Yu Guoming, vice dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China, remarks that Weibo has massive social influence. Not only ordinary people but also national policymakers can use Weibo to pay close attention to social trends and commentary on current events. Policymakers in their turn can use this public opinion to formulate better policies.
China is entering an era of “one to all” broadcasting. On Weibo, everyone has the power to create a big impact. Netizens can form their own circles according to their interest, and the information users share in these groups is likely to be more influential, reliable and accepted than content transmitted through other media.
According to an online survey of public opinion conducted by the Public Opinion Research Institute at Renmin University, Weibo was the third most influential type of information media in 2010. Chances are, it may rank first or second in 2011.
Several Web business CEOs admit to being big Weibo users. Sina CEO Charles Cao uses his feed to advertise his own product; the CEO of Sohu (a popular entertainment website) admits to once having posted 100 times in one day, and low-profile Tencent CEO Pony Ma often answers questions about his company’s website raised by users through the service.
Changing Ways of Communication
On July 29, 2009 Twitter’s inaugural invitation to tweeters, “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world” replaced the original, “What are you doing?”. This pioneering micro-blogging service has gone on to change the way people communicate.
For citizens and netizens in China reading the news and other forms of information used to be a passive activity. Weibo has changed the nature of people’s interaction with the information they obtain, and internet users have since discovered that they can make their voices heard far and wide.
“Weibo, as a form of ‘personal media’, functions as a tool for the expression of personal opinions to the society that surrounds us and encourages like-minded individuals to share thoughts on topics of mutual interest. This fosters a diversity of opinion and encourages information transparency, all the while building up a public platform for the pursuit of truth. In this sense, Weibo promotes a more democratic and open society,” Yu Guoming remarked.
China’s Weibo users are from all walks of life, including average citizens, celebrities, scholars, businesses, and even government organizations.
In a recent case of social media justice, several photographs of three officials from Huili County in Sichuan Province inspecting a road construction project were posted online. These photos were heavily doctored with Adobe Photoshop software. Users of a social networking site called Tianya posted these photos online and criticized the Huili County government. Online users took to re-doctoring the photos to put the three officials in various unbelievable, and hilarious, locations. Huili County government responded to the scandal by registering a Weibo account and posting the original photos. They said they appreciated the mock photos web users had created, and thanked them for “taking them on a world tour” to various exotic, photoshopped locations. Subsequently, they took to Weibo to set about apologizing and promoting their county and its natural beauty. This turned out to be a successful case of handling a public relations crisis using Weibo.
Weibo has also attracted significant interest from the business community. VANCL, a household name in online shopping, was in fact the first advertiser on Weibo. It offers discounts, free gifts, and other enticements only available online. Weibo allows a more intimate platform for the faces behind businesses. Clothes designers can tell you the stories behind their latest designs and new employees at factories can share their experiences starting work. One definite plus of the service is that businesses can quickly respond to issues raised by customers via Weibo. VANCL branding director Li Jianxiong points out that although the sales effect of Weibo has yet to be estimated, the service surely helps businesses gain brand recognition, and it does so in a cost-effective way.
Neweekly magazine chief commentator Linghu Lei describes the impact Weibo brings to traditional media. “As a person working in the magazine industry, my whole day is consumed by trying to get the right relationship between neighboring pages. On Weibo, however, the reading environment, rhythm of prose and issues of continuity between topics can all be done away with in favor of the raw message. The two mediums go about the business of communication in fundamentally different ways.”
Overseas, traditional media have been finding ways to incorporate Twitter into their business model. Vanity Fair, VOGUE, WALLPAPER and The Economist all use the microblogging service to post article abstracts with links to their official websites and hence attract more readers to their sites.
In China, people working in traditional media are more and more often accessing information via Weibo. A study into Chinese reporters’ working habits revealed that 47.7 percent of them use Weibo frequently, and more than 60 percent have used social media for clues about news, researching topics or even for interviews.
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