Chinese Social Media Lessons from a Japanese Porn Star

Sora Aoi's Weibo Page

Japanese porn star Sora Aoi 蒼井そら appropriately opened her Sina Weibo account on Chinese Singles Day (November 11th, 2010). She now has 950,000+ followers and is gaining explosively at a rate of over 10,000 per day. Let’s study some Chinese social media lessons from a Japanese porn star.

Sora Aoi first rose to online fame when a Chinese netizen discovered her account on Twitter and shared to Sina Weibo: “Do you want to be face to face with Sora Aoi? Then go on Twitter, can’t get on twitter? Then send email to mytwitterclient@gmail.com, it has auto reply.” Clearly, not all Chinese netizens who leap the Great Wall are political dissidents.

After a flood of Chinese followers found her on Twitter, Sora Aoi decided to join Sina Weibo. In her first six hours, Sora Aoi gained 130,000+ followers, exceeding her numbers on Twitter. By the end of the first day, her followers reached 220,000.

“中国的朋友们你们好，我是苍井空。十分高兴能和大家见面。我在新浪的微博正式开通了，希望今后能通过新浪微博和大家交流，还请大家多多关照。”

“Hello to all Chinese friends, I’m Sora Aoi. Very pleased to meet you all. I have officially opened my Sina Weibo account, hopefully through this account we can get to know each other well. ” – Sora Aoi

Her first Weibo post, was RTed 47699 times, and commented upon 32196 times in 24 hours.

Loved by Chinese Police Too

And last week a new Sora Aoi discovery set Weibo abuzz: the official Weibo account of a local police station in Dalian follows exactly one person: Sora Aoi. So even the saga of Sora Aoi is a little subversive in its own way.

In a country where porn is illegal, Sora Aoi’s presence is controversial but also extremely popular. In fact, more and more foreign stars–of all professions, but especially Taiwanese pop stars–are using Weibo to connect to an eager mainland Chinese audience.

Social Media Lessons from a Porn Star

Sora Aoi's Chinese Calligraphy, written at her fans' requests.

Sora Aoi has gone all the way on Weibo. And corporates seeking popularity on Sina Weibo should engage their fans as well as she does. She entertains but never spams. She broadcasts but also listens and engages. Lastly, her posts are clearly authentic–clearly her–rather than a hired PR gun.

I know Chinese don’t understand Japanese.so I try to write in English.but when I wrote in Japanese, I can’t translation in English. SORRY!!

Many celebrities view Weibo as a one-way channel of communication, but Sora Aoi interacts with her fans in ways that win their continued loyalty.

1. Expressing respect for Chinese culture. Sora Aoi gained popularity when she appealed to followers on her Twitter account to donate to those hit by the deadly earthquake in Qinghai Province, China in April 2010.

2. Regular updates on the results of her Chinese studies. Left is an image of her calligraphy, with each Chinese term written at a fan’s request.

3. And of course, photos are a daily necessity. As I’m writing this now, she has posted a photo of herself in a bubble bath (content that’s too risqué gets censored on Sina Weibo).

4. Most recently Sora Aoi announced in Weibo that her first official Chinese song is in production, slated to be released today, January 20th. Here’s a short video documentary of the production for her fans.

There are tens of thousands of porn stars out there, but no other has near a million fans on Sina Weibo. Sora Aoi has clearly made the most of her opportunity.