Last weekend, I went to play “board game” with my friends. Different from poker card game, board game is not as popular as those traditional card games in China now (should have a significant amount of fans/players, but not that massive)

Due to limited popularity, you cannot find too many specific bars to play board game in Shanghai. The place I went is a big apartment in a commercial/residential complex building near Shanghai Stadium, close to Xie Tu Road and Tian Yao Qiao Road. You can play various board games and video games there. It costs 25RMB (at current promotion period) for each one to play no matter how long and free drink is available.

The name of this “board game apartment/bar” is FiftySix. It is a newly established small business by some young people who love board games.

Today, I am not aim to introduce the board games since I am a fully rookie. What I want to talk is about FiftySix’s social media marketing.

Word of Mouth / Comment Site

FiftySix put a profile on Dianping Life & Entertainment channel. You can see very positive comments there. It is totally free to add such profile.

Dianping.com is the most popular comment site in China. Now it is likely a MUST-DO thing for restaurants and entertainment places in China (esp. T1-T2 cities due to Internet penetration) to participate into this e-community.

BTW, click here, you can see many of those niche board game bars already have their profile pages on Dianping.

Social Network Site

FiftySix set up a group on Kaixin001, top SNS for young people and white-collar in China. From the day this group was founded (February 17, 2009) to today (March 22, 2009), within this one-month period:

• 312 people joined in the group
• 158 photos were uploaded
• 96 conversations were generated, with average 20-30 replies and 100-150 page views

As the group administrators, the FiftySix owners take advantage of the SNS group to engage with those board game fans.

• they release latest promotion notices
• they introduce new board games and educate fans how to play
• they participate into fans’ conversations to address their questions
• they upload cool photos to show off the nice atmosphere in the bar

In my daily work, I am being involved pretty much in clients’ social media marketing (SMM) strategy planning. SMM sounds like a latest and trendy marketing approach run by high-profile marketers and prime brands. During the time companies and agencies are still struggling how to deal with the SMM, Chinese young people are already skillfully (although not systematically enough) using social media for everything in their life and even business.

In my opinion, I don’t think social media is mysterious and complicated. Actually, if you use social media appropriately and systematically, it is one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to do marketing.

Why do the FiftySix owners build SNS group? They don’t target huge web traffic and online buzz. Their key goal is to make friend and establish relationship with those board game fans. This is the foundation for running and developing their business.

Building LONG-TERM, TRUSTWORTHY, SIMPLY, and DIRECT connection with consumers and potential consumers is the soul of social media marketing.