In August 2011, China’s largest domestic social networking services (SNS) platform Renren announced that establishing brand pages on its platform would be free of cost and companies flocked to the site to build their own brand pages. In consideration of the sudden influx of brand pages, MSL China’s social media experts teamed up with Renren to conduct a joint research project to understand the most effective practices for operating SNS brand pages. The objective of this guide is to provide you with effective brand page management models, as well as a basic understanding of how online word-of-mouth can work for your company.

1. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be ExecutiveAmbassador
MSL China Your Brand Whitepaper 1
Anyone Could Be Your
Brand Ambassador
By Stephy Liu, Enson Hu, Phoebe Li and Catherine Cao

2. About MSL China About the research
Following the union with Eastwei MSL, MSL China is Marketing and PR experts acknowledge the
now a top 5 international strategic communications importance of social media in creating a positive
agency in Mainland China. With 200 colleagues brand image. Based on recent statistics, the total
across 4 offices, MSL China brings together over number of Chinese internet users just surpassed
20 senior consultants with more than 12 years 500 million. According to a 2011 social media report
of strategic communications experience in this released by marketing management company InSites
key global market. Part of MSLGROUP Greater Consulting, over 50% of Chinese internet users are
China, the largest PR & social media network in registered on social media platforms and over 70%
the region today, MSL China provides knowledge of those users follow brands, and 39% of Chinese
driven, integrated campaigns and advisory services social media users connect via mobile phone.
spanning nearly every industry and communications With trends suggesting increased social and mobile
discipline. MSL China has received recognition from media growth, many companies are doing more with
the International Business Awards, The Holmes social media networks. Many company-run brand
Report’s “PR Agency of the Year,” the China pages and weibos are thriving in this new marketing
International PR Association and China’s New Media environment and are attracting a strong following.
Festival for its creativity and effectiveness in strategic But there are also pages which remain desolate, and
communications and industry-leading social media have failed to gain the support of users. So what is
offering. the secret to building a successful, attractive brand
www.mslchina.com.cn page for social media platforms?
In August 2011, China’s largest domestic social
networking services (SNS) platform Renren
About MSLGROUP announced that establishing brand pages on its
MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe’s PR, speciality platform would be free of cost and companies
communications and engagement group, advisors flocked to the site to build their own brand pages.
in all aspects of communication strategy: from In consideration of the sudden influx of brand
consumer PR to employee communications, from pages, MSL China’s social media experts teamed
public affairs to reputation management and from up with Renren to conduct a joint research project to
crisis communications to event management. understand the most effective practices for operating
With more than 2,900 people, its offices span 22 SNS brand pages. The objective of this guide is to
countries. Adding affiliates and partners into the provide you with effective brand page management
equation, MSLGROUP’s reach increases to 4,000 models, as well as a basic understanding of how
employees in 83 countries. Today the largest PR online word-of-mouth can work for your company.
network in Greater China and India, the group offers This paper is organized by a series of practical
strategic planning and counsel, insight-guided descriptions and suggestions, such as ‘The Value
thinking and big, compelling ideas – followed by of Social Media’, ‘Operating Your Brand Page’, and
thorough execution. Learn more about us at: www. ‘Measuring Results from Your Brand Page’. We
mslgroup.com+ http://blog.mslgroup.com+ Twitter+ provide case studies and examples of how to best
YouTube manage, leverage, and measure the impact of your
social media marketing programs.

3. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 3
The Value of Social Media
If your customers are not already on social media,
then they are on their way
P5 Social media and the different types of social media platforms
P5 Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy
P7 The value of brand fans
P7 A simple and effective marketing model for SNS
P7 Brand pages
Preparing Your Brand Page
Your company’s corporate management model
and social media strategy should be complementary
P8 Brands and brand pages
P8 The steps in building a brand page
P10 Setting up multiple brand pages for companies with several brands or product lines
Operating Your Brand Page
Finding the brand and consumer social media heartbeat
P12 Brand page managers, and the duties and qualifications of the operations team
P12 What brand fans care about
P13 Ensuring that brand pages maintain a personality and achieve your business goals
P14 Responding to fan comments
P16 Responding to negative feedback and communicating with brand fans during a crisis
Promoting Your Brand Page
Attracting fans from the brand page to your store
P17 Quickly gain brand fans
P18 Integrating online and offline activities
P19 Finding and engaging opinion leaders
P20 Using your brand page to increase sales
Measuring the Results of Your Brand Page
The input-output measures of social media marketing
P21 Measuring return on investment (ROI)

4. The Value of Social Media
If your customers are not already
on social media,
then they are on their way

5. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 5
Social media and SNS
relationship circle
Microblog
information circle
the different types Common
Strangers
of social media
interests
Family Famous
Public Friends people
Pages
Schoolmates
Me Friends
platforms
Friends’ Classmates
Friends Colleagues Close Friends Celebrities
Public Pages
Social media refers to web-based and mobile
technologies that enable people to write, share,
Relationships Information
discuss, and communicate with others. SNS and guide interaction guides interaction
microblogs (called weibo in China) are the two
Renren.com, is China’s leading real-name SNS that is
most common types of social media platforms, highly engaged by university students and young white
designed to accommodate different user needs. collar professionals across the country. Renren provides
powerful, feature-rich products including News Feeds,
SNS are online communities centered on real- Blog, Album, Status Updates, Sharing, Music, Xiaozhan,
life relationships and are a powerful tool to build LBS, Social Games, and Social Commerce to meet the
connections; they include sites like Renren and communication, entertainment and shopping needs
from over 220 million registered users.
Facebook. On the other hand, microblogs are
topic or subject matter focused, and are oriented maintaining relationships. Sina Weibo and Twitter
toward information sharing rather than building and are two popular microblog platforms.
Incorporating social
Studies show that social media has a clear
correlation with consumer purchases. Based on the
media into your
AISAS marketing model, the process consumers
use in deciding to make a purchase can be closely
marketing strategy
associated to social media. Companies looking to
reach a larger target audience should infuse social
The popularity of social media is a global media into their marketing strategies.
phenomenon, but there are few markets where
it is as prevalent as China. According to InSites
Consulting’s 2011 market report on global social
media trends:
· 15% of people worldwide are connected to at least Consumer decision making process
one social media, but the figure for China is 44%; (Each step incorporates social media)
· 62% of all Chinese social media users follow ATTENTION INTEREST SEARCH ACTION SHARE
brands and 90% believe that information about
brands on social media is reliable;
· In China, 39% of social media traffic is via mobile information,
advertising,
information,
advertising, comments, community,
community, community, e-store, word-of-
web search,
phone; 78% of mobile users follow brands, and 12% marketplace,
word of mouth,
marketplace,
word of mouth, reviews, trial marketplace mouth,
sharing
experience experience
of them use LBS (location based service) to share
their location with friends when posting content.

7. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 7
The value of brand Brand fan estimated
future spending
fans (compared with non-
fans)
Banks: 4,424RMB
Automobile:
24,000RMB more
Nielsen conducted an online survey designed more
to measure the value of brand fans in social
advertising on Renren. In the report, Nielsen
quantified the value of fans for 50 brands in the IT (mobile phone,
automotive, fast moving consumer goods, financial computer, appliances): Fast consumption:
384RMB, 1,206RMB 180RMB more
and IT industries. The report shows that: and 1,163RMB more
respectively
· Brand fans have a clear impact on business.
Research has shown that brand fans are more likely RMB 1,206 more on the brand. This is true for
to purchase from a brand they follow. This tendency other industries as well, with bank fans spending
is attributed to brand perception, preference and RMB 4,424 more, automobile fans spending RMB
previous ownership. 24,000 more, mobile phone fans spending RMB
384 more, and fast moving consumer goods brand
· Interaction with the brand on a social media is fans spending RMB 180 more.
shown to influence future purchases by brand fans;
moreover, brand fans for each industry are more · Because of their increased loyalty and
likely to spend more on brand purchases than non- opportunities to sell to them, brands should
fans. For example, fans of a certain computer brand continually interact and build closer relationships
are more likely to make future brand purchases with their fans.
compared to non-fans and on average spend
A simple and
of-mouth marketing online. Many companies
have successfully adopted the following simple
effective marketing
and effective social network marketing model: 1)
Build up a brand page, 2) Advertise to increase
model for
connections, 3) Publish via their network.
2: Place Social-ads, build connections
with consumers, gather Brand Fans
SNS 1: Establish a brand page
Social media provides
companies with a platform
to connect with consumers.
On a SNS platform, anyone
could become your brand
ambassador. One of the
secrets to a successful SNS
platform is being able to
effectively stimulate word- 3: Use the News feed to send out brand info. and stimulate Word-of-Mouth
Brand pages
attract users interested in their brand and add
them as brand fans. Brand fans have access to
A brand page is an official public page belonging brand updates (news, product information, events)
to a company, organization or celebrity on a social and interact with the brand and other fans at their
networking site. Companies use brand pages to convenience.

8. Preparing Your Brand Page
Your company’s corporate management
model and social media strategy should be
complementary
· Is your target audience using social media?
Brands and Brand
· Is your brand or client currently dealing with bad
Pages press? If so, you may want to temporarily delay setting
Brand pages aren’t exclusively for large brands. Small up a brand page – or create a dedicated page to deal
and medium-sized companies can also set up a brand with the issue.
page as a way to connect with consumers. The brand page
enables companies to identify opinion leaders, initiate · Does your brand have enough content to discuss?
dialogue and develop online word-of-mouth. Social media are based on daily, high-frequency
communication.
But first, before setting up an account, it is important to
consider the following: · Do you have someone capable of managing the brand
page? It needs at least 1-2 dedicated individuals to maintain.
The Steps in Building
communication so as to ensure that the brand’s message
reaches its target audience. Before launching your brand
a Brand Page
page, we suggest taking the following steps.
After one of our clients decides to set up a social media Determine the brand’s social personality
account, MSL China will prepare a “Company Social
Media Execution Guide” for the brand and company. This The brand page provides the brand with a direct, fast and
guide includes: behavior models for typical effective social media platform for daily communication
fans, a social media map, KPI (key performance with target consumers. But to create a meaningful
indicator) management, and guidelines on and effective communications channel,
tone of voice, style and interactive techniques. the company must determine the
This manual can help companies and their brand’s social personality:
PR agencies to improve the effectiveness of human traits

9. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 9
based on existing brand characteristics. For example, Social media marketing depends on engaging and
IKEA’s social personality is based on a 30 year old guiding fans to create individualized brand material. It is
traditional Swedish woman: simple, honest, and family- important to include interactive components, including
oriented. These personality traits reflect IKEA’s business discussion boards, voting, games and events. Often
goals and target audience. MSL China will develop a times, brand engagement inspires users to effectively and
customized “brand social guide book” for each client, positively spread the brand by word-of-mouth. However,
which contains a variety of useful tips to help the company the design and preparation of successful interactive
effectively establish and maintain a social personality for events requires intensive planning and coordination.
its brand.
Understand fans’ specific networking habits
Determine the brand’s style, tone and content
The brand should adopt different communication
On a social media site, the brand takes the form of strategies for different social media, such as Sina Weibo
a person, and frequently interacts with others. So in and Renren. This is because Renren and Sina Weibo have
addition to the brand’s overall social personality, it is different characteristics that meet different user needs.
necessary to determine the brand’s tone and style. Sina Weibo caters to a more information-centric audience,
For example, the Singapore Tourism Board uses the while Renren focuses on real-life connections.
personality of a young, mature, stylish, multi-cultural,
enthusiastic and positive white-collar woman. Obviously, Standardize interaction and site management
an immature or overly energetic tone of voice would not
be consistent with this brand’s social personality. In social media marketing customer relationship
management (CRM) is critical. Appropriately responding
Developing social content is another major challenge to positive, neutral and negative comments is a technical
for companies. For effective daily interaction, brand art form; there are smart and creative ways of dealing
page content needs to be rich, interesting and sharable. with negative feedback and turning them into positive
Do not post traditional press releases on a social opportunities to promote your brand, but this sometimes
media! Press releases have little or no impact on an requires help from the company’s customer support
SNS site; to the contrary, users may feel that the brand professionals.
is dry and outdated. Instead, companies should create
a social media matrix. The social media matrix is a daily Staffing
operations guide that is designed to ensure content
is consistent and coherent, and tracks what kind of Since social media marketing
content most effectively connects with users. It is time and labor intensive, a
also shows which brand properties are most brand page needs a dedicated team to maintain
effectively conveyed, while illustrating it. Depending on each company’s individual needs,
how the brand is presented to companies can either use an in-house team or employ a
fans through quantitative PR agency to operate the brand pages.
statistics.

10. Setting up multiple brand pages Public Page: Samsung IT
World
Type: Electronics and
for companies with several Digital
Fans: 181,985
Public Page: Samsung
brands or product lines Television
Type: Electronics and
Digital
According to “Social Business Forecast: 2011 The Year of Integration”, social media Fans: 99,311
expert Jeremiah Owyang describes 5 social marketing strategy models. Any of these Public Page: Samsung
Mobile
might be the right fit for your organization depending on your operations and objectives. Type: Electronics and
Digital
Fans: 81,565
Public Page: Samsung
Appliance House
Type: Electronics and
Digital
Five strategy models for social marketing Fans: 18,207
by Jeremiah Owyang Public Page: Samsung
Video and Photography
Type: Electronics and
Digital
Fans: 29,732
Similarly, Nike has Just Do It
and Nike Sportswear sub-brand
Centralized Decentralized Hub and Multiple hub Holistic
spoke and spoke pages, as well as product pages for
1) One department 1) Organic growth 1) Each employee is
controls all efforts 2) Authentic 1) One hub 1) Similar to hub empowered running, female, extreme sports
2) Consistent 3) Experimental sets rules and and spoke, but 2) Employees are
3) Less authentic 4) e.g. Sun procedures across multiple organized
and basketball series.
4) e.g. Ford 2) Business units brands and units 3) e.g. Zappos
undertake own 2) e.g. HP
efforts
3) Spreads
widely across the
organization Nike Sisters
4) Time intensive Apparel
5) e.g. Red Cross 20,368 Fans
Nike Running
Athletics
25,071 Fans
· Centralized: Orders come from top down and tasks are assigned; Just Do It
Apparel
· Decentralized: Decentralized organization, in a developing state; 53,073 Fans
· Hub and spoke: A centralized unit decides and coordinates, while other units work
independently;
· Multiple hub and spoke: One unit coordinates several brands or sub-companies; Nike Sportswear
Athletics
· Holistic: Each employee has their own privileges and responsibilities; 150,365 Fans
Companies need to incorporate their own internal management organization when
Nike Skateboarding
determining which model to use. Once the company has implemented a suitable model, Athletics
6,499 Fans
each social media platform can be coordinated together to ensure maximum efficiency.
Companies who have many brands or product lines often use a multiple hub and spoke Nike Basketball
system on SNS. One department is responsible for coordinating many sub-brands or Athletics
76,976 Fans
product lines and operates multiple brand pages.
For example: Samsung has set up different brand pages for its IT, television, mobile,
digital and home appliance brands on Renren.

11. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 11
As of August 2011, brand pages can be created for no cost · Special features: video, voting, forum, rating, friends'
album, “Renren like” (a third party application that allows
In this free version, Renren is preparing to open up an users to share and recommend items on their news feed and
App Store. Renren and third parties will design apps that allow them to become the public page’s fans with one click).
companies can use as free and effective marketing tools.
· Renren App Store custom features:
Creating a Renren brand page is simple
- Personalized tools: welcome tab, wallpapers, flash wallpapers;
If you do not have a Renren account: you can directly register - Multimedia tools: video add-ons (Youku, Tudou), maps, LBS information
a brand page account and go from there. sharing, customized themes;
If you already have a Renren account: Log in, apply for a - Applied marketing tools: digital store, coupon downloads, product
brand page, select a brand page name, add a profile picture Q&A, online market research, group purchasing, grab-a-deal, brand member
and description (Note: these will appear in the news feed, registration, auctions.
and your friends will see it. Use this to start gathering your
brand fans), then apply for a URL (page.renren.com/your_ Custom themes stimulate fan interaction
brand_name) and you are set. Afterwards, you can add
various apps, customized themes and content to attract Companies can post videos, music, animated GIFs, and
fans. other multimedia features on their brand page. The brand
page can also use flash and iframe features to increase
Renren brand page allows the use of API for third parties interactivity with fans.
Renren’s application programming interface (API) allows
third parties to read and write network resources with
permission from Renren by logging into their network
accounts. Your company’s technical support staff can visit
wiki.dev.renren.com for additional information.
The main components of a Renren brand page
· The brand page is built similarly to a personal page;
however the brand page possesses several features that
encourage fan interaction. A number of apps are also
available to meet different marketing needs.
· Basic features: news feed, comments, personal detail,
status updates, album, blog, share, private message,
mailbox, gift box, music, friends and related pages.

12. Operating Your Brand Page
Finding the brand
and consumer social media heartbeat
Brand page managers,
topic messages that may be sent by competitors and need
a quick and strategic response. Social media is gradually
and the duties and
evolving into a catalyst for major news events. As every
marketer knows, if these latent disasters or developing
qualifications of the
crises are not effectively dealt with in early stages, the
consequences could be dire.
operations team · Pay attention to competitors: While maintaining your
In order to begin operations, the company needs a page, you should take note of competitor pages and
dedicated team of up to 2 or 3 people. For effective daily analyze their interactions with fans. You can learn a lot by
management, the brand page’s staff needs to: how they act as well.
Operating a brand page requires in-depth knowledge and
· Track and analyze feedback: Companies can leverage ongoing effort; it demands strong content production
user comments and messages to understand fans’ capabilities, market awareness, social communication
opinions about the brand. As the number of fans increase, skills and crisis management experience. PR agencies
it may be necessary for the site to manage several have experience managing multiple brand pages and
thousand messages per day and conduct analyses on can set up a completely new brand page in a relatively
consumers’ perception of the brand. Using this feedback, short time. PR agencies can also make quick and accurate
the company can then make any necessary adjustments strategy adjustments as new situations emerge. If the
to the brand page. brand needs to simultaneously manage two or more
brand pages or needs to coordinate with another social
· Release content: The brand page strategically and media platform, professional PR agencies often have the
systematically releases fresh and interesting content collective resources to coordinate them more effectively.
for fans, including albums, blog and status updates. As
the brand page develops, the company will strengthen
the brand’s influence on consumers. Designing and
What brand fans care
organizing events that attract users to close the gap
between the company and consumers and maintaining
about
fan activity is an important daily task. Events require
intensive planning, from wording and image selection to
award design and management. Maintaining brand fans is like keeping in touch with real-
life friends. Consumers will want to know about the latest
· React rapidly: During daily operations, the brand will brand updates, share the opinions of other consumers,
run into problems such as user complaints, as well as and be informed of upcoming promotions, events and
“trolls” – users who post inflammatory, extraneous or off- new product releases.

13. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 13
Ensuring that brand Create a friendly
pages maintain a relationship with target
personality and consumers
achieve your business
· Plan posting frequency to prevent negative feedback
from oversaturation;
goals · Write material from the viewpoint of fans, posting
Find the Social media heartbeat of your brand and information in a friendly and open style;
target consumers
· Monitor and collect feedback, and make changes to the
Social media marketing differs greatly from traditional brand page accordingly.
media marketing. For example, consumers tend to
be skeptical of sales promotions, but in social media
marketing, users often enjoy promotions and are eager
to participate. The key is finding the brand’s social media
heartbeat. After a company determines consumer needs,
wants and desires, it becomes easy to know what topics
However, when
and content will deliver the best results. The company can
use this content as a resonating point for both sides and
posting this type
ultimately form the company’s “social media heartbeat”. of information, it is
Finding social heartbeat
important to note:
Promotions on a brand page work differently than in
traditional marketing. Consumers’ tend to initially be
skeptical when encountering a store promotion. However,
when information is shared between friends, the level of
trust is substantially higher. Social media provides brands
with the opportunity to form a direct link to consumers in
the form of a friend-to-friend relationship. Of course, this
Case study: Watsons friendship requires long-term maintenance. Below are a
few techniques to ensure that this relationship can take
brand page product shape:
classification · Daily greetings;
Watsons brand page separately classifies content · Timely responses;
using special tags. Classifications include
informational tags about products, promotions and · Regular and interesting updates;
events. Fans can comment or share information on
these tags and generate word-of-mouth. · Helping fans resolve issues;
· Seasonal and holiday greetings;
Watsons uses Sina Weibo to advertise in-store promotions,
using tags for each category. Above, Watsons “Sharing
Beauty” tag informs fans about a Labor Day promotion for · Discussions on common topics;
club members.
· Following social hot topics, and appropriately
participating in discussion.

14. Responding to fan Case study: Li-Ning –
comments one journal entry leads
Responding to fans requires tact. Below are a few
techniques that will help you better interact with fans:
to a comment war
· Regular responses: It is important to respond to One of Li-Ning’s sub-brand pages published a
fan comments in a timely manner, especially in the journal entry entitled “Summer Youth Dreams: MCC
early stages of developing a brand page. We suggest tide of new summer products”. Li-Ning had no
maintaining a high ratio between fan comments and idea that the entry would result in a comment war
responses; even if it is a simple greeting, each reply between fans. The day after the entry was posted a
cements the relationship with your consumer. fan asked a question regarding the market position
of Li-Ning in a completely neutral tone. Another
· Respond within a set timeframe: brand page responses user responded and said that there was no way that
should be conducted against a set deadline. This Li-Ning could boast the second largest share of
cultivates fan habits of regularly checking responses from the global market compared to other brands. This
the brand page, and will avoid negative feedback due to post was followed by a third user comment that Li-
late responses. Brand pages generally do not update on Ning boasts a large share of the Chinese domestic
a daily basis, so we believe this is an opportunity to do market and it is already good enough that China has
better than the competition and suggest that at the end of a large domestic athletic brand that can support
the work day the brand page responds to user comments itself.
to ensure that they keep visiting the page.
On the morning of the third day, Li-Ning responded
· Develop opinion leaders: Each brand page should have to the three users respectively in a polite and open
its own loyal fans. In the early stages of operations, the manner to express its appreciation. Afterwards,
brand page should regularly comment on user status the first fan responded that he hopes for Li-Ning’s
updates, and maintain communication with more active continued growth and believes the brand can make
fans. Through daily interaction, these users will eventually Chinese consumers proud.
develop into the brand page’s opinion leaders.
· Carefully resolve crises: When fans post complaints
or negative feedback, be careful how you deal with
such comments. Try to avoid deleting comments. It is
also unacceptable to publically attack or directly refute Li-Ning responds to each fan. Li-Ning notes a fan’s concerns and promises to consider their feedback to
improve their product and brand. Li-Ning thanks the fan for their input.
commentators. Instead, you may be able to deal with
these situations by:
In social media, brands will receive fan support and
- Responding to complaints or negative feedback with positive
affection, and at the same time can be targeted with
responses.
criticism and doubt. Brands should react quickly
- Leaving a response, and then if appropriate deleting the original
and use a positive tone to influence negative voices
comment after gaining the acknowledgement of the poster.
and work to convert them into potential brand
- Using the brand page’s mailbox to actively keep in touch with
ambassadors. Through this case, Li-Ning was
fans, gaining the acknowledgement of those fans and then deleting the
able to turn negative feedback into positive brand
comment.
support.
Although it is not necessary to delete all negative comments, you do
Li-Ning’s brand page operations team responds to
need to delete excessively negative comments by “trolls”, “spammers”
each and every comment on a daily basis. Li-Ning
or other destructive users.
responds to product purchase inquiries, product

15. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 15
Case study:
design suggestions, brand advertisement views and
product quality complaints. Some fans will even
Lufthansa responds
talk with Li-Ning about personal matters, including
marriage announcements. Of course, Li-Ning will
to questions and
congratulate the fan, just like a friend would.
requests
Lufthansa Airlines recently changed their Renren page
name to “Lufthansa Flight Clan” with the goal of attracting
Chinese users who are interested in, or live in, Europe.
On Renren, Lufthansa provides fans with information on
Responding to a fan commenting that they prefer the company’s previous logo, Li-Ning explains the
reasoning for adopting the new logo and its background. European tourism, study abroad, and other related topics.
Fans can participate in monthly prize contests and
promotions, and use the site to learn more about
Lufthansa’s China operations. Lufthansa responds
patiently to each user question and comment, from
A fan asks about Li-Ning’s newest product line, wondering if they carry a woman’s size. Li-Ning then
points out which shoes are for men and women in the new line. inquiries on special price tickets, flight routes, and
luggage, to frequent flier programs.
On the morning of the third day, Li-Ning responded
to the three users respectively in a polite and open
manner to express its appreciation. Afterwards,
A fan is curious if Li-Ning will sign on tennis players for future promotions. Li-Ning responds that
they already have deals with international and Chinese tennis players and lists them.
the first fan responded that he hopes for Li-Ning’s
continued growth and believes the brand can make
Chinese consumers proud.
A fan makes an inquiry on sponsorship for an activity that fits with Li-Ning’s positioning. Li-Ning gives
the fan an email address to send their plan to Li-Ning. Li-Ning thanks the fan for their support and says
they will consider their plan.
Lufthansa provides the link for frequent flier membership for a fan inquiry.
A fan asks for student itinerary for a roundtrip flight between Shanghai and Edinburgh, Lufthansa
redirects the fan to a page listing price and times for flights.
A fan makes a complaint about the sizing and shape of Li-Ning shoes. Li-Ning responds by asking
the fan to provide details on the problem and will redirect them to the sales department to resolve
the issue.
A fan asks about luggage weight costs for a flight from France to China. Lufthansa responds saying
that student tickets generally allow up to 30kg of luggage, but the program is not available France.
Lufthansa then makes an apology.
As mentioned, some fans will share their personal life with Li-Ning. One fan makes a wedding
announcement on the Li-Ning brand page, and Li-Ning gives them a big congratulations!
A fan is having problems with their frequent flier card and their miles are not being counted. Lufthansa
responds saying that the miles can be added on and provides the fan with a link to customer service.
A fan suggests adding a new direct flight between Nanjing and Dusseldorf, in addition to the Frankfurt
route. Lufthansa patiently responds saying that it would regretfully not be possible due to a lack of
infrastructure.

16. Responding to
During a crisis, companies should take a calm approach
and avoid panicking or lashing out. While interacting with
negative feedback and
fans, praise and criticism are two sides of the same coin.
Once negative feedback or a latent crisis emerges, the
communicating with
brand should actively respond with positive feedback as
best as it can, listen to fans’ opinions, and then works to
brand fans during a
resolve the crisis in a timely manner. Below is the general
procedure for resolving social media crises.
crisis
A general guide to dialogue flow in resolving an issue/crisis
Take reasonable
actions to fix the issue
and let customer know
Positive Negative
Yes Yes
No
Do you want to Assess the Evaluate the Does customer need
respond? message purpose more information?
Yes Yes No Appropriately and
Unhappy Are the facts
No Response carefully correct the
customer? correct? facts
No
Yes Can you add No Dedicated Yes Are the facts No
value? complainer? correct?
No Yes
Leave a well- Yes Explain what is being
Thank the Seeking Is the problem
thought done to correct the
person attention? being fixed?
response issue
Yes No
Ignore and monitor
complaint

17. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 17
Promoting Your Brand Page
Attracting fans
from the brand page to your store
Quickly gain brand fans
· Social Ads: Social ads provide exposure and clicks, certain apps to guide fans to their brand page. Your company
but more importantly they enable users to spread the can use the free game app and infuse advertisements into
advertisement themselves. Creative advertisements the game. Dell placed an advertisement into the popular
and user interactive features (sharing, liking, voting, Renren Restaurant app, and within four days attracted
downloading, attending, one-click purchase, etc.) can act as 104,398 new fans with 38,893 joining in one day alone.
a trigger for word-of-mouth marketing.
The brand page and
advertisements should
include sharing functions
for fans, such as the
“like” button, to enhance
promotion. Sharing
features provide greater
exposure for your brand.
The more fans the
company has, the more
advertisement exposure
increases and the higher · Integrate with other digital communication channels: You
the ROI. Also, Flash Box can use Renren brand page to post information from other
allows users to directly interact in advertisements and post platforms such as Sina Weibo. Conversely, you can use other
flash content in the news feed. platforms to advertise your Renren brand page, for example
by adding a button on your company website.

· Using offline communication channels: You can provide
the address for your company’s Renren brand page on other
promotional items such as coupons, brand publications and
printed advertisements, and invite them to follow the brand
on Renren.
· Search engine optimization (SEO): Brand Page search
engine optimization is similar to having a good URL;
· Application encoding: Renren offers users with a number choosing a good name, description and keywords are
of social game apps and provides space for ad placements essential for the success of the page.
in each game. Companies can make use of the popularity of

18. Integrating online and offline activities
Closing the gap: let fans take the lead in offline events “Renren LBS” motivates fans to shop
In November 2010, Renren released “ Renren LBS”, a
location based service for mobile phone users. Using its
Case study: Li-Ning large number of mobile users, “ Renren LBS” is a powerful
tool for social, local, mobile (SoLoMo) technology.
is more than just an
online friend
Social media provides a way to maintain Case study: Master
Kong Daily C ‘check-
connections for users and brands, but relations
should not be limited to the internet. Social media
in and win a drink’
gives brands and fans an opportunity to meet in
person and build real relationships. Li-Ning invited
brand page fans to attend an offline rebranding In June 2011, Master Kong Daily C used “Renren
event. Attendees were given a voucher for limited LBS” and Sina Weibo’s LBS service in 16 cities for
edition Full-String line running shoes, met with a new beverage promotion. Mobile phone users
the designers of Li-Ning’s Cross-Border line, could log on to the LBS service at any of the 39
and interacted with Play designer Rei Kawakubo drink sample locations in China and instantly
and illustrator Filip Pagowski. Brand fans were receive event information and coupons. Once a
able to witness Li-Ning’s brand in action, and user successfully checked-in, the system would
many attendees also had their own personal send a news feed post to their friends. Within 12
experiences with Li-Ning. One member of the Li- days, over 10,000 users checked-in and over 90%
Ning sponsored Tsinghua University shooting team of participants exchanged their coupons for drinks;
was in attendance and shared his experience with 60% of users checked-in via Renren.
the brand. Li-Ning also selected a few attendees Tip: If you want to use “Renren LBS” to attract
and had them share experiences that changed their customers to the store or an event, don’t forget to
lives. Videos of their stories were posted on Li- also promote it on the brand page. The brand page
Ning’s website and SNS site for the company’s 20th provides a forum for users to meet before going to
anniversary celebration. the event.

19. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 19
Finding and engaging
Case study:
opinion leaders
Finding and engaging opinion leaders is key in developing Watsons’ strategy
a brand page. Opinion leaders provide reliable brand
testimonials, and are often more effective at interacting for developing
with other fans than the company itself. There is a number
of effective methods to discover and foster opinion opinion leaders
leaders. During early stages, the brand page should set
up a strategy to develop opinion leaders. Watsons
Use daily observations and analysis to find the most monitored and evaluated fan participation levels,
active fans and developed evaluation standards as the
number of fans increased. Based on data analysis,
It is easy to find that there are a few particularly active Watsons discovered which fans were opinion
fans on the brand page when you conduct your daily leaders for the brand. These fans had relatively
maintenance or use analytical tools. The company should similar characteristics: as a group, they were active,
pay attention to this group of fans and learn their interests possessed a high understanding of personal care
and behavior. It is important to give these fans extra and Watsons products, and were willing to help
encouragement because they are likely to influence other other fans by posting and responding to comments.
fans. By doing so, you will help build brand loyalty and Watsons fostered dialogue and designed special
these fans will gradually develop into opinion leaders. interactive events for these active users, including a
competition to determine the “best commentator”
Develop opinion leaders based on marketing goals on its brand page. Through material and verbal
encouragement, these loyal and active fans
Spontaneously developed opinion leaders have their became opinion leaders for Watsons.
own personalities. However, if the company wants to
have some opinion leaders precisely convey corporate
information, it can actively cultivate these types of
fans. Employees, for example, often have the greatest
understanding of company ideals and goals. By having
real employees convey company viewpoints and
communicating with others through a personal social
media account, content becomes more credible for other
fans.
Use celebrities or grassroots figures who have a tone
consistent with the company message
Celebrities have an obvious and powerful effect in media.
The company can invite a celebrity with an image and
persona similar to the brand to participate in an online
event. With continued celebrity support, the levels of
fans will increase and negative comments tend to drop as
spokespeople lend credibility through endorsement.

20. Using your brand page enter each ambassador’s personal page. On the
page, users can make inquiries, interact, and make
to increase sales appointments.
Renren provides brands with a platform for communication
with fans, and in this self-defined space companies can Exclusive offers for fans
post physical store information or promotion activities on
the brand page. The key is figuring out how to generate fan After amassing
interest and transform it into sales. fans through its
representative-
led activities,
Case study: How
Dell initiated
a series of
Dell sells PCs on
exclusive
offer events through the company’s brand page.
Renren
In December, 2010, Dell launched a Christmas
promotion combining an interactive game on their
To facilitate sales, Dell moved its entire flagship brand page with a coupon promotion, marking the
store onto its Renren brand page. Currently, Dell first time coupons and an interactive event were
maintains daily interaction with over 730,000 fans. combined on Renren. The event attracted many
Keeping close ties with fans has generated real first-time fans to the page. Users played onsite
sales. games and earned points. Fans then converted
their points into coupons for Dell products.
Building a flagship store
Turning relationships into sales
In order to
encourage fans In April 2011,
to interact with Dell launched
the Dell brand the “Dell
page, Dell set Money Jar”
up a flagship program. The
store on its event took
brand page. advantage of
Fans can use coupons to buy products from the Renren’s real-
online flagship store, gather product information or life user relationships and converted them into
talk with sales associates. actual sales. “Dell Money Jar” encouraged fans to
use Renren to earn points and buy Dell products.
Building up a network Fans could complete tasks and gain the support of
others to earn credits and then convert them into
Accompanying coupons. After 15 weeks, Dell gathered 125,179
the flagship new fans and successfully sold 3,887 computers,
store, Dell generating over $US2.88 million. Most surprising
also set up an is that over 300 of the computers sold through the
online “campus event were high-end gaming laptops—this reflects
ambassador” the purchasing power and brand recognition of
page. Dell social media users.
posted
company agent information directly on the brand
page which allows users to click on an icon and

21. MSL China Executive Whitepaper
Anyone Could Be Your Brand Ambassador 21
Measuring the Results of
Your Brand Page
The input-output measures
of social media marketing
Measuring return on
measured by simply adding impressions and clicks. This
standard for Social Advertising must take into account the
investment (ROI)
secondary transmission effects of users disseminating
brand messages, as well as the new fans earned across Paid,
Many companies still use traditional methods of measuring Earned and Owned meida.
ROI by using cost per mile (CPM) and cost per click (CPC)
in social media. Actually, the value of social media should Brand recognition, preference, pre-orders and
not be strictly limited to counting the number of clicks and recommendations
views; there are also hidden values such as word-of-mouth
exchanges and the inherent value of fans. Nielsen examined the results of several brands’
advertisement placements on Renren and noticed that the
Measuring the value of social media exposure and page views originating from word-of-mouth
had a key influence on the brand and sales. Word-of-mouth
In November, 2010 Renren released “Renren Effect - has an obvious impact on brand recognition, consumer
Standard Metrics for SNS Social Advertising” as a way to preference, pre-orders and recommendations that surpasses
measure the values of Paid, Free and Owned Media. paid advertisement placements.
This model quantifies word-of-mouth exposure and view
totals as a factor in ROI. Renren Effect shows that in social The value of brand fans
networking site real relationships are able to develop
into a unique social advertising and communications Apart from word-of-mouth, companies are particularly
mechanism and enables each fan to become a potential interested in the value of brand fans. Nielsen released a
ambassador for the brand. Companies can pay for report on the consumer value of 50 companies’ brand fans
advertisement placement, establish free word-of-mouth to help companies precisely estimate the value of each fan.
exchanges through fans, and also use their brand page as Synchronizing Renren’s brand page statistical report system
a standalone advertising entity. with Nielsen’s findings allows companies to more effectively
gauge the value of fans and better operate their Renren
The value of an Internet Advertising can no longer be brand page.
Enhanced effects for different social-ads
Ad recollection Ad content Brand Brand Brand pre- Brand
recollection recognition preference orders recommen-
dations
Based on 10 brands on Renren

22. MSL China regularly publishes Executive Whitepapers with insights
and comments on trends, the industry and society as a whole.
To get information from MSL China or to subscribe to future
whitepapers, as well as to contact us for any other matter, please send
us an e-mail on greaterchina@mslgroup.com
or call us +86 21 5169 9311 (SH) or +86 10 8573 0688 (BJ).
MSL China Executive Whitepaper
April 2012
Copyright ® MSL China