The Pacific Asia Travel Association’s (PATA) China Office and Digital Marketing Inner Circle (DMIC) are together staging a seminar ‘Leveraging Social Media for Engaging Consumers’.

The Social Media landscape in China includes Blogs, SNS, micro-blogging, forums and even BBS’s. By the end of 2009 there were more than 124 million social media users in China and, on average, more than one quarter (27%) of the users were spending 1-2 hours on social sites per day (CNNIC, 2010).

“The number of social media users is growing fast. The more that marketers understand the importance and dynamics of social media the better they can then become at leveraging this channel. However, most marketers are not sure how to use social media to their advantages, such as how to improve customer loyalty, generate customer leads and conduct effectively e-commerce by using social media channels,” said Dr. Matt McDougall, CEO of SinoTech Group.

The seminar, taking place on 4th Feb 2010 at Jinlun Hotel, Beijing, provides an outstanding platform and opportunity for marketers to learn and exchange their thoughts on Social Media Marketing (SMM).

Ms Kate Chang, Regional Director of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) China Office said, “The nature of the Chinese travel consumers is to turn to the Internet for researching destinations and travel products, even before speaking to a traditional travel agent. Travel reviews, user feedback and travel ratings have become important tools for marketers in the travel industry. Social Media has become the hot topic within the travel industry. However, many tourism marketers are still not sure how to engage correctly their potential consumers with a social media marketing programme.”

The seminar will focus upon:
# Understanding the social media landscape in China
# Social media marketing tools and case studies
# How to use social media and branded content to build your brand online – making it easy to reach your target audience and fulfill campaign objectives
# How do you measure social media marketing to determine the success or not of a programme?

The speakers include
# Dr Matt McDougall, CEO, SinoTech Group
# Dr Grace Pan, Chief Strategy Officer, SinoTech Group
# Mr Simon Li, Director of Marketing, RIM Blackberry
# Miss Elizabeth Gualtieri, Director of Marketing and Brand Strategy, Accor Hotels China

Kate Chang, Regional Director of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) China Office, will be the moderator of this seminar.

The seminar will benefit marketers and business leaders who would like to better understand this evolving area and how to capitalise upon social media for growing their business growth.

Please visit the website, and register online if you are interested in attending this event.
http://www.sinotechblog.com.cn/activity/pata.html
PATA members enjoy 20% discount on the registration fee.