How to get your first 10,000 Weibo followers without a cent on paid Ad
Like any matured powerful social app, Weibo, you can call it a Chinese version of Instagram+Facebook, has already makes heaps ads revenue from their social advertising tools for business to spend on, however, given Weibo has reached 340million monthly active users in 2017, 30% up on the previous year, is there an organic marketing approach to grow followers and turn your fan base into a lead funnel?
Over the past year, our WeChat Apply social team helped a B2B software company client starting with an empty account and zero followers. In the brief span of just 50 weeks, we accumulated more than 14,000 followers for the client. As a result, my client now gets about 15 to 20 leads a month from Weibo for their supply chain enterprise-grade software services targeting China-based corporations in China market.
How would you like to do that?
Let me explain how you can follow our example and build up your Weibo Chinese audience that will help you market your business in China
1. Start with Goals
As with so many other things in business, it all starts with a set of goals.
What do you want to do on Weibo? What are you hoping to get out of it?
You might decide that you want to use Weibo as a cost effective way to penetrate into China market without large capital investment？Or you might be thinking that Weibo is a great way to share pictures, videos, stories or announcement of your products or your business because it’s rich media focused. Maybe you’re just looking to land some direct purchases from your Weibo account cross border?
Whatever your goals are, make sure you approach Weibo marketing with an eye toward fulfilling it. Then start looking for ways to gather your audience.
On Weibo, you have two demographics: partners and customers.
Partners are people in the same industry or in an industry related to your niche. They’re not necessarily competitors, though.
For example, if you’re a web developer, then people who design WordPress themes might be among your partners. They complement, rather than compete, with your business.
They can also help you promote your business.
How? By commenting on and liking your updates. They help give your Weibo account the appearance of authority.
Then, there are Weibo followers who are in your target market. Those are the people whom you want to become customers.
Once you’ve identified partners and people in your target market, it’s time to start gathering information about them. What are their typical qualities? Where do they spend their time online?
And this is important: Whom do they follow on Weibo?
That’s important because you want your Weibo account to attract them. Fortunately, you can do that by imitating other accounts that they already follow.
Find between two and five Weibo accounts that your distributors and potential customers follow and analyze them. What kind of content do they post online? Who follows them?
Also, take a look at their bio. How do they describe their business? What does the profile photo look like?
Go through their posts and look at the hashtags they use. Make a note of the most popular hashtags. You’ll probably want to use those in your own posts.
It’s important, though, to make sure that the post corresponds to the hashtag you use. Otherwise, you’ll be branded a spammer.
Finally, take a look at their most popular posts. Make a note about the types of photos used in those posts and the topics they cover.
Now that you’re armed with that information, it’s time to get to work.
2. Build a Profile That Converts
Your profile is where you’ll put the link to your landing page. That’s why it has to be optimized for conversion.
Weibo does allow links on stories, though. Those are collections of photos and videos put into slideshow format (an idea Weibo “borrowed” from Snapchat).
If you think you can promote your brand best by marketing with stories, then you can add links outside of your profile.
So how do you produce a profile that converts? Follow a few simple steps.
First of all, give yourself an appealing bio. Remember the basic rule of marketing here: Emphasize what you do for customers. Tell people that you fix their problems and make their lives better.
In other words: Don’t just talk about what you sell. Instead, tell people how your products or services benefit them.
Also, give yourself a fabulous profile photo. Go professional with the picture if you have to. It’s your one chance to make an outstanding impression and convince people that you take your business seriously.
You should also give people a reason to click on your link. Whet their appetites with a tease such as a discount or a freebie. Then, tell them they can learn more by clicking on the link.
Keep in mind: There’s nothing wrong with having a landing page dedicated solely to people who arrive at your site from Weibo. In fact, you’ll probably make your Weibo visitors feel special if you do that.
You can also do the “Mashable trick” with the link on your profile page. As the name implies, that’s a technique perfected by the website Mashable.
Here’s how it works: When you post a photo, add a caption that explains the photo and include text like: “For more information, click on the link in our profile.” Here’s the important part: After posting the photo, change the link in your profile so that it goes to a part of your site relevant to the Weibo post.
In other words, change the link in your profile with each update.
3. Create an Editorial Calendar
If you want to move ahead of your competition on social media, create an editorial calendar. Many brands don’t bother with that.
An editorial calendar is a schedule of your upcoming posts. It tells you what you’ll post and when you’ll post it.
Get the ball rolling on your editorial calendar by going over the successful posts you learned about in step 1. Then, go and do likewise.
Yes, copy the type of content that others have used successfully and use it yourself. Imitation isn’t just the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a great way to promote your brand.
Keep in mind: Some stuff is copyrighted. You obviously don’t want to run into a copyright dispute or lawsuit.
You can, however, post content very closely related to the successful posts of others. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Also, don’t come across like a sales rep on Weibo. If you just post content that’s trying to make a sale, you’re going to have trouble gaining and keeping followers.
Instead, mix up your content a little. Post some humorous memes now and then. Share lifestyle tips. That will help you add some personality and humanity to your brand.
Make sure that some of your content uses the hashtags you found in step 1. You especially want to use the more popular hashtags, because they should give your posts greater exposure.
4. Publish and Engage
Once you’ve got your editorial calendar in place, it’s time to start following it. Promote your business by publishing content on a regular basis.
There’s more to being successful on Weibo than just posting content, though.
Remember: Weibo is part of social media. It’s called “social” media for a reason.
You need to be social on social media.
That means you should engage with other Weibo users. Follow accounts in your niche and accounts related to your niche. Like and comment on posts you appreciate.
If you’re viewed as an active member of the Weibo community, you’ll come across as a genuine user and not somebody who’s just trying to sell something.
Also, you’ll often get a follow back from the people you follow. That’s especially true if they’re interested in your business.
Here’s another thing to do: Look at the top profiles in your niche. Then, go through some of their posts. Follow people who are commenting on those posts. These are the most engaged people, so there is a chance they will engage with you also.
All of this will help your posts show up in Weibo Search, which can send more people to your profile and business.
5. Analyze, Scale, and Promote
After a few months of Weibo marketing, take some time to review what’s working best for you.
Go over your analytics. Make a note of the types of posts that receive the most engagement. Be sure to publish posts with similar themes in the future.
Also, make a note of what types of posts are receiving the least engagement. Scratch those kinds of posts off your editorial calendar if there any more like them coming up. Replace them with the kinds of posts that are more successful.
Finally, consider running ads on your top posts. That will give you a chance to effectively add a link to them.
6. Rinse and Repeat
Repeat step 5.
Go through your analytics constantly to find your top performers. Then, add more posts just like those to your editorial calendar.
Also, keep on engaging with other posts. Remember, you’ll appear “real” if you’re liking, following, and commenting on the posts of other Weibo users.
Finally, focus on growth. Keep working to build your audience so you can reach more people. Then, customers will find their way to your website.
About WeChatapply
Wechatapply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechatapply will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.