Who has more followers on social media? Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga or Chen Kun? That’s right, it’s Chen Kun, a Chinese actor who has 48 million followers on Sina Weibo—China’s largest equivalent to Twitter. To put that figure into context, there are 41 million Beliebers and 39 million little monsters on Twitter. Yet if you’re like us, you won’t have even heard of Kun.
In a Guardian article this week, Burberry revealed Kun “Weiboed” about its products when he attended a recent fashion show. As a result of local coverage like this, the company is starting to outperform its rivals in the Chinese market.
So, why does this matter for you?
Imagine the situation: you’re a US- or UK-based tech provider and you’re writing a whitepaper, putting together a deck, or talking to a customer about current technology trends. You want a quick data point to convince them that social media is big. Do you trot out the same overused examples of Facebook and Twitter, which they’ve heard a thousand times from other providers and in the media?
When you hit the reader with something genuinely fresh, outside their familiar environment, they’ll remember you. What’s more, using examples from around the world proves to customers that you truly are a global business, which is vital when your reader is just as likely to be in Beijing as in Baltimore. You’ll show you have a broad awareness, and ultimately your marketing collateral will have a bigger impact.
Tracking down good, concrete examples about technology successes and failures can be difficult enough in your own market, let alone globally. But there are some good resources on the internet that can help, for example Tech In Asia and IT News Africa.
Posted by John on 12 July 2013