IWOM watch summary: 

Following the opening of United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec.7^th 2009, a new awareness ‘green’, also called low-carbon life was generated. In this issue, we took a look at how netizens discussed environmental protection and contributed ideas spontaneously.

We also monitored the reaction of a recent subway accident in which social media played an important role. The popularity of “I love Shanghai” icons show us that netizens also have their own local culture expressed on the Internet Community. In addition, we looked at the Youku collaboration with CMCC (China Mobile Communications Corporation) where a music event was broadcasted live, which allowed netizens to actively participate and finally, we examined the Toyota Highlander in the “Fail-to-Climb Gate“ crisis.

For a sample of the full report and information on pricing, please send an email to info@cicdata.com. 

A topic from the report can be found below.

Sample article: Shanghai’s Subway crash: News came from victim’s microblog first, beating traditional media (上海地铁一号线两车相撞事故受害者领先传统媒体报道事件)

Two Shanghai Subway Line 1 trains collided in the early morning of December 22^nd 2009, forcing thousands of passengers to take alternative transportation and causing a massive traffic jam. The accident and closure of the subway immediately generated hot discussions on the Internet with witnesses and victims sharing pictures and making live reports of the accident on BBS (Link). Topics about the winter solstice (a possible cause), office workers’ tough day, traffic congestion as well as the attitudes of the subway workers and handlers emerged online. Sina (Link) and 163 (Link) also made special coverage of the collision.

The highlight of the story came from one of the victims ‘Baojianguang’ (暴剑光), who first published the news on his Sina microblog directly from the scene well before any traditional media (Link) which became a story in and of itself. Similar to twitter coverage from airline crash victims in the US 2008 and 2009, this event may well demonstrate microblogging becoming a mainstream phenomenon in China.

Below is a screen shot of the table of contents for the full IWOM watch report:

In this month’s IWOM watch, we see that the movie 2012 is a hot topic with plenty of discussion about the plot as well as spoofing. We also see how “Mother Tomato’s” 8 years of posting her child rearing experience and special parenting vision made her become an idol among mommy netizens. Via the study on the popular TV series “Dwelling Narrowness,” we find that the writer Liu Liu got inspiration for her script from netizens. In addition, we take a look at the netizens’ enthusiasm to the launch of Windows7 as well as watch the new trend of video review, an impactful way combining with visual and audio elements.

Below is a sample topic from the report about video reviews.

For a sample of a full report and information on pricing, please send an email to info@cicdata.com. 

Here it comes the video review era
视频点评新纪元来临

Summary
Compared to text review oriented sites like dianping.com, there emerged a new trend on 92dp.com of product review via video made by netizens themselves. This kind of review is so vivid that netizens can see with their own eyes the product instead of just guessing. Netizens give very warm welcome to these video reviews, especially if the demonstrator in the video is attractive.

CIC View
Since the examining standards set on 92dp.com are very strict, the quality of the video comments are ensured, and more comprehensive information of the product was given to other netizens, through a multimedia and impactive way.

It might be a new trend in social media community that video review would be more and more popular and the brand may incorporate this trend into their communication strategies to get more valued feedback of multiple angles from netizens and to enhance brand exposure/reputation at the same time.

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

For related articles, please see below:

Who’s really holding the megaphone?
More Thoughts on China Digital and Social Media
How IWOM is Redefining the Relationship between Brands and Consumers