4 June anniversary spurs heavy online talk

CHINA   FACEBOOK   MEDIA

Watch a video about Apple Daily's coverage today HERE

Hong Kong - A CMRS study shows local netizens have posted thousands of opinions and views via social media on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.

The research showed netizens use forums followed by blogs to express their opinions.

Some 55 groups have appeared on Facebook relating to 4 June and more than 21, 570 users are participating and expressing their opinions in the social network.

On YouTube, 4,580 videos have been shared relating to the protests with the top three most viewed videos generating 1.8 million views so far.

Matt McDougall, group CEO & executive chairman for Beijing-based Sinotech Group, said the recent clampdown by Chinese authorities on foreign social sites did directly affect a small number of their US social marketing campaigns targeting the US market.

McDougall said it is difficult to know if the strategy of blocking websites will remain a policy of the government for future 'sensitive' anniversaries.

"But we will accommodate for this in any campaigns that may span these dates. Accommodation maybe in the form of using technology workarounds, selecting sites/platforms that are less likely to be effected (of this short period over the anniversary) or leverage some of our international partners should the outages adversely effect out marketing outcomes or our continued ability to provide reasonable social marketing services."

McDougall added that there was no clear picture on when online services will resume, but he said it was likely to be next week.

For their Chinese-centric social marketing campaigns, McDougall said they have had no disruption and the Chinese social networking sites seem unaffected.

"This makes up the bulk of our work as most our Chinese social marketing campaigns are for multi-nationals wanting to influence the local Chinese market," he said.
He added they typically don't use non-Chinese tools and platforms in these campaigns.

While many Chinese-language media in Hong Kong today limited their reporting of the Tiananmen Square 20th anniversary, Next Media's Apply Daily today dedicated a 15 page liftout with advertising from corporates and community activists.

The liftout contained full page ads from SmarTone Vodafone and several community organisations.