With a total of 550 million monthly active users on Sina Weibo in the first quarter of 2020, it is advisable for companies that are planning to enter China to consider this microblogging website as a part of their marketing strategy.
Getting started with Weibo is easy but the strategy will only be completely effective if you know the right way of pushing content here. Being a short-form content social media platform, the marketing strategies differ from the long-form platforms such as WeChat or RED. Understanding Weibo’s algorithm and userbase should be made a priority because although the platform works in a similar fashion like Twitter, its users are different from Twitter’s.
For foreign brands wanting to enter China, understanding Weibo’s algorithm and userbase could be a challenge. This is when a Chinese marketing agency comes into the picture for helping foreign brands understand Chinese culture, audience and trends.
5 Ways of Making Viral Weibo Posts
Being a Chinese digital marketing agency, our knowledge and experience in the Chinese market has helped us list five ways of creating Weibo posts that go viral.
1. Less is more
Weibo has a limit of 140 characters, just like Twitter. (Though Twitter now has increased its limit from 140 to 280.) The challenge for most brands is to give out the message in 140 characters. And though this may seem less, the posts with under 10 characters work even better in terms of catching eyeballs.
So when planning your Weibo content, remember, less is more. Sticking to less than 10 characters can really help grab attention on this platform.
2. Staying topical
When it comes to any sort of content creation platform, staying topical and catering to the ongoing trends is imperative. Weibo is no less different.
Staying relevant in your posts naturally draw in more engagement and reach. Keeping a check on trending topics on Weibo makes you a part of the happening conversation that millions are engaged in. Brands can pick up cues from trending topics and merge them into their posts for staying topical yet remain amiable to their brand.
3. Your followers love intelligent questions
Set aside the easy “Guess who” questions and give your followers a real challenge to their brains. Witty posts not only boost engagement but create a brand awareness too. The intelligent type of questions is circulated more and bring in more reach other than the easier challenges. Spare yourself easy quizzes and publish mind-boggling posts instead.
4. Use Chinese internet slangs
Slangs are everywhere and Chinese fans too love it when the brands use internet slangs or any trending jargons on Weibo. Just like “Slayin’ it”, “LOL”, etc are popular in the west, Chinese too have a list of slangs they totally love!
Try using some Chinese internet slangs in your communication and your fans will love your brand even more.
5. Use GIFs
Lastly, nothing like using the shortest form of videos: The GIFs. Everyone loves funny and relevant GIFs. Chinese fans are no different. In fact, they engage best on GIFs. Posts with GIFs have seen to generally receive highest average engagement on Weibo.
Marketing on Weibo and creating viral posts will take some time. The key is understanding Chinese culture and the current trends to stay relevant amongst your audience. Weibo is a platform where shorter content works even better as people love to quickly skim through their feed. So the more interesting content you create, the more chances for you to stand out.
Contacting a Chinese Marketing Agency for Weibo marketing
If you still need guidance for making Weibo posts that go viral, contact Digital Crew today for all solutions related to Weibo marketing! Digital Crew is a Chinese digital agency having offices in America, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Australia, India, and Japan. Our expert teams located in New York and Shanghai make your China marketing easy. We monitor trends and furnish bespoke marketing solutions to our clients wanting to enter the vast Chinese market. Contact Digital Crew to book a one-hour session to discuss more about how you can leverage Weibo marketing.
