Due to the specific foreign policy of China, there is fierce competition with the world's leading IT companies. We have to work in the country with Baidu, WeChat, QQ, Renren, etc. It is impossible to take into account the technical and marketing features of these services 100%. The Chinese language is considered no less an obstacle.
However, small and medium-sized businesses in the CIS countries have a chance to get at least a small percentage of influence on the audience from the PRC. LinkedIn CN leads entrepreneurs to the Chinese market.
The nuances of LinkedIn in China influenced by the external economy
Censorship and the most severe control of digital content is carried out by the Great Firewall of China. The local regulator blocks resources that contain at least one word, phrase or heading from among the prohibited ones.
In the case of LinkedIn, things are much simpler. The PRC is one of the three largest markets for the American social network. According to the latest statistics, the local audience is 40 million active users. Most of them are top managers, entrepreneurs and individual specialists who are open to proposals for cooperation with Western companies and businessmen.
At the same time, English is available to members of the LinkedIn China community, which allows business communication without linguistic barriers. The logic is simple: if a Chinese has entered Linkedin, it means that he knows English, Otherwise, why does he need it.
According to The New York Times, such privileges for LinkedIn CN are open for one reason: the social network is being used by Chinese intelligence services for international espionage. We are talking about the recruitment of foreign contractors. The country's intelligence department does not shun contacts with civil servants, entrepreneurs and scientists of other states.
Integrity on LinkedIn China
Conspiracy theories have no effect on those who sell their own products. You just need not be an activist or a politician to work calmly with LinkedIn CN. It is important to consider a number of standard rules for entering the local market through this social network.
- Profile optimization for a large company from the USA or Europe
Private entrepreneurs without an image background and a recognizable name run the risk of not gaining the necessary level of trust from the Chinese audience. In this case, the novice businessman and his product will be lost among thousands of similar offers. Therefore, it makes sense to register an account as a large company, but, of course, without cheating.
- Use short videos when filling your profiles
We strongly recommend that you use the format of short video recordings that are relevant both for marketing promotion and in personal correspondence with the Chinese. These videos have become a favorite format in the Chinese market due to the increased popularity of WeChat, and then TikTok. It is important to upload videos directly to LinkedIn, and not through YouTube and other hosting sites, as they are simply blocked in China.
- The formation of target audience should be preceded by marketing itself
China is the antipode of the civilization we are used to. Most of the differences are projected onto the language. Linguistic discrepancies provoke the inoperability of the collected base of key queries. Before launching mass mailing or generating invitations, you should study the specifics of the language in detail, taking into account the local names of the products that you offer to the audience.
For example, all over the world it is believed that the capital of China is Beijing. But the inhabitants of China and Beijing itself have never heard such a word as "Beijing". In Chinese, their city is pronounced Běijīng.
- Forget about using links
We can say that for American and European entrepreneurs publishing content on LinkedIn CN, link building is dying on the border with the PRC. It makes no sense to pass links to those people who simply will not go to external URLs due to blocking of non-state resources. It is best to create USP and review products through PDF presentations and similar promotional materials. This will have a greater impact on local users.
- Start building an "affiliate network" from the very beginning
The customer referral reward model works well in the Chinese market because local users love to interact with compatriots. Enough to enlist the support of a partner in the PRC in order to increase their own awareness and gain a foothold in the local market. Entrepreneurs from the CIS countries often resort to this scheme of interaction with the Chinese audience, without advertising well-established contacts.
Output
In the Middle Kingdom, they allow you to use LinkedIn CN to get into the local market from the outside. This permission should not be neglected. Follow the basic rules for using social media, as well as follow the recommendations for marketing promotion, to achieve the desired results when selling your own product in China.