When localizing social content for China, think beyond Facebook and Twitter

So your company is successful on Facebook. And Twitter.

And now you want to expand your social reach into China.

Well, you can pretty much forget Facebook and Twitter, because these services are blocked.

Instead, you’ll need to focus on networks like RenRen, Sina Weibo, and QQ.

If you find this a tad bit intimidating, you’re not alone.

Which is why I was intrigued to come across a company that offers a simple but compelling service for companies wishing to expand their social footprints into China.

I’ll let the visual they provide sum up their service:

KAWO social

The company is KAWO and founder Andrew Collins recently answered a few of my questions…

Q: What social networks do you localize social feeds for in China?

KAWO allows brands to translate and localize their existing social media content from their Facebook and Twitter accounts to their Chinese social media counterparts, RenRen, WeChat, and Sina Weibo, giving brands digital access to over 500 million people where these key Western social media platforms are blocked.

Q: Roughly how long does it take for your localizers to translate a newly created social update in English across to the local feeds?

Although posts can be posted as quickly as 10 minutes, we give brands a 30 minute allowance to manage their posts in case they want to change something. Brands can also directly post on the KAWO dashboard to expedite the process. KAWO has several layers of protection to ensure that all content is in line with the local environment, but this allowance lets brands to have more control over their content.

Q: I’m assuming you work from English to Chinese, but do you also support other source languages?

Currently, we only support English to Chinese (simplified), but we have plans to roll out French, Spanish and German by 2014.

Q: Are all your clients organizations and companies without a local marketing team?

Some do, but almost all of our clients do not have a local on-the-ground team in China.

Q: And if not, why would a company with a local team work with you?

Aside from offering a range of packages that allow brands of all sizes and budgets dip their toes into the China market, we offer an unrivaled level of transparency, control, and protection. KAWO’s dashboard lets brands monitor activity on their accounts as everything is tracked, as well as control content- brands can directly post or take down content. KAWO’s dashboard also streamlines the process by having a central location where content from Facebook and Twitter posts are aggregated and broadcasted on multiple Chinese networks at the same time. KAWO’s multi-layered protection, consisting of both our proprietary technology and human moderation, ensures that potentially harmful words, phrases, and pictures won’t go unnoticed.

Q: I realize your service is quite new but are there any success stories or positive anecdotes you can share?

Table tennis is the largest spectator sport in China, but the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) had almost no presence on Chinese social media. Their Facebook page had great content, but as that is banned in China, it is obviously more difficult for Chinese fans to connect to them. We pulled that content in, translated, localized, and published it, and now ITTF has over 15,000 fans in just two months. Additionally, the Sina Weibo and TenCent accounts for Liverpool FC are already at over 1.5 million fans. In such a short amount of time, companies are definitely getting more bang for their buck.

Q: How much does your service cost?

We offer a range of packages, starting from $199 going to $2995, depending on a company’s needs. Our ‘Lite’ package is perfect for small businesses looking to just dip their toes into the China market and get a feel for the environment. Our most recommended package, ‘Pro,’ is a little more comprehensive: with a ‘Pro’ account, brands, universities, destinations, and personalities can sync their Facebook and Twitter accounts to China’s three top social networks (Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, and RenRen) and get detailed demographic and competitor analysis. Finally, our ‘Enterprise’ package is the most extensive package. Clients with an ‘Enterprise’ package, ideal for clubs, teams, and large brands, not only have everything detailed in the ‘Pro’ account, but also full marketing support from our team- a dedicated account manager to help with campaigns, contests, and more.

Q: Do your localizers interact with locals in addition to just translating content? And how is this managed so the brand is well served? Also, what if there are customer service questions that need to be handled by corporate?

Our moderators are all local recruits, who are then trained to Internet and social media best practices. Since they know the local environment as well as international best practices for brands, they can gauge what posts are appropriate for China. Additionally, our team, comprised of both local and foreign employees, works closely together to make sure our customers’ needs are met. Our different packages offers varying levels of service as well- our enterprise account, for example, offers a higher level of customer interaction than our light package.

Q: If companies were to pick just one social network to embrace in China, what would you recommend and why?

The digital landscape is very dynamic in China, but Sina Weibo has consistently demonstrated its dominance for the past 2 years, and with its new partnership with e-commerce giant, Alibaba, there are going to be a lot more commercial opportunities for companies.

Q: Finally, can you tell us the significance of your name?

Kicking Asia Wide Open!

www.kawo.com

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