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Cultural differences in communication patterns of international B2C technology companies on Weibo and Twitter: an examination of effectiveness from a motivation perspective

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Cultural differences in communication patterns of international B2C technology companies on Weibo and Twitter: an examination of effectiveness from a motivation perspective

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Content 1

Cultural Differences in Communication Patterns of International
B2C Technology Companies on Weibo and Twitter:
An Examination of Effectiveness from a Motivation Perspective
by
Yi Huang
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS)
August 2015
Copyright 2015
Yi Huang
2
Acknowledgements
I truly appreciate all the helps and guidance from my Committee members: Professor
Matthew Leveque, Professor Jennifer Floto and Professor Burghardt Tenderich. Without their
patience and insightful suggestions, I would never have accomplished a thorough thesis like this.
I would like to thank my Committee Chair, Professor Leveque, for supporting me through this
whole process, from topic selections, to structure refinement, and to editing every detail in this
thesis. He has been patient all the way and I really appreciate every minute he devoted to this
thesis. I would like to thank Professor Floto for always trusting in my capabilities, providing
wise and spot-on suggestions to my thesis and supporting me all the way with her knowledge in
the communications business. Finally, I would also like to thank Professor Tenderich for helping
me finish the final touch of the thesis and providing very valuable suggestions. I’m truly grateful
for having so many people around me and supporting me from the beginning. I would like give
my sincere gratitude to all of them.
3
Abstract
With the penetration of Internet and social media, the world is not only gradually turning into a flat
place for international commerce, but also opening up to become a level playing field for
communications. Understanding how the cultural element and the rise of social media influence global
communications is especially important for B2C technology companies because they are committed to
constantly bringing out innovative products and communicating these new concepts to people all over the
world from different cultures. To help these companies understand efficient communication
patterns on social media in different cultures, this thesis discusses how cultural differences
influence motivations of social media usage and then figures out effective online communication
patterns for B2C technology companies.
By reviewing current academic papers and conducting a content analysis of social media
activities of two international B2C technology companies, Microsoft and Lenovo, on Chinese
and US social media platforms, the author finds out that: 1) Weibo is a good place to build
connections, while Twitter is a channel to spread information; 2) it’s important to embed human
stories in tweets/posts; 3)online giveaways can be effective in expanding the audience base if
done in a smart way; 4) it’s important to create a character for the social media account; 5) real-
time event hacking is important; 6) using hashtags can help in navigation and increasing online
exposure; 7) visual elements are essential for every tweet/post.
4

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 9
2. The Changing Landscape of B2C Communications ........................................................................... 11
2.1. The Boom of the Internet and the Empowerment of Consumers ................................................ 12
2.2. The Rise of Social Media ............................................................................................................ 13
2.3. Global Communications: The Power of Culture ......................................................................... 16
3. An Academic Review on How Culture Influences Motivations behind Social Media Usage ............ 20
3.1. Dimensions of Cultural Differences ........................................................................................... 20
3.1.1. Value System ...................................................................................................................... 20
3.1.2. Communication Styles ........................................................................................................ 22
3.1.3. Influence of Cultural Differences on Social Media Usage ................................................. 23
3.2. Cultural Differences and Motivations for Social Media Usage .................................................. 24
3.2.1. Motivations ......................................................................................................................... 25
3.2.2. Uses and Gratifications Theory and Cultural Differences in Motivations .......................... 26
4. Hypothesis........................................................................................................................................... 28
5. Content Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 29
5.1. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 29
5.1.1. Overview ............................................................................................................................. 29
5.1.2. Coding Rules ....................................................................................................................... 31
5.2. Social Media Platforms Introduction .......................................................................................... 34
5.2.1. Weibo .................................................................................................................................. 34
5.2.2. Twitter ................................................................................................................................. 36
5.2.3. Platform Functionality Difference Between Twitter and Weibo ........................................ 38
5.3. Company Information ................................................................................................................. 39
5.3.1. Microsoft ............................................................................................................................. 39
5.3.2. Lenovo ................................................................................................................................ 41
5.4. Content Analysis Findings and Insights ...................................................................................... 43
5.4.1. Overview ............................................................................................................................. 44
5.4.2. Profile Setting ..................................................................................................................... 46
5.4.3. Motivational Elements ........................................................................................................ 58
5.4.4. Message Presentations ........................................................................................................ 78
6. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 82
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6.1. Tracking Reaction Numbers is Important ................................................................................... 83
6.2. Understanding Motivations: Build Connections on Weibo, Spread Information and Have Fun
on Twitter ................................................................................................................................................ 84
6.3. Keep Your Audiences Interested by Creating Inspiring Messages and Human Stories ............. 84
6.4. Giveaways Can Be Useful on Twitter and Weibo, If Done in a Smart Way .............................. 85
6.5. Give Your Social Media Account A Character........................................................................... 86
6.6. Remember to Keep an Eye on Real-Time Events ....................................................................... 87
6.7. Use #Hashtags to Navigate Yourself and Audiences among Your Tweets ................................ 87
6.8. Content is the King, While Visual is the Crown ......................................................................... 88
7. Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 88
8. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 90

6

List of Figures
Figure 1: Internet Penetration Rate Worldwide in 2012 (Statista) ............................................... 12
Figure 2: Regional Distribution of GDP, 1970 - 2020 (The Conference Board) ......................... 17
Figure 3: Monthly Active Users of Sina Weibo (Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.; Credit Suisse;
Morgan Stanley; Piper Jaffray; China Renaissance) .................................................................... 35
Figure 4: Daily Active Users of Sina Weibo (Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.; Credit Suisse;
Morgan Stanley; Piper Jaffray; China Renaissance) .................................................................... 35
Figure 5: Screenshot of a Weibo Page .......................................................................................... 36
Figure 6: Number of Monthly Active Twitter Users Worldwide from 1st Quarter 2010 to 3rd
Quarter 2014 (Statista) .................................................................................................................. 37
Figure 7: Sample Picture of a Repost on Weibo ........................................................................... 38
Figure 8: Screenshot of Microsoft's Twitter Page ........................................................................ 40
Figure 9: Screenshot of Microsoft's Weibo Page .......................................................................... 41
Figure 10: Screenshot of Lenovo's Twitter Page .......................................................................... 42
Figure 11: Screenshot of Lenovo's Weibo Account ..................................................................... 43
Figure 12: Microsoft's & Lenovo's Social Media Popularity Compairson ................................... 45
Figure 13: Example Microsoft Tweets on Twitter (Personality) .................................................. 47
Figure 14: Example Microsoft Post on Weibo ............................................................................. 47
Figure 15: Lenovo Tweets on Twitter (Personality Showcase) .................................................... 48
Figure 16: Lenovo Weibo post (TEXT: HEY, how's your first day after the New Year break?
Let's talk about it!) ........................................................................................................................ 49
Figure 17: Lenovo Weibo Post about Rola and Len ..................................................................... 50
Figure 18: Lenovo Customer Service Tweet, Lenovo Dealing with Customer Service by Itself 52
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Figure 19: Lenovo Customer Service Tweet – Lenovo Forwarding Customer Service Tweet to
the Right Department .................................................................................................................... 52
Figure 20: Hashtag Usage Comparison ........................................................................................ 54
Figure 21: Percentage of Retweeted (Reposted) Tweets (Posts) on Twitter and Weibo .............. 56
Figure 22: Lenovo Shanghai Bund Post ....................................................................................... 58
Figure 23: Microsoft's Total Number of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average
Reaction for Each Post (Weibo) ................................................................................................... 59
Figure 24: Screenshot for Microsoft’s Information post with the Most Reactions on Weibo ...... 60
Figure 25: Screenshot for Microsoft’s Connection Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo ...... 61
Figure 26: Screenshot for Microsoft’s Entertainment Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo .. 62
Figure 27: Total Number of Tweets for Each Motivational Element and Average Number of
Reactions for Each Tweet (Microsoft Twitter) ............................................................................. 62
Figure 28: Screenshot of Microsoft’s Information Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter ... 63
Figure 29: Screenshot of Microsoft’s Entertainment Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter 64
Figure 30: Screenshot of Connection Tweet with Most Reactions on Twitter (Microsoft) ........ 65
Figure 31: Total Amount of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average Amount of
Reactions for Each Post (Lenovo Weibo) ..................................................................................... 65
Figure 32: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Connection Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo ........... 67
Figure 33: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Information Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo .......... 68
Figure 34: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Entertainment Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo ....... 69
Figure 35: Total Amount of Tweets with Each Motivational Elements and Average Amount of
Reactions to Each Tweet (Lenovo Twitter) .................................................................................. 70
Figure 36: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Information Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter ...... 71
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Figure 37: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Entertainment Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter ... 72
Figure 38: Screenshot of Lenovo’s Connection Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter ....... 73
Figure 39: Comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on the Total Amount of Posts for Each
Motivation Type on Weibo ........................................................................................................... 74
Figure 40: Comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on the Total Amount of Tweets for Each
Motivation Type on Twitter .......................................................................................................... 75
Figure 41: Average Amount of Reactions for Each Giveaway/Sweepstake Tweet (Post) ........... 77
Figure 42: Percentage of Different Presentation Patterns on Microsoft Weibo and Twitter ........ 78
Figure 43: Average Amount of Reactions for Each Post in Each Presentation Combination on
Weibo (Microsoft) ........................................................................................................................ 79
Figure 44: Average Amount of Reactions for Each Tweet in Each Presentation Combination on
Twitter (Microsoft) ....................................................................................................................... 80
Figure 45: Percentage of Different Presentation Patterns on Lenovo Weibo and Twitter ........... 80
Figure 46: Average Amount of Reactions to Each Post in Each Presentation Combination on
Weibo (Lenovo) ............................................................................................................................ 81
Figure 47: Average Amount of Reactions to Each Tweet in Each Presentation Combination on
Twitter (Lenovo) ........................................................................................................................... 82

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1. Introduction
In Thomas Friedman’s 2005 book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First
Century, he talked about how geographical and historical factors were getting less important for
international commerce and how the world eventually became a level market for all countries
(Friedman).
Ten years later, the world is not only gradually turning into a flat place for international
commerce, but also opening up to become a level playing field for communications where
messages can fly all the way across mountains and seas, and reach individuals in every corner of
the world. Although some countries, such as China, still limit citizens’ access to information, the
level of openness has significantly increased during the past ten years.
The quick development of technology is among several of the most significant forces that
are driving the revolution in the communications industry. Out of all the breakthroughs in
technology, the Internet, mobility and social media are among the crucial innovations that have
changed the communications landscape. The Internet can break the boundaries between countries,
mobile devices have the ability to make communications ubiquitous and social media is able to
provide a convenient portal and marketplace for messages and ideas.
The revolution in communications is not only gradually changing the way people interact
with each other, it is also changing how companies communicate with their customers. Social
media, for example, can help companies carry out two-way communications and reach customers
worldwide on an individual basis.
Reaching customers worldwide doesn’t only mean a larger customer base, but also
signifies increasing audience fragmentation. People in different cultures might have different
10

mindsets and different reaction patterns to stimulants. Therefore, companies should start to take
account of psychological factors that are rooted deeply in ethnic cultures, such as motivations
and value systems, when creating business plans, because these factors can greatly influence how
customers in different cultural contexts perceive the message and whether the message is
effective to them.
The penetration of social media and the significance of cultures should be taken especially
seriously in Business-to-Customer (hereafter B2C) communications. Since B2C companies need
to deal with various customers worldwide every day, in order to make sure that every individual
customer is taken care of in an appropriate manner, communication practitioners should be
acutely aware of any new trends in customers’ lifestyles and have an accurate and
comprehensive understanding of how their customers are different from one other.
B2C technology companies especially need to understand and analyze new trends to keep
pace with the changing business landscape where new forces like mobile, social and cloud are
influencing business models and customer behaviors (Lopez). Since many technology companies
are constantly trying to put out new products with innovative concepts, it’s important for them to
make sure that they always look innovative and edgy, but also communicate in a way that is easy
for their customers to understand and also promote themselves enough so that customers want to
try these new products. With the world opening up and social media quickly becoming an
important part of daily life, in order to achieve these goals above, technology companies need to
understand how to leverage social media to reach out to customers worldwide and how they
consume and understand messages in different cultures.
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To help these companies understand efficient communication patterns on social media in
different cultures, this thesis will discuss the effect of cultural differences in motivations of
social media usage, which is an important psychological aspect that has a great influence on
online interactions, and then try to figure out effective and appropriate communication patterns
by jointly considering motivational elements and presentations of online messages on different
social media platforms.
To achieve these goals, the author first examined the changing landscape of B2C
communications and the rise of social media, and then reviewed current academic papers about
cultural differences in motivations of online communications. To obtain more practical results,
the author also carried out content analysis of social media activities of two international B2C
technology companies -- Microsoft and Lenovo -- and audiences’ reactions to their tweets on
Chinese and US social media platforms. In the conclusion, the author gives recommendations on
how to create effective and appropriate content on social media for different cultures.

2. The Changing Landscape of B2C Communications
Since the World Wide Web was invented in 1989, great changes have taken place the in
B2C communications area. The boom of the Internet, the empowerment of customers, the rise of
social media and the development of global communications have all influenced how companies
interact with consumers. In this chapter, the author will give an overview on how the landscape
of B2C communications has changed.

12

2.1. The Internet Boom and the Empowerment of Consumers
The Internet has made its way into peoples’ homes and gradually become an indispensable
part of our daily lives. The Internet reached 50 million people in 1998 (Who Is Hosting This).
Four years later, that number reached 569 million (Erickson). In 2009, it was 1 billion (Who Is
Hosting This) and it then quickly climbed to 2 billion in 2012 (Erickson). Last year in 2014, over
2.4 billion people were using the Internet and more than 8.7 billion devices connected (Ouzan).
The Internet has penetrated almost every country. Below is a data chart showing the
penetration rates in different regions in 2014 (Statista).

Figure 1 Internet Penetration Rate Worldwide in 2012 (Statista)
With the Internet becoming a bridge, spreading information nationally and internationally
becomes easy. This has empowered consumers worldwide, making everyone’s voice count in the
business world. Now when consumers want to buy products, they don’t only go to sales
representatives or their friends and relatives for suggestions: they can also browse online to read
19%
40.60%
32.40%
55.90%
74.80%
65.50%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Africa Arab States Asia Pacific Commonwealth
of Independent
States
Europe The Americas
Penetration Rates
Global Internet Penetration Rates by Region in 2014
13

thousands of product reviews posted by others worldwide. For example, consumers in the United
States can now easily share their opinions about a specific product with people in Japan, the
United Kingdom, Norway and whatever countries have access to the Internet.
All of these reviews online shape the reputation of a brand and will eventually influence
product sales. The significant power of word-of-mouth is making companies realize that all of
their online footprints should be regarded as important assets that need to be managed carefully.
Customers’ voices should also be taken seriously. The popularity of the Internet and the
empowerment of consumers have significantly raised the priority of consumer communications
in B2C business, especially in the online world, and specifically in social media.
2.2. The Rise of Social Media
In March 2014, McKinsey & Company conducted a thorough review of thousands of
customers’ media consumption behavior in telecommunications, media and technology
industries. McKinsey found that almost everything – devices, contents, communication channels,
to name a few – is gradually going digital (Duncan, Hazan and Roche). In this digital era,
companies would find communications very inconvenient if there isn’t a bridge between them
and customers. This bridge is social media.
As an important digital platform for online interactions, social media is now playing an
important role in connecting people, especially companies and their customers, in a convenient
manner. Therefore, understanding consumer behaviors on social media is crucial for B2C
companies who want to maintain a healthy customer relationship both online and offline.
Social media started to show its commercial potential in 2002 when Friendster.com, an
early Social Networking Site (SNS) that helped people find their friends online, got 3 million
14

users shortly after its launch (Hayden and Tomal). After that, in 2004, with the launch of
Facebook, social media turned a new page in consumer communications.
Data show that the number of active users on social media has been dramatically
increasing during the past ten years. The number of Facebook active users has leaped from 1
million in 2004 to 1.5 billion in 2013, while the number of Twitter users jumped from 6 million
in 2008 to 554.7 million in 2013 (Safran). Social media also crosses boundaries in the
information exchange. It makes sharing information surprisingly easy. Anyone can now share
anything at any time, from any place.
The nature of social media makes it difficult for companies to control the flow of
information. In 2012, people shared 684,478 pieces of content per minute on Facebook, sent over
450 million tweets a day and uploaded more than 40 million photos to Instagram daily (Ahmad).
The high frequency and volume-of-information exchanges on social media make the voice from
people so important that companies must take it seriously. Research shows that consumers who
use social media will talk to five times more people about a satisfying customer service
experience on social media than people who never use social media, while they would also talk
to three times more people about an unsatisfying customer service experience on social media
(Infosys).
With more and more consumers turning to social media for product information and
reviews, creating a corporate social media page is now a requirement for most companies. Many
customers now expect brands to have social media accounts so that they can directly
communicate with companies in a convenient manner. Data shows that almost half of U.S.
15

customers (46%) expect brands to have a Facebook account, about 29% of them are expecting a
company blog and 27% want to see a customer support forum (Infosys).
Creating and maintaining a social media account can help B2C companies reach their
audiences quickly and increase their customer base. For example, within 30 minutes of posting
information on Facebook, brands could get half of the customers they could eventually reach
(Ahmad). In 2013, about 70% of marketing practitioners successfully increased the customer
base by using Facebook (Bullas). However, in January 2015, Facebook updated its algorithm for
its News Feed, decreasing the amount of promotional feeds customers would get (Facebook).
This might have an influence on whether companies could reach their audiences as fast as they
used to do. However, since the update only took place a month ago, there are still no statistics to
examine.
The financial benefits in maintaining a high-quality social media account are also huge.
Global data shows that about half of Internet users (46%) would go to social media for
suggestions when they are about to purchase products (Ahmad). In 2013, 78% of Internet users
said that companies’ social media posts would affect their purchase decisions (Bennett).
Moreover, about 74% of marketing practitioners find the traffic to their websites increased after
investing about six hours every day in social media content creation and interacting with
audiences (Ahmad).
Many companies have already realized the popularity and commercial potential of social
media. By 2013, there were already 80% of companies that had woven social media into their
customer service plans (Bennett) .
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As mentioned previously in this chapter, B2C communications have changed greatly in
the past 20 years. It is now more digital, mobile and individual-based. The major forces that
drive these changes are: the Internet boom, the rise of social media and empowered consumers.
Therefore, to catch up with the pace of technology and society, B2C companies who want to
survive in this digital era should carefully manage their activities on social media to win more
customers and maintain a healthy customer relationship.
Social media is definitely now an important part of B2C communications, but another
factor should also be taken into account if the company wants to expand its business globally.
This factor is culture.
2.3. Global Communications: The Power of Culture
According to data from The Conference Board Global Economic Outlook 2015 and The
Conference Board Total Economy Database TM in September 2014 (The Conference Board), the
economic competition between countries has gotten fiercer in recent years. According to the
graph below, the economic power of several leading countries or regions – U.S., Europe, China
and India – are approaching to each other. This means that there is a great economic potential in
the global market, especially in developing countries that have shown a strong growth rate in the
past ten years, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (or “BRIC”).
17

Figure 2 Regional Distribution of GDP, 1970 - 2020 (The Conference Board)
However, developing a business internationally is never easy work. Since today’s
businesses need to consider audience fragmentation and personalized services more than before,
it’s rather important for international companies to understand how their customers in different
countries are different. Since B2C companies need to sell their products directly to various
customers, having a clear and accurate understanding of differences in what their customers are
thinking and how they will react to different messages under different cultural contexts is crucial
for driving revenues globally.
18

There have been many business failures caused by cultural blunders. For example, several
years ago, cosmetic giant Revlon launched a camellia-scented perfume in Brazil. Shortly after
the product hit the market, there was a huge backlash; in Brazil, camellias are only used for
funerals. Overlooking this cultural norm cost Revlon a lot. The company not only had to recall
the perfume, but also had to suffer a decline in the brand reputation because of its disrespectful
business strategy (Info Barrel).
There are also examples of successful international communications. One company that
really understands the nuances between languages is Airbnb. Since its launch in 2008, the online
apartment rental company and community marketplace has already reached 192 countries. In
order to serve its audiences in different regions properly, Airbnb’s website can be changed into
21 languages with one consistent message. For example, the Airbnb’s English slogan is “A world
of unique spaces, right at your fingertips,” but in German it is “Eine Welt voller einzigartiger
Unterkünfte, direkt auf Deinem Handy,” in which the phrase “at your fingertips” is changed to
be “on your cellphone” to make it sound more informal and casual in the German culture
(Fleishman). Airbnb’s efforts to cater to customers in different cultures have won it great
success in global expansion. In 2011, the number of rentals in Italy increased by 946%, while in
the UK it went up by 748% (Fleishman).
It’s very difficult for companies to completely understand nuances of different cultures, but
once they understand some of them, their business development in the international market will
be greatly facilitated. Since social media is a very popular and also convenient platform for
companies to connect and interact with audiences worldwide, understanding cultural differences
in people’s social media behaviors will be beneficial when brands want to create social media
campaigns or send out messages via online channels.
19

Moreover, sending messages is not the only goal of companies’ social media activities.
Audience interactions with the company, including comments, retweets and likes or favorites are
also crucial. By examining the numbers of these reactions, companies can measure the outreach
of the post, get to know whether audiences really care about the information they send out and
also find out the most effective way to communicate with audiences. Therefore, when looking at
effectiveness in company’s social media posts, the amount of audience reactions could be a good
indicator.
When companies want to understand customers’ social media behaviors in different
cultures, one trend that they might follow is what affects people’s motivation to use social media.
Why do audiences in different countries want to use social media? What are they looking for
when they go to a company’s social media page? What kind of psychological needs do they want
to fulfill by interacting with companies? Once companies understand questions like these, they
can craft their posts for different audiences by carefully considering their major needs behind
social media activities. Posts that can fulfill audiences’ needs or match their motivations are most
likely to get reactions, such as comments, retweets, likes and favorites from audiences.
In the next chapter, the author will review existing psychological research about cultural
differences in motivations of social media activities.

20

3. An Academic Review on How Culture Influences Motivations behind
Social Media Usage
3.1. Dimensions of Cultural Differences
Culture has been one of the most important topics in the communications area for decades.
According to Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist and Professor at Maastricht University,
culture can be explained as a “shared perception of social environment (Hofstede).” It influences
how people behave, communicate and interact with each other. Individuals living in the same
culture tend to internalize values, rules and norms formed in that specific social environment
(Hofstede). Researchers like Hofstede summarized that one of the most important features of
culture is that it can distinguish members of one group from those of other groups(Hofstede).
Cultural differences, therefore, are usually used to refer to these different behavioral and
psychological patterns caused by different cultural environments.
The study of cultural differences in communication patterns dates back to the 1950s when
Edward T. Hall, an American anthropologist and cross-cultural communications researcher, first
started the Intercultural Communications discipline at the Foreign Service Institute of U.S.
Department of States (Rogers, Hart and Mike). Since then cross-cultural communications have
been studied frequently from many perspectives. Out of all of them, the two most frequently
discussed dimensions regarding cultural differences in communication patterns are the value
system and the communication style.
3.1.1. Value System
People hold different value systems in different cultural contexts. In 1983, Hofstede first
systematically identified basic value dimensions that could help to distinguish people in different
21

cultures (Hofstede). According to data collected from 116,000 surveys in three regions and 60
countries, Hofstede talked about four fundamental dimensions of the value system: collectivism
vs. individualism, masculinity vs. femininity, equal power distance vs. unequal power distance
and uncertainty avoidance (present vs. absent) (Hofstede). One year later, he added the fifth
dimension, orientation towards life (short-term vs. long-term), to complete his theory (Hofstede).
Even now, Hofstede’s model is still commonly used in understanding different value
systems of people in different cultures (Kim, Sohn and Choi). Among these five dimensions, the
individualism-collectivism category is most frequently and commonly used to categorize the
culture of a country (Kirkman, Lowe and Gibson).
Individuals from collectivist cultures are usually observed to place great weight on
interdependence, in-group intimacy and their positions within certain collectives, such as family,
nation and community (Triandis). People from individualist cultures are found to have relatively
strong tendencies to prize independence, competition and self-promotion (Kim, Sohn and Choi).
Research finds that collectivism is more commonly found in countries like China, Korea and
Japan, while Western cultures, such as the U.S., are more likely to lean toward individualism
(Cho, Kwon and Gentry) (Hofstede, Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-
Related Values).
This difference in the value system has deeply influences the way people develop their
relationships with others and the way they behave socially. According to Marieke De Mooji’s
2013 book Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes, individuals
in collectivist cultures show great motivation in building lifelong relationships (De Mooji). They
are also observed to be motivated to intentionally maintain fewer but closer friendships than
22

individualists do (Chiu, Ky and Yy). Conversely, people in the individualist culture enjoy
making more friends. However, since they care about leaving enough personal spaces in
relationships, including friendships, their connections with friends don’t appear to be as close as
what collectivists would want to have (Qi and Leichtman).
Although there are some opposing features in individualism and collectivism, these two
value systems are not totally independent. They are two ends of a continuum, where most people
either lean to one end or another.
3.1.2. Communication Styles
According to Hall, communication styles are usually used to describe the amount of
information that conversation participants will share during their interactions. There are two
communication styles: high-context communications and low-context communications (Hall).
High-context communications are usually indirect expressions, because participants often
rely heavily on cues in the context, such as gestures and vocal tones, instead of literal words to
convey their messages. Therefore, ambiguity in literal words is commonly observed in high-
context communications. This communication pattern is usually closely related to the cultural
manner, because many participants would consider being too straight forward in words as being
rude. On the other hand, low-context communication relies more on direct and literal information
in the messages where individuals are trying to make their messages as clear as possible to avoid
ambiguity (Hall). This communication pattern is also closely related to the cultural manner,
because many participants would assume that being ambiguous would create loopholes in the
words and may eventually cause troubles. Here is a simple example of high-context and low-
context communications. If you are really hungry and want to have a hamburger, in the low-
23

context manner, you would say, “Let’s have a hamburger,” but in the high-context manner, you
would say the following sentence with an eager facial expression, “My friend told me that there
was a very good burger place near the bus stop. What do you think of it?”
Research finds that people’s communication styles could be influenced by their value
systems, especially by the individualism-collectivism dimension. For example, Gudykunst,
Associate Professor at Arizona State University, and Ting-Toomey, Associate Professor at Ninon
University, found in their classic and still commonly quoted paper, Attributional Confidence in
Low- and High-Context Cultures, that people in individualist cultures are more likely to carry out
low-context conversations while collectivists usually communicate in a high-context pattern
(Gudykunst and Nishida).
3.1.3. Influence of Cultural Differences on Social Media Usage
Since culture has an influence on how individuals communicate and interact with others,
(as well as how they build social relationships) it may also affect the way people think and
behave in the online world. Previous research suggests that cultural elements do influence
peoples’ motivations for using social media. In a 2012 study, Chau, Associate Professor of
Information Systems at The University of Hong Kong, and his colleagues from Brunel
University in U. K., Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington and North
Carolina State University asked respondents from Hong Kong (a generally collectivist society)
and the U.S. (where individualism is mainly practiced) to rate how frequently they used social
media for certain motivations. Respondents were asked to rank each survey item (such as “I use
social media to meet friends”) on a scale of 1-5 based on the frequency. These items were then
categorized into four categories by factor analysis. The four categories were social connection
24

(including items such as “I use social media to meet new people”), information seeking
(including items such as “I use social media to search for educational information”),
entertainment seeking (including items such as “I use social media to play games on it”) and
social support (including items such as “I use social media to let out my emotions to others who
will sympathize”). Researchers found that the average score that Hong Kong respondents gave
to every social connection item was about 27% higher than the average score U.S. respondents
gave to the same item. At the same time, the average score U.S. respondents gave to every
information search item was about 10.4% higher than the average score Hong Kong respondents
gave to the same item (Chau, Cole and Massey). This research suggests that respondents from
Hong Kong, which was a generally collectivist culture, might use social media mainly to build
social connection, while respondents from U.S., which was a generally individualist culture,
might use social media mainly to seek information. The result infers a possible influence of the
culture on the people’s motivation of social media usage. This specific influence will be
elaborated upon in the following section.
3.2. Cultural Differences and Motivations for Social Media Usage
In this section, the author will look at the classification of motivations, motivations of
social media usage and how the culture influences motivations. The author will also talk about
how culture influences the way messages are being presented on social media, such as whether
companies in one culture uses more pictures and videos to convey messages than companies in
the other culture do. By examining both the motivation and the presentation, the author offers a
more comprehensive view on how to create effective messages in different cultural contexts.

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3.2.1. Motivations
As Ronald L. Pardee, an American Motivation Theory researcher, noted in his 1990 paper,
Motivation Theories of Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor & McClelland. A Literature Review of
Selected Theories Dealing with Job Satisfaction and Motivation, a motivation can be explained
as an internal drive that propels individuals to satisfy their basic needs. According to Pardee,
although there are many definitions of motivations, three core features can be found in most
research: motivations 1) are mostly internal forces; 2) drive individuals to carry out certain
actions; 3) decide directions of those actions (Pardee).
There are many ways of categorizing motivations. The broadest classification, according
to Jackson, a researcher from Michigan State University, and Wang, a researcher from Center for
Mental Health Education at Southwest University in China, categorizes motivations into social
motives and non-social motives (Jackson and Jin-Liang, Cultural Differences in Social
Networking Site Use: A Comparative Study of China and the United States).
Social motives are usually forces related to social interactions, interpersonal relationships
and identity affirmation in certain social groups, while non-social motives are internal drives
related to circumstances including escaping from reality, diversion and fantasy. In most of the
cases, information seeking could also be regarded as a social motive because this information is
often used to build conversations with other people (Chau, Cole and Massey). Both social and
non-social motives can be satisfied in the online world. However, different online activities may
be effective for satisfying different types of motives.
Psychologists usually refer to the Uses and Gratifications theory to explain why and how
different motives are satisfied by different media-related activities.
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3.2.2. Uses and Gratifications Theory and Cultural Differences in Motivations
The study on how media serves people’s needs dates back to Herzog’s research in 1942
on getting gratifications from watching soap operas (Herzog). Building upon the empirical
results of Herzog’s research, in 1973, Katz, an America-born Israeli sociologist, and his
colleague researchers from University of Leeds developed a more structured theory, Uses and
Gratifications Theory, to systematically explain how media users leverage media contents to
satisfy their psychological needs. According to them, the Uses and Gratifications theory assumes
that people are all active and goal-directed media users. By proactively choosing certain types of
media and contents, people could satisfy their basic psychological needs and seek for
gratifications (Elihu, Blumler and Gurevitch).
Scientists have found that social and non-social motives are usually satisfied by different
types of online activities. For example, Sherry, a researcher from Michigan State University, and
his colleagues from Purdue University and Boston College found that video game playing was
usually used to satisfy non-social motivations like fantasy and escapism, while social media
activities were usually driven by social motives (Sherry, Lucas and Greenberg).
General motivations behind social media usage are similar from culture to culture. People
usually use social media to connect with friends or build friendships, get social support or
express their feelings to others that will sympathize, seek entertainment to have fun and search
for information in a convenient way (Kim, Sohn and Choi).
However, culture influences the weight people place on different motivations, as well as
individuals’ value systems. Research finds that people in a collectivist culture are more likely to
put a higher weight on social connection and social support, while people in an individualist
27

culture are more likely to put a higher weight on information seeking and entertainment. A study
among Korean and U.S. respondents found that when asked to rank each survey item (such as “I
use social media to find recruitment information”) on a scale of 1-5 to show how frequent
respondents used social media for certain motivations, the average score Korean respondents
gave to items about using social media for seeking social supports (such as “I use social media to
express my anger to a specific individual/organization”) was 18% higher than the average score
U.S. subjects gave to these items. At the same time, U.S. subjects gave significantly higher
scores to items about using social media to seek entertainment (such as “I use social media to
forget about work or other things”), 11% higher than what Korean subjects gave to these items
(Kim, Sohn and Choi). This research suggests that people in a collectivist culture like Korea
might use social media mainly to seek social support, while people in an individualist culture like
U.S. might use social media mainly to entertain themselves instead of building social
connections.
Figuring out motivations behind social media usage is not enough for creating an
effective social media message. The presentation of messages is also important because it
directly influences the format and the construction of the message.
How people present messages on social media could also be influenced by the culture,
especially the communication style. Research finds that people in a collectivist culture are more
willing to use high-context communications while people in an individualist culture are more
willing to communicate in a low-context way. For example, in 2012 Qiu, a researcher from
Singapore Nanyang Technological University, and his colleagues from Singapore Management
University, found that the average frequency of Chinese social media users conducting indirect
and non-verbal communications activities (such as posting pictures and GIFs) every week was
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23% higher than the average frequency of U.S. social media users conducting the same activities
every week. However, the average frequency of U.S. social media users conducting text-based
direct communications activities (such as writing posts with no pictures) every week was 28%
higher than the average frequency of Chinese social media users conducting same activities
every week (Qiu, Lin and Leung).
Therefore, communication professionals need to jointly consider the motivation theory
and the message presentation to figure out the most appropriate way to create a message that fits
into the cultural context.

4. Hypothesis
Based on existing academic works about cultural differences, motivations and social
media usage, the author assumes that messages presented in a certain way that satisfy people’s
motivations in an appropriate cultural context are most likely to generate reactions from the
audience. To be more specific, below are the hypotheses the author makes based on academic
and secondary research.
H1: People in the U.S., a relatively individualist culture, are more likely to react to
content that provides information and entertainment, while people in China, a relatively
collectivist culture, are likely to react more to content that provides opportunities of building
social connections or friendship with companies.
29

H2: People in the U.S. are likely to react more to content containing text only than people
in China do, while people in China are likely to react more to content that is more visual with
less text than people in the U.S. do.
To test these hypotheses in real business situations, find best practices and also figure out
an effective way to combine motivational elements and presentation of messages together, the
author carried out a content analysis to analyze the social media activities of two international
B2C technology companies on Weibo and Twitter and also measured audience reactions to their
activities.
In the following chapters, the author will talk about findings and insights from the
content analysis. The rationale behind the company selections, the platform selection and coding
rules will also be elaborated on in the next chapter.

5. Content Analysis
5.1. Methodology
5.1.1. Overview
In this chapter, the author reviews findings and insights from content analysis of the
social media activities of two famous international B2C technology companies, Microsoft and
Lenovo, on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, and Twitter, one of the most commonly
used US social media platforms.
The author chose Chinese and U.S. social media for comparison because as mentioned in
the last chapter, Chinese culture is commonly regarded as a typical collectivist culture while
30

individualism is often observed in the U.S. culture. What’s more, since Twitter is banned in
China, Weibo is the most commonly used social media platform among Chinese people.
Moreover, since Weibo is mostly in Chinese, most of its users are Chinese speakers. Therefore,
results collected from Weibo can be regarded as mostly from Chinese people, while results
collected from Twitter could be regarded as mostly from non-Chinese people.
Moreover, since Americans make up the biggest proportion of Twitter users at 30.0%
(Alexa), and both companies already have specific Twitter accounts for major countries other
than the U.S., the interactions coming from both companies’ main English-speaking Twitter
accounts can be assumed as more likely to be with Americans.
As for the reason for choosing Microsoft and Lenovo, both companies make good
subjects for the content analysis for three reasons. First, they are all large international B2C
technology corporations that have a powerful presence in the China and U.S. markets. Second,
Microsoft and Lenovo both have major follower numbers on Weibo and Twitter (Microsoft has
6.22 million followers on Twitter and 147, 061 followers on Weibo, while Lenovo has 344,000
followers on Twitter and 1.6 million followers on Weibo), and have been operating their social
media accounts for several years. This means that abundant data could be collected from their
social media activities to make content analysis results convincing. Third, Lenovo is based in
China while Microsoft is based in the U.S. Therefore, examining Lenovo’s activities on Twitter
and Microsoft’s activities on Weibo could also be helpful for testing whether these two brands
have done a good job with localization.
A detailed introduction on the two social media platforms and two companies can be
found in section 5.2 and section 5.3.
31

To do content analysis, the author followed several rules to categorize tweets from each
company on each platform. In the following section, the author will give an overview of the
content analysis and elaborate on each rule.
5.1.2. Coding Rules
For the content analysis, the author coded the latest 150 tweets from January 13, 2015,
for each company on each platform, thus the total number of tweets analyzed is 600.
All company activities that are able to be tracked on social media are analyzed, including
original tweets and tweets that are retweeted from others’ tweets, as well as public replies to
audiences’ comments and original posts.
Each tweet (post) is coded from two general aspects: the type of motivation fulfilled and
the message presentation pattern.
5.1.2.1. Coding on Motivational Elements
To examine motivational elements, each tweet (post) is carefully analyzed and classified
under of one of four categories. According to Kim and his colleagues’ research in 2011, these
four categories are similar from culture to culture and can be commonly used to categorize
motivations of social media usage (Kim, Sohn and Choi). These four motivations are: friendship
and connections building (in short as “Friendship/Connection” later in the thesis), support
seeking (in short as “support” later in the thesis), entertainment seeking (in short as
“entertainment” later in the thesis) and information seeking (in short as “information” later in the
thesis). Below are criteria for categorizing these motivational elements.
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 Friendship/Connections: Two types of tweets (posts) could be classified as
Friendship/Connections: 1) Tweets (posts) that ask for interactions with audiences. For
example, tweets (posts) that ask for opinions, require audiences to share their own stories
or ask them to carry out a specific action (such as retweet) to interact with the company;
2) Replies to audiences’ positive comments or posts (posts) toward the brand. Please note
that contest giveaways and sweepstakes are counted as Friendship/Connections if they
require audiences to retweet (repost) the post or share their stories and opinions.
Moreover, replies to audiences’ negative comments or tweets (posts) would be
categorized as “Support.”

 Support: Although Microsoft and Lenovo both maintain separate accounts specifically
for customer service, not all customers know that. Therefore, many customers will still
“mention” or reply to the main corporate account for help. What the author cares about
here is whether the corporate account deals with these requests from customers.
Therefore, all replies to negative comments, complaints and product questions from the
corporate account are categorized as “Support.”

 Entertainment: Tweets (posts) that are not business-related or about the company,
products or events. Things that are considered interesting, funny or inspiring are counted
as Entertainment. Please note that this category has nothing to do with the tone of the
tweet (post), but is mainly about the content.

33

 Information: Tweets (posts) about company information, product information, news,
event recaps and company stories are all categorized as Information.
Please note that these four categories are not completely exclusive, they can overlap in
some cases.
5.1.2.2. Coding on Presentation Patterns
In addition to motivational elements, every tweet will also be categorized based on its
presentation pattern. The author will check whether the tweet includes texts, pictures (regular or
text-embedded) or videos (ranging from under 30 seconds to over one minute). The author will
also check whether the tweets contain any hashtags, phrases with“#” at the front and used to
identify social media entries on specific topics.
5.1.2.3. Measurement of Audience Reactions
The way people interact with companies on Weibo and Twitter are actually quite similar,
but on Weibo, the “tweet” is called a “post,” a “retweet” is called a “repost,” a “reply” is called a
“comment,” and a “favorite” is called a “like.”
A significant difference to note between the two platforms is that on Twitter, if the
company retweets something the user posts, the user won’t know how many retweets and replies
that retweet gets; one can only know the number of retweets and replies the original tweet gets.
But on Weibo, users can clearly see how many reposts and comments a repost gets. A graphic
example can be found in Section 5.2.3 “Platform Functionality Difference Between Twitter and
Weibo” to illustrate more on this difference.
34

Therefore, when analyzing original tweets, the number of audience reactions can be
indicated by the total amount of retweets, replies and favorites. However, for those tweets that
are retweeted from other people, since the author couldn’t find the number of retweets and
replies for the first retweet, the author has eliminated them when analyzing the average number
of audience reactions on Twitter.
In the next section, the author will give a brief introduction on each social media platform
and each company.
5.2. Social Media Platforms Introduction
5.2.1. Weibo
Sina Weibo is a Chinese social media platform launched by SINA, a Chinese online
media company, in 2009. It was originally created as a microblogging platform where users can
post short blogs and share contents with other people. In 2011, Weibo started to integrate social
networking elements and gradually transformed into an open platform that supports
microblogging, social networking, third-party developed applications and games.
Since Twitter is banned by the Chinese government, in the past five years Weibo has
quickly expanded its user base and become the most popular social media platform in China. On
April 17, 2014, Weibo went public and became the first publicly-traded Chinese social media
platform. Weibo’s total revenue was $65,929,000 in 2012 and climbed up to $188,313,000 in
2013 (Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.; Credit Suisse; Morgan Stanley; Piper Jaffray; China
Renaissance).
Below are two figures from Weibo’s IPO, showing a powerful growth in the number of
monthly active users (MAU) and daily active users (DAU) from December 2011 to March 2014.
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Figure 3 Monthly Active Users of Sina Weibo (Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.; Credit Suisse; Morgan Stanley; Piper Jaffray; China
Renaissance)

Figure 4 Daily Active Users of Sina Weibo (Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.; Credit Suisse; Morgan Stanley; Piper Jaffray; China
Renaissance)
72.9
71.5
79.8
91.6
96.7
107.3
120.4
123.1
129.1
143.8
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Dec-12 Mar-12 Jun-12 Sep-12 Dec-12 Mar-13 Jun-13 Sep-13 Dec-13 Mar-14
MAUs (in millions)
Month
Monthly Active Users
Monthly Active Users
25.2
29.5
35.7
41.1
45.1
48.6
52.8
58.9
61.4
66.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Dec-11 Mar-11 Jun-11 Sep-11 Dec-12 Mar-13 Jun-13 Sep-13 Dec-13 Mar-14
DAUs (in millions)
Month
Daily Active Users
Daily Active Users
36

Weibo users can post (with links, pictures, videos, audio and text within 140 words) on
their personal page; like, repost and comment on other people’s posts; follow whomever they
want and send direct messages to other people. Below is a screenshot of a Weibo page.

Figure 5 Screenshot of a Weibo Page
5.2.2. Twitter
Twitter is a globally popular SNS launched on March 21, 2006. Since then, Twitter has
quickly gained a large user base. In 2010, the number of users hit 100 million. This number
doubled by 2012. In 2014, there are 225 million MAUs and over 1 billion total Twitter users
(Statista). Below is a graph from Statista, showing the powerful growth in the number of MAUs
on Twitter between 2010 and 2014 (Statista). Please note that Twitter has its official data for
MAUs in its 2013 annual report but the resolution of the graph is so low that numbers on the
graph could not be distinguished. Therefore the author used the graph from Statista here.
37

Figure 6 Number of Monthly Active Twitter Users Worldwide from 1st Quarter 2010 to 3rd Quarter 2014 (Statista)
According to Alexa, as of January 11, 2015, Twitter is ranked as the 9
th
most popular
website in the world and 8
th
most popular website in the U.S. based on its average daily visitors
and number of page views in the last three months. As for its audience demographics, most users
(28.8%) are from the U.S., followed by Japan and India who take up 10.5% and 7.8%
respectively (Alexa).
Twitter users can post tweets (with 140-character texts, pictures and links); follow
whomever they want; retweet, reply to and favorite other people’s tweets and send messages to
other people.

38

5.2.3. Platform Functionality Difference Between Twitter and Weibo
Although most platform functionalities on both sites are similar, there are some major
differences.
On Weibo, the comment function and the repost function are used equally, while on
Twitter, people use the retweet function much more often than they use the reply function. This
can also be proved by the result of the author’s content analysis.
Also, when Weibo users repost, the user can clearly see how many times his or her own
repost, as well as the original, is reposted, commented on and liked. Below is a screenshot of a
repost on Weibo.

Figure 7 Sample Picture of a Repost on Weibo
The post in the gray window – the one with a picture, some text and a hashtag – is the
original and it is reposted with one new line added. The three numbers in the gray window (1856,
39

428 and 733) represent the numbers of reposts, comments and likes of the original post, while the
three numbers in the white window (72, 32 and 323) represent the numbers of reposts, comments
and likes of the new repost. However on Twitter, you can’t find the number of retweets,
comments and likes of the original retweet itself.
The third difference between Weibo and Twitter is that on Weibo, you can’t see replies
sent by the user on his or her personal page, while on Twitter you can access the “Tweets &
Replies” section to see all replies sent by the user.
5.3. Company Information
5.3.1. Microsoft
Microsoft is a leading U.S. technology company founded in 1975. Its current
headquarters are in Redmond, Washington. By 2013, Microsoft had 128,000 employees
worldwide (Statista).
It started by selling personal computers and software, but Microsoft is now running
mixed lines of Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer products. It mainly develops and
sells solutions, personal computers, related software and devices, consumer electronic devices
and appliances.
Several of Microsoft’s well-known product lines are: Windows operating systems, the
Microsoft Office series, the Xbox game console lineup, Internet Explorer, Surface tablets and
Windows Phone product line (Microsoft). In 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion
(Hudson). In 2013, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile division and formed Microsoft Mobile
Oy to further expand its smartphone business (Pierce). In 2014, Microsoft’s revenue hit $86.83
billion (Microsoft).
40

Microsoft has been running its social media accounts for years. It joined Twitter in
September 2009 with the name Microsoft (@Microsoft) and as of January 12, 2015, has posted
more than 10,500 tweets and has 6.22 million followers. Below is a screenshot of Microsoft’s
Twitter page.

Figure 8 Screenshot of Microsoft's Twitter Page
Microsoft also has a strong presence on Weibo. It joined Weibo in 2011 with the name @
微软中国. As of January 12, 2015, it has 3,973 posts and 147,061 followers. Below is a
screenshot of Microsoft’s Weibo page.
41

Figure 9 Screenshot of Microsoft's Weibo Page
5.3.2. Lenovo
Lenovo is a Chinese technology company founded in 1984 by Chuanzhi Liu. Its Chinese
headquarters are in Beijing and its U.S. headquarters are in Morrisville, North Carolina (Lenovo).
By 2013, Lenovo had 54,000 employees worldwide (Statista).
Lenovo also sells mixed lines of Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer
products. It mainly sells and develops software, storage devices, servers, personal computers,
tablets, smartphones and smart TVs (Lenovo). Lenovo bought IBM’s ThinkPad and ThinkCentre
business in 2005 and acquired Motorola’s phone business in October 2014 (Warren).
Several of Lenovo’s well-known product lines are: the ThinkPad laptop, Lenovo laptops
and smartphones, the Lenovo Yoga tablet and the ThinkCentre desktop (Lenovo).
42

According to Gartner, in 2013, Lenovo beat HP to become the largest PC vendor
worldwide with the highest unit sales (Gartner). In 2014, Lenovo’s revenue hit $38.707 billion
(Lenovo).
Lenovo has also been operating its social media account for several years. It joined
Twitter as Lenovo (@lenovo) in 2008, one year earlier than Microsoft. As of January 12, 2015,
Lenovo has posted 17,700 tweets and has more than 344,000 followers. Below is a screenshot of
Lenovo’s Twitter page.

Figure 10 Screenshot of Lenovo's Twitter Page

As a Chinese company, Lenovo has a stronger presence on Weibo. It established its
Weibo account as @联想 in 2011. As of January 12, 2015, Lenovo has shared 12,161 posts and
43

has 1,554,561 followers. Below is a screenshot of Lenovo’s Weibo Page. Please note that it’s all
red because it is designed to celebrate the New Year.

Figure 7 Screenshot of Lenovo's Weibo Account

In the next chapter, the author will talk about findings and insights from content analysis of
Lenovo and Microsoft’s social media activities and audience reactions.
5.4. Content Analysis Findings and Insights
The author will first compare basic information from Microsoft’s and Lenovo’s main
corporate pages on Weibo and Twitter, then talk about the profile setting of both companies,
motivational elements in their tweets and corresponding audience reactions, and analyze
message presentation patterns.

44

5.4.1. Overview
As mentioned in the company information section, Microsoft and Lenovo are both
running mixed lines of B2B and B2C business products. Based on their product lines, it’s
acceptable to assume that these two companies may have a relatively similar target audience on
social media because: 1) B2B audiences don’t often make purchase decision based on social
media information or rely on company information on social media platforms (TriComB2B;
University of Dayton School of Business Administration); 2) Microsoft is also trying to reach
young adults via its Windows Phone series, Surface tablet line and Xbox lineup, while Lenovo
has Yoga tablets, Lenovo smartphones and Lenovo smart TVs for younger audiences.
Since Microsoft and Lenovo might have a relatively similar target audience in the B2C
area, it’s reasonable to compare their social media popularity by measuring their number of
followers. Please note that to reflect the popularity of each company, the author divides the total
number of followers by the number of years the company is on social media to avoid the
influence of time.
Below is a graph showing the popularity of Microsoft’s and Lenovo’s corporate account
on Weibo and Twitter.
45

Figure 8 Microsoft's & Lenovo's Social Media Popularity Compairson
By comparing data within and across social media platforms, it’s clear that Lenovo is
more popular on Weibo while Microsoft is more popular on Twitter. This result can be
anticipated given the fact that Microsoft is a U.S.-based company while Lenovo is a Chinese
company.
However, it’s also clear that the gap between Microsoft’s and Lenovo’s number of
followers per year is quite large. Since both U.S. and China are big markets for B2C electronics,
there is definitely room for each company to grow their audience base by improving their social
media deliveries.
In the following sections, the author will give detailed analysis on both companies’
profile settings, motivational elements in tweets (posts) and message presentation patterns.

54.67
518.19
1188
49.02
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Twitter Weibo
Average Followers Per Year (in thousands)
Social Media Platform
Social Media Popularity Comparison
Lenovo
Microsoft
46

5.4.2. Profile Setting
5.4.2.1. Personality and Traits
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “personality” is defined as “the
set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other
people, (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)” while trait is defined as the specific “quality that makes
one person or thing different from another (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).” Social media account
“personality,” or how the company talks to its audience, is a feature that users will immediately
notice when they go to a company’s social media page. Although both Microsoft and Lenovo
target young audiences, these two companies show completely opposite social media
personalities. What’s more, both companies have very consistent personalities on Weibo and
Twitter.
According to the author’s observation and content analysis on social media, Microsoft
account talks in a very serious, polite and pragmatic way. Below are several typical tweets (posts)
from Microsoft on Twitter and Weibo. From these tweets (posts), it’s easy to tell how Microsoft
usually talks to its audiences.
47

Figure 9 Example Microsoft Tweets on Twitter (Personality)

Figure 10 Example Microsoft Post on Weibo
48

The text in the Weibo post above reads, “Technology enlightens the world. These
colorful gadgets bring color to daily life. Recently, Microsoft reviewed the best Lumia gadgets in
2014. Please click this link for more information. Which one is your favorite?”
As seen above, referring to itself as “Microsoft” instead of “we” sounds really official
and aloof. Moreover, replying to audiences by saying “We’re glad you enjoyed it” also sounds
polite, official and friendly.
On the contrary, Lenovo has a very consistently strong personality on Twitter and Weibo.
The social media “character” is a humorous, vibrant, “geek” young man who likes to make
friends with everyone. Below are some screenshots of tweets from Lenovo’s Twitter page. With
the casual tone and phrases, the Lenovo “character” just pops out easily and makes it easy for
customers to feel like they are communicating with a human being instead of a robot.

Figure 11 Lenovo Tweets on Twitter (Personality Showcase)
49

On Weibo, Lenovo’s personality is even more vivid. The social media character calls
itself “ 想哥.” “ 想” is the abbreviation of Lenovo, while “ 哥” is usually a very casual way to
refer to a young man that has strong self-confidence and capability to accomplish his goals.
Below is an example screenshot of Lenovo’s Weibo post. The audience can get a feel for the
account’s “character” by its tone and casual wording.

Figure 12 Lenovo Weibo post (TEXT: HEY, how's your first day after the New Year break? Let's talk about it!)
The text reads, “HEY, how ’s your first day after the New Year break? Let ’s talk about it! ”
What’s more, since Lenovo acquired Motorola in October 2014, Lenovo and Motorola
have paired up to be a couple on Weibo. In this fictional relationship, Lenovo is a male character
called 想哥 (or “Len” in English), the same name he is using to refer to himself when operating
Lenovo’s corporate account, and Motorola is a young lady called 罗拉 (or “Rola” in English).
Len is a vibrant young man who likes Rola very much, while Rola is a naughty young lady who
sometimes can become a little bit tough and boyish. The two companies even make toys for
these two characters. Len talks a lot about his relationship with Rola and posts many pictures of
them to Lenovo’s Weibo page. Below is a screenshot of Len (the pink one on the left) and Rola
(the white one on the right) post.
50

Figure 13 Lenovo Weibo Post about Rola and Len
The text above the picture reads, “After #LenovoCES 2015, Rola and I were on our way
to visit Rola ’s family in Chicago when we were suddenly greeted by a heavy yet beautiful snow.
Check this picture of me and Rola standing in the snow and supporting each other! After meeting
Rola ’s family, we will finally go back home. Do you look forward to our comeback and …. our
next generation? :)” The text in the picture reads, “Even in the snow, it feels like spring when
I ’m with you.” This post got 431 reposts, 311 comments and 161 likes. Almost all posts about
Rola and Len get 3-digit comments, reposts and likes. Most people will leave very positive
comments like “Hey Len, you lucky guy,” “Jealous, jealous, jealous,” and “BLESS!!!”
Based on data the author has on hand, it’s hard to say whether the social media
personality can motivate audiences to reply, but building a love story like the one between Rola
51

and Len might be effective in creating shareable content and intriguing audiences to get a
reaction.
5.4.2.2. Customer Service
Microsoft and Lenovo have different customer service methods on Weibo and Twitter.
Since these two companies both operate many sub-brands, the corporate account itself no
longer has to reply to every single customer service inquiry. In most of cases, questions about a
specific sub-brand will be forwarded directly to that account while general customer service
requests will be forwarded to the customer service account. However, not all customers know
that the customer service account exists. They will still tweet or post a message to the corporate
account asking for help. How the corporate account handles these requests may have an
influence on customers’ impressions of the company.
Microsoft’s corporate account on Twitter never answers any customer service requests.
It’s possible that it might directly forward inquiries to the Microsoft Support (@MicrosoftHelps)
account but the author couldn’t track this activity. Microsoft’s corporate account on Twitter only
replies to positive comments and positive tweets from audiences. Similar to what happens on
Twitter, Microsoft’s corporate account on Weibo also doesn’t answer any customer service
requests and will also forward those requests directly to the official help account to reply.
Microsoft Weibo only replies to positive comments to its own posts, while negative comments
under its posts will also be left to the help account.
Lenovo, on the contrary, is quite different. Lenovo Twitter will directly handle customer
service requests. For issues that it can’t handle, it will forward them to the right department and
notify the customer. See the screenshot below for examples of this customer service.
52

Figure 14 Lenovo Customer Service Tweet, Lenovo Dealing with Customer Service by Itself

Figure 15 Lenovo Customer Service Tweet – Lenovo Forwarding Customer Service Tweet to the Right Department

Conversely, Lenovo Weibo doesn’t give any public replies to any customer service
requests. Lenovo’s corporate account will forward them directly to the customer service account
that will then reply to the customer, “Hi, detailed information has been sent to your message box,
53

please check it later.” Moreover, neither of Lenovo’s accounts on Weibo reply to any positive
original posts; if someone talks positively about Lenovo in his or her own posts, Lenovo won’t
reply. The corporate account only answers a very small portion of positive comments under its
own posts.
If talking about the effectiveness of these four customer service patterns, Lenovo’s
methods on Twitter might be more effective. By replying directly to the audience, the company
shows that it cares about every customer’s request. By forwarding these requests to the right
department, the company shows its capability in solving problems and this gains trust from
customers.
However, with Weibo, things are different. Users appear to be angry when the Microsoft
corporate account asks them to turn to other people for help. They say things like “HEY
@MicrosoftHelpandSupport, @MicrosoftChina asks me to talk to you for solutions! Ha!” This
might suggest that asking Chinese customers to go to other accounts for help may negatively
affect Microsoft’s reputation, because this could be interpreted as the company being
incompetent or unable (or unwilling) to help. On Weibo, the better solution may be directly
letting the support account jump in and handle the situation.
As for Lenovo’s “message box” customer service strategy, the author considers it an
ineffective tactic. If a company replies to customer service requests by sending direct messages,
other customers who have similar questions might not be able to find the answers by reading past
replies from companies and thus have to talk to companies on their own. It is not only a waste of
time, but can also be annoying sometimes. The “message box” strategy creates more work for
the customer service account team and also lengthens the customer service time for customers.
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5.4.2.3. Hashtag Usage
The author analyzed the proportion of tweets that included hashtags out of the total
number of tweets sent from each company on both platforms. The bar graph below reflects the
comparison between the two companies.

Figure 20 Hashtag Usage Comparison
According to the data, on average, companies on Twitter use more hashtags than
companies on Weibo. However, Lenovo uses hashtags a lot regardless of whether it is on Twitter
or on Weibo. Microsoft Weibo uses the fewest hashtags, while Lenovo Weibo uses the most.
Lenovo Weibo’s top five most frequently used hashtags are: # 联想 CES# (#LenovoCES,
28 times), # 厦 1 战，跑出心声# (#XiamenMarathon, 27 times; Lenovo sponsored this Marathon
and this is a hashtag for event recaps), # 逆生长# (#GrowYoung, 14 times; this is the theme for
64.90%
73.88%
56.79%
30.30%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Twitter Weibo
Proportion of Tweets with Hashtags
Social Media Platform
Hashtag Usage on Twitter and Weibo among 150 tweets on each platfom
Lenovo
Microsoft
55

Lenovo’s series of events for celebrating the New Year. These events include a Chinese New
Year Gala, sweepstakes, giveaways, etc.), #这一年你拼了吗#
(#HaveYouDeliveredYourBestThisYear, 5 times; this is a hashtag created for a campaign that
encourages people to share their inspiring stories in 2014 to win awards) and # 不 Get 不型#
(#NotCoolWithoutThis, 4 times; this is a promotional hashtag created for the Lenovo TAB S8-50
tablet.)
Although Microsoft uses the fewest hashtags on Weibo, it doesn’t mean that the company
doesn’t create any thematic posts on the platform. Every day, Microsoft Weibo posts case studies
about how Microsoft helps people with its devices. These posts were once under the hashtag # 用
户故事会 (#UsersStories), but the company soon abandoned this campaign for no clear reason
after sending out two posts. There is certainly plenty of room to insert hashtags in Microsoft’s
Weibo posts, the company just needs to realize how important they are for organizing posts and
helping audiences navigate the site.
5.4.2.4. Content Originality
According to the data, both Lenovo and Microsoft post original content on Weibo and
retweet a lot on Twitter. The graph below shows a comparison of retweeted (reposted) tweets
(posts) among all tweets (posts) from each company.
56

Figure 16 Percentage of Retweeted (Reposted) Tweets (Posts) on Twitter and Weibo
According to the graph, on average, companies retweet more on Twitter while they post
more original content on Weibo. Microsoft usually retweets (reposts) from its sub-brands or
related accounts such as Windows, Microsoft Store, Microsoft News, Lumia and Xbox, while
Lenovo usually retweets (reposts) its employees and executives such as Yuanqing Yang,
Chairman and CEO of Lenovo.
The reason why companies on Weibo like to post original content instead of reposting
from others might be that they want to have full control of their media properties, while
reposting other peoples’ text and visuals might lead to interactions with other brands and thus
increase the risk and uncertainty in the conversation.
Chinese social media practitioners are usually very risk-averse because there are so many
regulations made by the government on social media. Therefore practitioners would rather avoid
risks and uncertainties by controlling their content and avoid interacting with other brands.
17.02% 17.16%
55.56%
1.01%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Twitter Weibo
Percentage
social media platform
Percentage of Retweeted (Reposted) Tweets (Posts)
Lenovo
Microsoft
57

5.4.2.5. Responsiveness to Real-Time Events
Only Lenovo Weibo responded to a real-time event during a 50 day period of evaluation.
None of the other three accounts have done anything to capitalize on any trending topics or real-
time events. Recent events show that this is actually a missed opportunity for Microsoft Weibo,
because the event Lenovo responded to was so famous, that almost everyone in China was
talking about it at that time.
On December 31, 2014, 35 people were killed and 48 injured in a serious stampede
Shanghai’s Bund. What seemed like all of China was talking about this accident in the following
days. On the afternoon of January 1, Lenovo shared a post on Weibo to mourn the deceased and
remind all of their employees that the company would support them through this accident.
Microsoft, however, did nothing. Below is the screenshot of Lenovo’s Weibo post. The text
reads, “Our prayers are with all people affected by #ShanghaiBundStampedeAccident! We also
want to inform all of our @LenovoShanghai employees that if you or any of your relatives were
unfortunately injured in this accident, please immediately contact Lenovo ’s HR or our
colleagues in the administration department to get medical aid. Lenovo is always with you!”
This post received many positive comments.
58

Figure 17 Lenovo Shanghai Bund Post
5.4.3. Motivational Elements
In this section, the author examines how companies’ tweets (posts) on Twitter (Weibo)
satisfy different types of motivations and how audiences react to these tweets (posts).
The author analyzed motivational elements within in each tweet (post) and classified all
tweets (posts) by four categories: friendship/connections, support, entertainment and information.
Some tweets (posts) may include multiple motivational elements. Please note that as mentioned
in the previous section, although companies have specific customer service accounts to response
to customer requests, this analysis mainly focuses on how the corporate account itself responses
to the requests. Moreover, if a tweet (post) mentions the corporate account but is replied by the
customer service account, it is assumed that the corporate account forwards the tweet (post) to
the help account and thus the reply is categorized as “support” from the corporate account.
59

To reflect the level of audience reactions/interactions, the author calculated the average
number of reactions to each tweet (post) for each motivation category. Therefore, the average
number of audience reactions for each tweet (post) within each motivation type is calculated by
dividing the total number of reactions (retweets/posts, replies/comments and favorites/likes) by
the number of tweets (posts) in each category.
5.4.3.1. Microsoft on Weibo vs. Microsoft on Twitter
Below is a bar graph for Microsoft Weibo, showing the total amount of posts for each
motivational element and the average number of reactions toward each post.

Figure 18 Microsoft's Total Number of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average Reaction for Each Post (Weibo)
The graph shows that for Microsoft Weibo, more than 67.3% of posts are providing
information while audiences react most to posts that intend to build social connections. On
average, one social connection post can get about 186.12 reactions from the audience. This may
indicate that although sharing information is important, audiences are more active in reacting to
101
61
24 23
130.01
186.12
3.92
58.61
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Information Connections Social Support Entertainment
Total Amount of Tweets / Average Reaction
Amount for Each Tweet
Motivation Types
Total Amount of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average
Reaction Amount (Microsoft Weibo)
Number of Posts Number of Reactions
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posts that help to build connections between the user and the company. The author’s hypothesis
H1 in Section 4 stated that Chinese social media users may have more reactions to social
connection posts than U.S. social media users do, and this result perfectly proves the author’s
theory.
The information post with the most reactions is a post about the Lumia Denim software
updates that include the debut of an AI assistant, Cortana. Below is a screenshot of it. The text
reads, “The Cortana is coming! Now, Lumia Denim is available for Lumia
520/525/526/625/720/720T/1320. Users can experience new functions in Windows Phone 8.1
and finally get their AI assistant Cortana. Click this link to update your phone and meet Cortana.”

Figure 19 Screenshot for Microsoft ’s Information post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
The social connection post with the most interactions is a sweepstake post for the
campaign #EveryoneBecomingAProgrammerForOneHour. To win an award, Office 356
software or a Lumia 535 smartphone, audiences had to repost Microsoft, talk about what they
would do if they were software programmers and scan the QR code in the picture to participate
61

in the “Hour of Code” activity. The text read “#EveryoneBecomingAProgrammerForAnHour
Do you think it ’s great that programmers could change the world by simply typing in several
lines of codes? If you were a programmer, what would you do? Repost this to show your vision
as a programmer and scan the QR code in the picture to participate in ‘Hour of Code ’ activity.
You will have a chance to win Office 356 or Lumia 535. Become a programmer, now or never!”
It’s amazing that this post got 4,875 reposts, 2,341 comments and 39 likes. Almost all
sweepstakes posts on Weibo can get at least 100 reactions. The effectiveness of sweepstakes on
Weibo will be discussed in detail in section “5.4.3.5 Giveaways and Sweepstakes.”

Figure 20 Screenshot for Microsoft ’s Connection Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
The entertainment post with the most reactions is a “Good morning!” post. The text reads
“It ’s the first work day of 2015. Cheer up and don ’t forget to drink a cup of coffee.”
62

Figure 21 Screenshot for Microsoft ’s Entertainment Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
However, for Microsoft on Twitter, the situation is completely different. Below is a bar
graph for Microsoft Twitter, showing the total number of tweets for each motivational element
and the average number of reactions toward each tweet.

Figure 22 Total Number of Tweets for Each Motivational Element and Average Number of Reactions for Each Tweet (Microsoft
Twitter)
91
76
9
1
124.02
429.51
174.6
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
Connections Information Entertainment Support
Total Amount of Tweets / Average
Reactions Amount for Each Tweet
Motivation Types
Total Amount of Tweets for Each Motivational Element and Average
Reaction Amount to Each Tweet(Microsoft Twitter)
Number of Tweets Number of Reactions
63

The graph shows that on Twitter, Microsoft posts the most social connection tweets, then
information tweets and entertainment tweets; audiences tend to react to information tweets most,
then entertainment tweets and connection tweets. This indicates that Twitter users think that
information tweets are the most shareable, and they might be more interested in short
conversations on Twitter instead of building deeper connections with the company. This result
also proves the author’s hypothesis H1 about U.S. social media users having more reactions to
information ironic that the information tweet with the most reactions for Microsoft Twitter is an
introduction of the ORIGIN PC gaming laptops at CES instead of something directly about
Microsoft. The Windows operating system, which is the only connection between ORIGIN PC
and Microsoft, isn’t even mentioned in the tweet.

Figure 23 Screenshot of Microsoft ’s Information Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter
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The entertainment tweet with the most reactions is an inspirational message that includes
a smart play on words. #5to9 is a hashtag mainly for inspirational messages and every tweet with
this hashtag is very popular.

Figure 24 Screenshot of Microsoft ’s Entertainment Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter
The connection tweet with the most reactions is a promotional tweet for the campaign
#HourofCode with an interactive game that asks audiences to guess who the person in the picture
is. Although this one has a really good number of reactions, other connection tweets didn’t do
well so the average number of reactions is not very high.
65

Figure 30 Screenshot of Connection Tweet with Most Reactions on Twitter (Microsoft)
5.4.3.2. Lenovo on Weibo vs. Lenovo on Twitter
For Lenovo Weibo, the overall distribution of the total number of posts for each
motivational element is quite similar to what Microsoft has done on Weibo. Below is a bar graph
for Lenovo Weibo, showing the total number of posts for each motivational element and the
average number of reactions toward each post.

Figure 25 Total Amount of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average Amount of Reactions for Each Post (Lenovo Weibo)
110
59
34
13
990.33
1256.37
865.21
3.92
0
500
1000
1500
Information Connection Entertainment Support
Total Amount of Posts / Average
Reactions Amount for Each Post
Motivation Types
Total Amount of Posts for Each Motivational Element and Average
Amount of Reactions to Each Post (Lenovo Weibo)
Number of Posts Number of Reactions
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Similar to Microsoft Weibo, the graph shows that Lenovo creates the most information
posts, then connection posts and entertainment posts; audiences react to connection posts the
most, then information posts and entertainment posts. Since Lenovo has quite an active audience
on Weibo, one connection post can get 1256.37 reactions on average. This may also indicate that
connection posts are more effective in generating interaction with audiences on Weibo. This
result also proves the author ’s hypothesis H1 about Chinese social media users reacting
more to connection posts in section.
The connection post with the most reactions on Weibo is for the sweepstakes campaign
#GrowYoung. To sign up and win an award, Yoga Tablet2 and Lenovo S9 Smart TV,
participants need to repost Lenovo and talk about his or her New Year’s wish related to
#GrowYoung. This post got 6,159 reposts, 5,238 comments and 152 likes. The text reads,
“SURPRISE ALERT! Len is giving out GrowYoung gift sets again! This time, we have even
better gifts. Check out the gift picture below that I took from Lenovo ’s GrowYoung New Year
party! From now until December 31, you just need to repost this and tell us your GrowYoung
New Year wish to enroll into the sweepstake! Len will give out one GrowYoung gift set every two
hours! Lucky ones will also have a chance to get a YOGA Tablet 2 and Lenovo S9 Smart TVs!
#GrowYoung”
67

Figure 26 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Connection Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
The information post with the most reactions introduces the release of Lenovo’s tablet
“Little Seven” on Jingdong.com, a Chinese B2C retail website. The text reads
“#LittleSevenPower It ’s time now! Lenovo Little Seven is officially on Jingdong.com! People
who buy it now will have a chance to be enrolled into a sweepstakes and win a Lenovo Projected
Tablet that is worth 4,099 Yuan! Just seven days for this promotion! Fight on! (link)”
68

Figure 27 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Information Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
The entertainment post with the most reactions is a picture about Rola and Len. It doesn’t
appear to be business-oriented, just a picture showing that these two are in a good relationship.
The text reads, “2015 #LenovoCES Hey Rola, what are you looking at? Don ’t you think that
69

looking at me is quite enough?” The text in the picture reads, “You are the most beautiful thing
for me.” This post got 1,033 reposts, 682 comments and 339 likes.

Figure 28 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Entertainment Post with the Most Reactions on Weibo
For Lenovo Twitter, the overall distribution of the total number of tweets for each
motivational element is also quite similar with what Microsoft has on Twitter. Below is a bar
graph for Lenovo Twitter, showing the total number of tweets with each motivational element
and the average number of reactions toward each tweet.
70

Figure 29 Total Amount of Tweets with Each Motivational Elements and Average Amount of Reactions to Each Tweet (Lenovo
Twitter)
Similar to Microsoft on Twitter, the graph shows that Lenovo creates connection tweets
the most, then information tweets and entertainment tweets; audiences react to information
tweets the most, then entertainment tweets and connection tweets. This may also indicate that for
Twitter users, information tweets and entertainment tweets are more valuable for sharing and
interacting with the company. Therefore, if the company wants to increase its customer base on
Twitter, creating information tweets and entertainment tweets may be an effective way. This
result also proves the author’s hypothesis H1 about U.S. social media users having more
reactions to information and entertainment tweets.
The information tweet with the most reactions announces the release of the X1 Carbon on
CES.
98
84
20
19
12.09
104.5
56.8
2.89
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Connection Information Entertainment Support
Total Amount of Tweets / Average Amount of
Reactions to Each Tweet
Motivation Types
Total Amount of Tweets for Each Motivational Element and Average
Amount of Reactions to Eacch Tweet (Lenovo Twitter)
Number of Tweets Number of Reactions
71

Figure 30 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Information Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter
The entertainment tweet with the most reactions is a picture showing the popularity of
wearable devices at CES 2015. It seems to prove that pictures and posts about babies are easier
to get “trending” on Twitter.
72

Figure 31 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Entertainment Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter
The connection tweet with the most reactions is a giveaway contest with an interactive
game during CES. By guessing how many balls are there in a tube, participants with the closest
answer can get a surprise present from Lenovo. This may indicate that although companies on
Twitter don’t always offer giveaways, but when they do, giveaways are still good ways to
increase customer engagement and brand awareness.
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Figure 32 Screenshot of Lenovo ’s Connection Tweet with the Most Reactions on Twitter
5.4.3.3. A Comparison of Two Companies Within Each Platform
Now that we know that connection posts work best on Weibo, while information tweets
and entertainment tweets work best on Twitter, it’s time to compare each company’s
performance within each platform.
Below is a graph showing the comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on the total
amount of tweets (posts) for each motivation type on Weibo.
74

Figure 33 Comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on the Total Amount of Posts for Each Motivation Type on Weibo
It appears that there is no big difference in the overall distribution of tweets (posts) for
each motivation type between the two companies. Both Microsoft and Lenovo like to post
mainly information tweets (posts). However, according to the author’s finding in the previous
section, this is not effective for user engagement because Weibo users react to connection posts
more.
Reactions from audiences can not only help the company in spreading information and
increasing its fan base, but can also provide it with more chances to understand what audiences
are thinking and eventually build a healthy customer relationship. Therefore, an effective way to
create Weibo posts might be to increase the number of connection posts or increase interactive
elements in other types of posts.
On Twitter, it’s quite different. Below is a graph showing the comparison between
Lenovo and Microsoft on the total number of tweets for each motivation type on Twitter.
110
59
34
13
101
61
23
24
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Information Connections Entertainment Support
Total Amount of Tweets (Posts)_
Motivation Types
Comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on Numbers of Each
Motivation Type on Weibo
Lenovo
Microsoft
75

Figure 40 Comparison between Lenovo and Microsoft on the Total Amount of Tweets for Each Motivation Type on Twitter
It turns out that there is no big difference in the overall distribution of the total number of
tweets for each motivation type between the two companies. Both Microsoft and Lenovo like to
connect with their audiences. However, according to the author’s findings in the previous chapter,
this is not effective for interaction with Twitter users who tend to react to information tweets and
entertainment tweets more. Therefore, an effective way to create tweets might be to increase the
number of information and entertainment tweets. This way, audiences are more likely to interact
with the company and share information.
5.4.3.4. Inspiring Messages and Tweets about Human Stories
There are some other unexpected findings that the author wants to share here. The author
finds that inspiring messages and human interest stories are especially popular, no matter if it is
on Twitter or Weibo.
84
98
20
19
76
91
9
1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Information Connections Entertainment Support
Total Amount of Tweets
Motivation Types
Comparison on Total Amount of Tweets for Each Motivation Type
on Twitter
Lenovo
Microsoft
76

For Microsoft Weibo, one inspiring message that has nothing to do with the company
directly, or its business, can get on average 84.38 reactions, while one human interest story can
get on average 45.66. On Twitter, they are even more popular. For Microsoft, one inspiring
message will get about 177.6 reactions, while one human interest story gets about 230.80
reactions. For Lenovo, it’s quite similar. On Weibo, Lenovo gets 2250.55 reactions for each
inspiring message and 1503.78 reactions for each human interest story post.
The popularity of inspiring messages is probably because they are not so brand-related
and can be shared to anyone at any time, while human interest stories help users visualize how
brands can help individuals in daily life and thereby make audiences feel closer to the brand. The
best thing about posting inspiring messages is that although some of them may not be heavily
branded, they can actually increase brand awareness and improve brand image in a natural way.
Therefore, posting inspiring messages occasionally and embedding more human interest
stories in tweets may be a smart way to increase the popularity of the brand, improve brand
image and generate reactions from audiences.
5.4.3.5. Giveaways and Sweepstakes
Giveaways and sweepstakes are huge on Weibo and result in some of the most popular
kinds of posts on Weibo. Both Lenovo and Microsoft do them occasionally on Weibo to expand
their fan bases and connect with audiences. However, they hardly do them on Twitter. They
sometimes will retweet promotional information for their retail stores, but they are not interested
in giving out products directly. However, this doesn’t mean that giveaways and sweepstakes only
work on Weibo. Below is a graph showing the average number of reactions for each
giveaway/sweepstake on each platform.
77

Figure 34 Average Amount of Reactions for Each Giveaway/Sweepstake Tweet (Post)
During a 50 day period of evaluation by the author, Lenovo and Microsoft each did one
giveaway on Twitter, while on Weibo, Lenovo did 14 sweepstakes and Microsoft did 13. It
turned out that although companies on Twitter don’t do giveaways or sweepstakes very often,
users still have pretty good reactions to giveaways.
It’s hard to assess why companies on Twitter don’t like to do giveaways based on the
data at hand. The author assumes that there might be two reasons. First, giveaways and
sweepstakes too often might cause a heavy financial burden to the company. Second, companies
may think that increasing the number of reactions from audiences simply by offering giveaways
will seem too eager and shallow, and this may undermine the company’s image in customers’
minds.

185
1864.43
401
194.38
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
Twitter Weibo
Average Amount of Reactions
Social Media Platform
Average Amount of Reactions for Each Giveaway/Sweepstake Tweet (Post)
Lenovo
Microsoft
78

In the next section, the author will analyze how different presentation patterns influence
audience reactions on different social media platforms.
5.4.4. Message Presentations
The author analyzed presentation patterns of each company on each platform and created
pie and bar graphs below to show the proportion of each pattern, and audience reactions toward
it. Below is a comparison of presentation patterns between Microsoft on Weibo and Twitter.

Figure 352 Percentage of Different Presentation Patterns on Microsoft Weibo and Twitter
In general, the distribution of presentation combinations is quite similar between the two
platforms. Text-only tweets (posts) are not popular, while text + picture with no words is the
most commonly applied pattern, followed by text integrated with a words-embedded picture.
This is probably because accompanying texts with a picture with words is the easiest way for the
company to include visual elements in the tweet, while inserting words into a picture or creating
a video is much more time consuming.
However, when comparing audience reaction numbers, although the text + picture with
no words-pattern may work for Twitter users, on Weibo audiences are asking for more from a
12%
50%
31%
3%
4%
Microsoft Weibo Presentation Patterns
Text Only
Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text (Link
Only)
Text + Video (1
min +)
0%
54%
32%
0%
14%
Microsoft Twitter Presentation
Patterns
Text Only
Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text (Link
Only)
Text + Video (1
min +)
79

post. According to the graphs below, for Microsoft, users reply more to words-embedded
pictures on Weibo, while audiences like pictures with no words more on Twitter. What’s more,
in Microsoft’s case, since text-only tweets (posts) get very few reactions from audiences both on
Twitter and Weibo, the author’s hypothesis H2 about U.S. subjects preferring text-only tweets to
tweets with pictures is not supported. It turns out that social media users from both cultures love
tweets (posts) with pictures.

Figure 36 Average Amount of Reactions for Each Post in Each Presentation Combination on Weibo (Microsoft)
26.33
54.88
112.77
10.33
36
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Text Only Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text Text + Video
(1min+)
Average Amount of Reactions
Presentation Combinition
Average Amount of Reactions to Each Post in Each Presentation
Combinition on Weibo (Microsoft)
80

Figure 37 Average Amount of Reactions for Each Tweet in Each Presentation Combination on Twitter (Microsoft)
This principle for the company’s creation of tweets is also proved in Lenovo’s situations.
According to the pie graphs below, it is obvious that companies integrate most of their tweets
(posts) with pictures with no words, followed by pictures with words and other patterns, such as
GIFs and videos.

Figure 38 Percentage of Different Presentation Patterns on Lenovo Weibo and Twitter
0
511.68
232.09
0
326.75
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Text Only Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text Text + Video
(1min+)
Average Amount of Reactions
Presentation Combinition
Average Amount of Reactions to Each Tweet in Each Presentation
Combinition on Twitter (Microsoft)
Average Number of Reactions
2%
48%
46%
0%
3%
1%
Lenovo Weibo Presentation Patterns
Text Only
Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text (Link
Only)
Text + GIF
Text + Video (1
min+)
13%
40%
40%
0%
2%
5%
Lenovo Twitter Presentation Patterns
Text Only
Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text (Link
Only)
Text + Video
(under 30s)
Text + Video (1
min+)
81

However, the data about audience reactions show different results with Microsoft. The
two bar graphs below show that GIF, the animated graphic, is especially popular for Lenovo on
Weibo, while pictures with words are not as popular as GIFs are but still do well on both Weibo
and Twitter. These results all show that audiences respond more to visual elements with words
embedded in the visual elements themselves instead of just plain pictures. What’s more, in
Lenovo’s case, since text-only tweets (posts) also get very few reactions from audiences both on
Twitter and Weibo, the author’s hypothesis H2 about U.S. subjects preferring text-only tweets to
tweets with pictures is again not supported. It also turns out that social media users from both
cultures love tweets (posts) with pictures.

Figure 39 Average Amount of Reactions to Each Post in Each Presentation Combination on Weibo (Lenovo)

67.5
721.2
1296.95
0
1383
132
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Text Only Text + Picture
with No
Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text Text + GIF Text + Video
(1min+)
Average Amount of Reactions
Presentation Combinition
Average Amount of Reactions to Each Post in Each Presentation
Combinition on Weibo (Lenovo)
82

Figure 40 Average Amount of Reactions to Each Tweet in Each Presentation Combination on Twitter (Lenovo)

6. Recommendations
Based on all of the findings above, the author’s hypothesis H1 – Chinese social media users
prefer social connection content, while U.S. users prefer entertainment and information content –
is supported, but hypothesis H2 – Chinese social media users prefer posts with pictures to text-
only posts, while U.S. users prefer text-only tweets to tweets with pictures – is not supported. It
turns out that posts with texts and visual elements are popular in both cultures.
The author also summarizes some insights and principles for social media practitioners at
international B2C technology companies to help them create effective tweets (posts) specifically
for Weibo and Twitter users from a motivation perspective.

7.5
134.06
329.44
0
65
54.5
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Text Only Text + Picture
with No Words
Text + Picture
with Words
No Text Text + Video
(under 30s)
Text + Video
(1min+)
Average Amount of Reactions
Presentation Combinition
Average Amount of Reactions to Each Tweet in Each Presentation
Combinition on Twitter (Lenovo)
83

6.1. Tracking Reaction Numbers is Important
It’s important for companies to keep track of reaction numbers of each tweet (post), as well
as the sentiment of each tweet (post). Reactions from audiences – comments/replies,
reposts/retweets and likes/favorites – could mean three important things to an organization:
a) Audiences who react may have carefully read and understood the company’ messages,
otherwise they won’t spend time to interact with the company;
b) Audiences who retweet/repost the message might think your message works for them and
is valuable, thus they would like to help spread that message;
c) Audiences who comment on the tweet/post are willing to give feedback to the
organization, which can help companies understand what their audiences think so they can make
improvements in the future.
All these observations are very important for the company because they respectively align
with three major goals the company wants to achieve on social media: a) to convey messages; b)
to expand the customer base; c) to better understand customers.
Therefore, companies should understand clearly what content generates reactions and
interaction from audiences so that after posting the news stories that are still necessary,
companies can successfully and efficiently communicate to their audiences by creating other
effective content.

84

6.2. Understanding Motivations: Build Connections on Weibo, Spread Information and
Have Fun on Twitter
Data from content analysis above has proven the hypothesis that Chinese social media users
like content that helps build connections with companies, while U.S. social media users like to
react to information or entertainment tweets.
When doing content analysis, the author also found that although conversations happen a lot
on Twitter, most of them don’t last very long. For example, when after saying “thank you” to a
users’ compliment about one of their products, many companies will try to further the
conversation and ask what features the user likes the most. However, most people will not
respond to this question to continue the conversation. On Weibo, most users enjoy continuing to
talk to companies. This may also indicate that Weibo users are more willing to build a deep and
close relationship with the company, while Twitter users are more willing to spread interesting
facts or news stories about the company.
To take advantage of these findings, companies on Weibo should embed more interactive
elements when they are creating a post. For example, they can try to always ask audiences to
share their own experiences, participate in online games or even post pictures to win awards.
Companies on Twitter, however, should make their tweets more informative and entertaining so
that they are interesting and more shareable.
6.3. Keep Your Audiences Interested by Creating Inspiring Messages and Human Stories
Inspiring messages, such as epigrams, are real life-savers when companies run out of
business content to talk about on social media, regardless of whether it’s on Twitter or Weibo.
They are perfect for companies that want to increase brand awareness in a subtle and smart way,
85

because these messages are inspiring enough for sharing but yet not so heavily branded to be
considered as obvious advertisements. According to content analysis, audiences react actively
to these kinds of content. Every time the audience comments, replies to, retweets, reposts, likes
or favorites the content, he or she deepens his or her awareness of the brand.
Companies should also consider weaving in some human interest stories into their tweets
(posts) because according to the content analysis, audiences on Weibo and Twitter both love
them. This might be because those stories can help users effectively visualize how companies
and their products can help people in their daily lives. Since many technology products are
complicated, edgy and innovative, putting some human elements into social media can help
audiences understand the concept more easily and feel close to the company.
6.4. Giveaways Can Be Useful on Twitter and Weibo, If Done in a Smart, Cost-Effective
Way
It’s not surprising how quickly people are to respond to those giveaways and sweepstakes
tweets (posts). Nobody hates free goods! The author posits that the reason why companies on
Twitter rarely do giveaways and sweepstakes may be because they think they are fiscally unwise
and may somehow make the company look too eager in getting reactions from users. The truth is
that a company may look overeager if they simply say “Please, I’ll give you a computer if you
follow me and retweet me,” but if giveaways and sweepstakes are carried out in a smart way,
they are very effective in expanding a fan base and increasing brand awareness.
The trick to giveaways and sweepstakes, according to content analysis findings, is to set a
task that is not too easy or too hard to accomplish. If you simply ask audiences to retweet (repost)
without doing anything else, you will look overeager, but if you ask audiences to paint a large
86

painting, it will be too time consuming and nobody would want to do it. One effective way to do
a giveaway is to ask audiences to retweet (repost) and share inspiring stories about themselves to
win awards. People like sharing inspiring stories about themselves, because that makes them feel
good. They also like reading inspiring stories about others, because they are curious about others’
lives. The most successful sweepstakes post on Weibo follows this presentation pattern and got
over 13,000 reactions in total.
6.5. Give Your Social Media Account A Character
According to content analysis findings, it’s obvious that people love Len, the geeky and
humorous Lenovo character, more than Microsoft, the pragmatic news announcer. It’s also great
to see that Lenovo’s marketing team is doing a good job both on Weibo and Twitter to develop a
consistent personality.
The active company-audience conversations happening on Lenovo’s Twitter and Weibo
platforms suggest that developing a personality for your social media account is really useful no
matter what country you’re in because people find it easier and more comfortable to talk to a
human being instead of a computer. A humanized social media account helps to strengthen the
company’s personality and image among audiences.
It may also be effective to increase the brand awareness by creating a toy character, or
mascot, for it and weaving in a vivid story, such as a special love story. The successful story of
“Len and Rola’s love story” on Weibo shows that this pattern can be very effective for Chinese
audiences. One thing that the company needs to be really careful about when they want to
develop a story around a brand is that they need to think twice about their target audiences. Len
and Rola’s story may not be successful at all if Lenovo is targeting elder businessmen.
87

6.6. Remember to Keep an Eye on Real-Time Events
It’s quite common for technology companies to schedule tweets (posts) days in advance.
This gives them plenty of time to work on the wording and prepare pictures and other visual
elements. Microsoft on Weibo, for example, has a rigorous schedule for sending out their posts
every day. When looking at Microsoft’s posts, the author finds that almost every post is sent out
either at the beginning of the hour or at the half of the hour. However, social media is not just
about posting “one-way” content. Reacting to real-time events is also important for the company
to show that it is keeping up with society and cares about everything happening in the
community – global, regional or local..
The author is pleased to note that Lenovo Weibo was so responsive to the stampede
tragedy in Shanghai. By reacting quickly to this accident, Lenovo was applauded by Chinese
audiences. Since engaging with users during real-time events is not a new concept on Twitter, it
will be great if companies on Twitter could also take advantage of those trending hashtags to get
them related to more real-time events and thereby increase brand publicity
6.7. Use #Hashtags to Navigate Yourself and Audiences among Your Tweets
Hashtags are definitely useful. Sometimes they are like category labels, helping the
company to organize its content and navigating audiences through the company’s tweets (posts).
Sometimes they can be funny and memorable, making people laugh. Both functions make
hashtags very important in helping audiences understand the theme of the tweet (post), as well as
leaving them a deep impression by being funny. What’s more, using hashtags to tag yourself in
real-time events to get more brand publicity is also a great advantage that hashtags can bring to
the brand. With all these upsides of hashtags, it now seems strange if a company, such as
88

Microsoft on Weibo, has so many regular thematic posts every day but doesn’t even want to
spend a minute to insert a hashtag.
Both Weibo and Twitter websites let users search for daily trending hashtags. Therefore,
by taking some time to create a tweet (post) with trending hashtags may help the company gain
publicity when audiences are browsing through the daily trending hashtag rank.
6.8. Content is the King, While Visual is the Crown
It’s already quite cliché to say that content is king; however, it’s also essential to
understand that finding a good way to present the content is also important because it determines
whether audiences are willing to consume what you give them.
According to content analysis above, visual elements are already indispensable for a
tweet (post) on both Twitter and Weibo. Although GIFs and videos are also quite effective but
considering the time the company would need to spend in creating GIFs and videos, text-
embedded pictures are still the best way for companies to integrate visual elements and intrigue
reactions from their audiences.

7. Conclusions
Most B2C companies would probably agree that social media is important for their
business because it can help them start a conversation with customers conveniently. However,
what exactly does “using social media to start a conversation with customers” mean? Does it
mean creating a social media account and posting company news every day? Does it mean
dealing with customer complaints 24/7? Does it mean replying “thank you” to every customer
89

that leaves positive comments? None of these answers is accurate. Leveraging social media to
start a conversation means understanding the culture where your customers come from and using
their own languages to communicate with them. It sounds quite simple, and many companies
also claim that they are doing so. However, do they really understand what “culture” means? The
findings of this thesis show that the culture is actually all about details in communications and
not all companies get that.
Understanding the culture means knowing whether your customers want to be your
friends or just want to get information from you; it means getting to know your customers’
favorite type of stories and having knowledge of whether your customers like reading posts with
many pictures or posts with videos and GIFs. All these nuances in communications are important
cultural clues for companies to deal with. For example, there is one tiny difference between the
format of hashtags on Weibo and that on Twitter. On Weibo, you have to put “#” in front of and
at the end of the phrase to create a hashtag, otherwise the system will not process your phrase as
a hashtag. However, on Twitter, you only need to put “#” in front of the phrase. Knowing this
nuance, the author finds it interesting that Microsoft sometimes uses wrong hashtags – ones
without the “#” at the end of the phrase – on Weibo. Do communication practitioners from
Microsoft know how to use Weibo? They probably do. Why are they using wrong hashtags? One
possible answer is that they are directly translating tweets from Twitter into Chinese Weibo posts.
When seeing this cultural mistake from Microsoft, the author personally feels really frustrating,
because it seems that Microsoft doesn’t even bother to change the format of the hashtag for its
Chinese audiences. This small mistake could make Microsoft look so insincere and insensitive in
communications.
90

The hashtag example above and all the findings about cultural differences on Weibo and
Twitter all show that companies need to deal with every detail in communications to really
understand and leverage the culture. It is time for companies to stop being business machines
that sell only one type of products to all customers. It is time for them to start listening to
customers, learning cultural nuances, understanding customer behaviors in different cultural
contexts and eventually having heart-touching conversations with customers worldwide.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Huang, Yi (author)

Core Title Cultural differences in communication patterns of international B2C technology companies on Weibo and Twitter: an examination of effectiveness from a motivation perspective

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Strategic Public Relations

Publication Date 07/16/2015

Defense Date 07/16/2015

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag cultural difference,Motivation,OAI-PMH Harvest,social media

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Language English

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Advisor LeVeque, Matthew (committee chair), Floto, Jennifer D. (committee member), Tenderich, Burghardt (committee member)

Creator Email huan339@usc.edu,jocelynhuangyi@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-595938

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