【Reading Reaction #1】Sina Weibo: Who Pursues the Groumdswell Attracts More Users

As the information technology develops rapidly, people can draw more strength form individuals than before. Instead of getting things they need from companies, people nowadays prefer to get them from each other by the help of advanced technologies. This social trend can be called as the groundswell. Sina Weibo, a social media which followed the groundswell, has proved its value.

Sina Weibo is a social networking site which mainly provides Chinese microblogging service for its users, and “weibo” means “microblog” in Chinese. It was launched by Sina Corporation in August, 2009, and its users increased to 140 million by the end of the first quarter of 2011. By the third quarter of 2015, Sina Weibo has 222 million subscribers and 100 million daily users. What made Sina Weibo become so attractive? The answer is that it uses appropriate strategy to pursue the groundswell.

 

On the one hand, by offering different functions, Sina Weibo allows its users to better interact with each other. As a social networking site, Sina Weibo knows that its most important function is connecting. As what Charlene and Josh mentioned in theirbook “Groundswell: Winning in A World Transformed by Social Technologies”, a qualified social networking site should provide service such as profile maintainability and friendly interaction to its members, which may encourages its users to connect with each other more often. This is what Sina Weibo did. Users of Sina Weibo can create their personal profiles when they first register this site, and these profiles can be edited at any time. By checking others’ profiles, it is easy to find people who associated with you or strangers who have same interests with you. Their posts will appear on your “Home Page” of your Sina Weibo as soon as you clicked their “Focus” button. Sina Weibo also allows its users to upload different materials such as text messages, audios, music, saved pictures, emoji, GIFs, links, websites and short videos, which can help them to express their opinions and experience more vividly. Users can even add their own comments when quoting and sharing others’ posts. Sina Weibo also offers hashtag service to its users. While submitting their posts, users can create a hashtag to emphasize the topic of their posts. By searching posts with hashtags, users can find out information and opinions which have strong connections to current hot topics and live events easily. All these services Sina Weibo provides can make their users to communicate with others better and more convenient.

On the other hand, Sina Weibo also tries its best to improve its service in order to fits the users’ needs. Sina Weibo has an official custom service micro-blog account on its site called “Sina Custom Service”. It usually posts the latest improvement and introduces new functions of Sina Weibo on its home page. Users can also send their questions to this official account and get useful answers as soon as possible by using the “personal message” function. In February 2016, after collected several feedbacks, Sina Weibo removed its 140-character limit and allowed users to post up to 2000 characters in length. This new improvement really surprised lots of users and received the user's welcome immediately, which meant that they can add more contents in their posts. By listening to its customers and using innovation strategies on time, Sina Weibo attracts more users step by step.

As time passing by, people can get more information from each other, and the power of online users should not be ignored. Sina Weibo figured this out immediately and used strategies on time, which made it became more attractive. In this era, social media who pursues the groundswell may attract more users. Sina Weibo is a good example.