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Social Media Event in Wellington

Commentary

By Vallen Han, Asian Marketing Director, New Zealand Post

In December 2013, NZCTA and NZTE jointly hosted an event in Wellington on Brand Management in the context of Social Media in China. NZCTA Chair Tim White and Brian Chandler, Global Logistics Director of NZ Post flew from Auckland to attend the event. Kefeng Chu, Chief Advisor China from NZTE Wellington Office chaired the event. Over 100 attendees from business and public sectors in the Wellington Region attended and the consensus was that it was a helpful and informative session.

Seven speakers from business and academia covered a wide range of topics. The keynote presentation was delivered by Sean Xie and James Sun, CTO and PR manager respectively of United Media Solutions, the company that helps planning and managing social media (i.e. Weibo, Wechat) campaigns for NZTE, Villa Maria, as well as several brands in China. James addressed brand management on social media, and Sean covered the IT considerations.

Simon Young, CEO of Auckland-based social media insights firm syENGAGE, spoke about cultural differences between Kiwis and Pandas. Mary Tate and Hongzhi Gao, senior lecturers from Victoria University, presented a conceptual framework on how social media works for a business.

Xiaoyi Guan, social media consultant for Education Wellington, shared some insights on how social media can help the service sector. Finally, Vallen Han, Asia Marketing Director for NZ Post, shared her personal motivations as a consumer for posting her user experience on social media.

The key learnings from the workshop are summarised below:

  • A company needs a social media strategy and plan before setting up a social media site
  • Social media should work with other offline channels as part of a wider marketing communication plan
  • Social media marketing is not cheap – you do need a reasonable budget
  • The effect of social media is not immediate; it is a long term play
  • “Friends of NZ” play a very important role in promoting NZ brands in the China market - that is, Chinese people with a NZ connection
  • Turn your customers into your marketers on social media
  • Always involve professionals

 

This event provided a chance for many Wellington-based companies to understand the power of social media, and start to plan for their social media site. It also provided great exposure for NZCTA, as one of the largest business associations in New Zealand, to the Wellington business community.

In 2014, NZCTA is going to organise more events in the Wellington Region. Its Wellington board members lead by Vallen Han from NZ Post have planned 6-7 events aimed at introducing China market opportunities to the Wellington business community, including a legal event in March with DLA Phillips Fox and subsequently an event on the eCommerce pathway to the China market. Details will be available later at http://www.nzcta.co.nz/events/