By Guest Blogger, Weidong “Jim” Zhang 
Who are the most popular Weibo users from the U.S.A.? Which American has the most Chinese followers? Below is a list of of the 10 most popular American Weibo Users, as of 9/16/2011, with some of my own commentary added as well:
1) Tom Cruise : http://weibo.com/officialtomcruise
Even with a China-based Weibo agent running his account, Tom cruise is the most popular American on Weibo with 2,813,978 followers and a ranking of 102.
2) Bill Gates: http://weibo.com/gates
With 1,904,363 followers, Bill Gates’ account is ranked at 181. Most of posts are coming from his Twitter account. Of course, he doesn’t need to promote. His posts has many comments and re-posts by his fans. He doesn’t have to follow or respond to anyone else…being there for Mr. Gates is enough to attract a sizable fan base.
These four NBA players (below) are getting a lot of attention too. Two of their accounts are not very active–maybe because they only used the accounts when they were in China.
3) Andrew Bynum: http://weibo.com/andrewbynum
1,057,757 followers
4) Ron Artest: http://weibo.com/artest
946,641 followers
5) Tracy McGrady : http://weibo.com/tmacloveschina
830,686 followers
6) Kevin Gamett : http://weibo.com/kgarnett
732,906 followers
7) Michael Fred Phelps: http://weibo.com/michaelphelps
With 352,173 followers, Michael Phelps is also popular in China, even if his account is run by an agent in China. And why wouldn’t he be popular in China–he won 8 medals at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. That was how most Chinese people have gotten to know him.
8) Michael J.Sandel : http://weibo.com/2137486537
In my opinion, as a college advisor, Mr. Sandel is the most influential American on Weibo. Michael Sandel has attracted 17,384 followers, most of whom are college students. He is a political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University, best known for the Harvard course ‘Justice,’ which is available to view online. He came to China for his book promotion this summer. Although he has only posted 19 times, he has had good interactions with his fans–unfortunately, he is not updating his Weibo anymore.
9) Dr. Eric Jackson : http://weibo.com/ericjackson
Dr. Jackson has 14,213 followers. He is the founder and managing member of Ironfire Capital. He is a very active English speaker on Weibo, who posts on economy, investment, and company governance areas.
10) John A. Gordon: http://weibo.com/ncjohn
Mr. Gordon comes from North Carolina and works with the New Chanel International Group as vice president. He used to work with CCTV as host, so speaks very good Chinese–his posts are completely in Chinese too. He exchanges his ideas and shares stories with his audience. He is using all the Weibo functions as much as he can. The most of valuable thing he is inspiring his followers to do is to master English.
11) Kai Lukoff: http://weibo.com/klukoff
“Kai is the founder and editor of TechRice, which he started out of a passion for covering the Chinese internet. In his full-time job he is editor-in-chief and product manager at iChinaStock, which reports on Chinese tech companies publicly-listed in the US.”
What I can see from these 11 cases is that social media is a plant. You need to water it regularly, otherwise it won’t work. Many of the Americans above have found Weibo to be a useful promotional tool because they have invested sufficient time and energy; those who have quit “watering” their accounts (or stand to lose huge Chinese audiences.
Guest blogger, Mr. Zhang, is an AISC China Marketing Manager with Jardson Ltd China (Beijing). Reach him at [email protected] Mr. Zhang also consults with U.S. businesses to help them launch effective Chinese social media campaigns.
