Talking it up online(2)

The daily schedule includes answering netizens' questions, forwarding complaints to relevant after-sales departments, supervising key words and overseeing comments relating to sensitive topics on micro blogs that could affect the company, Lin said.

The number of micro-bloggers in China is believed to have reached 309 million by the end of 2012, a rise of 58 million from 2011, according to a recent report by the China Internet Network Information Center. During the past year, the number of monthly visitors to micro blogs has exceeded 200 million, excluding smartphone traffic.

The latest research from the DCCI shows that micro blog users aged 19 and older account for more than 88 percent of all Chinese netizens. More than 70 percent of them surf their accounts at least once a day.

Eugene Chew, director of digital strategy at JWT, said big brands are attracted to social media because it's relatively low-cost, compared with TV and print advertising. "It is like a consumer database, where word of mouth is the most important tool for brand building," he said. "Lots of brands realize that they need to build online communities for brand lovers, especially new brands that have a limited marketing budget."

Yao Fang, marketing director of Royal Caribbean China, a unit of Royal Caribbean International, the global cruise ship company based in Florida, said that unlike traditional marketing channels, micro blogs come at a lower cost and serve as supplementary marketing channels. She said it's difficult to quantify the exact contribution but there is no doubting the boost the SNS gives to overall turnover.

"Micro-blog marketing is the next big thing, because Sina has become a stable platform with a daily growth in user numbers and viscosity. It's a huge marketing opportunity," she said.

Silloway said that although Starbucks has outlets in 16 provinces, it is difficult to establish a pan-China presence because TV marketing is expensive. "The micro blog is market-efficient, low-cost and interactive, and also gives us instant feedback on the general perception," she said.

According to statistics from eMarketer, a US digital market researcher, spending on social network advertising in the Asia-Pacific region will grow by 48 percent from $1.38 billion in 2012 to around $2.5 billion this year. In the US, it is expected to reach $4.1 billion this year and $5 billion in 2014.

For China, the percentage is higher. As the world's biggest SNS market, the advertising spend on social media will experience a rapid increase of 51.3 percent from 2012, reaching $612 million this year, said eMarketer.

Although micro blogs are immensely popular in China, they have also received flak for their similarity to global SNS platforms such as Twitter. Both sport distinctive layouts with similar features for posts, referrals and comments. But Chinese micro blogs differ from their Western counterparts in terms of the added features they offer.

Jeremy Webb, a digital strategist at Ogilvy PR Worldwide, said the real difference between the two platforms lies in Twitter's relatively low penetration rate in the US market. Of the 74 percent of US adults who use the Internet, only 8 percent use Twitter, according to a recent study by a US think tank, the Pew Research Center. In contrast, by the end of 2012, the proportion of micro-bloggers among netizens in China reached 54.7 percent.

Moreover, Sina Weibo allows users to watch videos and view pictures seamlessly, unlike platforms such as Twitter, where video and pictures are often presented in the form of a hyperlink that has to be clicked to access the content.

"Platforms like Twitter have a limit of 140 letters for one piece of information, whereas Sina Weibo allows 140 characters and various other features like pictures, videos and hyperlinks. This helps create more vivid marketing campaigns for companies," said Gao Xiang, communications manager of Nokia China.