Kaiser at the Digital Watch blog has a nice write up of a study done by Jan Van den Bergh, the Shanghai-based president of i-merge/ boondoggle, and Sinomonitor which looks at brand and product recommendation on the Internet in China.

Worth a read. The download is available here and the press release here.

I also shared some of our ideas about the study as a comment to Kaiser's post. And I look forward to seeing a more complete document later in the week.

Contact Jan for more info. He is very passionate about this kind of stuff.

At CIC, we feel like we are on the front lines of the Web 2.0 "revolution" in how consumers are taking charge in being sources of and sharing information that drives the information age. There are 162 million Internet users in China, 54 million regular BBS users and 35 million blog users (see latest CNNIC report here). In the brand/consumer relationship, brands no longer have the exclusive ability to lead the communication.

Since we are working with clients so close to the revolution, it only makes sense that we ourselves should be continually experiencing an evolution. As such, we have revised our definition of Internet Word of Mouth.

New IWOM Definition: Text and multimedia content related to companies, products or services shared by netizens, including brands and consumers, via online community platforms such as BBS (online message boards), blogs and video sites.

Here are further thoughts around Chinese IWOM.

Who are the participants? Brands AND consumers. Previously, we just included consumers (i.e. consumer to consumer). Now, as companies begin to "find their voice" online with their own blogs (i.e. Dell and QQ), their own forums (i.e. Meizu, "the Chinese IPOD"), and relationships with third party community platforms(i.e. KFC on Baidu Zhidao) (see here for more on this relationship), we can say that companies are "participating" in IWOM (how and to what degree of success is worthy of its own blog post).

Netizens, not consumers: In addition for allowing brands into the definition, the term "netizen" echoes "citizen" which implies there is a culture and community, as well as certain responsibilities. There are "good" netizens (those who contribute to the community) and "bad" netizens (i.e. companies who seed fake messages or spam or netizens who "crush" forums).

What are the participants doing? They are "sharing" content. We could say having a "conversation," but we choose not to. Although it is widely used (see here and here), it is more and more a loaded concept (see here ). Also, it doesn't allow for the simple act of "copy and pasting" so prevalent in the IWOM landscape in China or the sharing of content like videos and pics (see here for a more recent example of "PS" culture). Also, sharing implies two-way communication, which is inclusive of conversation, and even dialogue, which would be sharing of one of the highest forms.

What is the content about? While IWOM can include talk NOT related to brands, products and services, this is the area that we are focusing on for our clients.

Where is it happening? On community platforms (where there can be one-on-one communication) such as BBS, blogs and online video. Again emphasis on community as well as platform (not channel, which sounds more limiting and associated with media).

Word of mouth, not a media: We think the any term that refers to this "stuff" as a media is too limiting. IWOM certainly IS a media, which in and of itself makes it worthwhile for companies to understand. Just important however is that it is consumer insight--netizens expressing opinions about brands, products and services. Studying it in a systematic way is akin to market research. Also, it is a community that can be participated in by brands (do so carefully, as a good netizen).

So...that's our definition. Perhaps overly academic and over analyzed, but hey, IWOM is our lifeblood, and we do our best to really understand it to the max so we can better help our clients to understand and leverage it.

Recently, our Chinese language seeisee blog put up pics from the one of the more recent interesting examples of Chinese "spoofing" culture. The first photo is the original photo taken during the arrest of a "crazy man with a knife."

Here are some of the spoofed "branded versions" created by netizens.

More examples can be found here.

A couple of pieces of research came out recently which further supports the importance and influence of IWOM on consumer purchases.

The first from Nielsen looking at consumers worldwide. Hat tip to Church of Customer blog. Press release for study here.

The second from eMarketer looking at consumers in the US. Link to original article here.

American Public Radio's Marketplace did a short but pretty cool story on the NBA in China. I am quoted, even if ever so briefly. My observation comes from our analysis of talk around sports and the NBA on BBS and blogs.

The transcript can be found here.

You can find the download of the whole show on the page. The NBA story starts around minute 23.

Chinese netizens who love to share their stuff online actually have an official net language term to describe their behavior - "Shai" (晒/show). People who enjoy doing "Shai" are called "Shai Ke" (晒客), similar to the use of "Bo Ke"(博客) for blogger and "Bo Ke"(播客) for vlogger. The development of Shai is representative of the fast-evolving net culture in China where we have seen blogs develop into vlogs and witkey to Huan Ke (换客,people who exchange stuff online). As we can see in the excerpt on Shai from our most recent CIC watch report below, the channels of expression online in China are continuing to morph.

(click image to enlarge)

Summary

Around Mid-autumn Festival, “Shai Shai (晒晒) your company's gifts" became a very popular topic in many online communities (see screenshot above). Besides commenting on their company's generosity in these conversations, netizens also expressed their feelings about the festival and even some complained about their companies.

However, Shai is not limited to Mid-Autumn Festival. It seems that netizens like to “shai” many kinds of things (see sample screenshot below), including personal collections, decorations, pets, and products. These “shai” shows not only demonstrate consumers' passion but also provide many opportunities for brand/product exposure.

(click image to enlarge)

As more and more netizens join the “shai” force on the Internet, some special forums/sites have come out (for example Shai Yi Shai). Netizens who participate in “shai” are called “Shai Ke”.
“Shai Hei” (or "black show")is the latest development of “Shai Ke”　(see shaihei.com for example). Shai Hei has turned into another channel to share unpleasant experiences with brands.

CIC View

The "Shai" culture is another double-edge sword for brands. On one hand, passionate fans can demonstrate their love to brands/products which allows brands the opportunity to benefit from this net culture and see its online brand equity strengthened. On the other hand, since information is spread easily when many people get together, “shai” could also initiate or amplify a crisis.

Below is a screen shot of the index for the full IWOM watch report

(click image to enlarge)

Other CIC IWOM Watch related posts that may be of interest:
CIC Watch Half-Year Review released (download the full report)
CIC watch: "You" - Time's Person of the Year - also lives in China (download the full report

For more information on the unique Chinese net language, see my previous post here.

On Tuesday, October 23rd, I will be giving our perspective on blogging in China for a Shanghai Amcham panel session called: "21st Century PR: Executives and their Blogs."

Once again, I will be sharing panel duties with Will Moss. Will and I were also slated to talk at Beijing Amcham in September on a similar topic (unfortunately, I had to pull out because of illness).

Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book (now in Chinese), will also be speaking.

For event details, see here.

For a down to earth description from Will's blog, see here.

See here. This mirrors what we see happening in China. As Flemming Madsen puts it, big brands are skipping traditional advertising to connect to consumers directly via online communities. This is happening in China as well, and we are fortunate enough to be front row, center working with cutting edge brands like Nike.

I will be heading to Beijing on Tuesday afternoon for Adtech and will be in Beijing until Wednesday night.

I will be moderating a panel on Wednesday afternoon 1:10-2:10 PM on “Viral Marketing and Word-of-Mouth Strategies and Best Practices”. It will be more about Word of Mouth strategy than viral marketing (you need the strategy first, in our opinion).

Drop me a mail on sam (at) cicdata.com if you are around and would like to meet up.

During National Day "golden week" holiday in October, I finally went home to Alabama. It was the first time home in two years, and the first time to take my son Leo back. While it was not necessarily relaxing, it was great fun to see my family and introduce them all to Leo.

Highlights of the trip were watching my nephew play two football games (they won both), watching the Alabama football game (they lost, unfortunately, but Saban still rocks), going to the lake for a boat ride, and going to Vulcan (the largest iron cast statue in the world atop Birmingham's Red Mountain).

Below are some pics from my nephew Pete's football game as well as from Vulcan.

Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester Research as well as an insanely prolific and incredibly insightful web strategist blogger based in the US, recently visited Hong Kong where he had multiple meetings with Internet players who provided him various impressions of the Asian, and especially the Chinese, Internet. Too bad he couldn't make it up to the mainland where I think he would have gotten an even richer view of what's happening in China.

Jeremiah has detailed some of his learnings in several posts, including this one. This post, as well as the whole blog, is an interesting read.

I have copied my comment to this post below.

RE “Tencent QQ is a chat feature that’s used as a Social Network for young teens”: It's IM client is of course THE client of choice in China, but you should not neglect QQ.com. It has an incredibly active BBS community. Compare QQ, Facebook and Myspace on Alexa, you will see QQ's reach is in the same ball park.

RE “BBS (bulletin boards) are popular and China, so why would Social Networking be important?” This is an important point. BBS, or online message boards, absolutely dominate IWOM and social media in China. For example, we track over 5 million messages every month from automobile fans and owners in the mainland now. According to CCNIC, there are more people on BBS than on blogs. Netizens are already communicating with each other on BBS, on QQ IM chat and QQ IM group, do they NEED social networking sites like MySpace, Xianei etc. in a massive way? I am not so sure they do, at least in the form of traditional western SNS. With BBS, you at least have the option to remain anonymous (it is the default option), which may fit better with Chinese culture that does not necessarily reward standing out among the crowd (perhaps another reason why blogs popularity is less then BBS). Interestingly, we have seen multiple cases where consumers, when they want to get to know each others’ "real names" will simply initiate a topic inviting everyone in the online community to post their names and emails and QQ numbers.

RE: “Chinese Culture [mainland] doesn’t do a lot of real world social activities, so applying that to the web is challenging” Not sure what is meant by "real world social activities," but we do see BBS communities serving as conduits for offline activities (and vice versa). There is even a net slang term for organizing offline events called FuBai (see my blog post about this and other net language terms here). For example of an online auto club's "offline" activity, see here).

RE: “Chinese bankers don’t have time to use social networks, they’re going to use the newspaper and their blackberries” Bankers may not go to social networks/BBS, but the "regular" consumers who are driving the current stock market boom definitely are. On a side note, not too many blackberries in mainland China (yet).

On October 9th, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Bloomberg TV in their Shanghai studio on the subject of company blogging. Bernard Lo, the anchor of the Bloomberg Live Asia, actually interviewed me remotely from Hong Kong.

It was my first time to be interviewed live like this on TV. To be frank, it was a bit strange listening to the questions in my ear piece and responding to a camera (there was no video feed of the Hong Kong desk).

Mr. Lo unfortunately tried to take a negative spin with the questions, so it was not the most satisfying experience. But all in all, I think it was good exposure for CIC.

Coming next week I will be interviewed for Hawaii Public Radio as well as American Public Radio.

(click image to enlarge)

Here is a sample from our recent CIC watch September 1-15 showing a darker side of consumers' passion.

Summary

Recently, 20 Nanjing Mazda owners from an auto forum surrounded a Hummer on a highway at 30 km/hour speed, forcing the Hummer to drive the same speed as a bicycle. After doing this, these owners shared the video online with pride. To play a joke with netizens, they even used extremely crude, defiant language and showed their photos on BBS. Their activity triggered strong condemnation for bringing shame to not only their group, but also their family, their hometown, Mazda brand, and even Nanjing government. Finally, the incident leader of the Mazda 6 community in Nanjing apologized online.

(click the image to enlarge)

CIC View

This incident demonstrates that fans’ passion not only can do brands great favor but also could hurt the brand within the easy-to-share online space. (i.e. hot “Accord Girl” case actually made Honda Accord an integral association with this notorious “net star”).

Such a situation indicates an emerging need that brands should consider having a social media/IWOM manager to track and manage the relationship between brand and fans to make the communication smoother and thus prevent possible passion back-fire.

Below is a screen shot of the index for the full IWOM watch report

(click image to enlarge)

Other CIC watch related posts that may be of interest:
CIC Watch Half-Year Review released (download the full report)
CIC watch: "You" - Time's Person of the Year - also lives in China (download the full report)
IWOM Watch August 1-15: Baidu Post Bar Crushing Machines