China’s censorship helped prove earned media’s effectiveness

This post is a response based on the study of Seiler, Yao, Wenbo where they studied the effects of viewership and ratings of TV shows in China after a government shutdown of a social network similar to Twitter, called Sina Weibo.

In this quick post, I’ll explore how this shutdown can help us see the effectiveness of word of mouth and Earned Media on a business’s primary functions and demand.

Study Overview:

Due to political unrest in 2012, the Chinese government temporarily censored the popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo (similar to Twitter) for three days.  This unique opportunity allowed the researchers to get a rare glimpse into the effect of earned media, social media, and word of mouth due to the censorship for a period of time and the ability to compare similar time periods where there was no censorship.

This particular study looked at how certain TV programs viewership and ratings were affected with this censorship.  Although this post is brief and a general overview of the entire study (listed below), this is a starter to understanding the relationship of social media and its ability to convert.

It is important to note that, “The nature of the censorship... primarily affected user-generated content, namely, earned media. Specifically, the censorship did not block Sina Weibo entirely, but only disabled the commenting function.”

Main Findings:

The overall summary shows that the censorship of earned media, and therefore reduction in earned media content over that time period, led to a reduction in TV viewership.  When a brand is cut off from their interaction with Millennials, a group relying heavily on social media, it can cause a void in the spread of brand awareness and engagement.

Because of the nature of the censorship, the researchers could compare the statistics and TV ratings to the use of Twitter in Hong Kong (which was not censored) and the use of Sina Weibo in rural and mainland areas where Sina Weibo did not have as much penetration (Seiler, 2015).

The actual findings show how the ROI of Earned Media and UGC cannot be ignored.  The TV ratings in areas with censorship immediately experienced a 3% drop in ratings whereas Hong Kong (where they used Twitter) and rural areas (that did not have considerable Sina Weibo penetration or usage) did not experience a change in viewership (Seiler, 2015).

90% of consumers trust content from REAL PEOPLE before they trust a brand's content. ~SAP

This glimpse into the effect of User Generated Content and word of mouth marketing tells marketers about the growing effect of authentic interaction on social media and for advertising.

Conclusion:

We can therefore see based on these findings that the use of earned media before a campaign or an event, and in this case watching a TV show, can have a positive effect on engagement and participation.  Brands should put a focus on encouraging participation to increase those engaging online and creating earned media and user generated content.

The whole study can be found here.

Send me a message if you have other statistics like this. Would love to see how your brand finds value in Earned Media.

Liked this one? Here are two others on Earned Media and The Problem with Virality. Please share and comment and like :)