Most recently, Weibo has introduced the set of new rules on what KOLs can and can’t do on their platform. Some of those rules are designed to fight completion, others to maximize the ad revenue.

ParkLU, a digital advertising platform that connects China’s internet celebrities and brands, recently released a list of rules that are currently being enforced on Weibo.

Here are the new Weibo KOL posting rules:

Link blocking to all e-commerce sites except Alibaba properties

In light of fierce competition within BAT (Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent) this rule makes a lot of sense and is hardly a surprise. Since Alibaba is the largest shareholder of Sina Weibo, they want to make sure to benefit as much as possible their own ecommerce platforms such as Taobao and Tmall.

KOL accounts need to seek permission before promoting more than one brand in a single post

This new Weibo KOL rule is most likely aimed at improving quality of the posts. Promoting multiple brands in a single post typically benefits KOLs themselves (since they can charge more), however the marketing message gets diluted which probably isn’t what a brand is paying for.

All posts with external links will receive a 20% media exposure penalty

Clearly, Weibo would like to keep as much traffic as possible within the platform. For example, posts linking to other Weibo posts or pages would get better ranking vs. those linking to pages outside the platform.

Posts containing plagiarized content will receive a 50% page weight penalty

This new Weibo rule still doesn’t go as far as the equivalent one for WeChat where such posts are most likely to be taken down completely. Of course, in some cases, proving who copied whom can also be tricky.

Posts containing long form images will receive a 50% page weight penalty

According to ParkLU CMO Elijah Whaley, this rule is rather confusing. Such images have been quite popular with users and it is not immediately clear why Weibo doesn’t like them anymore.

Accounts that only repost will receive a page weight penalty

This rule once again is designed to improve the posts quality and encourage creating original content by KOLs rather than recycling and reposting content already existing elsewhere.

Post containing a QR code will receive a page weight penalty

The penalty for QR code is clearly targeting Weibo’s largest competitor WeChat. It isn’t anything new though – Weibo wasn’t allowing posting WeChat QR codes for a while now.

Posts that mention WeChat will receive max page weight penalty, limited to 10% total visibility

Here is another shot against WeChat. In fact, WeChat has been blocking all the links to Alibaba ecommerce stores (Taobao or Tmall) for years now, so it is only fair that Weibo would reciprocate.

Accounts that mention marketing, sales or advertising businesses could receive a page weight penalty

With this new Weibo KOL rule, the platform is trying to avoid promoting competition that may take some of Weibo’s advertising revenues. Posts should be focusing on promoting brands, products and services rather than potential Weibo’s competitors.

Lucky draw campaigns must use Weibo’s official lucky draw function or receive a page weight penalty

Since lucky draws are quite popular in Chinese social media, Weibo prefers to use their own tools rather than third party service for this type of campaigns. This way, the traffic stays in Weibo rather than goes elsewhere.

The post Chinese Social Media Marketing Update: New Weibo KOL Posting Rules first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Chinese Social Media Marketing Update: New Weibo KOL Posting Rules appeared first on Sampi.co.

However, there are still relatively inexpensive ways to take advantage of KOLs on Weibo through a system called Weibo micro task (微任务). My earlier post on brand marketing on Weibo goes through some technical on how to activate this service, so here I’m going to focus on ways to choose a suitable KOL to engage and avoid common mistakes.

Weibo KOL score

Weibo provides some basic metrics on each KOL, that is registered in their database, such as number of followers and 6 star based score. How exactly the stars are assigned is not disclosed but it is assumed to be based on the power of influence rather than the number of followers. There are some KOLs with large fan base but low score and vice versa. The price is ultimately determined by the number of stars assigned to a particular KOL.

Quality of fan base

When KOLs are used for small business marketing, quality almost always takes precedence over quantity. Unfortunately, there are still many fake accounts, created specifically to boost someone’s following. Obviously, working with KOLs with a lot of such zombie fans would be a complete waste of your marketing budget. Doing your due diligence on the fan base is not easy but you should look out for a few red flags, such as low star score (i.e. inexpensive to engage) but too many followers or those that are new but managed to accumulate large fan base too quickly;

Relevance

Relevance to a product or service you are promoting is the most important parameter to consider when choosing KOL from those that Weibo suggests automatically. It is almost always a good idea to stay way from KOLs whose blog is too general or covers very wide range of topics. Instead you should go with the one that focuses on a niche audience that you are targeting.

Geographical reach

In some cases, you may choose to target a specific geography rather than running a nationwide campaign. In such cases, you should make sure that KOL, whom you are considering, covers that region or, better yet, focuses on it. Also, you could simply count the number of followers who come from the area that you are targeting.

KOL’s style and tone

In order to judge whether a particular KOL is a good fit for your brand, it is best to simply read their posts. The style should match the marketing tone that you are trying to convey, be it humorous and lighthearted or serious and corporate. Also, it is worth reading further into the past to determine whether KOL’s style has been consistent;

Engagement level

Although, Weibo’s own scoring system is supposed to reflect this important parameter, it is something that is recommended to check as well. How often the posts are being re-tweeted? Do they generate comments? Does KOL respond to the comments in person? Clearly, it is not easy to go through thousands of posts to determine the engagement level, so I recommend using tools such as Hootsuite which now includes apps for digging into Weibo;

Involvement with other media

Influential KOLs are often present on multiple platforms, such as WeChat or have their own blog site. When determining authenticity and authority of a particular KOL, it is a good idea to check those other channels as well. Are they consistent? Do they cover same or related topics?

Develop closer relationship

As a next step, you can get in touch with KOL and establish relationship outside of Weibo. Encouraging them to personally try your product and write about their experience could go a long way in the long run;

Events

Once you have managed to establish offline relationship with the KOL, invite him/her to your events such as product launches or participation in trade shows. Covering it in their blog could become an excellent piece of PR for your company.

In conclusion, there are ways to maximize your KOL marketing campaign efficiency and navigate around common pitfalls. However, at the end of the day, it is still, to some degree, a trial-and-error process. My advise it to start small first and try few KOLs that look most promising, then measure the return. This way, you will be able to figure out fairly quickly, and with the least cost, which one delivers the best value.

The post How Small Business Can Use KOLs for Marketing in China first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post How Small Business Can Use KOLs for Marketing in China appeared first on Sampi.co.

In addition, numerous studies how that word of mouth is, many times, more effective than advertising. Hence, leveraging KOLs for brand marketing is becoming a way to harness that power.

Almost every big brand marketing in China involves, to some degree, using KOLs in their marketing campaigns. Most often those are celebrities, but, depending on the type of product being promoted, could also be influential bloggers and intellectuals.

In this post I’m going to list the main ways big brands choose the right KOL for their marketing campaigns. Since some of the methods require hiring agencies and extensive research, not to mention considerable costs, they may not be suitable for smaller brands. In the next post coming up next week, I’ll make another list of down-to-earth methods that can be used by smaller companies, those without multimillion marketing budgets, to engage KOLs.

Methods of selecting KOLs by big brands

Determining most suitable KOL type

First off, companies should decide which type of KOLs best fits the product being marketed. Celebrities can be an obvious choice for high fashion and cosmetics but may not be suitable for other types of brands. Often, the best way to go is to engage a subject matter expert who specializes in a specific area and has recognized authority in the field. Such experts may not be a household name but can often be many times more effective than a celebrity;

Focus on authentic experience

Authenticity is quickly becoming a new buzz word in marketing and it basically means that in order to be effective, a marketing message has to carry high degree of credibility. Increasingly sophisticated consumers tend to distrust standard product endorsements putting more value into trustworthy opinion. One way to achieve that is to encourage KOLs to actually use the product and honestly express their experience;

Quality of fan base

One of the key definitions of social media KOLs, such as those on Weibo or WeChat, is the size of their fan base, or number of people following them. Numbers, however, do not tell the whole story. With the proliferation of fake accounts in social media as well as notorious services that claim to boost one’s number of followers, marketers are forced to look more deeply into the quality of one’s followers. There are some companies who develop complex mathematical models to measure KOL’s influence. Also, Weibo itself has a scoring system that takes into accounts various parameters;

Virality and engagement

The key component in KOL’s efficiency is their ability to generate “viral effect” with their messages, as well as keeping followers engaged. Clearly, tweeting a particular message to a large audience without it going further beyond the immediate followers would indicate that the message, or its delivery, wasn’t effective. In such cases, engaging a KOL would unlikely to deliver the expected value. As with the quality of fan base, there are tools and methods to judge the effectiveness of specific KOLs.

Covering events

One of the best ways to engage KOLs is to have them cover high profile events, such as product launches. Companies would often invite them to such events providing front raw seats and other incentives. In addition, KOLs would have valuable opportunities to network and meet celebrities. They would be expected to write an account of their experience with some engaging content such as pictures and video;

Engaging KOLs outside of social media

Big brands tend to build long lasting relationships with the most effective KOLs which go beyond social media presence. If there is a good fit between KOL’s personality and the brand, such relationship can become brand’s key marketing asset in the long run and can be employed with whatever future online or offline platforms we are going to see in the future;

Obviously, most of those methods are only suitable for big brands and companies with deep pockets. There are still opportunities for small businesses in engaging this promising route in their marketing efforts. I’m going to discuss those in my next post, stay tuned.

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