Leadership Series Quarter 2.2016
Spring Professional Social Media ReportChinese Social Media Entry Guideline and Case Analysis of How SpringProfessional Penetrates the Social Media Market in mainland China
Table of Contents03 Section I: Report Introduction
Report StatementReport Case StudyReport Guideline
06 Section II: China Social Media Entry GuidelineSocial Media ChannelsSocial Media OperationCompetitor ActivitiesSocial Media ExecutionPerformance Measurement
09 Section III: China Social Media Operation Strategies & TacticsSocial Media ChannelsSocial Media KeywordsContent & BannersCompetitor ActivitiesPerformance Measurement
15 Section IV: China Social Media Operation Measurement & AnalysisUser AnalysisInfluential Content AnalysisWebsite Conversion AnalysisSWOT Analysis
18 Section V: China Social Media Key Findings Influential Contents for Recruitment BusinessWebsite Conversion on Social Media
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Social media market in China is listed in the most active social media markets in the world. According to 2016 Digital Yearbook conducted by WeAreSocial, the number of active social media users has been increasing greatly in the mainland in recent years. This year the social media penetration in China hasreached 47% (653 million users) which is 16% higher than the global averagesocial media usage.
However, how social media works in the local market is a completely different story. Unlike many western and Asian countries, global main stream socialmedia channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viemo are mostlyblocked by the government firewall due to government policy and censorship.
Access-forbidden social media embedment can lead to problems of company websites, too. It is found that websites embedded with blocked social media channels bear the high risk of being blocked by the firewall. In other cases, the local internet speed for website to load contents from these channels is proved to rather slow.
Although with eager eyes laid on the Chinese market, overseas businesses are unclear of how to promote themselves digitally in China. Yet a bigger problem to be realized is, once a business gains the access to the local digital market, howto select and penetrate effectively.
Spring Professional Social Media Report is hence designed to help overseas employers and marketing managers kick off the social media penetration processin China by understanding the local social media, the digital market, competitionanalysis conduction, channels selection and the performance measurement.
In this report, the internal analysis of Spring Professional’s social media marketingstrategies & tactics as well as the performance measurement in the entry periodin China are taken as the case study. This report will be regarded as a social mediaentry guideline for overseas businesses who are struggling in the unfathomableabyss of Chinese social media.
Report Statement
Reference Data from 2016 Digital Yearbook, a regional and global social media overview report conducted
by WeAreSocial
Data from 2016 Digital Yearbook
Spring Professional social media penetration and performance in the Chinamarket is taken as the major case study in this report. As a leading mid to seniorlevel recruitment business across Asia, Spring officially entered the mainlandChina market in April, 2014.
Late 2015 Spring Professional had its marketing function set up in mainlandChina. With the rapid development of the business, it is realized and decidedby the regional marketing team that brand name should be specified andpresented in the China market in a localized digital way.
Taking the social media operation in the region as reference, localized socialmedia marketing strategies and tactics are planned and executed. WeChatand Sina Weibo, leading Chinese social media channels, were both successfullyintegrated into the regional social media system. Social media contents andmeasurement performance from November 2015 to February 2016 are taken toconduct social media performance analysis.
The case study Spring’s social media market entry in China is presented for two purposes, a) to help businesses understand how social media entry strategiesand tactics are made, b) to provide the guideline for business to measure socialmedia performance in China.
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4
Report Case Study
Report Guideline
Spring Professional Social Media Report is designed into five sections. The report guideline will help readers understand the content structure and report usage.
Report IntroductionThe section of introduction is written to present the overview, purpose and usageof the report.
China Social Media Operation Strategies & TacticsOperation strategies and tactics are where business start with social media.This section will brief readers from channel selection, social media keywords,content and banners, update frequency, competitor activities to performancemeasurement.
China Social Media Operation Measurement & AnalysisCase study of how Spring Professional measures and conducts social mediaperformance analysis in China is presented in this section. Top influential contentsare also selected to showcase right contents for the business. Website conversionrate analysis is also presented to showcase its relation to social media.
China Social Media Report Key FindingsKey findings from the Measurement & Analysis are emphasized separately in thissection for businesses to reference in their own cases.
China Social Media Entry GuidelineThe second section is the general guideline of action for businesses that areinterested in entering the social media market in China. Businesses can easilyunderstand the process which consists of seven steps, each provided with detailed description.
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Social Media ChannelsTimeline & Introduction
6
China Social Media Entry Guideline
Social media marketing in the west first started with Facebook. Since the access opened to the public, Facebookhad more than 100,000 company pages registered to promote businesses in terms of sales, branding andCRMQQ, developed and launched by Tencent in 1999, is regarded as the start of social media marketing in China. An increasing number of channels were developed since 2005.Social media user group varies depend on channel functions as well as age and identity of users
Time
QQ (1999 Feb)The most widely used instant messaging softwarewith 829 million active users (data of 2015)
Baidu Tieba (2003 Dec)The largest online communication community
bounded with the major internet searchengine developed by Baidu
Youku (2003 Mar)China’s top online video and streaming platform with500 million + monthly active users (data of 2015)LinkedIn (2003 May)
Professional network that connects employers, recruitersand professionals for business or career. Since the
entry in China in 2014, LinkedIn has developed17 million elite users in China. (data of 2015)
Renren (2005 Dec)Social networking service targeted at studentsat high school & colleges with 31 million active
monthly users (data of 2011)
Douban (2005 Mar)Popular social networking service website where userscreate and share information about popular films,books, music and events
Kaixin 001 (2008 Apr)Social networking platform targeting at the white-collargroup with on-line social games
Sina Weibo (2009 Aug)The most popular micro-blogging website (combined
features of Twitter & Facebook) with 100 millionactive daily users (data of 2015)
Tencent Weibo (2010 Apr)Tencent’s micro-blogging website is an open networkwhere users can post tweets within 140 charactersand interact with others
WeChat (2011 Jan)The dominant mobile-end text & voice messaging
communication service with 700 million activeusers (data of 2016) Zhihu (2011 Jan)
Online community that offers Q&A service wherequestions are created, answered, edited and organized by users. The platform is currentlyactive with 17 million users
Social Media ChannelsIdentification & Selection
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Social Media OperationEffective Planning
Identify social media channels including social network, messager, blog and BBS that are available in China Conduct researches to identify effective channels where audience are potential clients/customers in yourbusiness field
Define audience who are crucial for your businessTarget Audience
Keywords Be aware of keywords that your target audience might search for via social media channels
Contents Identify what type of contents is interesting and effective to attractpotential audience
Banners Design banners in a consistent style for all types of contents on all socialmedia channels
Update Frequency Plan and decide the frequency of content update on different socialmedia channels
Measurement Identify Key Performance Index for different social media channels anddecide how frequently your business should measure the performance
Analysis Conduct social media performance analysis every quarter to updateand amend the social media operation
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Competitor ActivitiesIdentification & Analysis
Based on the research of competitor activities, amend and upate the s. .ocial media operation plan for yourbusiness.
Social media KPI measurement consists of five major criteria
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?
??
?
?
??Conduct researches to identify competitorsin the local market who are active on differentsocial media channels
Record competitors content types and activitieson different social media channels
Record key performance index on different socialmedia channels if available
Conduct social media market position analysisbased on different dimensions to locate the current market position of your business
Social Media OperationAmendment & Execution
Be aware of contents or activities that do not appear in your original plan. Double assess the necessity ofamending any contents or activities
Identify a team of local marketing specialists to create social media contents and execute the social mediaoperation plan accordingly
Social Media MeasurementKey Performance Index (KPI)
Followers
Exposure
Reposts
Comments
Likes
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
Week 1
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
Week 2
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
Week 3
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
Week 4
Notice that key criteria to measure will vary depends on different channels/businesses
Performance of each social media channel is recommended to be measured on weekly basisPerformance analysis is highly recommended to be conducted on monthly/quaterly basis
Followers
xx
Exposure
xx
Reposts
xx
Comments
xx
Likes
xx
To conduct performance analysis, the followingsupporting data should be tracked and sorted
Follower increase & decrease
Content reading/exposure
Content interaction (repost, like, favorate,clicking, comment etc.)
Top five influential contents of each month
Monthly website Page View (PV), External Link(EL) and Social Media External Link (SMEL)
Available data/information of competitors’social media performance and activities
China Social Media Operation Strategies & Tactics
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24%WeChat
21%Q-Zone
16%Sina Weibo
14%Baidu Tieba
12%Tencent Weibo
6%RenRen
80%WeChat
27%Sina Weibo
23%Linkedin
12%Facebook
10%Twitter
9%BBS
Social Media Channels2016 Digital Yearbook by WeAreSocial (left)Social Ads Whitebook by LinkedIn China (right)
Social media channel researches are conducted not only from the marketing perspective, but also fromspecific perspective of recruitment and hiring due to business nature. Top three social media channels arehighlighted for the business to furhter consider the possibility to be integrate them into the regional social media operations.
Contents & BannersUpdate Frequency (left)Content Types (right)
Spring Professional China is currently active on WeChat, Sina Weibo (Weibo), LinkedIn, Youku and three influential local HR BBS.
40%
25%
20%
10%5%
Jobs Career Tips Market News
Spring News Salary Survey
Mon, Wed& FriWeekdays
Time
Posts/day
WeChat Weibo
After 6:00pm
1 - 2
Every weekday
10:00am, 12:30pm & 5:30pm
2 - 3
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Others
RecruitmentExecutive SearchConsultingHeadhuntingJob SeekingJob ChangingJob HoppingCareer DevelopmentHuman ResourceSenior ManagementSalary SurveyCareer TipsMarket NewsSpring NewsHot JobsSpring China
Supply Chain
Supply ChainPurchasingProcurementSourcingLicensingMerchandisingLogisticsTransportationFreightForwardingTrade & ComplianceDemand Planning & ForecastingSupplier QualityWarehousing Retail & DistributionCosting
IT
InternetInternet + Gaming MobileInformation Tech E-commerce O2OTechnologyIT SalesIT ServiceIT Operations IT FinanceApplicationsSystem Development
Social Media KeywordsTags & Keywords for Search Engine
Human ResourseOrganisation DevelopmentTrainingCompensation & BenefitPayrollFinance AccountingAuditingLegal SalesBusiness DevelopmentMarketingMarcomCustomer Service
CorporateFunctions
Business PropertyInterior Design ConstructionShopping MallRentingInternational Hotel Amusement ParkArchitectureFacility ManagementProject ManagementInvestment Attraction
Property &Construction
AutomotiveAuto PartsAuto OEMManufacturingNew EnergyOil & Gas Steel & Iron ChemicalsInfrastructureAerospaceElectronicsSemiconductorsMedicine Medical DevicePharmaceuticalLife ScienceHealthcare
Engineering
Define social media keywords to focus on the appearance increase on major search engines
Social media keywords are selected based on businesses. ie, Spring Professional is a leading mid to seniorlevel recruitment consultancy in sectors of engineering, corporate functions property & construction, IT,and supply chain & logistics.
Other keywords can be seleted depending on different needs of businesses
Keywords for social media channels in China should be in Chinese
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Contents & BannersScreenshots of WeChat & Weibo
WeChat on PC-end
Sina Weibo on PC-end
Contents & BannersBanners on Social Media
Job Ad Career Tip Survey Company News Market News
Competitor ActivitiesIdentification on Weibo
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Competitors Weibo Accounts Followers Posts Most Recent Update
Bo Le Associates BoLeAssociates 590 317 2015/3/20
Career International 科锐国际官方微博 11487 4231 2015/10/14
Kelly Services KellyServices 7269 349 2015/4/7
Lloyd Morgan LloydMorganExecutive 308 196 2015/6/17
Mango Associates Mango-Associates 3493 2440 2016/3/11
Manpower Group ManpowerGroup 21258 2914 2016/3/25
Michael Page MichaelPageChina 3961 2040 2016/3/23
Randstad 任仕达 62230 8061 2015/7/14
Robert Walters 华德士中国 9599 3348 2016/2/10
Competitors WeChat Accounts Verification Content Update Frequency
Career International Career_International Verified 3 times/week
Hays Hays-China Verified 3 times/week
Hudson HudsonChina Verified 2 times/week
Kelly Services kellyservices Unverified 5 times/week
Lloyd Morgan lloydmorgan Unverified 3 times/week
Manpower Group ManpowerGroupChina Verified 5 times/week
Michael Page MichaelPage Verified 3 times/week
Randstad randstadchina Verified 3 times/week
Robert Walters robertwalters_cn Verified once a week
Competitor ActivitiesIdentification on WeChat
J B
J B
J B
J B
J B
J B
J B
J B
Content Types
Up
date Freq
uency
CareerInternational
Hudson
Kelly Service Manpower
Robert Walters
Randstad
0
1/5
2/5
3/5
4/5
1
0 1 2 3 4 5
HaysLloyd MorganMichael Page
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Number of Followers
Num
ber of P
osts
Bo Le
Career International
Kelly ServiceLloyd Morgan
Mango Associates
Manpower
Michael Page
Robert Walters
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
4000
4500
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
4500
Competitor ActivitiesMarket Position Analysis of Weibo
Competitor ActivitiesMarket Position Analysis of WeChat
Social media market position in Sina Weibo is analyzed based on the number of weibo posts and followers
Leading competitors on Weibo are Randstad, Manpower Group and Career International
Social media market position in WeChat is analyzed based on types of content and update frequency
Leading competitors on Weibo are Manpower Group, Kelly Service and Randstad
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Performance MeasurementKey Performance Index of Weibo
Followers
Comments
Exposure
Likes
Reposts
Conversion
The number of userswho follow your weiboaccount
The number of userswho read your weiboposts & images
Users who read andrepost your weibocontents to theirprivate pages
Users who write downcomments underyour weibo posts
Users who like yourweibo posts and clicklike button
Percentage of userswho click shortlinks that lead them to other websites
Followers
Comments
Exposure
Likes
Reposts
Conversion
The number of userswho follow theWeChat account
The number of userswho read the WeChatcontents
Users who read andshare your WeChatcontents to privateMoment
Users who writecomments underyour WeChat content
Users who like yourWeChat content andsave it as favorite
Percentage of userswho click “read more”that lead them to other websites
Performance MeasurementKey Performance Index of Weibo
Performance MeasurementKPI Time Measurement
A weekly/bi-weekly/monthly KPI excel form to track chanages of all index
Monthly/quarterly KPI performance summary and analysis
Performance of a specific post should be tracked at least 3 days after the post is published
Social Media Operation Measurement & Analysis
160
80
100
33
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
88
885
1545 1564
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
NOV DEC JAN FEB
User AnalysisSpring Professional ChinaWeChat (left) & Weibo (right)
Influential Content AnalysisSpring Professional ChinaTop Five Influential Weibo Contents
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Date Content Type Exposure Repost Link
2015/12/8 Career Tips 24000 8
2015/11/26 Career Tips 16000 8
2015/11/23 Job Ads (ENG) 9081 2
2016/2/16 Job Ads (CF) 6746 2
2015/12/24 Job Ads (CF) 4756 1
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
Influential Content AnalysisSpring Professional ChinaTop Five Influential WeChat Contents
Date Content Type Exposure Repost Link
2016/1/25 Salary Survey 547 26
2015/12/8 Job Ads (CF) 498 26
2016/1/13 Job Ads (ENG) 442 19
2015/11/9 Job Ads (CF) 405 48
2016/1/20 Job Ads (CF) 371 30
Website Conversion AnalysisSpring Professional ChinaPage View Source Aanlysis
8009 4467 27
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
Direct Access External Link Search Engine
LinkedIn WeChat FacebookSina Weibo Instagram
Social media channels found in the external link analysis
Percentage of social media channels out of the total page view = Website conversion rate
Calculate the website conversion rate of accessible social media channels in China
LinkedIn: 24.87% WeChat: 1.75% Sina Weibo: 0.70%
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Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
SWOT AnalysisSocial Media Operation
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Strength
Consistent in content and banner creation
Consistent interaction with third party hiring KOLs
Instant response to messages and comments
Well-responded job ads format and information
Good understanding of consultants’needs
Weakness
Lack of interesting and in-time content and topics
Lack of original content created from self-conducted surveys
No on-line social media campaigns to boost content exposure
Weak linkage to Spring’s China website
Opportunity
Active on the most important social media platform in China - WeChat
Active update on Weibo among all competitors
Plan & organization for self-conducted talent survey and social media promotion
High quality of job ads and banners
Threat
Competitors run campaigns and event from on-line to off-line
On-line publication and promotion on social media
Technical development on WeChat for candidates to apply for jobs
Consistent update of salary and talent analysis surveys
Slow speed directing to the mobile-end of Spring’s China website
China Social Media Report Key Findings
80%
20%
60%
40%
Influential ContentsSina Weibo
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Influential ContentsWeChat
Well-sorted job ad is proved to be themost valuable information for recruitmentbusiness
Six pieces of job ads are collected on weekly baisis on average,of which 40%are contributed by the corporatefunctions team of Spring ProfessionalInteraction with third party hiring KOLs,ie. “The Big Four” and “Finance Jobs” areproved to be highly effective in increasingthe job ad exposure on Sina Weibo.
Job Ads account for 60% of the mostinfluential contents on Sina Weibo
Career Tips account for 40% of the mostinfluential contents on Sina Weibo
Related and concise keywords and tags(#xx#)are proved to be crucial to postexposure
Repost from business-related KOLs isanother important factor to increase thecontent exposure
Job Ads account for 80% of the mostinfluential contents on WeChat
Job ads with brief description, salary info-rmation, banners and 3 to 5 pieces of keyrequirements have more exposure thanjob ads in plain texts
Six pieces of job ads are collected on weekly baisis on average,of which 60%are contributed by the corporatefunctions team of Spring ProfessionalTwice udpate of job ads per week is the maximum frequency followers can take. More update lead to decreasing exposureEmployees are highly actively in repostingand sharing the content on WeChat Moment and groups
Career Tips account for 20% of the mostinfluential contents on WeChat
Translated contents from Spring Seeker(blog of Spring Professional) does notapply to local audience on WeChat
Contents related to interview, career development and salary survey gainedmore exposure from audience
19
Website ConversionLinkedin, WeChat & Weibo
NOV DEC JAN FEB
62421
8611765LinkedIn
CN website conversionrate on LinkedIn is 24.87%
14
137
31
37
CN website conversionrate on WeChat is 1.75%
2
21
38
27
CN website conversionrate on Weibo is 0.70%
Website Conversion Rate of each social media channel is calculated based on the external
link analysis of Spring’s China website cn.springasia.com. By analyzing the external clicking,
marketing can better identify and understand effective channels and enhance others to increase
the website traffic. Data might vary due to different business natures.
LinkedIn, the largest online social network, remains the most active channel for mid to senior
level candidates who look for job-changing opportunities in China. Contents with links to Spring
Professional’s China website brought high number of visit.
It is also found that for recruitment business WeChat is high potential platform for Spring to
engage with local lcandidates and clients. From the perspective of CRM, WeChat can be further
developed by third party technical service supplier to design features of in-app job application
that connects to Spring’s talent system or website.
Sina Weibo, unsurprisingly, holds the lowest website conversion rate. As “twitter in the east”,
Weibo has attracted millions of users who share short posts within 140 Chinese characters.
According to the latest report from Sina, 63% Weibo users are below the age of 25, whereas
the targeted audience for Spring is above 30.
Sina Weibo
Spring Professional China
Beijing
China Central Place, Tower 3,6th Floor, Room 607,77 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, PRC
Tel: (86) 10 5969 6365Email: [email protected]
Shanghai
Plaza 66, Tower 1,Suite 2101-2102No. 1266 West Nanjing Road,Shanghai 200040, PRC
Tel: (86) 21 8012 6060Email: [email protected]
cn.springasia.com
To find out more about Spring Professional in China, or to ask questions in terms ofSpring Professional China Social Media Report, please [email protected]
Official Accountspringprofessional
Official Page跃科SpringProfessional
