Typically the major player of SNS where they have large and broad base audience charge up to half million CNY to setup a fan or business page (now this is only the fee for a year hosting, not including hiring a Social Media agency to setup the details).
International companies, FMCG, large brands can definitely benefit from these Social Networking Sites, as the sheer number, breakdown in age, demographic, by geography, etc is just a large base for them to pick from. Of course people wants to jump in to get a piece of the cake or action sort to speak, but new International comers will need to do adjustment to the market. Some companies didn't realize that engaging a campaign on these sites are not the only thing they need to do, a backbone team to engage back is required, monitoring, data analysis, plus their websites, language are probably not customized towards the market. Language in this region has always been a challenge to new International companies, as they tend to assume translation will do the magic (majority would engage translation.com) which most of the time 50-70% reach, but still a gap to deliver brand message to the market. In short, there is no shortcut, content must be grass-root and originated from this country for the Chinese market.
For example McDonald China once launched a campaign "Let's meet at M" to Ren Ren, I believe they set the goal to if 200k-300k of people updated their status to their campaign slogan. McD will provide 50% discount at all of their fast food restaurants in China. In less than a week, over half a million people in RenRen changed their status (imagine the spread power it carries through each person's network, the impression is a lot bigger) and of course not only uplift the brand buzz of McD, but also provide a customer experience of meeting at McDonald is trendy as part of their branding message and additional traffic to their restaurants. It tells us the power or WOM in China is huge and news travel a lot faster on Internet, remembering Chinese habits to read blog and engagement on BBS. Now imagine if they didn't understand how the youth market works, how they think or what can entice them, would the campaign work?
Marketing through Social Media in China is not a walk in the park, if companies don't appreciate the Chinese culture, their views, what they look at and how they look at, brand reputation can be affected.
