Lauren Hallanan ’10 landed a spot on a top Chinese reality dating show that fueled her career as a Chinese social media influencer. But it all began with a Beijing study-abroad sojourn during her Bucknell days.
After graduation, Hallanan returned to China and parlayed her fluent Mandarin into a gig with a company that coordinates student internships. When she tagged along with a friend auditioning for the popular TV show Fei Cheng Wu Rao, she landed a spot for 23 episodes. To promote the show, producers asked Hallanan to set up social media profiles — a task that turned her career in a new direction.
“This experience unlocked my interest in social media, public relations and the entertainment industry,” she says.
After leaving the show, Hallanan worked for Edelman, the mammoth global communications firm, before starting her own social media consulting business. Six years later, Hallanan is a social media marketing expert “educating companies in the cosmetics, retail and travel industries on the Chinese digital media landscape and helping them develop effective marketing plans to attract Chinese customers,” she says.
“Marketing, especially marketing in another country and culture, is all about psychology and understanding,” says Hallanan. “You have to learn the language and spend time in the culture to know what’s important to the people there.”
After eight years in Beijing, she returned to the United States, where she maintains a live-stream platform with more than 400,000 fans and hosts the bi-weekly China Influencer Marketing Podcast. She’s a contributor to Forbes.com, and last year, co-authored a book, Digital China: Working with Bloggers, Influencers and KOLs.
By keeping up with Chinese trends and China’s influence on the world of e-commerce, Hallanan has been a valuable resource for companies leveraging social media to advertise products in China.
“Since most major Western channels are blocked in China, they have their own ecosystem of homegrown social media platforms with different rules and trends,” she says.
Hallanan’s knowledge of the fast-paced world of Chinese social media also makes her a cultural ambassador of sorts.
“China is an exciting place with a lot of innovation. Brands from places like the U.S. don’t always understand that innovation,” says Hallanan. “Whether it’s writing articles, making a podcast, speaking at events or talking with clients, I really enjoy educating people about China.”
— Emma Downey ’18, M’20