, hoping to enhance customer and brand loyalty. No doubt, you have heard of WeChat. Even though it’s only three years young, it’s already gotten 600 million subscribers, of which roughly 460 million are active users, with 150 million users located outside of China. To put things into perspective, China has a population of 1.369 billion, so almost half of the Chinese population is on WeChat. In response to these trends, a lot of companies are jumping on the WeChat Bandwagon without fully understanding why. First of all, too many brand marketers start their channels without first putting together a plan on how to make their brand thrive in today’s digital landscape. To break it down, before brands start looking at the executional piece, they need to start with the overall picture by asking a few simple yet fundamental questions: What are my business objectives and communication goals and how can I leverage A communications experts says the popular WeChat platform can be a powerful tool for business but only with a thoughtful strategy IMAGINECHINA Natalie Lowe College student Che Yanjiao, 22, left, makes 500,000 yuan ($80,453) a month selling masks on WeChat. She is seen here in Chongqing among her supplies

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Page 1: Look before you Leap on Wechat

M AY 2 0 1 5 i n s i g h t 3 3

B Y nAtA L i E LOW E

s O C i A L M E D i A

Look Before You Leap

You probably don’t need to hear it again, but participating in social media is becoming even more critical to business success than ever before. Increasingly, more and

more brands are using social media to talk to and engage their customers, hoping to enhance customer and brand loyalty.

No doubt, you have heard of WeChat. Even though it’s only three years young, it’s already gotten 600 million subscribers, of which roughly 460 million are active users, with 150 million users located outside of China. To put things into perspective, China has a population of 1.369

billion, so almost half of the Chinese population is on WeChat.

In response to these trends, a lot of companies are jumping on the WeChat Bandwagon without fully understanding why.

First of all, too many brand marketers start their channels without first putting together a plan on how to make their brand thrive in today’s digital landscape. To break it down, before brands start looking at the executional piece, they need to start with the overall picture by asking a few simple yet fundamental questions:• What are my bus iness objec t ives and

communication goals and how can I leverage

A communications experts says the popular WeChat platform can be a powerful tool for business but only with a thoughtful strategy

ima

gin

ech

ina

Natalie Lowe

College student Che Yanjiao, 22, left, makes 500,000 yuan ($80,453) a month selling masks on WeChat. She is seen here in Chongqing among her supplies

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communications (this includes all digital and traditional communication channels) to help me reach my business objectives?

• Howwill Imeasure success?Measurement is atopic that generates a lot of discussion as there isn’t a benchmark as to how campaigns are best measured. The most common and easiest way for most marketers to measure the success of any campaign is to put forward quantitative results. For example, number of fans, views per post and so forth. But realistically, how do these numbers translate intoROI(returnon investments) forabrand? It might be more valuable to measure qualitative results such as engagement, brand awareness, message comprehension, purchase intention and so forth. Of course, the KPIs set for your brand will depend on your overall business and communication goals.

Secondly, many brand marketers continue to use WeChat as another mechanism to broadcast news and updates that are being published on digital platforms that already exist. So if you were to follow a brand using their corporate website and subscribe to their Weibo and

WeChat accounts, you could be receiving the same information three times. As a customer, would you feel like you’re getting value from the brand?

So, how can you make WeChat work for your brand, and build a loyal fan base? • FigureoutifWeChatisforyou–eventhough

WeChat is the latest craze, don’t just jump on because everyone else has. As mentioned above, do a deep exploration of your business goals and how communications can help you achieve those. Communications can be an effective and strategic tool when the right level of planning is done correctly.

• Understandyourbrandaudience:Yourbrandaudience could be your most loyal customers, influencers in the industry, media, target customers or all of the above. Once you’ve identified your brand audience, define their demographics and consumer behavior: who are they, how do they access and consume information, what influences them to choose your brand over competitors and who do they listen to?

• Developgreatcontenttobuildyourfanbase–

China Digital Landscape Snapshot

Source: We are social, January 2015

“A lot of brands make the mistake of using social media just to broadcast company information…”

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Content is more than just copy and visuals. Expand your horizons to include multimedia, videos, audio, infographics, animation and so forth. As a result of the ubiquity of information and

the accessibility of thousands of digital platforms and sites, brands need to cut through the noise and present content that is digestible and easy to comprehend in a matter of seconds. WeChat is a permission-based application, so in order to get a strong following, you need to develop content that is compelling and sticks in people’s minds, encouraging them to share with their own network and community. To put it simply: think of WeChat as a connection platform that facilitates a relationship. You want to grow and build on it, define what type of relationship you want, and what will enhance the loyalty of all parties involved.

For example, PwC is committed to diversity

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and inclusion, which are important pillars of PWC’s corporate culture and strategic priorities for the growth of the organizat ion. “We recognize the value that diversity brings to PwC and we celebrate that richness in our work force and clients,” said Connie Lau, PwC Diversity and Inclusion Manager. “We believe diverse talent and teams working together make better decisions and deliver more robust outcomes. Everyone wins.”

To reinforce that message, PwC, in support of International Women’s Day, launched a two-pronged approach to demonstrate their active support of diversity to their brand audience, which includes professional women, graduates and university students. On March 5, 2015, as a lead-up to International Women’s Day, PWC launched their “The Female Millennial: A New Era of Talent Thought Leadership” piece, which was published globally. On March 8, 2015, PwC produced a video message by Zhou Xing, PwC’s China and Hong Kong Diversity Leader, that went out on PwC’s WeChat and Weibo channels, attracting more than 15,000 views and 400 forwards and favorites on WeChat and 27, 000 reads on Weibo. The same message was internally circulated to employees to demonstrate the firm’s appreciation for its people. (Note: PwC measures the success of their posts based on 10 percent of their overall fan base)• Engage,notbroadcast–Alotofbrandsmake

the mistake of using social media just to broadcast company information. Social media is much more personalized than conventional media platforms. The use of WeChat permits brands to bu i ld s t ronger one-on-one relationships with customers, which means messages need to be personalized and appeal to one’s emotions rather than shouting out their own corporate mission statement. “Traditionally, Chinese consumers have had a

transactional relationship with brands based on products and offers,” said Charles Voon, General Manager of Kongming, a social marketing and e - c om me rc e age nc y b as e d i n Shang hai . “Emotion-based and service-based relationships with consumers require you to acquire a deeper

understanding of your audience and to identify a shared belief and value system from which to build the relationship.”

Let’s take a look at how Kongming works with Costa. Both are aligned in the sense that they agree product content should not dominate the content mix of their WeChat channels. Instead, Kongming and Costa dug deeper into their audience and learned that they are interested in British lifestyle and coffee culture. Kongming also continued to monitor what types of content resonates most strongly with the audience and uses this information to inform future content planning.

“We also look at fun and engaging ways to have the consumer help co-create with us and share their stories,” said Voon. “Most recently, we helped Costa launch a DIY stencil interactive experience that allows consumers to create their own latte art on WeChat.”

WeChat is becoming the preferred social media network in China. However before jumping on the bandwagon, brands need to strategically build out their digital ecosystem and assess whether WeChat will be a part of it, and how to best leverage this channel to enhance stronger one-to-one relationships with their brand audience.

Lowe is Managing Director of COMM&D (pro-nounced “command”), an independent branding and communications agency based in Shanghai. Lowe advises leading foreign and local brands across B2B and B2C sectors. Lowe is also co-chair of AmCham Shanghai’s Marketing & Media Com-mittee.

COSTA