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Navigating the Chinese social media landscape
“Crayfish.io provided us with useful advice and guidance to navigate the Chinese social media landscape and offered an accurate translation of scientific texts.”
The Company of Biologists publishes 5 scientific peer review journals for biologists, organises meetings and workshops for biologists, supplies grants for societies and also funds individual researchers through travel and fellowship grants.
As Chinese scientists play a hugely important role in the field of biology, The Company of Biologists was keen to improve on their engagement with this market. However, language and cultural barriers have created some challenges. They found it hard work to adequately reach out to target audiences and connect with Chinese reviewers and readers on a large scale.
Keen to forge a better connection with the Chinese audience, the team set out to raise awareness of their company and its opportunities for publishing, while ensuring that content was also easily accessible.
When assessing The Company of Biologists’ case, the Crayfish.io team identified several challenges. Without a social media presence or knowledge of China’s complex social media landscape, the team was struggling to access key markets and widen participation in events, workshops, and journal meetings. Furthermore, with no physical presence in China or native speakers on the team, they were lacking essential cultural knowledge required for success in China
The Company of Biologists needed to understand Chinese social media in order to successfully introduce and promote its ideas into China. Crayfish.io educated The Company of Biologists on the Chinese social media landscape, ultimately deciding that WeChat would be the ideal platform for fulfilling their goals. The Company’s WeChat channel was launched in May 2019, and Crayfish continues to manage the technical aspects of the channel while providing content insights and high-level translations of scientific texts. Posting around three articles per week while maintaining a community blog, Crayfish has worked hard with the Company to strategically build their community and increase engagement. To maintain The Company of Biologists quality and accessibility, Crayfish helped to create a WeChat publishing series, dedicated to providing insights and support into the publishing process.
After just one year on WeChat, The Company of Biologists had a strong base of active followers. After eighteen months, their following has increased by 40%. The Company continues to successfully receive many submissions from Chinese audiences and grants applications from Chinese researchers. WeChat has allowed them to advertise funding opportunities while growing participation in events, workshops, and journal meetings. They are looking forward to receiving more submissions.
Marketing Manager at The Company of Biologists said “When we first started working with Crayfish.io, they provided cultural training to our in-house team. That’s such a big part of being successful in China to understand the business culture. We touch base with them on a regular basis for advice, for instance when attending a meeting in China or creating collateral for a Chinese audience. Having that kind of ongoing support and knowledge is invaluable. A “check-in” place where you can check with people who are from that culture, speak that language, who might have a very different outlook. This is very useful, especially as we don’t have an office in China ourselves like many of the bigger companies do.”
“Crayfish.io provided us with useful advice and guidance to navigate the Chinese social media landscape and offered an accurate translation of scientific texts.”
“What mattered most to us was that Crayfish offered a very high-quality translation of the specific scientific text. The team that we worked with are scientists themselves; so they understand the context of what they are being asked to translate, which is key for us.”