I have been working on the social media team at Adobe for 3 years. And throughout my 3 years, I have understood through various articles and conversations that social media – in terms of popular channels, content, and transparency, can be very different around the world. I didn’t quite understand what all this entailed to the fullest extent until my team and I made a recent trip to APAC. We visited with our teams from Greater China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia/New Zealand, and India.
Below are some of my key takeaways from the trip:
- There’s HUGE opportunity in China – given the population of 1.3 billion and how social the Chinese population is (social media is a key driver of public protest for change), there is tremendous opportunity for social media to drive economic, political, and social change.
- China’s popular social network Sina Weibo is better than most of our social networks. Sina Weibo isn’t just a Twitter. Or Facebook. Or YouTube. Or Google+ It’s all of the best features from each of those networks – in one! With 300 million users and a rapid growth rate, Sina Weibo is a network to keep an eye on.
- Influence is defined differently. Here in the U.S., a social influencer is influential because they are a subject matter expert and thought leader in their area. In China, it’s different. You don’t have to be an influencer in a specific area to endorse a product or an idea. For example, a popular chef can be influential if he talks about Adobe products. I thought that was interesting and unique.
- Photos that evoke emotion perform best – this is actually probably true everywhere. Anything that evokes emotion has the power to affect engage individuals and influence their behavior. We met with a couple of customers who have popular followings on Sina Weibo. They shared with us that any picture they share with a cute animal or baby gets greater engagement. For example, one of them, in order to driver greater awareness for a library, shared a picture of a baby squirrel outside the library. People reacted strongly to the cute picture, thereby indirectly driving awareness for the library. Do you guys think that would work here in the U.S.?
If you have ever been to Asia, I’d love to know your takeaways too!
Fun with colleagues in the Beijing Office