It has been suggested that the reason China’s Xiaomi was able to grow into a successful international company in only five years was because of its efficient usage of social media. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan 11 (Korea Bizwire) – It has been suggested that the reason China’s Xiaomi was able to grow into a successful international company in only five years was because of its efficient usage of social media.
A recent report issued by the KT Economy and Management Research Center says that social media acted as a communication channel with customers, and acts as a core that helps to make Xiaomi’s business strategies possible.
The report mentions that Xiaomi has created a fan group called ‘Mi Fan’ through social media. The 70 million ‘Mi Fans’ participate in the R&D of products, marketing and advertising, which act as the main source of power in promoting the brand.
Xiaomi has been adopting customers’ ideas through its ‘Mi Forum’. The comments and suggestions submitted on the Mi Forum are instantly reflected in the company’s main platforms, and lead to the release of updated software every Friday.
According to the report, Xiaomi’s Weibo account has 10.7 million followers, and the company also has 59,000 Twitter followers. It explains that Xiaomi has a special division of 100 employees who exclusively manage its social media channels.
The report emphasizes that Xiaomi’s social media oriented marketing is fully supportive of the company’s low-price strategies.
By only advertising its products and promotional events through social media, and doing without TV exposure, Xiaomi was able to create loyal customers and drop its advertising costs to only one percent of its total sales.
In addition, the report states that Xiaomi analyzes the public’s response to its new releases, and uses this data to decide how many units to manufacture. The company then manufactures its products during the seven days after subscribed sales start.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
