According to Chinese government figures by 2010 there were nearly 2000 newspapers published across the country. The average monthly circulation is around 215 million copies. Over half of the outlets are published at a provincial level and over 800 are published at prefecture level – large urban areas that include a ‘city’ and rural area, such as Zhengzhou which is the capital of Henan province (population of nearly 9 million). Many of these prefecture level cities (15 in total) are considered second and third tier cities and can have GDP growth of well over 10% per year.

There are over 250 TV stations in China including 44 educational TV stations. China has nearly 200 million cable TV users and 88 million digital TV users. Chinese TV coverage rate is 97.62%. Apart from the 15 central and national TV stations the rest are all locally broadcast at provincial or lower level.

China has around 10,000 magazines and journals in circulation. These are mostly published country-wide but over half are specialist publications covering sectors such as biotech, new energy, the built environment and conservation.

Any business entering a so-called second and third tier market in China should take advantage of their local media environment in order to build their business. But as one recent CBBC study showed one of the key challenges faced by British SMEs in China is knowing who to engage from government and media.

A coherent communications plan is a crucial part of any business plan in China – no matter at what scale. Local media outlets should be engaged and specialist publications should know your story. Engaging the right media from the start will make sure the right message is communicated to the right audience.

Here are some tips I have picked up to make a microblog more engaging:

1. Personalise your content. Weibo has been so successful because it has filled the gap between real life and official media in China. So try to share things that are real and show a personal side. For example, when I first started using Weibo I wanted to present myself as a Western ‘PR guy’ that gets China. This had limited impact. As soon as I started posting real life content I suddenly got a lot more interest.
2. Post images and video. The best way to share your life is through images. Weibo is great for this as they can be embedded directly in a post. Using an iPhone to take and upload pictures means you can record your daily life and share in Chinese cyberspace easily. My most popular posts are pictures of my baby daughter who is both cute and disgusting in equal measures.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Telling a story, sharing images and adding commentary work best when done in good humour. Weibo is about real life. And life is about having fun. I have found that jokes and funny commentaries on other people’s posts work brilliantly for getting people’s attention.
4. Don’t just forward it. What do you think? Forwarding posts or re-tweeting on Weibo is a bit of a no-no. Although you can do so, a post that is simply forwarded has a single Chinese character at the top, wu (无), which means ‘none’ – in this case no comment. Therefore, implying that forwarded posts are supposed to have a commentary.
5. Get into the slang. As part of ‘cyber-humour’ a whole set of net-slang or wang yu (网语) has developed. Seemingly random words or combinations of words replace the genuine articles – usually because they sound the same or similar, or because the pronunciation is like a well known Chinese dialect or accent. The word for classmate, 同学 (tong xue), becomes 童鞋 (tong xie) which is the word for baby shoes in Chinese but sounds like the pronunciation of the former when said in a heavy Zhejiang accent. The word for this one, na ge (那个), becomes nei ge (内个), using the word for ‘inside’ which sounds like the Beijing pronunciation of the that.
6. Start a debate, get your followers or ‘fans’ engaged. Filling the gap between official media and real life means creating a space for communication between people on current issues. Sharing your opinion, especially if it is different, can generate interest from fans and get people engaged.
7. Emphasise your posts with one of the many emoticons. There are three pages of emoticons to choose from on Weibo so make good use of them. You can choose from anything between happy to go crazy, from shaking hands to falling in love. When forwarding posts try adding an emoticon, if nothing else, to show what your opinion is.
8. Recommend good places to go. Every weekend my Weibo is flooded with pictures of delicious looking spicy Chinese dishes taken by friends in China. My shreddies feel a particular disappointment having woken up to pics, descriptions and even addresses of where to get the best Yunnan delicacies in Chaoyang, Beijing. 有国际外带没有？ Do they do international take out? I ask hopefully…. The same works for good restaurants wherever you are. Finding decent fish and chips in Brighton, for example, can be a great way to reach out to UK-based Chinese Weibo users.

There are of course many, many more tricks to get your Weibo noticed. This can apply to both corporate and personal microblogs. The most important thing is to create original content that relates to real life. And have fun while doing so!

What is clear is that Weibo is unique: an open and instant platform that allows sharing and analysis of news and current affairs by Chinese speakers around the world.

Weibo users tend to be educated and live in the wealthier Chinese cities. Furthermore, there are millions of Weibo users, including me, who are not in China and aren’t even Chinese. Information can go viral with incredible pace, and be tracked, on Weibo anywhere. Survivors of the crash whose experiences we followed on Weibo ended up with hundreds of thousands of followers, or ‘fans’ overnight. Weibo has become a vital news (good or bad) sharing platform for Chinese around the world.

There was also a lot of false information in Chinese cyberspace, such as netizens who claimed to be government officials linked to the incident. And of course many posts were deleted. Both are potentially damaging to the credibility of Weibo and information sourced from it.

But importantly Weibo acted an effective tool for conveying information helpful in the rescue operation and influencing a more satisfactory official response. And let’s face it, as terrible as it was, these kinds of accidents will happen anywhere at any time, let alone in a country that has changed so rapidly over the last few decades. I am sure most China watchers, myself included, would agree this could have been handled much better. But clearly the millions of outspoken members of the public could not have shared these opinions so easily even as recently as two years ago.

Sina Weibo is of great value to the Chinese government. Localised issues in this vast country such as corruption, for example, can be reported on directly and acted on just as quickly. It is also useful in searches for missing people. Images are regularly posted by concerned family members looking for a loved one.

So Weibo plays a much more significant role in society than either Facebook or Twitter. Beyond social or ‘we-media’ Weibo is a genuine channel to tap into what China is thinking and saying and a platform for open communication on important social issues. It is still in its early stages of development in this role but it is clearly very important for the people, media and government for it to continue to grow.

According to the original post Jia had worked very briefly in two of China’s internet giants, Tencent and Alibaba, only to be booted out from each because he wasn’t up to the task. On leaving Tencent, according to the rumour, Mr Jia used his brief  experience there to blag his way into Taobao – an Alibaba company. After his second short stint with a well known Chinese internet brand he then won the top position in China’s main supplier of online dictionary and software based on his previous career.

According to the press release later that day, the original rumour had been started by an old colleague at Taobao (an online payment service owned by the Alibaba Group) who goes by the name of Aa Jian Tong Xue (阿坚同学) who admitted that it was just a bit of a joke that got out of hand.

What struck me first of all it the apparent age of Jia Lin. In the photo he looks about 20 years old! In the interview, where he denies any faking of this work experience to win his current position, he gives a quick overview of his career so far. In 2003 he began as an intern in Tencent. Taken on full time and moving quickly through the ranks he soon left for Taobao. By 2009, less than six years later, he was the CEO of one of China’s best known internet companies. Looking back on his early days in Tencent he says: “that time was so long ago now [six years!] I was immature back then but now I have seen and done so much, this kind of thing doesn’t bother me at all.”

Other recent stories concerning Mr Jia and his company are accusations that some of the functions of his Jin Shan online social services are virtually identical to that of Tencent’s QQ service.

According to a recent article in the Economist, Chinese cyberspace is a ‘ferociously gladiatorial environment’ where internet companies tend to compete head to head in many areas of service. There are now over 80 social networks alone in China.  Mr Jia’s meteoric rise to the top of Jin Shan and apparent controversy surrounding his company’s strategy is just one of many examples of the fierce competition and rapid growth of China’s internet companies – six years is apparently a very long time in China’s internet business!

I am an active Weibo user and live in London which is seven hours behind China. During Sina’s morning peak it is 3-4am in the UK. As I am stirring somewhere between 6 and 7am China is just finishing lunch. And by the afternoon peak in China it is mid morning in the UK.

I post throughout the day on Weibo all the way up to midnight and later. I’ve found that certain times of the day are are best for engaging other users and gaining followers. But these times are not the same as the so called peak times for advertisers. I have found two good times in the day to generate more replies and followers. Between 6-7pm, which is when I am on my train home, I have consistently gained on average two followers per post. Whereas in mid morning between 10-11 I have found I get much less feedback.

The time of day when I generate the most dialogue is around midnight UK time. A single post at this time of day has gained up to ten new followers and 15 replies in a matter of minutes.

Why is this?

I think these two alternative peak periods are targeting Chinese users overseas – Chinese students in the UK and Europe, and even the States, are very active and form a powerful group of users outside of China. But I have also found that many of the followers I pick up in the evening and late night in the UK are in places as far flung as Xinjiang, Heilongjiang and Gansu provinces. The only explanation I have for this is that these people are up very ealry in the morning! Often users based in the provinces in China seem to follow a lot more people than they have followers. They also tend not to pro-actively post a lot of original content. In other words they are ‘followers’ and interested in what’s going on in the outside world.

This leads to the conclusion that when there are less Weibo users online you are more likely to get yourself noticed by who is. It’s not surprising that my posts don’t gain interest in peak times because when users are downloading 50 posts at a time every few minutes content is easily overlooked. Weibo users characteristically generate more original content than on Twitter (40% versus 20% according to a recent report) and so the trick is to find the right times when your original content gets the most exposure.

Beyond the anger are the issues actually being addressed? There are such great pressures on city life in China and so little space or time to release this pressure that Weibo seems to have become the most effective and readily available way for Chinese people to express themselves freely as a way of releasing some of this pressure. Criticism and anger is often being led by journalists that work for independent media. I have been following a reporter, Zhou Bin, for the 21st Century Business Herald which is one of China’s most respected business papers. Zhao is openly critical of the handling of the incident. The confusion of number of deaths and the Zhejiang government spokesperson’s inappropriate use of the word ‘irregularity’ ( 奇异) in a press conference are all fueling Netizens’ hunger for a reason to vent their anger.

The range of colourful and often subtle forms of expression is fascinating. From outright blasting to light humour, imagery, sci-fi references, and I even read a beautifully written short piece of classical Chinese which was alluding to the train crash through the metaphor of  boat that had over turned.

Apart from pushing the creative boundaries of language use and importantly forcing a revised response from the government, I don’t believe the current anger-fuelled situation will have a lasting effect. Public anger has remained sustained for much longer than in previous scandals but as has been the case with recent scandals, sooner or later the Weibo pressure cooker will run of of steam and focus will move elsewhere.

During the same week the CNOOC oil spill in the Bohai Sea, which had taken place one month earlier but only recently been made public due to a cover up by the company, was also a topic of heated debate – more so in China than the West. Officials were accused of massaging the truth and making light of what resulted in an damaged area of coastline larger that Singapore.

The Murdoch story was one of the top trending stories prior to that but literally within the time it took to throw a left hook, attention seemed to have shifted onto another Murdoch. Wendi Deng Murdoch briefly set Chinese cyberspace alight with her well placed left hook on the ‘pie man’. Born in Jinan during the cultural revolution, Wendi’s quick decisive action won respect in China and was seen to change the opinions of many who did not like her before – ‘don’t mess with a Chinese woman. We can cook, clean and throw a mean left hook when needed!’ according to one blogger.

This now seems like a lifetime ago. And it perhaps is in Weibo terms. The mood in Chinese cyberspace since the horrific high speed train crash on Saturday has generated fierce and surprisingly open debate – which seems to be largely led by some the country’s leading journalists in response to the potential destruction of evidence of the cause of the accident.

There is a sense this mood will continue to intensify. It seems that the role that Weibo now plays has goes far beyond voicing public opinion and changing the course of action taken by the authorities. It seems to me that the social media platform is acting as a valve allowing a controlled release of  stress and tension out of this and other situations in China. In my opinion this fills an important need of Chinese life – with such a fast pace and fierce competition in pretty much every aspect of city life in China, people need some form of open expression to vent the tensions that build up when living in such an intense environment. What is amazing is the speed that which such intense sentiment can change focus.

As one Chinese microblogger commented late last night, Guo Meimei, CNOOC, Wendi, the train crash; who knows what will be trending on Weibo next week?

I began following a well known journalist, Wang Keqin, who writes for the China Economic Times newspaper. Mr Wang is known as one of China’s leading investigative reporters and regularly travels the country.

Yesterday amid the online anger in Chinese cyberspace I noticed a single image posted by Wang Keqin with the comment ‘share an image’. It was a fairly mundane but moody view of what looked like a car park in front of a three story office building. The scene was dark but illuminated by either a sunset or sunrise breaking through clouds above. Because Weibo is geared towards coherent dialogue between netizens, I posed the question, ‘What’s the significance of this image?’ A single response in Chinese from a Beijing based user stated cryptically “黑云压成城欲摧” (hēi yún yā chéng chéng yù cuī) which literally translated means the dark clouds on the horizon will crush the city. In other words the situation is going to get a lot worse.

This seems to be the general mood in China at the moment – at least viewed from online via Weibo in the UK. Anger and disappointment is giving way to a fatalistic mood – there is worse to come.

Today there are also more upbeat calls to look a the issue objectively. And indeed from a communications perspective the clean up could have been handled much better. A number of high profile reporters, including Wang Keqin, are posing the question: Should China slow its pace of development down so the her people can catch up? My response to this is such rapid and sustained development, especially in the unprecedented construction of what is now the world’s most extensive high speed rail network, is bound to encounter major challenges which need to be addressed.

One excellent report in the 21st Century Business Herald reported over the weekend on the number of major Chinese listed companies involved in the construction of China’s high speed rail network. There are also a number of major players that are not listed that work in this sector including a company called KTK Group (今创安达) which was responsible for the emergency systems on the Wenzhou-Hangzhou line where the accident took place. According to KTK’s website the company only took two months to install the system on this line in 2009.

There are clearly issues to be addressed but there are bound to be major challenges involved with building such an extensive state of the art high speed rail network. Perhaps there are more positives to drawn from this terrible accident?

“Help, Help! Our train has derailed and we are not far from Hangzhou south station. Kids are crying and we can’t get out. No support staff to be seen…” posted by blogger Yangquanquanyang (羊圈圈羊). Her previous post several hours earlier was, “Can’t wait to get home, I’ll be there in a couple of hours!” Her previous messages before the crash had been forwarded 20-30 times but these posts and subsequent ones covering her rescue were posted up to 100,000 times each.

Several hours later Yangquanquanyang had arrived safely home. Coverage continued from a number of active reporters in Weibo including He Gang of Caijing with regular updates on victims being pulled from the wreckage. The top story on Weibo on Sunday evening (24/7) was an insight into the train driver killed in the accident, Pan Yiheng, which had received 41,179 comments, posted by Beijing based actor, Yao Chen, with nearly one million followers.

A search for ‘China train crash’ on Twitter reveals a different take on the incident. While there are concerns expressed for victims the majority of posts are critical of China. Speed of construction of high speed train lines, sacking of officials supposedly responsible, human error of the driver who apparently was fatigued and even a potential cover up all top stories on Twitter. But little consideration for victims and the stories behind people involved such as the train driver Pan Yiheng who was killed in the crash.

I think there are two things to learn from this:

1. The power of Weibo and other social media in China is astounding. News is transmitted first hand effectively around the world (in Chinese of course) in real time. Not only that, because of the nature of typing in Chinese, each post is like a condensed press release – often with images or footage. Posts go viral and can be tracked. Yangquanquanyang, for example, within the space of two hours had accumulated tens of thousands of followers.

2. China’s image in the West is still poor. The contrast between commentary shows little coverage of people and their stories even though this information is just as readily available in the West. Instead Western bloggers on China targeted anything that leads to criticism of China.

Of course the reason for the crash has be be identified and addressed but isn’t it surprising the lack of human interest? And shouldn’t we be looking beyond criticism of China? What is taking place in Chinese ‘cyberspace’ for example is astonishing.

“On average, the Chinese will complete a new skyscraper every five minutes for the next three years”, according to award-winning British architect Sir Terry Farrell in a recent interview. Not surprising as China has over 160 cities with a population of 1 million. And according to a report published in 2009 by the City Development Report of China, nearly 621.86 million people already lived in cities by 2009. The report estimates that by 2020, almost 50 percent of the Chinese population will live in cities, and by 2050, the percentage would grow to 75 percent.

British architects are responsible for some of China’s most iconic modern buildings such as Galaxy Soho Beijing (Zaha Hadid), Beijing South Train Station (Sir Terry Farrell) and Beijing Airport’s T3 (Norman Foster). But according to our research understanding of architects as brands in China is low.

Based on a key word search we found that no British architects have received substantial coverage in the Chinese media. A general search of ‘UK+architecture” shows a good association of the UK with architecture but still there is no in depth coverage. Over 100 respondents to a survey we recently conducted on the UK’s creative industries in China found that the UK is associated with architecture but respondents did not have any further understanding of why.

China’s urbanisation will continue at its current rate for decades. British architects have an unprecedented opportunity to make a contribution to China’s continued growth. But without a strong communications plan the Chinese market will become harder to engage as more companies establish themselves there and more Chinese talent seizes the opportunity.

A successful media engagement campaign will include specialist architectural journals, leading business publications and online portals as well as lifestyle magazines. Social media is also important for showing a more personalised, informal side to a personality or a brand.

Architectural publications should be engaged for in depth, specialist editorials and interviews. We maintain close links with the top architectural journals in China which include the following:

World Architecture: with a circulation of 50,000 this monthly journal is sponsored by Tsinghua University and has been going since 1980. “WA China building award” sponsored by World Architecture is becoming one of the most vibrant and influential awards in Chinese architecture.

Timearchi: with a circulation of 250,000 this bimonthly was founded by Tongji University architecture and urban planning institute in 1984. It is distributed in China and internationally and edited in English and Chinese.

Architectural Journal: this monthly journal has a circulation of 40,000 and is a national level academic periodical published by the China Association for Science and Technology and sponsored by CHINAASC. Architectural Journal was the first published in 1954 making it the longest standing building professional magazine in to be published in the ‘new China’.

Leading business publications, such as China Business and 21^st century Business Herald, should be engaged but with a different angle – the commercial element of British architects in China. It is important to demonstrate to the Chinese readership how British involvement is benefiting the development of Chinese cities such as improving local amenities, creating jobs and improving the quality of life in the cities they work in.

Luxury goods are big business in China and glossy lifestyle magazines are no exception. Elle Men enjoys top sales in cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, with an average market share of 40%. Other prominent titles, also owned by Western publishers, include GQ and Esquire which have been in China for years. Magazines such as these titles should be engaged to give greater insight into the people, how they think, their creative processes and what their lives are like overseas and so on.

Engaging Chinese media in this or any other sector should be proactive and have a strong message of ‘win-win’ and mutual benefit. To simply translate your English language press releases, and the brand, into Chinese will not work. If what the Chinese media is getting is translated press releases put out on Western wire services or from Western coverage there is no control over the message and a great communications opportunity could be missed. Without a strong brand, a good reputation and proactive media strategy for China, for many of the British architects trying build their reputation in China the boom might be over sooner than expected.

Weibo, however, felt different straight away. Within the space of one week I had posted just over 50 times and built up a follower base of over 140 Chinese netizens from places as far afield as Gansu and Heilongjiang provinces, as well as attracting the attention of influential reporters from Chinese media.

Safe to say I am hooked. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is to log onto my Weibo account and catch up with what’s trending in China on today, respond to comments to my posts and look up who is now following me.

Just in the space of one week I have identified eight reasons why Weibo is so much more fun and valuable as a marketing tool than Western equivalents.

More information in one ‘Tweet’: the 140 character limit in the Chinese language still allows a lot of information. A word in Chinese is normally one or two characters long and so one ‘tweet’ can contain a paragraph of information which keeps people on your post instead of being directed to an external link.

Information is categorised: I can respond, comment and categorise conversations which allows coherent, and often very entertaining dialogue with other users.

Embedding images: I can share images and footage and embed them into posts easily which generates great dialogue with other netizens.

Focus on verified accounts: a small ‘V’ appears on ‘official’ Weibo accounts. This gives greater credibility to follow and be followed. For brands and celebrities this is essential.

Updates in numbers: every time I log onto my Weibo account I get updates on how many new messages and followers I have. A great way to keep track on who is doing what.

Private and shared messages: other netizens can reply to my tweets either publicly or privately. It’s a great way to keep in touch with colleagues based in China. People seem to be more willing to reply to my Weibo than my emails!

Greater freedom follow and be followed: I can follow who I want and vice versa. I spot someone, such as a reporter, who I’d like to make contact with. I comment on one of his posts, send him a private message and follow him. More often than not I pick up an influential follower within minutes.

Focus on comments and dialogue: after my first post on Sina Weibo it was clear that this platform is geared towards attracting and generating comments from fellow Weibo users. The trick is to come up with topics of interest and actively encourage debate and commentary. With responses comes more followers and increased profile.

Just within the space of a week I am completely hooked. On average I gain three more followers per ‘tweet’. Who knows what I will have discovered next week…

But generally over the last week we’ve seen completely different trends in cyberspace in the East and West. Top stories in China have been linked to badly handled crisis communications. Chinese celebrity, Guo Meimei, a wealthy 20 year old Chinese socialite has been heavily criticised for her alleged involvement with the Chinese red Cross, a charity with close links to the Chinese government. Miss Guo made a laughable attempt at apologising to the masses for her shameless flaunting of her wealth and links with one the China Red Cross senior executives with little a soppy plea to ‘leave me alone’ – which was slammed by thousands of Chinese netizens. This was trending at the top of Sina Weibo’s hot topics for days.

Chinese oil giant CNOOC was accused of massaging the truth when it was discovered the company had covered up a major oil spill in the Boihai Bay off the coast of northern China for nearly one month. In a statement a company spokesperson of CNOOC implied this was only a small spill. Chinese netizens blasted CNOOC for the response, questioning what exactly was the definition of ‘large’? The oil spill has since been reported to have affected an area seven times the size of Singapore.

In the West, the bizarre internet craze of ‘planking’ is set to lose its cult online status to the increasingly popular trend of ‘owling’. Hundreds of young people in America, Australia and now, Britain, have taken up the new ‘owling’ craze.

This has not yet reached China, however, Andrew Methven, CEO of Newland PR, became the first person to ‘owl’ in Chinese cyberspace with a post on Sina Weibo. Let’s see if this takes off!

A recent study conducted by Bain & Company, in collaboration with China Merchants Bank, gives an analysis of HNWI’s in China.  In total there are over 500,000 HNWIs with an average of RMB30 million of capital – nearly twice as many as in 2008.

As of the end of 2010 these HNWIs, including more than 20,000 super HNWIs, held about RMB15 trillion available to invest. That figure is expected to grow to 18 trillion this year according to the survey.

The study finds that a sizeable shift in Chinese HNWI asset allocation is happening: the largest changes in asset allocation in 2011 versus 2009 are increases in alternative investments (5.4%), stock and equities (5.3%) and wealth management products (4%).

For international companies, organisations and even governments targeting this growing yet illusive sector of Chinese consumers and potential clients a sophisticated, integrated approach of reputation management is required.

Business media – good copy released through the right channels is a reliable way to get your message out there. We often find that with the right message an interview or press release can be syndicated by online web portals over subsequent weeks and months after the press release.

Luxury men’s magazines – according to a recent report in China Daily, men’s lifestyle magazines in China (both homegrown and international brands) are enjoying growth rates of 48 percent year on year. Men’s fashion magazines enjoyed an annual growth rate of more than 30% per year since 2006 and the trend looks set to continue. Men’s magazines can form a powerful component of a communications plan targeting the luxury sector in China for advertising or editorial. But in order to maximise the potential of this channel a good understanding of current trends in fashion and popular culture is needed.

Celebrity ambassadors – some of China’s leading businessmen maintain a high profile and can be strong advocates for a company, a product or a service. We can work with clients to locate the right level advocate and facilitate the right kind of deal.

Social media – Sina Weibo is now the world’s biggest micro-blogging platform by number of users and user activity. A social media strategy can be integrated into a traditional media plan and also a high profile advocate deal – many well known Chinese businessmen have their own micro-blogs that are followed by millions. In our experience a proactive micro-blogging strategy for China can yield much greater results commercially compared to Western equivalents.

Events, conferences and meetings – in China there is no better way to build your business than through direct contact and ongoing relationship building. A media presence is important but if not made relevant by direct contact it will be difficult to build meaningful business relationships in China. Through our client base alone we work with some of China’s biggest brands. More broadly we can offer advice on targets relevant to a client’s particular business objectives and advise on how to maximise that relationship through a win-win’ approach.

So in summary, there is no simple solution to targeting any sector of China consumers – especially HNWIs. But the right strategy and approach can ensure you are speaking to the people that matter.

All over Beijing in the past week we have seen signs of celebration of the 90^th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Sunday 3^rd July was the first sunny day in Beijing since the celebrations started so tourists were out in force in Tiananmen Square.

CPC 90th Anniversary Celebrations in Tiananmen Square

Vast floral displays have been created to mark the birthday; one of the biggest is at the very centre of Tiananmen Square surrounding a huge hammer and sickle. Cameras were snapping everywhere as many tourist come from across China to the symbolic centre of the People’s Republic.

Throughout the history of Beijing this area was always intended to impress about the power of China. But I wonder how many in Britain recognise the reality of this rising power in the world. I was struck by these thoughts by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times on 27^th June 2011. “Unlike the Americans, Britain has barely begun to think about the implications of the rise of China. Thisweek’s visit to Britain by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, is largely about trade. While the Americans think of China as a rising power, the British still treat it largely as an emerging market.”

See our Facebook page for more images.

Chinese business gifts at the Yongdimen shop in Beijing

It is very common in Beijing to come across these huge specialist markets. As I have an insatiable curiosity about the patterns of Chinese culture I ventured in. I came across a number of shops selling huge ships wheels, globes and dings. I had seen one of these ships wheels in the office of the President of a company recently but it was inappropriate to quiz the President about the significance of the ships wheel.

Now I know having questioned the sales team in the gift shop. The ships wheel in the office of a boss is a symbol of the strength of leadership. I was told that a business can be compared to a ship in China so that it is essential the ship has a captain or leader who can guide the ship safely through the stormy waters of competition. Then the leader needs a large globe  as a symbol of his worldly knowledge. Finally there is the gift of a large ding that shows deep understanding of the 5000 years of Chinese culture. Bronze dings are found in offices and public places all over China. In Chinese history and culture, possession of one or more ancient dings is often associated with power and dominion over the land.

Therefore, the ding is often used as an implicit symbolism for power. So there you have it clues for the perfect business gifts for Chinese business leaders!

Which is biggest and more influential?

So far Sina apparently has 57% of China’s microblog users and 87% of its microblog activity. While Tencent Weibo has 22% of China’s microbloggers but only 9% of market share by browsing time. Although figures vary, recent articles have reported that Sina’s number of cumulative registered users for its Weibo hit 140m by the end of April, adding 40m in just two months, and expecting to reach 200 million by the end of the year. Some reports claim that Tencent has 200 million users already whereas others say 160 million users in total. According to recent studies less than 100 million of those are active on its Weibo service.

So in terms of users Tencent Weibo has already surpassed Sina Weibo and according to some, in terms of traffic there is not much between the two. But for media influence and profile it will be very difficult for Tencent Weibo to surpass Sina Weibo in the short term.

What’s the difference?

According to a recent report in the FT there is apparently little overlap in the user bases of each. They seem to be split geographically in China – Tencent’s microblog being more popular in the second and third tier areas of China and with younger, lower income users – being particularly popular among young students in these areas. Sina Weibo users on the other hand tend to be city dwellers, high profile, influential and more active. Tencent Weibo users mostly find the service through their QQ accounts whereas the Sina brand has a closer association as a microblogging platform.

Which is best for my Company’s China strategy?

Although the FT claims that there is little overlap between the two, a quick search on Sina or Tencent reveals that many of China’s big high tech companies, for example, have both Sina and Tencent microblogs. And the content tends to run in parallel – or at least doesn’t differ greatly across platforms.

What is interesting is the level of influence each has across the Chinese media spectrum. Sina is known as a powerful media platform especially in China’s major cities. But because of this it can still be seen as distanced from people’s lives in China’s lesser known cities. Tencent, however, has strong influence and reach through its QQ service in these areas and is seen as a more personalised, accessible information platform.

So in my opinion any company serious about engaging Chinese consumers through social media should not limit themselves to a single platform. Sina can bring greater influence, media clout and profiling. But Tencent also offers significant penetration into China’s regions – which could be the future of many international organisations developing their Chinese business.

What are the other social media companies in China?

There are a number of other brands competing in this busy space that international companies should be aware of. RenRen runs one of the biggest Facebook-like sites in China while rival Kaixin001 also operates another social-networking site similar to Facebook. Chinese search engine, Baidu (China’s Google), is trying to turn its popular message board, Baidu Tieba, (literally ‘Postbar’) into more a sophisticated social networking site and has its own microblogging service. Other big Chinese internet brands, Sohu.com and NetEase.com, also offer microblog services but only hold 6% and 3% of the market by number of users.

So depending on your objectives and target market in China, a number or even all of these platforms could apply to your China social media campaign.

Alistair Michie, NICG Group Business and Government Advisor, presented the former Premier with a detailed briefing on Yujiapu CBD in advance of the Forum. During the Forum the former Premier made a speech strongly supporting the development of the Yujiapu CBD; he indicated that the City of London could play a strong role in helping the development of Yujiapu CBD into a leading global financial services centre.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Yujiapu Forum held at Yujiapu CBD within the Tianjin Binhai New Area

Alistair Michie joined the former Premier on the high speed rail line from Tianjin to Beijing and briefed him about the design of the Beijing South Station. This station was designed by the British architect Sir Terry Farrell and is dedicated to high speed rail; it is the second largest rail station in Asia.

Gordon Brown (GB) arriving at Yujiapu Forum – on his right is Li Bo, Chairman of TIFI – on his left Alistair.

The Moderator of the Yujiapu CBD Forum was Long Yongtu 龙永图. He is the Former Secretary General of the Boao Forum. During his speech former Premier Gordon Brown praised Long Yongtu for the leading role he played in bringing China into the WTO. Alistair Michie briefed Long Yongtu on the role of NICG in helping develop the international profile of Yujiapu CBD.

The company, previously Newland UK, is an independent agency based in south west London. The company had built its success on serving UK-based Chinese clients such as Bank of China, ICBC and ZTE; and supporting both UK and Chinese government bodies and organisations on PR activities and events including the UK’s CHINA NOW festival.

Following a merger with leading Chinese communications company, Trends, in 2009 to form Newland International Communications Group (NICG), the company has provided international clients with media relations and reputation management services both in the UK and China.

Building on this success the company is now also working with clients in the US and Middle East, operating in financial, high-tech, biotech and pharma, real estate, automotive, manufacturing and retail sectors.

Chief executive, Andrew Methven, has lead on rebranding the company as Newland PR dividing it into UK, China and international divisions. “Newland PR has identified an opportunity to target successful companies and organisation that need world class communications services but require a more flexible, localised approach to their China PR.

“The re-launch of the company enables to build on our success and relationships we’ve established in the last five years, and also to offer our services to mainstream UK companies looking for an alternative communications services supplier. As leaders in our field in the east, we can also support organisations looking to enter the world’s most vibrant economy.”

Recently joining Andrew from BSI Meetings and Events is Mark Dando, who with over 20 years industry experience, will focus on developing UK-based based events business while Andrew concentrates on developing the international portfolio.

<<ENDS>>

Editor’s Notes

Newland PR

Newland PR is an international public relations agency with offices in London and some of China’s major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Our integrated communications services help manage the reputations of successful businesses and organisations.

We are the UK’s only major agency dedicated to China PR. We provide strategic communications, media relations, marketing and event management services for all industrial sectors across the whole of China. Newland PR is a member of NICG.

NICG

NICG is headquartered in London and has 9 offices across China with a team of over 500 professionals. NICG is a leading international communication services group that delivers exceptional understanding of Western and Chinese cultures. Group companies include Trends Group (including 8 specialist divisions), Newland PR and Newland Travel.

NICG has a unique international reach linking China and the world through its core strengths in investment, communications, consultancy and corporate travel solutions. The business model reflects the critical importance of relationships in China to win business success.

According to industry experts the Chinese government plans to invest RMB 4 trillion in seven key sectors, including biotechnology and clean fuels, and has set ambitious targets for businesses and organisations to meet in order to overcome development challenges currently faced by China. Challenges include reducing energy consumption, curbing environmental damage, improving the healthcare system and encouraging domestic innovation in value added industries in order to increase domestic consumption.

Research and development in China’s biotechnology industry will increase rapidly over the next five year period especially now that this sector is enjoying greater attention from abroad. The Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), the world’s largest biotech organisation, will hold its first China conference in Shanghai this October. Initiatives such as this will further encourage international cooperation with Chinese companies in this field.

Biotechnology can help address many of the issues that China faces. The development of clean fuels, new medicines, enzymes, and emissions reducing technologies can all make a serious contribution to reaching targets set out in the 12th Five Year Plan. Leading companies in the West have a real opportunity to contribute to the development of China’s biotech industry. Some of the key domestic companies active in space are the Tianguan Group (天冠集团), COFCO (中粮生化), SINOPEC (中国石化) and Longlive Bio-technology (龙力生物科技).

For international biotech companies targeting China there are a number of important domestic media to consider. The key trade media are Bioon, Biotech World and Biotechnology & Business. Top tier general business publications in China include 21^st Century Business Herald, China Business and Guangming Daily. In the energy field the top tier media include China Energy and China New Energy. When pitching your story to these media we can help refine the message to ensure take up. What these media will be interested in is how is your company is benefiting China’s biotech sector. Current concerns in the industry are the cultivation of local talent, the level of home grown innovation, commercialising of biotech research beyond universities into industry, securing funding for what is seen as long term, investment-heavy, high risk industry; and improving processes and efficiency of taking research to market in China.

An integrated communications plan targeting China’s vibrant biotech field should take all these factors into account. Newland PR is a leader in strategic communications, PR and media communications in China’s biotech sector and maintains strong links with China’s new energy and biotechnology media. We can work with international companies to help them communicate to the people that matter in this exciting field in China.

The delegation has met with the governor of Yunnan Province, Mr Qin Guangrong, and will meet the vice governor, Gu Zhaoxi, tomorrow (8 June 2011). Vice Governor Gu is responsible for financial services and commerce in the Province.

Here is local news coverage of the visit as it still unfolds: 

http://tv.people.com.cn/GB/150716/152572/152582/14829973.html

This important visit will lead the way for the opening of Newland PR’s Kunming branch later this year.

[11 February, 2011]

Brief:

• Every year HSBC organises a Chinese New Year celebration in London for its broad, London-based Chinese clientele. Up until 2010 this was organised internally by the bank’s marketing department.
• In 2011 Newland PR was engaged to work with the HSBC marketing department to organise their celebration of the Year of the Rabbit.
• Our brief was to provide a full corporate event management solution including venue, production, branding and design, content management and most importantly to exceed previous years in making the celebration a genuine ‘Chinese’ cultural event.

Challenge:

As a global brand it was important to ensure HSBC was represented according to very strict brand guidelines within the Chinese cultural context.

China being a very important market for HSBC we had to ensure that the HSBC brand was communicated effectively to this UK-based Chinese audience.

Of course another challenge was to ensure what our solution for the Year of Rabbit was a marked improvement on previous years.

What we Delivered:

Our approach was to create a comprehensive brand experience with a Chinese twist.

Firstly, we had to ensure the right venue – combining space, light, prestige and style.

On agreeing a central London venue with the client our next task was to develop an authentic Chinese style celebration of the highest quality that would also engage Western guests. We created a programme including some of the UK’s best Chinese performers including face changing, magicians and a dragon dance.

We produced themed, branded venue decorations that closely adhered to HSBC’s brand guidelines while also highlighting the Chinese New Year cultural theme. All related branded collateral such as pop-up stands and invitations was designed and produced by our in house design team.

We made best use of the dramatic décor of the venue though effective use of lighting and branded projections.

We created a bespoke menu themed in a Chinese-Western fusion style, while a string quartet provided a blend of contemporary Western and Eastern music.

Result:

HSBC’s Year of the Rabbit celebrations surpassed previous year’s events. According to HSBC’s marketing department the authentic Chinese element was much improved and their delegates were very happy with the result.

Brief:

• Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province, is a one of the country’s most famous tourism destinations attracting more than 20 million domestic and international tourists every year.
• Hangzhou is also host city of the 2^nd World Leisure Expo, 2011 – a leading international leisure conference held in the city every five years.
• The vice mayor of Hangzhou, Zhang Jianting, led a delegation of local government and business leaders to London to promote the city of Hangzhou including presentations and meetings during the day and a gala dinner, speeches and entertainment in the evening.
• Newland PR was engaged to deliver marketing, media and delegate management services for the promotion – tasked with inviting leading media and 120 delegates from the travel industry.

Challenge:

There were two main challenges in delivering this event. Firstly, from agreeing the brief to delivery was only 10 days. Therefore, time was very tight.

Secondly, our targets we mostly companies that did not know China. We had to come up with a creative and attractive package to win interest from this sector of delegates.

The English materials available about Hangzhou and the Expo were of very poor quality and not catered for an international audience.

What we Delivered:

We formed an account team that included a strong creative element as well as extensive experience in delegate management for conferences such as this. The team firstly drew on all the relevant information from Chinese government websites, marketing materials, articles in the media and any other resources. This enabled us to create a very strong event brief highlighting the importance of this visit – particularly for the UK outbound tourism industry. We found that the World Leisure Expo was an excellent highlight of the event that would cater to the British corporate audience.

We developed the briefing into a clearly written, well designed, branded and very visual document that was circulated alongside the invitation and letter from the vice mayor.

We drafted Chinese and English press releases which were catered to very different media audiences. The China message was more government focussed, the UK release from a more commercial angle – the ‘China opportunity’.

Next we set out to generate a ‘buzz’ through our social media networks – maximising Twitter, Linkedin and our Blog to generate interest. We conducted an intensive social media marketing campaign over the first week of marketing the event. We achieved excellent results – within the first 5 days of promoting the event we secured over half of the delegates the brief required.

Our marketing activity continued up until the event itself though effective use of social media – including updates, links to relevant articles, and interesting information about Hangzhou and the Expo.

Our media engagement continued in parallel to this; pitching the event and its importance to Chinese and British travel media.

On the day our delegate management team facilitated a smooth event ensuring all delegates were aware of the programme and gained the most value out of the event.

Result:

The result was over 120 delegates from industry and government attended the event. Some of the biggest names in the UK’s outbound tourism market were represented including Thomas Cook, Cox & Kings, Travels Fair, GTA and Audley Travel. Media included BBC, National Geographic, CCTV, and Xinhua. Over 60% of delegates had not attended a China-related tourism promotion in the UK before. And over 80% were interested in accessing the China outbound market. We therefore had effectively reached a new and very relevant target audience.

Brief:

• The city of Dezhou in Shandong Province, China, is known as China’s solar city. Dezhou was host to the 4th International Solar Cities Congress in September 2010 – the first major international event to be held in the city. The province of Shandong has a cooperation agreement in place with Scotland to forge closer links in trade, science, culture, education and tourism.
• Our brief was to provide a comprehensive range of communications services in the lead up to the Congress and during the Congress itself.
• This included acting as a liaison between key international stake holders – the International Solar Cities Initiative (ISCI), the Congress organisers and the City of Dundee.
• Ahead of the congress, Newland UK was also commissioned to facilitate a Scotland-based marketing visit prior to the Congress as part of a European tour in order to generate interest internationally and media interest domestically.
• During the Congress we provided event support and logistical services, media liaison both in China and overseas, and VIP liaison for international and high level Chinese guests VIP guests.

Challenge:

The city of Dezhou, although well known in China, has no international profiling. Furthermore, this was the first international conference hosted by the city. A major challenge therefore was facilitating effective communications between international stake holders, the Solar Cities initiative, City of Dundee,  and the organisers on the ground in Dezhou.

The international marketing trip delegation travel to Scotland (Edinburgh and Dundee), Holland and Germany to promote the event, requiring Newland UK to make full use of its international reach and communications capability.

What we Delivered:

Of the UK itinerary only a single day was spent in London. To make the most of this time we arranged interviews with the major Chinese language media in the UK, the London Global Times, and a meeting with one of Europe’s leading renewable energy publications, Earthscan.

The rest of the UK itinerary was in Scotland. Newland UK worked closely with the Scottish Organizing Committee of the International Solar Cities Initiative and the city of Dezhou to facilitate a four day visit to Scotland in June, 2010.

An itinerary of high level meetings with government and business was arranged.

On the first day Minister Jim Mather warmly greeted the delegation with Ian Ross of Scottish Development International (SDI).  The delegates felt that the Minister really related to the potential for a strong relationship between Scotland and Dezhou – which is part of Shandong province, which is twinned with Scotland.

The delegation was welcomed at the City Chambers at Edinburgh, by Councillor Dawe, Leader of the Council. During this meeting there were presentations from Councillor Dawe and by George Goudsmit of AES Solar and Douglas Prentice of Renew Energy on the Scottish solar industry.  A lively question and answer session raised issues common across the world, for instance on planning laws in historic city centres.

A major highlight took place at the Scottish Parliamentary Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency committee meeting at the Scottish Parliament building that was holding its quarterly meeting on 1 June when the delegation was in Edinburgh. The mayor of Dezhou was given the opportunity to make a short presentation about Dezhou and its Congress to the 50 or so delegates present – a unique opportunity to promote the Congress within Scottish Parliament.

On the 2nd June the delegation, led by Dezhou Party Secretary, Mr LEI Jianguo (who is now vice governor of Shandong Province), was greeted at Dundee City Chambers by the Lord Provost, Cllr John Letford, and the Leader of the City Council, Cllr Ken Guild. Newland UK played an important role in facilitating the signing of the ‘Sister Solar City’ MoU signed between Dundee and Dezhou. Through this agreement both Dundee and Dezhou sought “to deepen cooperation and mutual understanding through this friendship agreement in education, commercial and cultural exchanges at the city level with the goal of strengthening the ties between China and Scotland as two leaders in the forwarding of solar energy.”

Following the successful marketing trip to the UK, the delegation then travelled on to Holland and Germany where the Newland team continued to manage the itinerary and logistics.

On conclusion of the European tour, the task of the Newland team was to continue to facilitate communications between the Dezhou Congress organisers and the City of Dundee and the ISCI leadership in the lead up to the congress.

During the congress itself the Newland UK team were responsible for providing support event management services, VIP speaker liaison, media relations and design and branding of Congress materials. This included facilitating a visit for the leader of the Dundee council, Cllr Ken Guild, to attend, speak and take part in a signing ceremony at the Congress – formalising the relationship between Dundee and Dezhou.

Our team was also responsible for facilitating an international trade delegation to join the congress including some of the world’s leading solar tech firms.

Over the three days of sessions, speeches, which included presentations, keynote speeches from leading businessmen and politicians, an exhibition and trade show, a gala dinner and networking receptions, Newland UK continued to deliver media liaison and delegate management services.

Result:

The Dezhou International Solar Cities Congress was praised as the biggest and best ISCI solar congress to date by delegates and the ISCI. Dundee and Dezhou formalised their relationship as ‘solar sister cites’ at a formal signing ceremony at the Congress – adding greater depth and breadth to the Scotland-Shandong relationship.

The trade visit to the UK was widely covered in both UK and Chinese Media, whilst congress was widely covered in the Chinese media and around the world.

Newland UK’s parent company, NICG, was engaged by the government of Dezhou in a landmark agreement signed in November, 2010, and witnessed by Lord John Prescott, which outlined a long-term engagement plan in which NICG would continue to work with the Dezhou government to build its international profile as a global solar city. The ongoing remit includes facilitating an annual solar conference hosted by the city, encouraging FDI, media relations and international visits.

Brief:

• Yunnan is China’s south western province and its gateway to south Asia and ASEAN. The province boarders seven countries and is China’s richest province in flora, fauna, agriculture, natural resources, minerals and on-ferrous metals.

• The province is rich and natural resources but is poor in relation to China’s eastern provinces. The provincial leaders in their most recent plans have set ambitious targets to increase trade links and exchange between Yunnan and countries of Europe with the objective of increasing the wealth and prosperity of the province and its people.
• Newland UK has been engaged on a long-term basis to provide an integrated range of communications and ground handling services to coincide with international visits and marketing trips made by the senior provincial leaders. Effectively developing a communications plan for the province focussing on agriculture, natural resources, tourism, and culture industries.
• The brief includes creating marketing activities such as events and conferences, and providing comprehensive ground handling services in China and a number of European countries.

Challenge:

A major challenge in marketing a single Chinese province is to differentiate its offering from the other thirty or so Chinese provinces. This requires a deep understanding of its resources, politics, business, history and culture. Furthermore, the understanding of Yunnan outside of China is low which has to be taken into account.

Our work with the province involves liaising with a number of different departments, organisations and stakeholders so effective clear communications is vital.

On establishing the ‘message’ for the province a further challenge is how to coordinate this with a wide range of specific needs and activities that are already planned – providing a coherent approach across the board.

Due to the nature and level of the international visits, the Newland team has to work under high pressure and tight deadlines. Furthermore, to manage this account effectively involves working across several teams, time zones, languages and countries.

What we delivered:

Our work with Yunnan involves ground services for international visits and marketing activity.

Marketing

We facilitated three major promotions for Yunnan province in 2010 and early 2011:

For each promotion we worked with a different organisation within the context of promoting Yunnan province and its business and resources to Europe.

We developed a clear message and brand for each promotion while ensuring an overall coherence across the range of activities. Through extensive research we found that the target sectors were highly attractive to Western interests but had previously not been communicated effectively. We developed a strong brand and message which highlighted the beauty and richness of Yunnan from a Western perspective.

To ensure clear communications across the account team we stationed a number of key staff in Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, as well as coordinating international activities from our offices in Beijing and London.

For each promotion we provided a comprehensive range of event management, marketing and media services. This included creating the brand and content, liaising with partners and third parties in delivering the promotions, facilitating the events on the day, production, technical, and all media liaison and post event follow up.

Ground Services

In addition to ground services for the three promotions outlined above, since mid 2010 Newland UK has worked on five major international official visits for the senior leadership of Yunnan province. These visits have taken the Newland team to many western European countries, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as the UK.

These visits all incorporate official government meetings at a high level that the Newland team are involved in facilitating. We also coordinate a comprehensive range of ground services including hotel selection, pre-check in VIP services including flowers, private chef, greetings cards, and spa services; transport and transfers, drivers, setting up business meetings and meeting venues, qualified local tour guides and interpreters, chartered transport including private helicopter, jet and yacht;  private tours, shows and private shopping,

In providing a global travel solution the Newland Travel team ensured the client was getting the most up to date and best deals. This involved ongoing liaison with venues, partners and suppliers in these regions to make sure our services were cutting edge and competitive.

Results:

Newland continues to be the partner of choice for international marketing visits of Yunnan’s senior leadership.

The Nujiang promotion won extensive coverage in the mainstream Chinese media including Xinhua News, Phoenix TV as well as UK publications London Global Times and China-Britain Business Review, and was attended by over 80 senior representatives from business and government.

The Yunnan Agribusiness promotion was also widely covered in the Chinese media including Xinhua News, Wenhui and Sina.com. The event attracted over 50 UK agribusiness executives and won support from key organisations AHDB and IATC.

Finally, the YEA launch enjoyed extensive Chinese media coverage in Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, Zhong Xin News Agency and Yunnan TV. Over 34,500 news items about Yunnan European Association were released and syndicated across China – reaching a potential readership of 80 million.

Newland UK has been formally engaged as the European delivery partner for the Yunnan Europe Association (YEA). This allows Newland to continue to play an active role in facilitating closer cooperation and understanding between Yunnan and Europe.