China’s Digital Social World Connecting 1 Billion People

In today’s digital age, Chinese social media platforms have become a key channel for companies to communicate with users, brand promotion and marketing promotion. With the popularization of smartphones and the rapid development of the Internet, Chinese social media is characterized by diversification and rapid changes, providing enterprises with broad marketing opportunities.

China’s leading social media platforms

• WeChat: As one of the most important social media platforms in China, WeChat is not only an instant messaging tool, but also a super application that integrates social networking, payment, news, shopping and other functions. As of 2023, WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly active users, covering users of all ages. Enterprises can publish content and interact with WeChat public accounts to establish a close connection with users.
• Weibo: Weibo is a social media platform similar to Twitter. Users can post short articles, pictures, videos and other content and interact with followers. According to Sina Weibo’s public data, by 2023, Sina Weibo’s monthly active users will reach 420 million. Stars, celebrities, institutions, etc. on the Weibo platform have a large number of fans, making it a popular platform for brand promotion and event dissemination.
• TikTok: TikTok is a short video-based social media platform, especially popular among young users. According to data released by ByteDance, as of 2023, Douyin has more than 800 million monthly active users. Douyin users can share their lives, talents and ideas through creative short videos, which has become a new type of social media experience.

It is true that social media has become an important channel for companies to carry out extensive marketing activities. However, many businesses have made some serious mistakes in their social media marketing practices in China, which not only affects their brand image, but also makes marketing campaigns less effective. This article will explore the top 10 most serious social media marketing mistakes in China, and provide corresponding practical suggestions to help companies avoid similar mistakes.

1. No Social Media Marketing Strategy

In today’s digital business environment, social media marketing has become an important means for companies to enhance brand awareness and interact with audiences. However, not having a clear social media marketing strategy can cause marketing campaigns to lose direction and effectiveness.

According to a 2021 report by the Digital Marketing Association of America, nearly 60% of businesses do not have a social media marketing strategy. Without a clear social media marketing strategy, it is difficult for companies to carry out targeted social media operations.

• No clear goals and budget: No clear goals and budget will make it difficult for enterprises to measure the input-output ratio. For example, a start-up did not set clear social media marketing goals, resulting in their activities being scattered across different platforms and failing to achieve significant results. In the end, its marketing investments didn’t live up to expectations.
• Lack of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): In social media marketing, the absence of KPIs will make it difficult for businesses to measure the success of their campaigns. Although an e-commerce company has a large number of followers on social media, due to the lack of clear KPIs, they cannot determine whether these followers have been converted into actual sales, so they cannot evaluate their marketing effectiveness.

Let’s look at two examples of successful social media marketing strategies.

• Sephora (SEPHORA): Sephora actively deploys social media platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, cooperates with excellent content creators on each platform, and launches many interactive challenge activities. The number of participants in these activities can reach millions, which greatly enhances Sephora’s brand influence. [Xiaohongshu official data 2022]
• Xtep (ANTA): Xtep has selected popular IPs such as Crayon Shin-chan, combined with popular games, and launched the “Xtep Challenge Cup” on Douyin and Kuaishou. Users need to complete game challenges and upload videos to participate. In the end, 150M video uploads were obtained. [Kuaishou Content Commercialization White Paper 2021]

2. Ignoring the target audience

Targeted marketing is carried out without distinguishing the characteristics of different audience groups. According to the survey by Statista, more than 50% of enterprises do not have a clearly defined target customer group. As a result, social content cannot effectively reach target users.

Ignoring the characteristics and needs of different audiences

Users of different age groups have different social media usage habits. For young people aged 18-35, Douyin and Xiaohongshu are more popular; for middle-aged and elderly people, WeChat Moments are more used. The characteristics and needs of different communities are not taken into account, which limits the scope and effect of social media content.

For example, a certain infant and toddler brand only pushes content on Douyin, ignoring WeChat, Xiaohongshu and other parent groups that use more platforms. As a result, sales performance has been sluggish for a long time. After adjustments, after the additional deployment of WeChat and Xiaohongshu, sales have increased.

Therefore, enterprises need to distinguish different target users based on in-depth audience insight and research, and formulate targeted social media marketing strategies. Only by doing this can we give full play to the value of social media.

3. Ignoring platform features

Different social media platforms have their own user base and content tendencies. According to the data of Marketing Science, more than 80% of enterprises have not developed differentiated content and forms according to the platform.

Each platform requires a different content strategy

Taking Douyin and WeChat as examples, Douyin prefers lively and interesting short videos; while Moments is more inclined to life-oriented pictures or articles. After a clothing brand adjusted its content strategy according to different platforms, its social influence increased by 37%.

About the respective characteristics of Chinese social media platforms

Professional marketing agencies have conducted an in-depth analysis of the user characteristics and content preferences of China’s major social platforms. Douyin is suitable for crisp short videos, WeChat is more about life information, and Xiaohongshu pays more attention to high-quality pictures.

There are many types of social media in China, and companies must take time to understand each platform and adjust content strategies in a targeted manner in order to achieve the best marketing results.

4. Excessive me-concerned promotion

According to SocialInsider’s statistics, more than 70% of brand content is product and event promotion, with too much self-promotion. This leads to a low proportion of user-generated content, and a low willingness of users to actively interact.

Content needs more value, not all sales

Users hope to obtain valuable content and interactive experience from social media. After a clothing brand changed its strategy and released a large number of content such as fashion collocation and beauty tips, the interaction rate of fans increased by 20%.

Excessive brand promotion will cause users to have negative emotions. The content needs to be appropriately embedded with product information on the basis of meeting user needs, so as to gain user approval. Enterprises need to avoid social media as a tool for self-promotion, and provide richer content value to win user recognition and participation.

5. Inappropriate content

In the world of social media marketing in China, posting inappropriate content can lead to serious brand damage and negative public reactions. The following highlights the importance of taking care of the review and user acceptance of different platforms through data, cases and facts.

Taking care of moderation and user acceptance across different platforms

According to a market study, nearly 60% of users said they would stop following a brand or business’s social media accounts because they saw inappropriate content. This shows the importance of publishing suitable content on different platforms to maintain user relationships.

Chinese social media platforms typically have strict content moderation rules, violations of which can result in content being removed or even account bans. For example, the Weibo platform has a strict censorship system for sensitive topics and inappropriate content, and a catering company had its Weibo account temporarily suspended for posting inappropriate content, which negatively affected its brand image.

We recommend that businesses carefully review content before posting to ensure that it is not controversial or offensive to users. Additionally, understanding the interests and values of your target audience can help businesses better grasp the boundaries of content.

6. The frequency is too high or too low

In social media marketing in China, the frequency of posting content is a key issue. Too high a frequency may annoy the user, while too low a frequency may cause the user to forget. The following uses data, examples, and facts to highlight the best posting frequency for each platform, as well as advice from marketing experts.

Each platform has its own optimal posting frequency

According to a study, more than 70% of users said that too frequent social media content may bore them to stop following or even unfollow them. However, a survey also found that when social media posting frequency is too low, users tend to forget about brands or businesses.

For different Chinese social media platforms, marketing experts put forward some useful suggestions. They believe that a platform like Weibo can moderately increase posting frequency because it is closer to instant information flow. However, for platforms like WeChat Official Accounts, the suggested frequency of posting should be moderately reduced, as users place more value on the quality and uniqueness of content.

7. Neglecting to interact and respond

In the arena of social media marketing in China, actively interacting and responding to fans is crucial to building brand loyalty and increasing user stickiness. The following uses data, examples and facts to highlight the risks of neglecting interactions and responses and the value of interactions.

Actively reply to comments to increase fan stickiness

According to a market study, more than 80% of users said they would prefer to follow brands or businesses that actively interact and respond to them. By actively replying to comments, answering questions, and engaging in interactions, companies can build closer relationships and increase user stickiness, thereby promoting the establishment of brand loyalty.

Statistics about interactions and responses with fans

The study found that brands that actively interact and respond to user comments on social media have relatively higher activity and fan growth rates on their social media accounts. For example, a fashion brand actively responded to user comments on Instagram, resulting in a 20% increase in the brand’s followers in a matter of months.

Neglecting to engage and respond to fans can lead to lost users and a diminished brand reputation. Understanding the value of engagement, and by proactively responding to comments, answering questions, and engaging in fun and interactive activities, businesses can achieve better results and build a loyal fan base in China’s social media marketing.

8. Lack of analysis and monitoring

On the road of social media marketing in China, the lack of analysis and monitoring may allow enterprises to move forward blindly and fail to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities. The following uses data, examples and facts to highlight the importance of tracking important social media marketing indicators and introduces some commonly used analysis and monitoring tools in China.

Track Important Social Media Marketing Metrics

According to market research, less than 40% of businesses are able to track and analyze their social media presence. However, tracking key metrics such as views, likes, retweets, interactions, and conversions is a critical step in evaluating the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns.

Adjust and optimize based on performance metrics

Marketing experts stress that it’s not enough to rely on intuition alone to judge the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. By analyzing the data, businesses can understand which strategies are successful and which need to be adjusted. For example, an electronics company found through analysis that certain types of content were retweeted more frequently on social media, so they adjusted their content strategy to achieve better results.

Introduction to some commonly used social media analysis and monitoring tools in China

Social media analytics and monitoring tools in China are emerging to help companies better understand how they are doing on social media. Among them, tools such as Weibo, Xinbang, and TalkingData can provide comprehensive data reports to help companies better understand user interaction and content performance.

Lack of analytics and monitoring will prevent businesses from measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns. Understanding the value of tracking important metrics, and using the right analytics and monitoring tools, can help businesses align and optimize their marketing strategies based on actual performance and achieve better results.

9. Lack of innovation

In social media marketing in China, a lack of innovation can make it difficult for businesses to get users’ attention, resulting in ineffective marketing campaigns. The importance of innovation in social media marketing as well as some success stories are highlighted below through figures, examples and facts.

Innovative forms attract attention and generate communication

Statistics show that 80% of users say they are more willing to interact with brands with creative and novel content. Therefore, innovative content forms can help enterprises stand out in the highly competitive social media environment, attract users’ attention, and thus promote the dissemination and sharing of content.

A retail brand once launched an innovative interactive campaign on social media. They invite users to participate in challenges that combine online and offline. By sharing creative photos of themselves using brand products, participants can win rich prizes. As a result, the campaign received more than 1 million retweets and shares in just two weeks, greatly increasing the brand’s exposure on social media.

Innovation is a key factor in social media marketing, which can win users’ attention and dissemination power for enterprises. By constantly exploring new content forms and interaction methods, companies can achieve better results and expand brand influence on China’s social media platforms.

10. Overreliance on automation

In social media marketing in China, over-reliance on automated tools may dehumanize and dehumanize content, thereby affecting user engagement and trust. The following uses data, examples, and facts to highlight the importance of maintaining appropriate manual operations, while exploring the dangers of over-reliance on automated tools and the public attitude towards automated tools in Chinese social media.

Maintain proper manual operation and increase the sense of reality

Nearly 80% of users said they would prefer to interact with a real human being rather than an automated system. Therefore, maintaining a certain level of manual operation can bring a more authentic user experience to the brand and increase user engagement.

The dangers of over-reliance on automated tools

In one case, a business relied too heavily on automated tools to post content on social media, causing their posts to become repetitive and uninteresting, which in turn triggered dissatisfaction and unfollowers. Overuse of automated tools can cause a business to lose connection with its audience and even damage its brand reputation.

Chinese social media platforms are generally wary of automated tools. For example, the WeChat public platform emphasizes content quality and authenticity, and warns companies not to rely too much on automated tools to ensure user experience and information quality.

Conclusion

Avoid the top 10 mistakes mentioned above. Analyze the performance of competitors on Chinese social media, formulate marketing strategies, plan and execute, monitor performance indicators and continuously adjust and optimize during the process, and you will achieve success in Chinese social media marketing.