Social media in China is transforming the way businesses interact with their customers and how customers shop online. With the popularization of smartphones, mobile social media apps have become ubiquitous in China, helping breakage, social, economic, and geographic barriers. Businesses both domestic and foreign have no choice but to get on the bandwagon to reach their customers through social media.
If you haven't already, check out parts one and three of The best social media apps for reaching customers in China.
Why invest in social media for business
For a more in-depth look at how social media operates in China’s digital ecosystem and the role it plays in today's marketplace, here are some considerable reasons why you should invest in social media for your business.
Increase brand awareness
The social media landscape is shaped by its users. Therefore, if you want to cast a wider net for capturing and retaining clientele, it should be among your top choices. Social media apps allow you to look into the behavior and interests of your target market, and they may also help you break into other target markets that could be a worthwhile client for your business or services. For brands that want to keep their customers engaged and expand their market reach, social media is the perfect branding tool.
Targeted market reach
Trends are what makes social media such a potent marketing tool. Going viral creates a ripple effect that can instantly change the way people know and perceive your social media profile. And the best thing about social media trends is that there are several channels that enable social media trends. Among them are live streams, stories, social commerce, purpose-driven campaigns, influencer partnerships, and even augmented or virtual reality by way of filters. The recent rise of live streaming e-commerce in China has taken the market by storm and has made splashes all over social media.
You can utilize any of these social media channels to deliver your message to key recipients. You can also use any channel to market niche products and services.
Increase revenue by networking and ad placements
Depending on your content and your current reach, social media sites can monetize your profile or business page by allowing you to display relevant ads. While it may take a while to profit from ads, it is still a good source of passive income especially as your network grows.
Speaking of networking, it is also easier to forge partnerships with both influencers and fellow businesses, via social media. You can conveniently evaluate each other’s pages and profiles and see which ones you can strike partnerships with and benefit from a pool of new networks.
Direct customer feedback
Your customers can provide you instant feedback per post on social media apps. You can take advantage of social media feedback algorithms to also get a better sense of how your audience will perceive your products and services especially if you’re planning to launch new ones.
If you own various social media profiles, you can also create a social media campaign with just one collateral. You can cross-post it and even benefit from the variety of customer feedback you can get across these platforms with just one material. It might even be a good point of reference for doing market research.
Know who your competitors are
In just a few clicks or taps, you can easily check what your competitors are doing. You can evaluate the way they make their campaigns and what type of brand awareness they’re trying to create. Social media is also a good way to keep tabs on their market reach--both from a numbers perspective and the type of users who may be following them.
In our next installment of this series, we will give you a glimpse of some of the most popular social media platforms in China and how to make use of them for your business's success.
If you want to learn more about testing in China, check out our solutions.
