First Look at Weibo

In order to find out Weibo’s role in campaigns, I examine three effective Weibo campaigns that happen recently, and identify the followings:
• Weibo+ event is most often utilized in campaigns
• Most campaigns focus on a variety of social media sites including SNS, VSS, and Weibo, intead of aiming solely on Weibo as a single platform.
• Weibo is becoming an increasing effective way to go viral. Weibo is becoming the main channel for online community to voice opinions and engage with brands. Source shows that 45.9% online users voice their opinions through Weibo during the World Cup Season. According to DCCI, China’s Weibo users will expand to over 100 million.
• Sina Weibo (t.sina) continues to be the leading Chinese microblog platform.

Furthermore, I examine the general differences between Weibo in China and the microblog in the US.
• Weibo has a focus on verified account, which is given to all celebrities and brands. “V” appears by every verified user’s Weibo entry. Weibo’s verified accounts have to be celebrities or brands.
• Weibo has multiple functions. That happens with other social media platforms in China as well. A Sina Weibo game named “Adoption”, which was launched in October, attracts 30,000 users and 100,000 Tweets in two days.
• Different to Twitter, Weibo embed pictures and videos which can be viewed without leaving the page. This is this handy for the user and provides opportunities for marketing, as brands can more easily associate visuals with entries.
• Business people on Weibo are as popular as entertainment stars. According to a blog article, In Twitter’s top ten there is not one business person; in Weibo’s there are three. Successful businesspeople are seen more like celebrities.
• Weibo has the backing of Chinese giant, Twitter doesn’t. Major Weibo is developed by major portal sites therefore are in very strong position in China.
• Top Weibo users have over 1 billion followers. According to first-hand source, it takes about 500-700 rmb/day to promote on a Weibo fans group that has over 10,000 fans. This type of fans group enable about 50 Retweets and 50 replies daily


Note: Weibo (微博) is the Chinese pronunciation microblog. Equivalent to Chinese Twitter. Therefore Weibo is sometimes called microblog.