China’s home-grown social media is creating mega opportunities for brands. We’ve already had a taste of Chinese social networks a la TikTok and the attraction that comes with it. But there’s more — lots more — to learn and discover that can help companies expand their global presence on social. That’s why Chinese social media monitoring should be at the top of your priority list.
Because of China’s sheer size, it’s becoming one of the most lucrative and high-potential markets in the world. Chinese consumers spent more than $73.6 billion on luxury goods in 2021, and total consumption is expected to top $12.7 trillion by 2030. As Chinese consumers gain more spending power, global brands need to find ways to reach this massive audience and get their products and services noticed.
Social media provides brands with an avenue to grow their global presence. But to truly maximize the power of social media beyond borders, brands need to take advantage of the social networks that are popular in other countries. This means discovering social networks you might not have known existed, finding influencers within these networks, and creating content that resonates with Chinese consumers.
Here’s how Chinese social media monitoring can help U.S.-based brands develop a social strategy beyond borders and make an authentic entrance into new markets.
Table of Contents
-
What Is Chinese Social Media Monitoring?
-
Benefits of Monitoring Chinese Social Media
-
The Biggest Chinese Social Media Networks
-
How to Monitor Popular Chinese Social Media
-
Using Linkfluence for Chinese Social Media Monitoring
What Is Chinese Social Media Monitoring?
Social media monitoring involves monitoring social channels to learn more about the people using those networks and the content they post. Linkfluence has been doing social media monitoring for years, helping brands discover better ways to connect authentically with their audiences.
The same applies to Chinese social media monitoring. The difference is that this process applies to the myriad of Chinese social media channels that you might not have heard of (yet).
Social media is a place of discovery. People post photos of what they eat, where they travel, what they wear, and interactions with the music they listen to. They openly share sentiments about their experiences or how they feel about social issues or even the brands they buy from.
By monitoring these and other conversations on Chinese social media apps, brands can gain insights into the nuances of Chinese culture. Learn more about what people care about, their preferences, and even if they’re talking about your brand. It’s all driven by data, not hunches, giving you an easy foot in the door of the Chinese market.
Benefits of Monitoring Chinese Social Media
Monitoring social media is a critical piece of any social media strategy. Brands can leverage monitoring tools (like Linkfluence) to capture conversations, respond to users, and know what’s being said at all times. Specifically for Chinese social media, companies can gain additional opportunities, including:
Discovering the Most Popular Chinese Social Media
Chinese social media sites are growing their global presence. You’ve probably heard of a few, such as WeChat and Sina Weibo. But there are many others that are also gaining steam that will allow you to reach more of the Chinese market.
Chinese social media monitoring gives you a glimpse at all of the platforms your target audience is already using. Add these to your content strategy or simply tap into them to learn more about what your audience buys and engages with.
Creating Content that Connects
The content you create for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter isn’t the same. You already know these platforms aren’t one-size-fits-all, so you adapt your content accordingly.
The same is true for Chinese social media sites. What works on one might not translate on another. It’s not easy learning these differences when you’re not engaged in the culture or without being present on those platforms. Monitoring multiple Chinese social media sites can help you learn more about what type of content works best for each channel so you can put your best foot forward.
Monitoring for Brand Mentions
Social media monitoring tools “listen” for keywords, then send you alerts when someone mentions those terms. This could be an alert about your brand name, the products you sell, or even a competitor. When you know people are talking about you, you can step into those conversations to present your brand in the best light possible.
Finding Top Chinese Social Media Influencers
Chinese social media monitoring lets you discover who is driving the most engaging conversations. From leveraging Chinese social media trends to connecting with top influencers to promote your products, monitoring tools help you to expand your presence.
What’s more, monitoring Chinese social media websites can help you locate your most engaged audiences. This is a great way to start your search for influencers. Once you know which Chinese social media platforms they’re already using, you can start looking for influencers who will help you grow your presence even more.
Responding to Crises in Real Time
Tracking brand mentions and keywords can alert you to potential trouble brewing. For instance, if someone has a bad experience with your company or product and airs their grievances on social media, you’ll know right away and can respond accordingly. This may help you to avoid a PR crisis or eroded brand trust before your company name goes viral for the wrong reasons.
Skirting the Great Firewall
Chinese media is usually pretty hush-hush unless you’re a Chinese local. China is known for its surveillance state status, where it monitors and limits content shown to Chinese citizens. This makes it harder for USA-based brands to gain intelligence on the Chinese market and learn how to best cater to these audiences.
Chinese social media monitoring can help you detour the “Great Firewall” that shrouds mainland China in secrecy. Because Chinese citizens are more open on social media than they may be in mainstream media, you can get to the heart of their needs, wants, personalities, preferences, and other characteristics.
The Biggest Chinese Social Media Networks
Curious to know the top Chinese social media sites your target audience is using? Here’s a list of Chinese social media apps that USA-based brands should be paying attention to.
Similar to Whatsapp, WeChat is a Chinese messaging app. Developed by the Chinese company Tencent, WeChat allows users to send messages, make e-commerce purchases, call friends and family, and send peer-to-peer payments.
While used mostly as a communication tool, brands can market to Chinese consumers via the app. Use WeChat to send coupons and offers, take conversations offline to online via QR codes, or even create websites within WeChat, for example.
Little Red Book
Little Red Book (also called Xiaohongshu) combines the essence of Pinterest with the buying convenience of social media shopping. Users come to the app to find inspiration, whether it’s a quote, life advice, hacks, or other content. You’ll find a blend of user-generated content alongside communities with high engagement.
Brands that want to build their presence in the Chinese market have ample opportunities to do so here. From working with influencers to sharing product photos to starting and engaging with online communities, this network is a great source of word-of-mouth advertising.
Douyin
TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin, brings many of the same features U.S. users have come to love about the video-sharing platform. It’s one of the top Chinese social media apps, boasting more than 600 million active users.
However, a Douyin Chinese social media strategy won’t be a copy-and-paste job of your current TikTok efforts. You’ll need to learn what makes Douyin different from TikTok and what Chinese users find funny, helpful, inspiring, or interesting.
No social monitoring is complete without including Chinese social media Weibo.
This microblogging platform is similar to our Twitter, but again, there are small nuances that marketers need to consider.
On Weibo Chinese social media, users create and share real-time posts in the form of text, images, GIFs, videos, and audio clips. They can also share private messages with others in their networks, as well as participate in hashtag challenges, polls, trending topics, and more. Brands can apply for enterprise accounts or verified accounts to help users differentiate the types of content providers.
Zhihu
Another site on our Chinese social media list you might not have heard about is Zhihu. This question-and-answer site acts as a knowledge-sharing platform in China. Users can post their own questions and respond to others. They can also comment on posts, follow topics, invite friends to join discussions, and share content with people in their network.
To date, there are more than 102 million monthly users, 5 million of whom are paid users. Tracking conversations here can give brands more insight into Chinese culture, digital habits, user experiences, and more.
How to Monitor Popular Chinese Social Media
Brands can sign up for each Chinese social media platform and start observing and participating. But a data-driven approach can help you gain faster, more complete insights than you might glean on your own.
Setting up professional monitoring tools like Linkfluence will allow you to track millions of conversations in real time, all from a single dashboard. You can monitor for specific keywords, identify trends, and respond to conversations to help you grow your social media presence in China. What’s more, our AI-driven insights will add context to your data, ensuring you understand what the numbers mean and what you should do with them.
Linkfluence works across multiple use cases, including:
-
Content ideation
-
Market research
-
Reputation monitoring
-
Competitive benchmarking
-
Influencer discovery and vetting
-
Trends forecasting
-
Campaign performance measuring
If entering the growing Chinese market is a company goal, adding Chinese social media monitoring to your strategy can help you reach it with speed, reliability, and confidence.
Using Linkfluence for Chinese Social Media Monitoring
Successfully engaging on social media cross-border means discovering your options for social media and how those channels are being used by Chinese consumers. From there, you can use your intelligence to tailor a social selling strategy to grow your brand, drive e-commerce sales, and become a global powerhouse.
Learn more about how Linkfluence can give you a shortcut to Chinese social media monitoring when you request a demo!