Alibaba….What’s that?
For those of you who don’t know what Alibaba is, I’ll just quickly run through it.
Alibaba is the world’s largest online eCommerce place. Think eBay, but bigger. Not only does this site absolutely dominate the Chinese marketplace, but it’s also used by thousands of wholesalers, dropshippers and procurement managers all around the world.
So if you’re an entrepreneur, or you fancy making some money, then you need to be on Alibaba.
Also read: 10 Things To Know About Alibaba’s IPO
Ok I know what Alibaba is….
So the good news is, it’s really easy to set up a profile and list your fist product. But as any eCommerce pro will know, the struggle tends to be making people aware of your products. So how do you go about driving traffic to your Alibaba page?
Yep you guess it – social media. Now you probably already have a profile set up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin etc, but what about the Chinese social platforms?
Here’s 10 Chinese social media sites that you need to plug into if you want to make money on Alibaba….
- Sina Weibo
Weibo (meaning microblog) is the Chinese version of Twitter, only it has double the number of registered users. Not only that, but it’s used by 22% of the Chinese internet population, so if you want to push your Alibaba profile then you need to sign up for a Weibo account.
This site is great for posting images and videos, so make sure you set up a feed to publish product images and even product videos to your Sina Weibo platform. It’ll help you get huge exposure and increase conversions.
- Tencent Weibo
So this is similar to the above platform as you can share photos, videos and text, but it’s based around the idea of Twitters ‘retweeting’ functionality. So if you post something on your Sina Weibo account and its popular, your followers are likely to re-share it on their Rencent Weibo too.
3. Renren
Just like Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter, Renren is the Chinese version of Facebook. Although its original use was to keep in touch with friends, it has fast become a great place for businesses to share content and promote their products to a large following.
The site makes it easy for you to share images and videos of your latest products for sale, and you can interact with your followers to let them know upcoming promotions and when you’ve posted a new item on Alibaba.
- PengYou
Here’s another site that’s similar to Facebook – and although it doesn’t have as many active users as Renren – it has multiple platforms within the site. And it’s the biggest online community in China for people registered to it. PengYou has a real focus on friendships, but many companies have found potential to engage with their audience on this platform.
5. QQ
Remember the days of MSN messenger? Well this is kind of like that, but your posts go out to all of your followers – and with 100 million people online at one time – it’s definitely an opportunity not to be missed. The great thing about this platform is that even if your followers are not online, they’ll receive a notification through to their mobile device – so you can keep people in touch with your latest promotions.
6. Douban
This is a blogging/forum style platform that has around 80 million active users per month and is similar to MySpace. Its main feature is the communities that you can join and it’s extremely popular for people that like books, music and movies – so that’s worth considering if you sell similar products.
Forums and blogs are a pretty big deal in China, and people will always tune in to see your latest press release or sale, so you can interact and promote your products within a targeted community.
7. Diandian
Since launching in 2010, Diandian has reached an impressive five million users and is known as the Chinese version of Tumblr. There is a huge focus of visual communication on this site, so make sure you add your product images to your profile in an interesting way in order to engage and drive traffic.
8. Wechat
This is a mobile app based platform that has more than 100 million users. It lets you chat with people via text, images or voice messages, and although it’s targeted towards your friends, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take advantage of it to promote your products.
The app is ideal for people who have already bought from you before. You can use it to send out exclusive loyalty offers to repeat customers, so if you need to get rid of any end of line stock, then this is a great way to quickly let people know about it!
9. Jiepang
Do you ever use ForeSquare? Well this site is exactly like that. It’s basically an app on your phone that lets you ‘check in’ to venues. Although this isn’t promoting your products in the literal sense, it’s still good to get your name on the site and build up a personality – after all, that’s what social media is all about!
10. Youku
So we all know that YouTube is the biggest video site in the world, but what’s the second? Youku! On this platform you can share videos and potentially reach over 500 million users! Video is a really useful tool when trying to sell products. Although you will tend to write your product features in the description, people find it far easier to click on a video and find out all about it – so make sure you are utilizing sites such as Youku.
About the author: Issa Asad is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the marketing, technology and telecommunications industry. He’s also a best selling author and you can grab a copy of his book – Instant Profits with Alibaba – here.
