Chirpy chirpy, tweet tweet
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More celebrities are taking to microblogging to promote themselves and bond with their fans.
It was a horror movie but singer and model Essa Xu was focused on her laptop instead of the TV screen. Curled up on the sofa in her Beijing apartment she edited a picture of herself and posted it on Sina Weibo.
These days she is far more interested in microblogging (weibo) than what is on TV. It is not just pleasure, keeping up with friends and their tweets, it is also business and a smart way of marketing herself.
Like many other celebrity types she survives on the oxygen of publicity and microblogging services like FanFou, Digu, TaoTao and Zuosa have rapidly become the best way to promote herself, directly to fans.
Six months after she started microblogging she has about 13,000 followers and although this pales in comparison to major league stars like Little S, who has 1.3 million, the number grows every week and she tends to them like a virtual gardener.
She waters followers with praise, supplements new photos every other day, gets involved in hot topics such as the World Cup (she supports Italy) and lets fans know what she is doing so there is bonding.
Opening her microblog is one of the first things Xu does in the morning. She reads fresh comments and browses the news, which she reckons is faster and more opinionated than mainstream media.
"People speak more freely," she says.
When she is not at home she keeps an eye on her microblog using her phone. It has become like a second life to her.
"Microblogging has become an interesting part of my daily life. No matter when or where, I know what everyone is talking about and can express my own opinions It is an easy and simple process for people to get to know me.
"As an artist the more the people that know me the more opportunities will come my way. So far, increasing numbers of people have been paying attention to me and giving me lots of good advice."
Sina Weibo, the most popular service, has experienced phenomenal growth since it started about 10 months ago and currently has approximately 10 million users, suggesting 1 million new users a month.
It also indirectly received the official seal of approval from the government earlier this month in a white paper on the Internet.
"The newly-emerging online services, including blogs, microblogs, video-sharing and social networking websites, are developing rapidly in China and provide greater convenience for Chinese citizens to communicate online," it says.
While blogging is now a mature platform, microblogs are quickly becoming the new medium of choice. They tend to gather support quicker and it is easier to find out what is going on. Instead of entering queries into a search engine you just follow a provider and it feeds information.
While there have been criticisms that it is heavily censored by government Internet watchdogs, keyword screening and individual reporting, this does not bother the majority of users who are more interested in celebrities and entertainment than in politics.
One of the outcomes of such a pristine environment is that celebrity news is generally positive and the negative side of the business is glossed over.
One of the ways this is achieved is by giving selected microbloggers VIP status. For Sina Weibo this comes with a smart "V" against the celebrity's name, which signifies "verified".
This confers advantages such as having the artist's name and picture put on the recommended artists list, which gets heavy traffic.
"The interesting thing about the 'V' that is given to someone who is in some way famous is that they originally gave them out to all sorts of people, but they are now a lot harder to get," says Ogilvy PR digital influence strategist Jeremy Webb, who focuses on social media.
He says you have to apply through official channels or be pitched to get one, but it also helps if you have influence with someone at Sina.
As for flaming or negative comments, these are easily dealt with, according to Webb. He says one of his followers started writing "inappropriate sexual advances" on his site, so he blacklisted him and that was the end of that.
Another factor that distinguishes microblogging from blogging, or creating your own website, is the ease and speed with which it can be set up.
With Sina Weibo, you merely have to provide an e-mail, password and a captcha number. That's it. You're in.
This is much easier than Twitter, the mother of all microblogs, and though it is banned in China some commentators say the domestic versions are simpler to use, have more functions and would be just as popular, if not more.
"I have three times more followers on Weibo, which means more interaction," Webb says. "Weibo has a couple of useful features too, such as being able to see expanded images and video without having to leave the feed.
"With more pictures and videos, as well as activities and games organized by Sina, Weibo is arguably a more fun place to be. This is perfect for China's social media, which at this stage is largely about play and killing time."
Webb says shorter, easier ways to interact like microblogging are more suited to on-the-go communication and thereby capitalize on the mobile Internet.
Beijing-based DJ Edmund says he has turned to microblogging because he does not want to miss out and it has a number of uses.
"It's convenient and fun, easy to use and once you announce something then it's there. You don't have to do too much," Edmund says.
"I can check out people I'm interested in like Pan Shiyi (chairman of Soho China), and it's like keeping in touch with him as he uploads funny photos or smart insights. It's quite relaxing."
Edmund says he spends just 10 minutes a day and uploads items twice or more a week to "share my life with other people" and point traffic to his music, mix and photo websites. He compares it with the social networking site Moko, which features models, actors and other artists, saying that Moko is a better place to make friends whereas microblogging is "more random and has people from all over China".
"It's like fast food, easy to digest and simple to get."
