Nov 10: Public Lecture ” Social Media for business: looking beyond the buzzword ” by Andrea Fenn of Fireworks, Shanghai

Social media is one of the most transformative phenomena of the new century, and this is especially true in China, where it has facilitated the emergence of a new urban civil society with faster and freer circulation of information (and misinformation) and more unrestrained political discussion.

Chinese social media is also an extremely effective vehicle for reaching audiences, and enterprises are increasingly looking at it as a platform to increase their profiles in the market and to drive business results. As a consequence, the term “social media marketing” has become a buzzword among business insiders in China.

Much of it is difficult to decipher, though.  Is social media a relevant platform for all audiences? How can these platforms be used effectively? And most importantly, how can the business impact of social media marketing be measured accurately?

Andrea Fenn will provide some of the answers. By appreciating the opportunities and the challenges of this still evolving realm, companies and organizations will gain some idea of how take the right steps into social media marketing, while avoiding both misinformed skepticism and overblown enthusiasm.

About the speaker:

Andrea Fenn has been helping companies build communication strategies using Chinese social media since 2008.

Fenn specialized in social media and political change in China at Leiden University, The Netherlands, and then became one of the early researchers into Chinese social media.  He went on to become one of the founding members of social media marketing at Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong, now the biggest social media marketing agency in the Asia-Pacific region.

Fenn is now based in Shanghai, where he leads Fireworks, a boutique communications agency that provides social media consultancy services for such brands as Ford, Hennessy, Trussardi, Armani and Ferragamo.

Prior to his social media work, he was a journalist for CNN and China Daily, among others, and he published a research study of the Chinese community of Prato, Italy, where he is originally from. He has

been living in China on and off since 2005 and is fluent in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese.

Please click here to register online or email jmscsh@hku.hk to reserve a place.