How many Social Media platforms you use? Or, what is the Social Media application that you use the most?

The social media platform that i use the most is Facebook. I still remember back in the day where  the first thing I posted was ” I am on Facebook, ADD ME!!!!”.  Now, Facebook has 1.94 billion active users. And the rest is history.

Social Media nowadays have transformed rapidly over the past decade where can find new friends. Then it evolved to be able to play games with them. And now you are able to setup businesses to advertise in Facebook.

I would like to ask you all a question. What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Definitely not jumping out of the bed and brush your teeth! Unless you’re late for work. I can confirm with you that you picked up your phones, and went through Facebook or Instagram or any social media platform to see what or who did last night and lied in the bed for another 5 minutes.

But do you know any other social media platforms other than Facebook or Instagram or Twitter? Do do you even know there are other Social media platforms the Asian’s or Chinese people actually use? It is reported that only in China there are around 731 million users in the internet where 95% of them access them through their phones. That is 695 million users just in China alone!!!! That does not include the Chinese that are all over in the world like in Australia United Kingdom, United States and in Europe. So, what apps do you normally have in your phone? Social Media Platforms of course.

Alright let me cut the crap and go into more serious matters!

Here is why the Chinese Social Media Market an upcoming Advertising Tool.

Businesses in this millennium would need advertising to boost their brands go gain recognition in the public or the spread from word of mouth to keep their businesses ongoing. Large Multinational businesses regard marketing highly and keep a huge budget for their brands marketing. They use advertising to capture public attention through paid messages or information which helps promote or sell a product, service or brand. The mass promotion which involves audio or visual methods of marketing has the ability to reach numerous people. Advertising online in multiple sources or ways can create brand building, creating a demand, information to the customers about a new product and of course the main goal is to achieve profit and sales goals by the business.

Therefore, it is best for businesses to tap into multiple social media platforms that are used in the country themselves. I would particularly base my topic in Australia/ Melbourne as i am familiar with the market in Melbourne.  Not only Facebook/Instagram/Twitter are best tools to be used in Australia, but also Chinese Social media platforms’s due to the high influx of Chinese immigrants and students coming into Australia every year. The Australian businesses must adopt their marketing plan and change their culture to fit with the Asian market that is ever growing in this country.

Let’s check out the Chinese Social Media Platforms!

1. WeChat

WeChat’s is the most common messaging tool/app that is by the Chinese/ Asian Community in China as well as Australia. WeChat has pretty much the same functions or not better than Facebook as it can be used to send messages and receive calls like Whatsapp linked with your contact list’s. It has a “Discover” function where users can use it to post their activities commercial or individual just like Facebook or Twitter and all your friends connected with the individual will be able to view it.

Commercial Businesses can use or create “Subscription Accounts”. Businesses can advertise on famous blogs or accounts that will be featured on WeChat with paid advertising. The Subscription account holders will help you write blogs and articles about your businesses products and services! It allows you to push frequent content to your followers.  Account managers can broadcast one message per day. The account followers will see the update information in the subscription area.  A Business can setup its marketing strategy where it revolves around pushing content to users as WeChat subscription account is mostly use for the daily news and information broadcast.

WeChat also has QR Code Scanners and a Instant money transfer and payments by WeChat themselves or you can used the one linked with AliPay.

2. Weibo

Weibo is a mix of Facebook and Twitter in one platform. It is one of the most used social media platforms in China. It is used by over 30% of Internet users in the word. They allow their users to post pictures and meant to be like a “tweet” where it is meant for it to show the fast paced sharing of information to the other users. Many celebrities and local startup businesses use Weibo to show their products and promote them for multiple times in a day where users can buy it of them immediately with a click of a button.

Weibo also has another service bundled with it, called Weilingdi (微领地). It is similar to Foursquare where is a location-based social networking application for mobile phones. This allows businesses to be more active and present on the map of the people where they can just click the application and know which are the best rated or the nearest stores around them with full descriptions.

3. YeeYi

Yeeyi  is another Social Media Platform frequently used by the Chinese community in Australia. It is more like a mix of everthing including social media, sales, advertising etc.. It  is a mix of Facebook, Ebay, Blogs and News websites. An all-in-one website in Chinese Platform to buy, sell and advertise! Perfect for upcoming businesses to grow their market share.

Yeeyi has around 30,000 active users every minute. They are mainly Chinese international students looking for deals or doing startup businesses by using Yeeyi as a platform. Yeeyi provides ad placement on their websites for a decent price with very good visibility. Many articles are post daily on the website such as property, the forex market, education, migration information and of course the local Australian news.

4. QQ

QQ is an instant messaging software/ app which is like Twitter by the Chinese developers. The app provides shopping platforms for users, meaning businesses can open online stores to gain more customers, blogging, chats and of course advertising. There are around 899 million active users recorded at the end of June 2016. That is pretty much the whole population in China.

QQ is not only an instant messaging platform, but is also the main email provider in China and the Chinese community in Australia. Therefore, if your business wants to grow their email list in the Chinese market, create a new QQ email and start using it to boost your email list!!!

At the end of the day, every local business or large corporation must use social media platforms. Businesses at this era would benefit from gaining the most market share. Therefore, businesses in Australia would be encouraged to adapt or learn new social media platforms. This includes WeChat, Weibo, Yeeyi and QQ. It would help your business grow in Australia due to the increasing migration of Chinese and Asian migrants coming in.