The bewildering array of formats, tools and platforms related to social media create a complicated barrier to simply getting noticed online, and even more so when it comes to doing so in China. We thought that we might be able to illumuniate the way a little.  Inspired by the work of Brian Solis and Jess Thomas on the conversation prism, ‘the art of listening, learning and sharing,’   EASTWEST dedicated some baidu time to map out each of the social media tools and platforms available in China, using the original prism as the framework.

With the aid of keen eyes, or the zoom function on your screen, you will be able to see the spectrum from crowdsourced content to lifestreams to video sharing to social bookmarks

Chinese on line conversation prism

As we attempted to illustrate in the Digital Content Flywheel, campaigns commence with content, and what this has been defined clearly then one can use the prism to determine the best distribution strategy to effect the best possible level of audience engagement. One or a combination of tools and platforms may be used, almost certainly part of an integrated program which allows for some public sharing of content and private collaboration.

The culture of communication in China has established some copycat platforms of the west, and also some unique. Baidu locks down the search market defeating google with 58.4% of all  Chinese language search. In commerce Tabao flounced ebay by offering commission free transactions.  uutuu.com has personal video of sightseers played on the tv screens of the underground trains. Wealink is the equivalent of linkedin which currently claims 4.5m users. Follow5 has realtime posts by contributors overlaid on a map of China with an alarming  degree of candour on a range of personal topics from new products to the opinion of their mother on their school reports.

Marketing strategies need to be mapped onto the China digital conversation prism with localised content and a consideration of the openess of the dialogue wanted. It all starts with the creation of compelling content and intelligent conversation, with some content protection controls to be seriously considered along with tracking to see if the campaign  is under control.  The conversation prism should help understand where best to listen, learn and share in China.

Related:  The Great Social Network of China – Social Networking Sites , Blogs & Microblogs: The Best of Both Worlds , Photo&Video Sharing Sites in China, Top Chinese Social Bookmarking Websites .

An article in the Business Times – Why Social Media is the Next Big Thing – coined Social Media the “new buzzword as we enter the new decade”. Sure, Generation Y consumers like myself are already on the wagon to becoming expert users of social media with multiple Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger and LinkedIn accounts. But it is also critical for businesses to tap into this pipeline in order to engage consumers on a whole new dimension.

“The whole phenomenon of social media has led to the inter-mixing and inter-mingling of roles. Earlier, the roles were defined in that there were the institutions producing information for the consumers. Today, all these particular roles are getting intertwined with each other and we have new terms like produ-user, which is a producer plus a user. Another interesting term is Market-ocracy. It’s the rule of the free market where anyone can contribute but the influence they have is based on their merit.” –Dr Vijay Sethi, Panellist NBS Roundtable discussion.

With more publishing power being given to the average consumer, we also expect to see more interaction and information sharing between consumers. This means that opinions whether it be good or bad, will travel at the speed of light quite literally, and have the possibility of being picked up by millions of online users. Moreover, the web-like nature of social networks on the internet means that if one person picks it up, he/she is likely to share it with their friends, and eventually the information spreads like wildfire. So “if there is a negative review or posting, [businesses] cannot ignore it – they have to address it” according to Dr Kanapaty Pelly Periasamy, a panellist at the NBS Roundtable discussion.

Other than being a good platform to address customer dissatisfaction via direct interaction, Social Media may be utilised as a great marketing/PR and advertising tool. A popular blog may even reach more readers and subscribers than traditional forms of print media.

“Another impact of social media on business is that if you compare the blogs and some of the social media sites before and now, there is growth of advertisements on these sites. Some of these have now become self-sustaining with good revenue – a viable business venture for the person who started it…” – Dr Vijay Sethi, Panellist NBS Roundtable discussion.

Well, our job then as a Public Relations agency is to come up with strategies to utilize, manage and measure social media in a way that we can maximise the full potential of the digital medium.

“We are beginning to see organisations hiring managers to monitor and manage the social media. For instance, IDA put out an ad for a senior manager whose role is to develop, monitor and manage opportunities for local businesses in the social media space. Similarly, other organisations like marketing and public relations agencies now have social media executives to help clients devise strategies for the social media.

In the social media space, most of the tweets or posts are spontaneous or knee-jerk responses, but organisations cannot respond in this manner. Organisations have to respond in a considered and measured way, taking into account branding, objectives and market strategies to use social media to promote their business.” – Dr Damien Joseph

Social Media heralds in an opportunity to engage new customers and prospects and to reach people who may have great interest but little awareness of your brand and its offerings. Have you Facebook-ed yet today?