Social media fight zombie users - Sam Flemming

Sam Flemming

Most social media users know these non-human 'followers', who increase traffic without participating in a real conversation. Sam Flemming reports that his company CIC has analyzed these skeleton or zombie users. News: internet celebrity Lee Kaifu has a million of them.

What is according to Sam Flemming a skeleton user?

On the most basic level, skeleton users are purely virtual; generated by programs without ever having a real person attached, or meat on their digital bones. They are simply used to increase an account’s followers. However, the technology behind skeleton users is becoming increasingly advanced; proper profile pictures and periodic activity based on a preset program, so they act like a real person is behind them. Naturally though, users who employ skeleton users on mass experience little effect on engagement levels.

It’s no secret that there are agencies “employing” skeleton users in the dark arts of campaign execution; skeletons can be commanded to follow, retweet, comment and even take part in online polls. In fact, a host of B2B services have sprung up to cater for PR agencies striving to reach their contracted KPI of followers.

But social media have started to fight back:

Sina Weibo has officially announced that they will  combat skeleton users and is encouraging users to report any scams and skeletons they encounter through official portals and skeleton-busting Weibo accounts (such as these two: @系统管理员 & @虚假活动曝光)

More at Sam Flemming's weblog.

Sam Flemming is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Why Weibo is cuter than Twitter - Tricia Wang

All too often Sina's microblog service Weibo is described as a kloon of Twitter. Sociologist Tricia Wang in Wuhan has been using Weibo for a few months and starts to report on her weblog about the differences of the two. About fun, love and entertainment.

About a regular Weibo message:

"Do you like finding interesting people? Weibo is a fun place! Hurry up and discover classmates, celebrities, and cute girls and guys on Weibo!"

One thing that I've noticed is how much Weibo will explicitly push the idea of finding "cute" people to follow who aren't celebrities. Other than pointing users to celebrity's accounts, you don't see Twitter sending out messages to discover "cute" or "pretty" people on twitter. This message to all Weibo users emphasizes that it is a place to find interesting people, celebrities, classmages, and cute people. You don't see an emphasis on Weibo being a place to find out good information about local and national politics and news, even though that is why many people use it.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Why Weibo will surpass Twitter - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

China's twitter eauquivalent Sina's Weibo might very soon pass Twitter in popularity, writes Tudou.com co-founder  Marc van der Chijs on his weblog, although the rest of the world is still largely ignorant about this internet service.

Weibo is certainly already miles ahead in terms of functionality. But most people outside China have no idea about the service and its functionality. Beijing-based blogger Bill Bishop therefore put a post on his blog today with an embedded presentation of Weibo’s history and main functions, including lots of screenshots.
Silicon Valley pay attention: this product is much better than Twitter, and Twitter (or other clones or even social network sites) can probably learn a lot just by looking at some of Weibo’s functions. It’s so good that I wonder if it might actually one day be able to take on Twitter.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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