I wanna be loved by you… (2)

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Seeing these responses, Maggie Q told the media in an interview of her recent trip to China, "Weibo enables me to communicate with my fans in China. I worked in the Asian market for many years. Weibo may be the reason that I come back more often."

Even more surprising, Ian Somerhalder, who played the vampire Damon in The Vampire Diaries and attracted numerous female fans around the globe, opened his Weibo account and posted his first note on November 20, 2012. He said, "Good morning beautiful world! I'm very excited to be able to interact with all of you in China at @FansTang. How is everyone today?" That post was reposted 13,456 times and received 12,359 comments by August 12.

In answering what kind of changes the Chinese micro-blog has brought to him, Somerhalder told the media during his recent trip to China, "When we were filming The Vampire Diaries, you have no idea anyone is going to like it. And to see that so many people in China actually like what we do, I'm very grateful for that. I feel as if in this position we have a certain social responsibility to portray and help create empowered people, especially young people."

Stars reaching out to China

The influence among international celebrities is growing. FansTang said many Hollywood stars are quite interested in Chinese culture and value Chinese fans.

Adam Roseman, CEO of FansTang's parent company CBG told the Global Times, "When we began our marketing to celebrities, it was largely incumbent upon us to convince them of the value of our platform. However, now based on our continued education to Hollywood on the importance of Chinese social media and our ability to deliver many celebrities sizable income opportunities, many stars now come to us."

The American Founders have extensive networks both in Hollywood and the NBA, which helps to maintain good relationships between them and celebrities. Those stars trust FansTang and the job they do and help spread the word among other stars.

The company used other actors in The Vampire Diaries as an example. Nina Dobrev, the leading actress came to meet Chinese fans last year, earned income during the trip and from a brand deal soon thereafter, and found it to be beneficial. This likely contributed to many other stars of the show signing up to FansTang after her experience.

However, being famous does not necessarily mean having large quantity of followers. Some celebrities are popular both in the Twitter world and Weibo world, yet some see opposite situations there. Roseman said, "The most popular stars on Chinese social media are those who play in American TV series and certain NBA players."

They also send reports about fans' activities to those stars. Many famous people are quite concerned about Chinese fans, like Chace Crawford who stars in Gossip Girls. He pays great attention to the feedback of Chinese fans.

Besides operating social networks, FansTang also organizes events for celebrities to meet with Chinese fans, and helps with their public relations and their cooperation with Chinese brands. For example, Maggie Q just completed a trip to China. Her meeting with fans and cooperation with the shoe brand Ista Style was made possible with FansTang's help.

In terms of their next step, they company plans to continue to work with more Hollywood stars, and bring more athletic stars to China to meet Chinese fans.

"It's awesome that I can communicate with my fans via Weibo and WeChat. Knowing that I have so many Chinese fans, I'm very grateful, and surprised at the same time," said Somerhalder.

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