Personal interaction
However Hong Bo, a 40-year-old independent Internet analyst in Beijing, said that with the rare exception of those like Gordon-Levitt and Beckham, most of the interactions between international celebrities and Chinese fans were superficial and limited.
He pointed to the fact that although many global stars had hundreds of thousands or millions of fans on Weibo, most received very few comments in response to their posts.
Hong said the lack of interaction was because many international stars neglected their accounts for long periods.
"Most of them only send out posts when they have a new record or film coming out," said Hong. "Some have even abandoned their accounts completely, like Tom Cruise and Ellen [DeGeneres]."
Hong said that few international celebrities posted details about their personal lives, or took the time to respond personally to fans.
"The content of the posts are usually just official [promotional] information, with no personal attachment.
This isn't enough to get Chinese fans' attention."
Roberto Derosao, a 27-year-old fashion blogger based in Milan, Italy who has nearly 110,000 followers on Weibo, said that the key to building up a loyal fan base on Chinese social media was to be active and accessible.
"I talk to my Chinese fans a lot," he said. "For every two or three comments I receive, I will reply [to one] with the help of some friends who can speak Chinese…Once my fans find [that I'm] friendly, more fans start to talk to me and follow me."
Derosao, whose background is in public relations in fashion and fashion photography, said that he had no public profile when he initially signed up to Weibo, but was surprised by how quickly and enthusiastically his online followers responded to his posts.
"Chinese fans are warmer than Italian fans, they [often] talk to me and leave messages under my posts," said Derosao, who has also kept an Italian-language Instagram account since 2012. "Most Italians don't do that. They just slide by."
What makes fans tick
Ma Liang, the 31-year-old Australian Chinese author of adolescent novels Red and Yellow, has over 2 million fans on Weibo. He agreed that responsiveness and willingness to share details from one's personal life are essential to building up a strong following on social media.
Ma, who is better-known by his penname, "Anthony," said he frequently posts about writing, cooking and drawing, and sometimes also re-posts messages that had been sent to him by fans.
"[The important thing] is to be authentic in your posts, and to post regularly," said Ma.
Mao said that social media had completely changed the way people communicate, and that it created opportunities for ordinary people to speak to a large audience.
Derosao concurred that his Internet celebrity in China had opened a number of doors for him.
"I got invited to many fashion shows by some famous brands like Coach," Derosao said.
"The Italian branch of Elle even invited me to write a column about China."
He said that his approach to social media was to be "naked" - sometimes literally.
Along with posts about his views on fashion and snippets from events he attends, Derosao's Weibo account is littered with windows into his personal life, including pictures of him coming out of the shower. "Sexy works," said Derosao. "So some sexy photos can attract a lot of fans!"
