Social commerce is a well-established concept – the term appeared nearly two decades ago – but this branch of e-commerce is continually evolving, leaving marketing and sales professionals navigating through a shifting maze.
The term covers e-commerce and content marketing using social media networks to publicise, evaluate, compare and sell goods and services. Social commerce has taken the world by storm, spawning new job descriptions such as key opinion leaders (KOL) but Mainland China is in a league of its own, being the home of group shopping and streaming platforms.
Distinct channels
These marketing channels operate very differently within the mainland to their peers elsewhere in the world. Sales and marketing agents elsewhere, even in Hong Kong, need expert guidance on the way forward.
Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) events during travel and social distancing restrictions the COVID-19 pandemic made extensive use of social marketing, featuring streaming from electronic stalls. The end of restrictions and re-opening of borders did not end the trend. The EXHIBITION+ hybrid physical-online model, as well as the trend having become so well established in the broad market, mean social commerce is here to stay and has becoming an integral part of the shows, exhibitions and conferences industry.
Digital Academy
In the HKTDC’s Digital Academy webinar programme this month, Mr Carri Yeung, MarTech platform MemePR’s Assistant Director of Strategic Development, will analyse online marketing trends in the mainland for the second half of this year and help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) explore more business opportunities.
He will introduce the new digital marketing trends keep emerging in the mainland China with Social Commerce platform Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) as a popular new site deployed by many businesses.
As artificial intelligence (AI) solutions rapidly become more and more sophisticated and widely used, many free AI tools exclusive to the mainland are also available to boost productivity. There are also new rules of thumb for KOLs, streaming and content marketing.
Mr Yeung popularises MarTech. He has worked in a few MarTech Startups and a 4A Digital Agency to help Fortune 500 companies in their marketing planning and digital transformation.
He specialises in the marketing ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific and has in-depth know-how in technical fields such as Web3 Marketing, Marketing Automation, Digital Advertising, CRM Systems, and EC Systems.
His seminar will touch on the latest online marketing trends in Mainland China; using KOLs, short videos and text content; how B2B SMEs use the Xiaohongshu platform; recommendations for free AI tools as well as case studies.
Related links
Register here
