Expert Interview with Doctor Mathew McDougall, CEO & Founder of Digital Jungle.
Doctor Mathew McDougall
Social Media is widely known to be an effective medium for influencing our ideas and views which makes it an obvious channel for tourism and destinations marketers to use in promoting their hotels, airlines, and countries tourist destinations. Social Media serves as an effective marketing tool. The idea is not new, but it has reached new horizons in China. China is growing its Internet users. Everybody wants to get on this train of promising perspectives, especially global brands and celebrities who have found tons of fans and customers in there.
It is in this context that we sat down with Dr. Mathew McDougall to hear what his views are in relation to leveraging social media and its influence on brands’ marketing campaigns.
Q. Dr McDougal, from your perspective, how global brands can reach Chinese users through Internet?
Dr. McDougall: Indeed, the development of the Internet industry in China over the past decade has been nothing but incredible and in 2012 looks to break the 500 million mark.
Digital social media is already the most influential source of data in China with a penetration rate of nearly 37% and the average time spent on the internet per week at 18.7 hours. However this number could increase significantly since the popularity in accessing the Web via mobile devices is growing and netizens tend to spend every single moment on the way to work and back online. In a subway, you may notice that at least 80% are using their devices to check up on news and updates.
Taking about Media channels, I would like to make a specific emphasis on Sina Weibo (literally Sina “Micro-blog”) and Tencent Pengyou.com (social networking platform). These are both interesting platforms from a marketing perspective in order to reach large numbers of Chinese netizens. These are the new indisputable trendy leaders among Chinese social channels. Weibo boomed the Internet Infrastructure within only 2 years of existence and has taken off among celebrities, executives, politicians and, obviously, advertisers.
Q. Why did microblogging take over other Chinese social channels in the first place?
Dr. McDougall: In a country where Facebook and Twitter are blocked by the Government; Weibo serves as a very personal and easy-to-get ticket to the Wonderland of communication, acceptance and connectedness. Weibo allows users to post up to 140 Chinese characters, which is perfectly suitable for self-expression and spreading the word while bypassing tight media controls. This has allowed Weibo to become a major influence on Chinese society and serve as the most effective way to reach Chinese consumers.
Q. Can you tell about Weibo’s outstanding features?
Dr. McDougall: Although, Weibo is often referred to as China’s Twitter, it goes far beyond this. For instance, Weibo provides for “private groups, threaded comments that better enable personal conversations, polls, games, apps, e-commerce, search, photos and streaming audio and video, “enterprise pages” that feature brands and group-buying services”.
Developers devoted a long period of time adapting Weibo for users gaining acess to the internet via mobile devices. This has now overtaken those using a PC to connect (65%). Weibo users have become much more likely to upload photos and share location information. A great past time for Weibo users is to checking updates or share information via Weibo Mobile while having a couple of spare minutes or going to work and home. I believe that Weibo provides marketers with the best solution, given it combines Twitter and Facebook features which have been adopted for Chinese internet users.
Q. How can you describe the average Chinese Internet user? How he/she differs from the Western user?
Dr. McDougall: One outstanding feature about Chinese users is their extreme interest in celebrities ( like obsession in a good way). They love spending hours by following favorite star in Weibo and ever since checking every post and uploaded photo. The topics about celebrities are on top in terms of retweeting and commenting. In addition, KOL (Key Opinion Leaders) have a high degree of influence and therefore used by marketing firms to promote certain messages.
Firstly, you should be socially connected with potentially clients. In order to engage with users, a company should be participative and life-topics oriented, mentioning recent social events, exciting daily-life news and life stories. Chinese are more likely to appreciate brands that are listening and engaging in conversations on micro-blogging platforms.
The core understanding of social media and the increasing usage of mobile devices to access internet are essentials in building successful campaigns and successfully establishing presence in the Chinese market.
Q. What is the impact of Microblogging popularity on building marketing campaigns?
Dr. McDougall: Potential customers don’t firstly check official websites and then make their purchase, they tend to look for the feedback from other netizens which they tend to think will be more trustworthy. Traditional media sources, such as TV news, newspaper, radio, are losing points in terms of trust compared to social networks. Therefore, the right approach and positioning in a new front-runner source of media should be the main focus for every destination point aiming to increase the number of Chinese travelers. Campaigns should be focused on conversation, relationships and a two-way dialogue with customers, prospects and influencers who can propagate positive opinion.
Q. How can a brand find out about its social media reputation online?
Dr. McDougall: Digital Jungle is commonly used to provide Social Media health checks; a kind of overview of the online discussion, sentiment and geographical reach of a particular tourism destination.
Social Media can be either a powerful friend or foe, thus any company needs a constant monitoring of its reputation online. A travel brand ought to track buzz and sentiment across various channels so to get detailed insights about its reputation, since only what is measured can be managed afterwards.
Our approaches are underpinned with world-class social media analytics technologies and research principles.
Another part of it called Social Influence Marketing. It describes the use of interactive and collaborative forms of media to influence the perception, opinions and ultimately the buying decisions of consumers by creating respect and love about a brand, product or service.
According to Digital Jungle philosophy, Social Influence Marketing is about leveraging social media at every stage of a marketing campaign, and it goes beyond the lifetime of the campaign too. In fact, we believe that over the long term, it is going to have a stronger affect on purchasing behavior than direct response and brand marketing.
People are no longer just buying brands, but rather joining them.
Q. How can Digital Jungle help global brands to understand consumer behavior and track their relation towards brands?
Dr. McDougall: The era of Social Media has expanded the ways in which marketers can promote a brand and in turn make the whole advertising campaign more creative and interactive.
As there is currently no equivalent version of Weibo in English, international brands still need external third party support when planning and executing a Chinese social media campaign. As mentioned earlier, it’s essential for a brand to build two way communication and interaction with customers.
With a rapidly growing number of social channels and many new messages per day spread across the Web, a marketer must wonder how it is even possible to track the nonstop flow of data? Social media monitoring tools and platforms are designed to solve this problem with the best outcome.
SIP: Enterprise is the latest generation of social intelligence technology used by Digital Jungle to guide, support and improve presence and awareness of International companies aiming at conquer Chinese market by touching the heart of every single client. It gives the optimal solution for Western-based companies since we know exactly what people want and we can listen to them and evaluate the flow.
Q. What are your views regarding social media in China?
Dr. McDougall: I believe that social media is still embryonic and we will continue to evolve within the next 12 months, both in the way people engage in social media and the types of functionalities provided by social media platforms. For example, we can expect more e-commerce capabilities and mobile tablet integrations in the coming year.
I am personally excited as a marketer to watch the convergence of a number of technologies such as; location based, mobility devices, e-coupons and eCommerce gaming apps. I am sure we will see some or all of these elements becoming components in the next generation of tourism marketing solutions.
For those interested in understanding the Chinese social media landscape, I recommend reading my latest book “The Chinese Social Media Universe”, available on Amazon.com
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Company website:: http://www.digitaljungle.com.cn/