Usage of social networks in China’s fund industry in 2013

Usage of social networks in China’s fund industry in 2013

At present, social networks represented by Weibo and WeChat play a vital role in disseminating information and serving customers. As an important participant in the capital market, public fund companies are also consciously and systematically using social networks to strengthen their brand image and expand sales channels. Recently, the China Listed Company Public Opinion Center conducted a study and analysis on the use of Weibo and WeChat platforms by 72 domestic public fund companies.

According to statistics, fund companies have a high rate of using social networks. Currently, there are 62 fund companies with official Weibo accounts, with an average of 74,500 fans. Compared with Weibo, only 29 fund companies have opened WeChat platforms, and only 10 of them have relatively complete management. Some fund companies have successfully converted ordinary audiences into customers through Weibo and WeChat, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in the management of Weibo and WeChat: the content and form of Weibo and WeChat released by major fund companies are generally similar, with little difference; although there are many Weibo fans, the official Weibo account has not formed a healthy interaction with the audience; the number of WeChat fans is too small, and more investment is needed to operate seriously; some fund companies have opened Weibo and WeChat but neglected to manage them.

E-commerce is an important step in the transformation of fund marketing, and social networks such as Weibo and WeChat are important entrances to e-commerce. Fund companies should attach strategic importance to them. Especially for large fund companies, it is urgent to improve the management of social networks. If they do not have the energy to take care of it, they can seek help from third-party professional agencies.

China Listed Company Public Opinion Center

Fund companies’ use of Weibo

1. 86% of fund companies have opened Sina Weibo accounts, and 26% of fund company executives have opened verified Weibo accounts.

As of 10:00 a.m. on May 7, 2013, 62 public fund companies have opened official Weibo accounts on Sina, accounting for 86% of the 72 fund companies; 19 public fund companies' deputy general managers and above have opened Weibo accounts, accounting for 26%. Among them, there are four general managers who have opened Weibo accounts, namely Gao Liangyu, former general manager of Southern Fund, Wang Chongkun, former general manager of China Cinda Asset Management, Pan Fuxiang, general manager of Nord Fund, and Yi Qiang, general manager of Debang Fund.

The China Listed Company Public Opinion Center released the first report on the use of Weibo by A-share listed companies in 2012, among which only 17% of listed companies have opened official Weibo accounts. Compared with the two important entities in the capital market, fund companies have a very high rate of use of social networks, far exceeding listed companies.

2. The activity of official WeChat followers needs to be improved

As of 10:00 a.m. on May 7, 2013, the report counted public offering fund companies at five levels, with asset management scales ranging from 100 billion to 300 billion yuan, 50 billion to 100 billion yuan, 20 billion to 50 billion yuan, 10 billion to 20 billion yuan, and less than 10 billion yuan. Among them, 100% of the fund companies with assets under management scales of 100 billion to 300 billion yuan have opened official Weibo and WeChat accounts. Fund companies with assets under management scales of 10 billion to 20 billion yuan ranked second, with 100% opening Weibo accounts and 50% opening WeChat accounts.

The average number of fans on the official Weibo accounts of the 62 fund companies is about 74,500. Among them, the 10 companies with the highest number of fans are: Huaan Fund (450,000), Guotai Fund (420,000), Huaxia Fund (410,000), Shanghai Investment and Morgan Stanley Fund (390,000), Penghua Fund (340,000), Everbright Pramerica Fund (310,000), Fullgoal Fund (300,000), SDIC UBS Fund (250,000), Bosera Fund (230,000), and Jianxin Fund (190,000). (See the picture on the right)

In terms of Weibo activity, the 62 fund companies posted an average of more than 2,300 Weibo posts, and 41% of the fund companies posted more than 3,000 Weibo posts; the top ten fund companies with the most followers posted an average of about 5,000 Weibo posts, among which the one that posted the most Weibo posts was China Asset Management, which posted a total of 6,662 posts and has 300,000 fans.

From the perspective of pushed content, it is mainly divided into four categories: one is to forward market hotspots and policy analysis released by regulatory agencies, financial media, etc.; the second is to display the company's image and products in various forms, including direct display in the form of pictures or cartoons, promotion and dissemination in the form of prize-winning activities, and online interaction with investment research personnel; the third is to forward or create original analysis of the market; and the fourth is light-hearted and enjoyable topics not related to business.

Among the above contents pushed by Weibo, except for the prize-giving activities, the number of reposts and comments on other Weibo contents is mostly within 5. Even for China Asset Management and Huaan Fund, which have a large number of fans, the number of reposts and comments on Weibo is not large. However, financial media with only hundreds of thousands of fans generally have dozens of reposts and comments when publishing similar contents. It can be seen that the official Weibo of fund companies, which mainly display their own images, has a relatively closed communication environment and the fan activity needs to be improved.

3. Prize-giving activities are popular among fans

Not all microblog content has low attention. Activities with rewards have attracted a lot of fans. According to statistics, from January 1, 2013 to May 16, 2013, the single activity with the largest number of reposts was Penghua Fund's promotion of currency direct sales channels, which received more than 260,000 comments and more than 290,000 reposts in 6 days.

According to statistics, fund companies hold the following types of activities: First, the promotion of company image and products, in the form of giving suggestions for new product experience, filling out questionnaires, forwarding several advantages of the product, etc. This type of activity accounts for the majority, and the reward amount is relatively large. The reward amount for a single activity is mostly over 1,500 yuan, and the highest is up to tens of thousands of yuan; second, activities are held during festivals, such as following Weibo and saying New Year's wishes to get prizes. Such activities generally have fewer prizes, mainly souvenirs; third, activities for existing customers, such activities have larger reward amounts, and the largest known reward amount is the gold bars of Huaxia Fund, with a total value of 300,000 yuan. Due to eligibility restrictions, such activities are less popular on Weibo.

The major fund companies have various activities and prizes, but the most popular prizes are phone bills, JD.com cards and iPad mini. According to statistics, these three prizes are the most popular among fans. There are also some special reward methods. On January 28, UBS SDIC launched an activity, one of the prizes was 100 free lunches worth three yuan for personal donations. This charity event attracted the response of more than 70,000 fans. Some special prizes of other companies include gold bars, celebrity fund experience coupons, and lunch with celebrity fund managers, while the least popular among fans are various commemorative gifts, such as cups and dolls.

4. Small cost can also create great attention

According to statistics, the fan attention is proportional to the product attractiveness, but not absolutely proportional. For example, Huaxia Fund has 410,000 fans. The event it held to give away Ctrip cards for trying out the Huoqitong account had a considerable number of prizes, with a total amount of more than 11,000 yuan. There were 21 winners, but the number of reposts was only 4,637. The event mentioned above by Penghua Fund had a total prize of only 2,000 yuan, and only 6 people had the chance to win.

Based on the activities of 62 fund companies, the forms and prizes of fund companies' activities are generally similar, but the number of comments and reposts varies greatly. Most activities can achieve a considerable number of reposts and comments, ranging from hundreds of thousands to thousands. There are also a few activities that have rich gifts but only a few hundred or even a dozen reposts and comments. In addition to the attractiveness of the prizes, the responsiveness of the activities is also related to the spreadability of the plan, the size of the basic fans, the frequency of the activities, the follow-up of the activities, that is, the public display of the winning results, and the density of other activities during the same period.

For example, China Universal Asset Management used beautiful women's pictures to disclose the cash treasure rate of return, which was intuitive, interesting and spreadable; Guotai Fund used original comics to describe the product advantages and characteristics, and combined with a reward mechanism, attracted many fans to forward. According to our statistics, from January 1, 2013 to May 15, 2013, Guotai Fund held the most activities, up to 13 times, of which 9 were different forms of promotion and publicity of the product characteristics of the Treasury Bond ETF. The prize amount of each activity was mostly around 1,000 yuan, but the activities were held continuously, the list of winners of the activities was open and transparent, and each activity received tens of thousands of forwardings, with low costs and good publicity effects.

Of course, the number of fans, comments and reposts of activities are not necessarily all true. Currently, some public relations companies can artificially increase the number of reposts and comments through technology. However, only good planning, good timing, and good service standards can increase attention at a low cost and high efficiency.

WeChat usage by fund companies

1. 40% of fund companies use WeChat platform

As of 10:00 a.m. on May 16, a total of 29 public fund companies have opened official WeChat accounts, accounting for 40% of the 72 fund companies. Among them, Haitong Fund, Penghua Fund and Wanjia Fund were the first to publicly release WeChat accounts. Historical information shows that these three fund companies all released their first non-automatic reply WeChat on November 6, 2012 (see the figure above). Haitong Fund has the most historical information and the highest release frequency, reaching 121. Penghua Fund ranks second with a total of 97. Some fund companies have opened WeChat accounts but neglected to manage them. As of May 16, the WeChat platforms of 6 fund companies have only sent two non-automatic reply WeChats or even no historical information.

Of course, WeChat does not mean that the more you post, the better. Instead, you need to grasp the principle of moderation, maintaining an appropriate exposure rate without causing trouble to your fans due to excessive information. While maintaining a moderate frequency, the key is to provide high-standard, valuable, and personalized content and services.

2. WeChat push notifications have their own characteristics

Among the 29 fund companies, 10 have set up automatic reply rules, which categorize company profiles, fund net value, the status of each fund, and the activities held. Fans can quickly query information by replying according to the rules. A total of 9 fund companies update the daily net value every working day. Fans can query the daily net value independently according to the automatic reply rules. These 9 fund companies basically push a multi-text WeChat message every working day.

In terms of the content pushed on WeChat, some fund companies also have their own unique features. Custom menus are set up on the WeChat interface of Southern Fund and Penghua Fund. Custom menus are a more advanced editing mode than automatic replies. The operation team can independently design modules and content according to specific circumstances, so personalized services can be pushed more conveniently and quickly. For example, by clicking on the query and transaction module of Southern Fund, the system will automatically pop up a link, and users can directly enter the official website of Southern Fund to query assets and conduct transactions. Users can also bind their WeChat account to the Southern Fund account, and directly query the asset information of Southern Fund held in WeChat. Penghua Fund has added the "Penghua Good Voice" module in the custom settings, which pushes product information through the voice dialogue between "Monkey Brother" and "Bajie", which is unique. It is reported that the WeChat is managed by a team, including designers, planners, etc., to ensure that the content and pictures of WeChat are coherent and have their own style.

As WeChat has currently suspended the application qualifications for the internal testing of the custom settings menu, most fund companies can only push information through the normal editing mode before reopening. However, small spaces can still achieve great things. TEDA Dividend’s “City Reading” series combines the city characteristics of Shanghai, Zhengzhou and other places to promote fixed investment products; the Financial Management [Micro] Magazine - Laozi Series interprets fixed investment products based on the essence of Laozi’s thoughts, which has a strong cultural atmosphere.

Compared with Weibo, WeChat is more valuable in serving customers. In addition, WeChat has a lot of room for development and is still in the stage of land grabbing. Therefore, it is worth it for fund companies to spend more time on it.

Fund companies on social networks

Strategic attention should be given

1. Large fund companies should pay more attention to the management of social networks

In general, large fund companies are more mature in the management of social networks. Among the top ten fund companies in terms of the scale of public fund management, except for Bank of China Fund, the other nine fund companies have all opened Sina certified official Weibo accounts. Among them, Huaan Fund, China Asset Management and Wells Fargo Fund have the largest number of fans, and as of May 7, the number of Weibo posts and the frequency of posting are also the highest. These nine fund companies have also widely used various functions of Weibo, such as company profiles, company website links, etc. Except for China Asset Management and Bosera Fund, which did not use the activity scrolling display module at the top of the homepage, the other seven fund companies all displayed the company's latest event previews or latest product highlights in the form of pictures or videos.

Currently, the number of followers can only be seen in the background of WeChat, but WeChat stipulates that only after more than 500 followers can you apply for V certification. Therefore, we can roughly estimate the number of followers of major fund companies. Among the 29 fund companies, 10 fund companies have V certification on WeChat, and their number of followers is at least 500. These 10 fund companies are China Asset Management, Southern Fund, Bosera Fund, ICBC Credit Suisse Fund, GF Fund, China Universal Asset Management, Penghua Fund, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Global Fund, Wanjia Fund and TEDA Manulife Fund. Their public fund management scales are all in the top 30, and 5 of them are in the top 10.

Among the top ten fund companies in terms of asset management scale, except for Bank of China Fund and Huaan Fund, which have not opened official WeChat accounts, the other eight fund companies have quickly seized WeChat resources. Some fund companies need to spend more time on social network operations. E Fund and GF Fund have only about 10,000 Weibo followers, and the number of Weibo pushes is also relatively small. E Fund's WeChat platform has just been established, and it has only sent 5 picture and text messages so far. Although Harvest Fund has more than 160,000 Weibo followers, the total number of Weibo posts is only more than 1,300. There was a situation where it only updated one Weibo post for more than ten days. Among the 12 messages on its WeChat platform, all are company information and product introductions, and some are long paragraphs of pure text WeChat. Moreover, since the last WeChat post on April 23, there has been no new WeChat push for nearly a month, and the sustainability and consistency need to be improved.

Even the WeChat accounts of fund companies that are currently operating well still have a lot of room for development. It is reported that Penghua Fund currently has about 1,400 followers on WeChat. Several other fund companies that do not want to be named have just established their official WeChat accounts, and the number of WeChat push notifications is relatively small, with a majority of followers around 200. These data do not match the number of customers of fund companies, which can easily reach millions. On the one hand, it shows that fund companies do not attach enough importance to social networks and have invested too little. On the other hand, it also shows that WeChat, as a big cake, is still relatively complete, and there are still a lot of customer resources in the process of "to be developed".

For large fund companies, it is easier to expand their customer base through Weibo and WeChat because they have more human resources and promotion resources. However, fans have high standards and expectations for large fund companies, and are more likely to actively search and follow them. Therefore, once large fund companies decide to open Weibo and WeChat, they should operate them carefully and increase investment, so as not to damage their own brand due to negligence in management.

2. Small fund companies may consider outsourcing services

Fund companies have been on Weibo and WeChat for different lengths of time and have spent different amounts of effort, so there are also certain differences in operational results. Due to limited human resources, difficulty and high cost in promotion, and inability to meet users' personalized needs, some fund companies have always been unable to operate social networks.

In response to this phenomenon, specialized financial media and online marketing companies have launched WeChat and Weibo services to help businesses open Weibo and WeChat accounts, apply for certification, customize marketing plans for businesses, and provide WeChat manual services. Financial media are favored by financial companies because they have rich media resources and are familiar with the industry, and can provide targeted service plans and professional manual answers. For WeChat services, the current market price ranges from 400 yuan/month to 10,000 yuan/month, and the operating cost can be said to be relatively low.

3. Weibo and WeChat are important entrances to e-commerce

Faced with increasingly fierce industry competition, fund companies have made expanding fund sales channels a top priority. Traditional sales channels, such as telephone and email, are costly but inefficient, while the direct contact with customers through agency sales channels such as banks is not high and is easily restricted by agency sales channels. Fund electronic direct sales, which are not restricted by time and space and have low transaction costs, will have strong vitality.

At present, the development of e-commerce platforms has become a consensus among fund companies, but the biggest bottleneck of online transactions is that fund companies have no customer base. Although e-commerce platforms have a large flow of consumers, most consumers are only used to buying daily necessities online. If you buy funds, your identity will change to a certain extent - from a consumer to an investor. Therefore, e-commerce platforms only broaden sales channels, and they still need to be carefully cultivated to truly play an effective role.

Weibo and WeChat are important channels for cultivating and converting customers: using Weibo for weak relationship marketing and strengthening the concept of online direct sales, such as image display, brand promotion and development of new customers; using WeChat to better maintain strong relationship users, provide personalized services and realize order conversion. At present, the data of major fund companies reaching cooperation through Weibo and WeChat cannot be counted, but it is reported that some major customers of fund companies, including customers of special account products, have consulted products through WeChat and successfully purchased them. In the future, this trend of converting orders through WeChat services is irreversible. The Internet and mobile Internet are a battle for attention. Whoever grasps the users first and cultivates customers through services first will gain the upper hand in the new round of competition in e-commerce.

Note: Official Weibo and official WeChat refer to Weibo and WeChat with the name of the fund company as the authentication information, and do not include the controlling shareholder, branch/subsidiary, a department within the company, and the company's certified Weibo opened for a certain project or product. A small number of accounts have not been verified, but if multiple information can confirm that the account is indeed an official account of a fund, it is considered to be opened. This report only counts data from Sina Weibo and Tencent WeChat.