Sites like Sina Weibo, China’s largest micro-blogging website, have been quick to capitalize on the void left by the blocking of Twitter by the Chinese government.
Projections suggest that there will be nearly 150 million micro blog users in the country by the end of next year. This fact has been picked up by several major multi-nationals like Nokia, Dell and China’s own Lenovo who are already seeing the potential of micro blogs as an advertising platform and are using them to promote their products.
One example is Nokia’s October news briefings that were held completely on social networking websites, mainly in micro blogging services. Micro-bloggers could wear a 3D eyepiece to watch Nokia’s online 3D promotion video and interact with the company through its micro blog on Sina Weibo, .
“Micro blogs provide a new tool for us to interact with our potential consumers here in China,” Yang Weidong, head of marketing for Nokia in China.
According to Nokia, at least 400,000 users ‘attended’ this online event wich resulted in more than 1,000 orders for Nokia’s N8 smartphone making the experiment a success for the company.
Another international company eyeing the potential for micro blog marketing is US computer manufacturer Dell which has already run successful campaigns on Twitter in America and has now set up its own micro blog on Sina Weibo that has received “hundreds of thousands” of visits and responses from Chinese micro-bloggers.
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