Who’s Doing It Right
One by one, international fashion brands like Burberry, Dior, Chanel, Michael Kors, DVF and Alexander Wang have established their own presence on the site. Not surprisingly, Burberry, which was recently ranked #1 brand excelling in the digital realm by L2, has over 363,000 followers, more than any other luxury fashion brand. However, one U.S.-based designer has Burberry beat: Diane Von Furstenberg. While the brand’s Weibo has only a little over 11,000 followers, the designer’s personal Weibo “DVFDiane” has close to half a million. And the reason why says a lot about how Weibo should be used by fashion brands and why it’s different from the social networks we’re used to: two of the things we hoped to find out by talking to a few Weibo fashion experts.

Diane Von Furstenberg, whose unusually personal approach to conquering China was recently the subject of a WSJ article, doesn’t just promote products through her Weibo. This is why, when asked which fashion brands were using Weibo well, both BagSnob founder Tina Craig and WWD‘s China File columnist Huang Hung said DVF without missing a beat. “I think DVF has done an amazing job,” offered Hung, who listed Weibo as a “Do” in a recent article on the Do’s and Don’ts of Launching Your Fashion Label in China. “[She] interacts, says things other than branded information. Users find that to be more intimate and interesting. Sometimes, it’s not the Midas touch; it’s the human touch which endears brands to consumers.”

“It’s very personal; it’s very inspirational,” said BagSnob founder (and former MTV Asia VJ) Tina Craig, who was born in Taiwan and has over 25,000 followers on Weibo. She also confirmed the integrity of DVF’s personal Weibo: “I’ve actually seen her Weibo on her iPad.”