Coco Gao, Author at The Egg

The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China

Coco Gao — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:03:15 +0000

The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China

Most B2B marketers know of China’s behemoth user engagement potential across its social media space, but many are still unfamiliar with which local platforms to target besides WeChat.

And you can’t blame them—after all, WeChat is China’s most popular social app, with over 1.3 billion active users and all-in-one functionality making it a staple of daily life in the country. It’s no wonder why the app is such a critical promotion tool for Chinese brands across myriad industries.

However, the B2B marketing landscape in China is evolving rapidly.

According to a 2024 research report by Kawo, platforms once considered unfit for B2B are now gaining significant traction among B2B companies. Notably, Douyin has emerged as the third most used social network among surveyed multinational corporations, following only WeChat and WeChat Channels.

This shift reflects a fundamental change in B2B buying behavior. According to a report by B2B International, millennials are now well-embedded as decision-makers across companies, and even where they’re not primary decision-makers, firms regularly seek their input as users. This generation stands out for their preference for self-directed research during the early stages of the buying journey, relying heavily on easily accessible information for evaluation. For forward-thinking B2B brands, this presents a strategic opportunity: by building relationships with younger decision-makers early in their careers, they can shape the preferences of tomorrow’s senior buyers.

In response to these changing dynamics, alternative social platforms have emerged that befit—if not better suit—the needs, interests, and use cases of niche B2B audience segments. For brands looking to reach these users effectively, it’s essential to understand the features, target audiences, and content styles of these platforms to determine their suitability.

In this article, discover five alternative social platforms to WeChat that are worth including in your B2B marketing strategy to maximize reach in China:

XiaoHongShu (rednote, XHS, RED) – Where authenticity meets influence
Bilibili – The hub of in-depth content and youth culture
Douyin – Short-form video powerhouse
Zhihu – Authority building through knowledge sharing
Maimai – Professional networking reimagined

Here’s a sneak peek of companies that are already making use of these platforms.

1. Xiaohongshu (小红书)

XiaoHongShu (小红书), also known as “rednote”, “Little Red Book” and “RED”, is a social media and lifestyle-sharing platform that includes a wide range of consumer experiences and lifestyle content.

Often compared to Instagram, its user base primarily consists of well-educated individuals who prioritize product quality, healthy living, and sustainability. These users value individuality and self-expression, eagerly showcasing their unique lifestyle on the platform, with 20% comprising white-collar and blue-collar professionals.

Recognizing this sophisticated user demographic, an increasing number of B2B brands have established their presence on XHS.

Notable examples include Thermo Fisher Scientific (life sciences and clinical research), DingTalk (enterprise office systems) with over 800,000 followers, and Schneider Electric (digital automation and energy management).

XHS’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu?

The growth of social media has transformed how brands reach and engage with their audiences, encouraging them to break away from traditional industry models and embrace new technologies.

As brands seek more authentic connections with users, XHS has emerged as an ideal platform for engaging with and building reputation in the Chinese market.

Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu:

Community Engagement: Xiaohongshu users interact frequently within interest-based communities, allowing B2B companies to build stronger connections with target customers through active participation in discussions and topic-driven interactions. This engagement naturally increases brand influence and recognition among key audience segments.
Smart Content Distribution: Xiaohongshu’s algorithm recommends relevant content to users based on their interests and behavioral habits. B2B businesses can maximize visibility among target customers by creating high-quality, relevant content optimized for the platform’s distribution system.
Organic Word-of-Mouth Growth: When B2B content resonates with users, it benefits from the platform’s natural sharing culture. Users actively spread valuable content within their networks, creating powerful word-of-mouth momentum that enhances brand reach and credibility.
Distinctive Brand Storytelling: XiaoHongShu encourages authentic brand expression, enabling B2B companies to showcase their unique story, culture, and innovations. This opportunity for differentiation helps brands stand out from competitors and capture target audience attention.

How to do B2B Marketing on Xiaohongshu?

Established brands can build their presence on XHS by creating and managing official brand accounts.

Unlike WeChat and official corporate websites, brand communication on XHS requires a distinct approach that differs from traditional channels. Content should be more engaging and authentic, featuring conversational copy with emojis, valuable insights, and visually appealing content that resonates with the XHS community

For brands new to the Chinese market, it’s helpful to start by collaborating with KOCs (Key Opinion Consumer)/KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to generate more posts endorsing your brand locally. Additionally, participating in local offline events creates a dynamic engagement loop, encouraging users to interact with the brand across both digital and physical touchpoints.

Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu include:

Developing original and engaging video or graphic content to showcase your industry expertise
Engaging in XHS hashtag topic campaigns to gain access to the platform’s recommendation algorithm on users’ discover pages.
Interacting with users through the official account by replying to comments, liking user-generated brand-related notes and offering valuable resources to the followers.
Ensuring content does not contain advertising or prohibited words that may limit content visibility.

Example:

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s XHS account launched an incentive hashtag campaign #我与赛默飞的故事 (#mystorieswithThermoFisher) that targeted their clients. The campaign aimed to build deeper relationships with clients while promoting brand reputation.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s XHS Campaign: #我与赛默飞的故事 (#mystorieswithThermoFisher)

Share your work stories with Thermo Fisher Scientific and post on XHS to obtain a customized gift. Topics could include: 1. How Thermo Fisher Scientific impacted your experiment or work, 2. Extraordinary experiences with Thermo Fisher Scientific, 3. Unforgettable experiences working with Thermo Fisher Scientific

2. Bilibili (哔哩哔哩)

Bilibili is China’s premier youth culture and video platform, distinguished by its unique danmaku* culture and comprehensive content ecosystem. The platform’s foundation rests on PUGC (Professional User-Generated Content) videos, which deliver more in-depth content compared to short-form videos and require greater creative investment.

What sets Bilibili apart is its vibrant community dynamics, featuring high user interaction rates and the distinctive danmaku culture that encourages active participation. The platform has evolved beyond video-sharing to become a diverse community hub, encompassing animation, gaming, music, dance, technology, lifestyle, and various other interests.

The platform’s user base primarily consists of well-educated Generation Z users, characterized by strong purchasing power and enthusiasm for new experiences

Recognizing this valuable demographic, leading B2B brands such as Siemens (Industrial Technology), ABB Robotics (Industrial Technology), and LianLian Global (FinTech) have established significant presences on the platform, sharing technical tutorials and industry insights.

* Danmaku: Danmaku, or “bullet comments,” is a feature in East Asian video-sharing platforms allowing viewers to post comments that appear over the video in real-time, enhancing viewer interaction. It creates a communal watching experience where viewers can engage with both the content and each other simultaneously.

A screenshot showing the danmaku feature which allows users to leave real-time comments that slide across the top of the video.

Bilibili’s User Demographics

Bilibili homepage (PC)

Why should you do B2B marketing on Bilibili?

Bilibili’s user base consists of young professionals with strong brand loyalty and purchasing power, offering B2B companies a chance to connect with emerging decision-makers.

The platform’s creative nature allows companies to demonstrate their expertise while building a more contemporary and approachable brand image.

Beyond content creation, Bilibili’s format enables meaningful engagement that drives user stickiness. Regular interaction and quality content help build genuine connections with potential customers, fostering long-term business relationships.

Benefits of B2B Marketing on Bilibili

Showcase Complex Products Through Video Content: B2B products and technologies often require detailed explanation that traditional text and images can’t fully capture. Bilibili’s video platform enables companies to demonstrate features and advantages through dynamic demonstrations, real operations, and case studies. For instance, an enterprise software company can create videos showing interface navigation, data analysis capabilities, and business optimization processes – helping potential customers better understand the product’s value in action.
B2B companies can precisely reach user groups interested in their specific industry or field. Take an industrial automation equipment company for example – on Bilibili, they can connect with young engineers, technicians, and business owners who follow technology, machinery, and innovation content by presenting content that aligns with their interest.
Gather Real-Time User Feedback: Leverage the “danmaku” feature to gain insights into user perspectives, questions, and preferences.

How to do B2B Marketing on Bilibili?

Bilibili offers various content formats including videos, livestreams, images, and text. B2B companies can select formats based on their specific needs and audience preferences. For instance, use detailed videos to showcase product applications and operations, or conduct real-time Q&A sessions through livestreams to engage directly with users.

Bilibili users are drawn to creative and entertaining content. Even for B2B companies, it’s essential to present technical information in an engaging way. For example, transform traditional product introductions into storytelling formats, or use animated content to illustrate product features in a more approachable manner.

Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Bilibili include:

Maintain High Content Quality: Maintain high content quality and professionalism in your videos, especially when demonstrating technical features or providing detailed product interpretations. Low-quality or irrelevant content can negatively impact your brand image.
Collaborate with Content Creators: B2B brands can partner with KOCs/KOLs on the platform to create promotional content that resonates with Bilibili’s audience.

Example

Siemens China launched a series of original content on their BiliBili channel, creating office culture videos, engineering lessons, and technical product tutorials in both short and long formats. Their content strategy targeted Bilibili’s Gen Z audience, who showed strong interest in animation, education, and technology.

Siemens China’s BiliBili Video Series

3. Douyin (抖音)

Douyin, often described as the Chinese version of TikTok, is a short-form video platform that enables users to create and share daily life moments, creative content, and knowledge through videos ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes. Major brands like JLL, JD Enterprise Purchase, and ZTE have successfully leveraged this platform to showcase their corporate culture, technological innovations and industry insights.

The platform’s sophisticated recommendation algorithm ensures content reaches the right audience by accurately matching videos with interested users, significantly enhancing content visibility and improving overall reach.

Douyin’s User Demographics

Douyin interface (PC)

Why should you do B2B marketing on Douyin?

Douyin’s massive user base and effective recommendation algorithm provide B2B brands with immense exposure opportunities. By publishing high-quality short video content, brands can quickly increase their visibility and attract potential customers, breaking through traditional marketing’s geographical and industry limitations to expand their influence across wider markets.

Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Douyin:

Rapidly increase brand awareness: Due to the huge user base on Douyin, the dissemination of Douyin short vides is wider than other platforms and can quickly increase brand exposure.
Direct visual display: Douyin’s short video format is highly engaging and effectively showcases a product’s features, benefits, and usage scenarios intuitively

How to do B2B Marketing on Douyin？

Focus on Short-Form Videos: Short videos are the heart of Douyin. Create concise, creative videos such as product demos, customer case studies, or quick industry insights that engage viewers while highlighting your brand’s features, benefits and value.
Embrace Storytelling: Unlike traditional marketing approaches, Douyin content works best when it tells a story, creating stronger emotional connections with viewers. Connect with your audience by sharing brand stories, customer experiences, and employee narratives.
Add Fun and Creativity: Douyin users love entertaining and creative content. Present your professional content in engaging formats like animated videos, situational comedies, or creative demonstrations. This approach helps attract attention and encourages users to share your content.

Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Douyin include:

Focus on Visual Quality: Douyin users have high expectations for visual content. Make sure your videos feature high-quality visuals, seamless editing, and appropriate special effects to meet user expectation. The better your content looks, the more likely it is to engage viewers.
Prioritize User Interaction: Douyin’s comment section and direct messaging features are key to building relationships. Actively engage with users by responding to comments and messages. Remember, Douyin offers higher user engagement compared to other platforms, so make the most of these interactive opportunities.
Stay Current and Timely: Content moves quickly on Douyin, and users are always looking for what’s new. Keep your content fresh by sharing the latest industry trends, product updates, and market activities promptly. Regular, timely updates help maintain audience interest and engagement.

Example:

JLL focused on building individual professional IPs for their consultants on their Douyin account, helping users connect more personally with experts. With this approach, consultants gained more trust and likes from users, benefiting both consultant credibility and brand reputation.

JLL Douyin Account: Consultant-Focused Videos

4. Zhihu (知乎)

Launched in 2011, Zhihu (meaning “do you know”) is China’s largest Q&A platform—and its equivalent of Quora—where you can post questions that other users can answer or form into a discussion.

As of Q2 2024, it has over 81.1 million monthly active users (MAU), primarily composed of mature individuals between 18 to 40 years old with medium to high incomes.

As such, Zhihu is one of China’s most credible, expert-led social networks, whose users have high search intent for well-informed content and insights from industry experts for various topics.

This stands in stark contrast to WeChat’s private domain channels—including official accounts, group chats, and WeChat Moments—where followers are typically existing customers without active search intent. By comparison, Zhihu allows companies such as Huawei, NVIDIA, and 3M to engage users who are actively seeking information about their products and services.

Zhihu’s results page for queries related to search term: “International schools”

Zhihu’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Zhihu?

Zhihu’s unique positioning as a knowledge-sharing platform poses several potential benefits for B2B brands.

For one, brands can better target niche audiences on Zhihu based on their query-based intent and deliver content tailored to their search needs.

Due to the longer average engagement time of interested users, longer-form content, in particular, tends to perform better on Zhihu.

At the same time, there is the option for brands to actively answer user questions to build customer rapport and enhance their own credibility in their niche.

Here are more perks of doing B2B marketing on Zhihu:

You can foster a loyal customer base with frequent and direct communication with your customers
You can soft sell your products or services as you build better customer rapport
You can increase the likelihood of your Zhihu content ranking higher on search results across search engines, like Baidu, and social platforms with in-built search, like WeChat Search. So, optimize your Zhihu content around keyword themes to maximize your reach.

An example of a top-ranking Zhihu result on Baidu’s (left) and WeChat Search’s (right) search results

How to do B2B Marketing on Zhihu?

To start posting content on Zhihu, you must register for a brand account—available only to businesses registered in China—and complete its signup and verification process.

You can begin posting once your account is verified, by which time ZhiPlus (知+) will also be available for you to apply for if you wish to run paid ad campaigns and promote posts.

PageGroup’s brand account page on Zhihu

However, note that brands from the finance/investment/trading, cosmetics/medical, franchising, and psychotherapy industries have restrictions imposed and are not permitted to post on Zhihu.

Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Zhihu include:

Creating well-researched, educational content to showcase your industry expertise
Actively engaging with users who have commented or reacted to your posts
Encouraging users to ask more feedback questions to generate back-and-forth discussions that resonate with them

Example:

NVIDIA China’s Zhihu account actively engaged with users by answering their questions and initiating discussions. The account shared new ideas in a Twitter-like style, demonstrating the brand’s commitment to user connection and enhancing its reputation.

NVIDIA’s Zhihu account answered 539 questions, proposed 14 questions, and shared 755 ideas.

WANT DIGITAL INSIGHTS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX?

5. Maimai (脉脉)

Maimai (脉脉) is China’s most used professional social networking site—more so than LinkedIn—and has now accumulated tens of millions of users since its founding in 2013.

There are 11 million companies registered, and 98% companies with over thousand employees covered. Its users are predominantly entrepreneurs, managers, and white-collar workers from the Internet, media, and finance industries, 49% of whom reside in first-tier Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

But unlike most professional networking platforms, MaiMai lets users comment anonymously in chat forums under aliases like “Employee of Alibaba” (after they’ve verified their employment status), which, in turn, can encourage higher user engagement. (e.g.) For example, employees from companies like Xiaomi, Tencent and TP-Link often share work experiences, fostering discussions that provide valuable perspectives for job seekers and industry professionals

Maimai’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Maimai?

Maimai business account provides brands with profile features like the ability to write company bios, post updates, communicate with users in a comments section, view follower analytics, and more. On the user engagement side, it lets brands post content across a range of formats (images, video, long-form content etc.), operate private channels like group chats, and target audiences with paid campaigns.

Hence, if your primary target audience is active on Maimai, it could be an ideal brand awareness tool to attract new customers.

Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Maimai:

You can run targeted lead-gen campaigns
You can understand who your followers are based on their profiles
You can filter your audience targeting by local region or city if you wish to concentrate your B2B marketing efforts by location

Tencent’s business account page on Maimai

How to do B2B Marketing on Maimai?

Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Maimai include:

Engage with your employees with Maimai accounts to amplify your brand page and grow its following
Regularly publishing high-quality posts to stay on top of your target customers’ minds
Leveraging Maimai’s various media formats to appeal to all your ideal customers’ consumption preferences

Example:

TP-Link’s Maimai account showcased company culture with popular hashtag topics like #印象最深的一次年会 #你的公司有哪些别出心裁的团队建设活动 (#impressivecompanyannualmeeting and #unexpectedteambuilding), which can increase content exposure and brand awareness.

***

To succeed with your B2B marketing in China hinges on being present on the right platforms where your target audience is most engaged and, in turn, optimizing your content for those platforms.

Ready to maximize your digital marketing in China?

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The post The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China appeared first on The Egg.

XiaoHongShu (RED): China’s Rising Social Platform – Impact, User Demographics and Marketing Solutions

Coco Gao — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 14:42:01 +0000

XiaoHongShu (RED): China’s Rising Social Platform – Impact, User Demographics, and Marketing Solutions

XiaoHongShu (小红书), also known as “Little Red Book”, “rednote” or “RED”, is a social media and e-commerce lifestyle-sharing platform that includes a wide range of consumer experiences and lifestyle content. It has transformed from a community platform into a leading e-commerce and community platform, dominating the UGC (User-Generated Content) e-commerce field.

According to the 2024 XiaoHongShu Business News, the platform boasts an impressive 300 million monthly active users (MAU). Additionally, a manager overseeing XiaoHongShu’s commercialization revealed in a public speech that by 2022, the platform had attracted 140,000 brands to the platform to engage in brand management.

With ‘Inspire Lives’ as its mission, XiaoHongShu (XHS) empowers users to create vivid chronicles of their lives and showcase their lifestyles. This is achieved through various mediums, including short videos, photos, and text, which facilitate interactions among users with shared interests.

By offering an authentic, joyful, and diverse online community, XHS has established itself as an indispensable hub for lifestyle sharing and shopping guidance. It serves as the go-to platform for staying up to date with the latest trends and fashion, solidifying its status as an irreplaceable destination for trend and fashion enthusiasts.

China's largest lifestyle sharing community

A Global and Local Powerhouse in Influencing Chinese Consumer Behavior

XiaoHongShu wields significant influence due to its strong community atmosphere, rich accumulation of UGC content, and its role as a trendsetter in consumer behavior. It has become a key platform for brands to engage with consumers, especially among the younger demographic. With 70% daily user search penetration and 90% UGC content, the platform’s ability to aggregate user-generated content serves as social proof, influencing purchasing decisions.

The influence of XiaoHongShu extends beyond China, offering brands a unique opportunity to target Chinese audiences worldwide through its robust international user base. By leveraging XHS’s global reach, brands can directly connect with consumers interested in Chinese trends, culture, and lifestyle, gaining a significant marketing advantage.

The Discover page of XiaoHongShu

China’s Social Media Landscape: How XiaoHongShu is Differentiating Itself

In the dynamic landscape of China’s social media, XiaoHongShu (小红书, rednote) distinguishes itself alongside industry giants such as WeChat (微信), Weibo (微博), Douyin (抖音) and Bilibili (哔哩哔哩). With a high monthly active users count and over 80 million community sharers, XiaoHongShu fosters a vibrant environment for user-generated content (UGC).

While WeChat excels in integrated messaging and lifestyle services, XiaoHongShu focuses more on content sharing and community building, creating a unique space for lifestyle inspiration and e-commerce. Unlike Weibo which is known for its open network and public discussions, XiaoHongShu offers a more intimate, community-driven experience where users can deeply connect over shared interests.

Douyin, with its emphasis on short-form videos, captures a different aspect of user entertainment and content consumption. Bilibili, renowned for its youth-oriented, niche content, and strong community of creators focused on anime, gaming, and vlogging, provides a distinct user experience. In contrast, XiaoHongShu’s comprehensive approach to content—which includes short videos, photos, and text—provides a more balanced and diverse content ecosystem.

XiaoHongShu’s launch of a web version in February 2023 is a strategic move that complements its already strong mobile presence, mirroring the multi-device usage seen on platforms like WeChat. This expansion to PC not only broadens access but also enhances the user experience, thereby increasing stickiness and traffic.

Analyzing the market share, the 2023 China Social Media Content Ecosystem Data Report by Newrank reveals that while all platforms have grown, XiaoHongShu exhibits particularly strong growth momentum. This growth can be attributed to XiaoHongShu’s distinct advantages, such as its high UGC ratio, which encourages authenticity and fosters a sense of community, and its innovative e-commerce integration that aligns with users’ content-driven shopping behaviors.

Overall active users on China social media platforms have grown steadily, with XHS growing the fastest.

Source: Newrank.cn

In summary, XiaoHongShu, with its robust community of sharers and seekers of lifestyle inspiration, holds a unique position in China’s social media landscape. Its ability to combine content sharing with e-commerce, coupled with continuous innovation in accessibility, positions XiaoHongShu as the platform of choice for brands and users seeking an immersive, community-focused experience.

XiaoHongShu IP: Revolutionizing Social Content Marketing

The intriguing aspect that sets XiaoHongShu apart from other popular social media sites is XiaoHongShu IP. These projects are centered around themes, stories, and images that deeply resonate with users’ lifestyle trends and emotional experiences. They are organized using specific search keywords and hashtags, which enhance content discoverability and categorization.

Each IP project on XiaoHongShu can include various elements, such as official account posts, brand advertisements, participation from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), in-app interactive elements like stickers, user-generated content (UGC) and offline marketing resources. These components come together to create a rich and engaging experience for the platform’s users.

For example, “Go Wild Festival” collaborates with outdoor media entities and brands, promoting outdoor activities through online and offline events, with notable celebrities sharing personal experiences to enhance engagement. Likewise, “Treasure Trove,” a product marketing IP, invited 100 experts to curate and rigorously review new products, offering authentic, trusted word-of-mouth recommendations, and aiding brands in launching new products.

By transforming everyday experiences into engaging content, IP projects invite users to participate and share their own stories, fostering a strong sense of community. Brands can tap into the platform’s extensive user base by creating their own IP projects or collaborating with XiaoHongShu’s existing IP initiatives. This alignment with current community trends and genuine user needs boosts brand visibility, enhances user engagement, and builds lasting emotional connections. This evolving XiaoHongShu IP model will continue to shape the content marketing landscape.

User Demographics: A Diverse and Trend-Seeking Community

XiaoHongShu (rednote) users are predominantly young, with a male-female ratio of 3:7. Fifty percent of users are born after 1995, 35% after 2000, and 5 reside in first- and second-tier cities. These users are characterized by their pursuit of trends and a high quality of life, with a willingness to pay extra for consumption that meets these desires.

User Profiles and Segments on XiaoHongShu

According to research by Qian-Gua, over 17% of user profiles on XiaoHongShu are Gen Z, more than 10% are blue-collar workers, and over 9% are white-collar workers.

Source: Sohu

Apart from the user profiles in the above chart, popular user include makeup lovers, foodies, mothers, home lovers, working-class, health lovers, artistic youth, etc. As the user base grows and social life evolves, diverse groups are increasingly joining XiaoHongShu, creating a rich variety of labels. By gaining insights into different industries, brands can identify potential audiences, explore core needs and variations, provide value guidance, and offer product perceptions, interest experiences, and emotional propositions, etc. This approach helps achieve sustainable growth and customer expansion.

Why Should Brands Market on XiaoHongShu?

Marketing on XiaoHongShu is highly advantageous due to its exceptional user engagement, significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions, and its capacity to aggregate user-generated content as social proof. Brands can leverage these features to enhance exposure, build trust, and drive conversions. The platform’s diverse content and active community make it an ideal environment for brands to connect with their target audience.

Product seeding: Utilize authentic and genuine product or experience reviews from users to generate buzz, create a positive brand image, and encourage organic word-of-mouth marketing.
Brand Awareness: Increase brand visibility in a subtle and organic way, building a reputation among XiaoHongShu’s influential user base.
Visual Storytelling: Take advantage of XiaoHongShu’s rich visual content format, including images, videos, and long-form notes, to tell compelling stories and create immersive brand experiences.
High Engagement: Connect with a highly engaged user base that actively participates in community interactions, ideal for building a loyal following.
SEO Benefits: Well-optimized content can rank higher in search results as users search for latest trends and products on XiaoHongShu, increasing your visibility.
Global Reach: Tap into XiaoHongShu’s growing international user base to expand your reach to Chinese-speaking audiences worldwide.
Cost-Effectiveness: Leverage product seeding as a more cost-effective alternative to traditional advertising, especially with high-engagement micro-influencers.
Long-Term Relationships: Foster long-term relationships with influencers and users through XiaoHongShu, leading to future collaborations and brand advocacy.
Lifestyle and E-commerce Integration: Seamlessly blend lifestyle sharing with e-commerce to showcase products within relatable contexts, making marketing efforts more engaging and impactful on sales.

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What Industries Thrive on XiaoHongShu?

XiaoHongShu is particularly effective for industries related to lifestyle, beauty, fashion, travel, food, and health. Its visual and content-heavy format is ideal for brands capable of creating engaging and aspirational content. The platform’s user base and content focus make it an excellent choice for industries that rely on visual appeal and community engagement.

Marketing Solutions on XiaoHongShu

Marketing on XiaoHongShu (rednote) involves creating high-quality, user-focused content that resonates with the platform’s community. Brands should focus on storytelling, authenticity, and engagement. Collaborating with influencers and KOLs is also crucial for reaching a broader audience. It is essential for brands to understand the platform’s algorithm and optimize their content strategy accordingly.

XiaoHongShu offers a variety of advertising options, each with its unique features and capabilities. Here are some of the main types of advertising and their characteristics:

Ad Types

Pugongying (Dandelion, 蒲公英):

The Pugongying platform allows brands to collaborate with well-known bloggers or KOLs to enhance brand exposure and influence through the bloggers’ content creation and sharing.

It enables brands to leverage the influencers’ audience to reach a broader and more engaged follower base. The platform supports various types of collaborations, such as product reviews, sponsored posts, and giveaways, ensuring a wide array of promotional possibilities.

Shutiao (French Fries, 薯条投放):

A self-service promotion product for brand and creators. similar to boosting content. Users can set their promotional goals, such as increasing note views, follower counts, or product views. It enhances brand exposure by displaying ads in users’ feeds.

Juguang (Aurora, 聚光平台):

Juguang is XiaoHongShu’s advertising platform designed to assist enterprise clients with substantial advertising needs. It accurately targets user groups to maximize ad efficiency and enhances ad click-through and conversion rates through precise targeting and analytics.

The platform offers extensive reporting features and data analytics to help businesses measure performance, optimize campaigns, and gain valuable insights into user behavior.

Formats include:

Feed Ads: These are designed to blend advertising into regular content, ensuring efficient user engagement. Notes display a “sponsored” or “brand” tag to indicate promotional content, balancing advertising visibility with organic content experience to maintain user trust. These ads are crafted to feel like a part of the user’s organic feed, making them less intrusive while still delivering the intended message. The format has been successful in driving engagement and conversion by seamlessly integrating into the user experience.

Search Ads: Brands target potential customers by setting keywords, which are usually closely related to users’ needs and interests. When users search for these keywords on XHS, ads will appear in specific positions of search results, such as the 3rd, 13th, 23rd, and other 3+10n positions. The advantage of search ads is that they can accurately reach high-intent users because users often have a clear purpose when searching. XHS’s search ads can help brands improve the conversion effect of seeding.

Splash Screen Ads: These include splash screen ads, hot topic ads, etc., which are prominently displayed. These ads appear when users open the app, quickly enhancing brand awareness and image. Suitable for generating immediate attention and interest from the audience, these formats are ideal for major announcements, product launches, and time-sensitive promotions.

Key Features of Advertising Types

Targeting based on Selling Point: Ads can be segmented according to different selling points such as user interests, product functionalities and specific scenarios. This approach helps in effectively engaging various groups of users by showing them ads that are most relevant and appealing to their needs and preferences.
Targeting based on Audience and Context: Ads can be precisely directed towards key audiences, competitor clientele, specific categories, and particular scenarios to boost their relevance and appeal.
Diverse Formats: Ads can take various forms such as hot topic content, attractive content, and shopping guide content to meet the needs and preferences of different users.

How can The Egg help you?

The Egg can assist brands in establishing and operating social media accounts on Xiaohongshu (RED, rednote) in the following ways:

Define Marketing Objectives: Based on the brand’s business goals, help set clear marketing objectives on XiaoHongShu, such as enhancing brand awareness, increasing sales conversion rates, or engaging in traffic privatization operations.
Account Setup and Management: Assist in setting up and managing accounts to foster and engage different target audiences.
Content Creation: Plan and execute content strategies, including themes, styles, formats, and types, ensuring content differentiation and alignment with the positioning of the account.
Search Ranking Optimization: Improve the ranking of notes in keyword searches by publishing high-quality content and increasing interaction, achieving natural traffic acquisition.
Compliance with Platform Rules: Understand and comply with XiaoHongShu’s community guidelines and advertising policies to avoid account restrictions or non-inclusion of content.
Effectiveness Monitoring and Analysis: Continuously monitor the effects of marketing campaigns, analyze data, and adjust strategies based on feedback to ensure the maximization of marketing effect.
KOL and KOC Collaboration: Identify and collaborate with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) on XiaoHongShu, leveraging their influence for brand promotion.
XiaoHongShu Advertising: Assist brand to setup advertising account and plan the advertising strategies, moreover, allocate marketing budgets wisely and optimize the effectiveness of investments through performance advertising and collaborative promotions.

Through these services, The Egg helps brands establish strong influence on XiaoHongShu, attract target user groups, and achieve their business objectives.

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How to Boost Organic Traffic to Your WeChat Official Account

Coco Gao — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 04:00:53 +0000

How to Boost Organic Traffic to Your WeChat Official Account

With over 800 million monthly active users (MAU), WeChat Search is a critical tool for connecting different properties within the WeChat ecosystem—like WeChat Official Accounts, mini programs, and WeChat Channels (i.e., video accounts)—and contributing significantly to driving their user growth.

According to WeChat, between 2021 and 2022 year-on-year (YoY), WeChat Search contributed 27% of new followers to all WeChat Official Accounts, 20% of new daily active users to mini programs, and more than 120% of new followers of WeChat Channels. The distribution volume of video content on WeChat Channels has even increased by almost nine times during this period.

Given the increasing impact of WeChat Search, let’s look at 5 key tips for optimizing your content on WeChat Official Account to help you match your target audience’s needs and attract more valuable traffic from WeChat Search. Let’s go!

Tip #1: Regularly Update Your Content

Maintaining an active WeChat Official Account with up-to-date content is crucial for attracting new followers and retaining existing ones, which is a key metric for assessing the quality of your account in the eyes of WeChat.

Here are some best practices when updating your content on your Official Account:

Ensure that the content you update on your account is original and of high quality.
Content that is time-sensitive—such as travel guides, service guides, and introductions to special events or occasions—must be updated or published promptly to avoid the risk of expiration and maximize the amount of timely traffic to your content. Additionally, Official Accounts that haven’t been updated for a long time may underperform in WeChat’s search result rankings.
Avoid duplicate content as it may confuse WeChat’s search algorithm and potentially hurt your own search rankings.

And here are some topic samples of high-quality content you might find on WeChat:

Updates related to official policies
Practical guides for assessing livelihood services
Reports on recent or ongoing news
Professional media information for practitioners
Industry news with forward-looking insights
Official introductions for products and services

Tip #2: Spur Engagement

To effectively engage with your audience on WeChat, it’s important to promptly respond to both public and private messages in your Official Account, Mini Program, and WeChat Channels account.

Moreover, monitoring your user comments helps you learn their thoughts and feedback about your content that you can, in turn, implement when updating content.

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Tip #3: Focus on Your Niche

Niching down and creating original content that follows suit is key on WeChat if you want to establish your brand as a trustworthy and credible source of information. Additionally, getting your WeChat Official Account verified is highly recommended to build trust with new users from the get-go.

Tip #4: Write Clear and Concise Titles

WeChat Search is a tool for efficient information retrieval—users typically search for content when needing something, similar to the urgency a passerby experiences when looking for directions. As such, the title of an article on an Official Account plays a critical role, serving as a road sign to guide users to relevant content (i.e., you!).

To create effective titles on WeChat:

Present the main idea and key information of your article without concealing or exaggerating it.
Be concise and straight to the point, avoiding the use of unnecessary adjectives and irrelevant keywords.

Titles should:

Avoid ambiguous expressions
Avoid clickbait
Match the opening paragraph of your content in terms of relevancy
Avoid being too brief such that it lacks essential information, nor too long such that it becomes difficult to understand and be truncated in search results
Avoid stuffing keywords for the sake of SEO
Avoid meaningless symbols or text

Tip #5: Make Your Content Easy to Understand

To ensure your content is user-friendly, it should have a distinct and unified theme with a clear focus on the main idea. Ensure the layout of your pages are easily comprehensible by writing clear and engaging titles, customizing font size and styles, and using appropriate paragraphing.

Wherever appropriate, you should also provide evidence to support your thesis.

On top of that, use visual aids—like images, videos, and GIFs—to convey your key ideas better and increase brand recall.

***

As WeChat Search continues to develop and have its search results pages exposed across more entry points around the app, it’s prime time for brands to optimize their WeChat Official Account and maximize their presence in front of China’s behemoth online userbase.

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WeChat B2B Marketing: How to do Advertise with WeChat’s New Search & Video Ads

Coco Gao — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 03:51:37 +0000

WeChat B2B Marketing: How to do Advertise with WeChat’s New Search & Video Ads

Since 2019, WeChat has focused on growing WeChat Search and Channels and has been continuously optimizing the features of those platforms to boost customer retention.

In WeChat Search, what began as a simple built-in search engine has evolved into an all-in-one search portal interconnected with the rest of the WeChat ecosystem. By 2022, it reached a milestone of 700 million monthly users, reflecting its popularity on par with that of even Baidu’s app.

At the same time, WeChat promptly introduced WeChat Channels after catching onto the growing user preference for watching video content over reading text. According to QuestMobile data, its active userbase has now surpassed 813 million, leading the likes of Douyin and Kuaishou with 680 and 390 million users, respectively.

With these two WeChat properties fast maturing, it’s prime time for advertisers to leverage their latest advertising options to boost brand exposure—cue in WeChat’s new search and video ads.

In this article, let’s explore where WeChat’s new search and video ads appear and how to leverage them for your China B2B marketing goals.

But before we do, here’s a quick refresher on the ad types available on the various WeChat properties:

WeChat Search ads
WeChat Channels ads (i.e., video ads)
WeChat Moments ads
WeChat Official account ads
WeChat Mini Program ads

WeChat Search Ads

WeChat Search ads appear on WeChat Search’s results pages and vary depending on a user’s search terms. WeChat Search also supports paid keyword advertising for short-tail keywords related to your brand, business category, or product or service-related terms you may want to prioritize targeting. This makes its ads ideal for generating interest for lead acquisition and promoting your:

Brand campaigns
Products and services
Applications
WeChat Official Account
WeChat Mini Programs

Pro tip: Leverage WeChat Search’s keyword explorer tool (微信指数) to find and target more related terms and drive traffic for those.

Where do WeChat Search Ads appear?

WeChat Search Results

Your search ads appear on WeChat Search’s results pages whenever a user searches for keywords you’ve targeted through bidding and can show up beside results for brand websites, articles, Mini Programs, and more. Results boosted with search ads will have an ads tag appear next to them.

Here, ad bidding is calculated by cost-per-click (CPC).

An example of a boosted WeChat Search result (with its ads tag outlined in red)

WeChat Super Brand Zone

Through the branded content card medium from WeChat’s Super Brand Zone, you can run search ads to show up for searches about your brand information, products, or services and offer users quick access to your WeChat Official Account or Mini Program.

Here, ad bidding is calculated by cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM).

WeChat Search Ads (in brand content card format) on WeChat’s Super Brand Zone

WeChat Channels Ads (i.e., Video Ads)

WeChat video ads are full-screen video ads that appear on a user’s WeChat Channels feed, providing them with an immersive video experience. Video ads may even come with call-to-action (CTA) buttons or swipe-up links that can direct users externally—for example, to your official brand website—or to your brand assets on WeChat.

You can either produce your content for video ads in-house or co-produce them with video bloggers or KOLs relevant to your business. By opting for the latter, you can potentially expose your ads to a wider pool of users who, in turn, may also be inclined to share them on their WeChat Moments or WeChat group chats, thereby potentially expanding your reach even further.

Where do WeChat Video Ads Appear?

WeChat Channels Video Feed

As mentioned, WeChat video ads appear on a user’s WeChat Channels video feed in-between their organic video recommendations.

Here, ad bidding is calculated by cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) or cost-per-click (CPC).

An example of a WeChat video ad

***

The size and scope of WeChat mean brands advertising there have enormous reach to millions of users. And while most brands are advertising passively on WeChat Search and Channels due to the platform’s limited B2B-specific targeting options—especially compared to Douyin or Weibo—and higher ad costs, that may soon change with the engagement potential of these new search and video ad formats.

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WeChat Update: Bind Multiple Accounts with One Phone Number, Carousel Image Posts, & WeChat Article Annotations

Coco Gao — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 07:05:23 +0000

WeChat Update: Bind Multiple Accounts with One Phone Number, Carousel Image Posts, & WeChat Article Annotations

In February 2023, WeChat rolled out new features to its account settings, WeChat Official Accounts, and WeChat articles, facilitating a friendlier user experience and improving overall content readability and shareability on the platform.

In this article, let’s explore what these new updates entail:

You can now bind multiple WeChat personal accounts with one mobile number.
You can now publish multiple images (in carousel post format) on a single post in WeChat Official Account.
You can now underline sentences on WeChat articles.

New WeChat Feature #1: Users Can Bind up to Two Personal Accounts with One Mobile Phone Number

WeChat is integral to virtually all aspects of daily life in China, where it is used not only as a messaging platform among friends but also as a work tool.

But, until recently, only one WeChat personal account could be registered to a mobile phone number, meaning users who wished to separate work from their personal use of the app had to purchase another SIM card and sign up for another account with that number.

From Feb 2023 onwards, however, WeChat will allow users to register for up to two personal accounts with one phone number once they meet the following requirements:

They can verify their account with their phone number
They have registered for WeChat Pay
Their account has been active for more than two years since registration
Their account has not been banned in the past 12 months

The steps involved in signing up for a second WeChat personal account

To sign up for a second WeChat personal account, head over to your settings on WeChat then Switch Account > Add Account > Sign up for a New Account > Sign up via the mobile number of this WeChat.

New WeChat Feature #2: WeChat Official Accounts Now Support Carousel Image Posts

From text to images to videos, WeChat Official Accounts offer various formats for content posts.

Among them, image-with-text posts are one of the most popular and can draw user attention equally as or faster than video posts. While a video might need to play for about five seconds before it catches a user’s attention, a high-quality image or graphic with text has the potential to turn heads in an instant.

It comes as no surprise then that WeChat has been trying to optimize its image post formats for optimal engagement.

After WeChat’s Feb 2023 update, image-with-text posts are no longer limited to just one image and can now feature up to nine in a carousel format that lets users swipe back and forth to view them individually. This makes them ideal for captivating users with visual graphics and providing them additional information about your brand, products, or services.

An example of a carousel image post on WeChat

New WeChat Feature #3: Underline Sentences in WeChat Articles

It is a common habit of readers to underline or highlight their favorite sentences or quotes in a book to look back at. The same goes for eBooks, where many reader apps also provide functions to provide a similar reading and annotating experience.

In its Feb 2023 update, WeChat integrated a highlighting feature into all its WeChat articles. By selecting and highlighting any extract, a small pop-up window will appear, where users can select Underline to underline it in green.

In doing so, the pop-up window will also tell you how many other users have underlined the same extract.

Underlining an extract from a WeChat article

Users can then share extracts they underlined to their friends or group chats, thereby facilitating more readership across the app. Once shared, the message will feature a link to the article with the CTA button (“Read More”) so that other users can read the entire post with one click.

How the sharing of underlined extracts from WeChat articles works

***

On top of what it already offers, WeChat’s latest updates make for a friendlier user experience on the platform and continue to stamp it as arguably China’s most versatile, all-in-one app.

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How to Leverage Private Domain Traffic in China

Coco Gao — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 05:30:21 +0000

How to Leverage Private Domain Traffic in China

How to Leverage Private Domain Traffic in China – APAC in 3 – Episode 15

Although public domains give you access to near-limitless online traffic to increase your brand reach in China, they are highly competitive spaces without much potential to foster any real connection or trust with your customers.

And as the country’s web industry experiences a growth slowdown and grows ever more saturated, leveraging customer value is paramount. As such, increasing revenue from the customers you already have is as essential to your growth strategy as acquiring new customers.

That’s where private domains (私域) come into play—by helping brands maintain direct communication with their target customers and engage them directly to drive retention and repurchases.

Check out APAC in 3 (EP 15) for tips on how to leverage private domain traffic in your China marketing strategy. For a deeper dive into the topic, read the full article below!

What is private domain traffic?

Private domain traffic marketing is the method whereby a brand’s communication with its customers is “funneled” into private channels (i.e., “private domains 私域”), where it has complete control over how and when it wants to communicate with this audience.

This stands in contrast to “public domains 公域”, which are traffic sources not controlled or owned by brands. Instead, brands here will usually use different methods to direct public traffic to their campaigns or accounts before trying to engage the users and bring them into their private traffic pool. Examples of public traffic sources include search engines and user traffic on some e-commerce or social networks.

Ultimately, the purpose of private domains is to continue “selling” even after customers leave your website. Since it often only takes a catalyst to trigger customers to repurchase, private domain channels help by keeping your brand fresh on their minds and increasing their likelihood of returning to you (i.e., user stickiness).

Why use private domain traffic?

Private domain channels offer myriad benefits for brands. They can:

Ensure you’re consistently targeting the right customers
Improve your brand perception among ideal target customers
Maintain direct, two-way communication with customers and a build long-lasting relationship
Boost customer engagement, retention, and repurchasing rates
Lower your customer acquisition cost

Where to leverage private domain traffic?

Before the upsurge of private domain traffic in social marketing, brands would typically cultivate their own customer communities via more brand-owned channels, like EDM and brand website/blog. Many brands in western countries still rely heavily on these channels to reach their customers.

Now, brands in China are increasingly shifting towards social media applications to achieve this, opting for platforms popular with their target customers that can enable private domain traffic with free, user-friendly features and allow for direct marketing campaigns.

In China, WeChat has been a popular source of private domain traffic among brands, owing much to its behemoth userbase and comprehensive ecosystem encompassing messaging, social media, e-commerce, and payment functions.

In this case, a brand’s WeChat official account, group chats, and WeChat Moments are all forms of private domain channels on WeChat—each considered a “private asset” of that brand since they are operated by the brand.

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How to attract private domain traffic?

There are two main types of private domains you can leverage in your marketing.

Build Your Own Community

Firstly, you can leverage public traffic domains—your main website, for example—to attract customers before funneling those who are more likely to convert into private communities like group chats, even if they’re hosted on third-party apps like WeChat.

Here are some tips to consider when building your own community:

Organize group chats: Private domain channels, particularly group chats, rely heavily on moderators and quality content to stay relevant. Therefore, after gathering interested users in a private group chat, you’ll need to cultivate a proactive brand voice to build a long-lasting relationship with your customers.
Host live webinars: By addressing customer pain points in live webinar sessions, you can build rapport and attract more targeted and higher-quality leads to your private domain channels.
Offer personalized services: Based on your customers’ concerns and queries, you can offer 1-to-1 customer support via private chatrooms.
Target users by past behavior: You can set up profiles of your repeat customers in a CRM system and monitor their purchasing behaviors to inform your targeting strategies.

Find Pre-Existing Communities and Audience Groups

Each KOC/KOL curates and manages their own group of followers, so you can reach out to those that align with your brand.

Here are some tips to consider when leveraging pre-existing communities and audience groups:

KOC/KOL campaigns: Aside from moderators and content, promotions can hugely appeal to customers in your group chats. To this end, you can enlist key opinion consumers (KOCs) to stir excitement and mix your brand-owned community with target platforms and communities by offering regular promotions—e.g., discounts, coupons, lotteries, live broadcasts. Unlike key opinion leaders (KOLs), however, KOCs are usually amateur influencers keen on testing or reviewing products they are interested in, so they will likely resonate better with your target customers.
Industry experts: As free knowledge-sharing grows ever more ubiquitous across online communities, you can blend your brand-owned community with target platforms and communities by inviting industry experts to share their expertise about industry trends relevant to your business category. This will appeal to customers seeking educational value when joining your private domains.

***

At a time when online attention spans are diminishing, private domains can help brands establish more vertical and sticky customer acquisition and engagement channels.

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WeChat Search Introduces New Metrics to its Analytics

Coco Gao — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 01:29:04 +0000

WeChat Search Introduces New Metrics to its Analytics

At the start of 2022, WeChat Search—WeChat’s in-app search function—reached 700 million monthly active users (MAU), continuing its trajectory as a search engine rival to the enormously popular Baidu.

But WeChat Search has evolved and is operating more like a portal, allowing its users to discover high-quality content and services available across WeChat’s ecosystem. And from the many entry points around the app, searches initiated by users have translated into traffic for—and higher engagement of—other WeChat products.

This has made WeChat’s algorithm and search results quite unique compared to other search engines. While largely based on an individual’s search habits and preferences, its algorithm has no clear pattern, which poses a challenge to site owners when optimizing content for traffic on WeChat Search.

But fret not! In September 2022, WeChat Search introduced new metrics to its analytics tool in the WeChat Official Account backend, which can help you better understand your content performance and searchability relative to your target keywords.

Here, explore the two new metrics in WeChat Search’s analytics and common FAQs about getting started with analytics in your WeChat Official Account backend.

Note: Although WeChat Search connects users to the many distinct products within WeChat’s ecosystem, its analytics (as of now) only collects data from searches related to WeChat articles and WeChat Official Accounts.

WeChat Search analytics: User interface

What are the new metrics in WeChat Search’s Analytics?

User Engagement and Traffic Source

User Engagement and Traffic Source reveals the total number of times a link to your content was seen by users (i.e., impressions) via searches of WeChat articles or WeChat Official Accounts. It also uncovers the click-through rate (CTR) per traffic source and the number of new followers gained between those two sources.

WeChat Search analytics: User Engagement and Traffic Source

Content Search Performance

Content Search Performance details your most searched articles and content within a time period and the keywords they ranked for via searches of WeChat articles and WeChat Official Accounts.

WeChat Search analytics: Content Search Performance

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Common FAQs When Getting Started on WeChat Search Analytics

FAQ #1: Why can’t I find my WeChat Official Account?

Ensure you are searching for your WeChat Official Account on WeChat Search by its full account name. If you still cannot find it through search, it might be due to the following reasons:

If your Official Account just launched, it will take a while for WeChat Search to collect all its information. Generally, you should be able to search for your Official Account one full day after launch.
Your Official Account settings were set to the “forbidden search” status by your account operator. To cancel this, head into: “WeChat public platform” > “Settings and development” > “Official account settings” > “Function/privacy”.
Your Official Account was excluded from search due to a failed or incomplete account registration, blocked/frozen for violations, or cancelled by one of your account operators.

If none of the above apply to you, you can submit an appeal to the WeChat Official Account of WeChat’s Search Assistant service, and a member of their support team will be in touch.

FAQ #2: Why can’t I find my articles via WeChat Search?

From content quality to the authority of your Official Account, myriad factors can affect how your article ranks on WeChat Search’s results pages. But first and foremost, the actual content in your articles must be compliant with WeChat Search’s guidelines.

As such, if you encounter any of the following issues when searching for your articles(s), you can get in touch with WeChat Search Assistant service via your Official Account:

Your article(s) cannot be searched by title in the article search function
Your article(s) cannot be searched and located within your Official Account
Your article(s) cannot be searched after migrating your Official Account

FAQ #3: When searching for my official account, why does its menu appear?

To help users find intended results faster and understand a brand’s information, products, or services at a glance, WeChat Search intelligently displays the menu options of the most relevant Official Account on its SERP based on user search terms.

This is entirely automated on WeChat’s end and cannot be modified.

***

Among the critical areas for optimization on WeChat Search will be its search results pages, so you can expect WeChat to expose Search across more entry points around the app. In turn, stay on top of its analytics tool to help you optimize your content quality and improve your ranking potential on WeChat Search.

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5 WeChat Marketing Trends for 2022: Boost Your Brand in China

Coco Gao — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 07:00:24 +0000

5 WeChat Marketing Trends for 2022: Boost Your Brand in China

5 WeChat Marketing Trends for 2022 – APAC in 3 – Episode 12

With 1.25 billion active users, WeChat is arguably the world’s largest super-app. And with its many services including instant messaging, social feed, payment processing and more, it also uniquely give brands near-limitless marketing opportunities across its ecosystem.

However, these opportunities—whether on WeChat Channels, Mini Programs, or Enterprise WeChat—are constantly in flux, so grasping them means anticipating novel consumer habits and demands that bear the highest engagement potential.

Check out APAC in 3 (EP 12) for 5 marketing trends set to supercharge brands on WeChat in 2022.

And for a deeper dive into the trends, read the full article below.

But before we delve in, let’s look back at some key facts and figures from Tencent’s annual conference meeting (i.e., WeChat Open Class Pro) in January 2022 that revealed the extent of WeChat’s growth in 2021:

WeChat Channels, the short video platform that debuted just two years ago, saw many videos exceeding one million likes in 2021 and is quickly evolving into a hub for news and entertainment content.
Daily active users (DAU) on Mini Programs reached 450 million, while the number of active Mini Programs increased considerably by 41% year-on-year.
WeChat Search has reached 700 million monthly active users (MAU). Users can initiate a search from many entry points in the super-app, and whose searches have translated into traffic for, and higher engagement of, other WeChat products.
WeChat Pay connects tens of millions of merchants and contributed to a total transaction volume of RMB ¥520 billion in 2021.
Enterprise WeChat averaged 140 million service interactions per hour.

WeChat Marketing Trend #1: Greater Traffic and Income Potential for Original Video Creators

As its battle for short video viewers in China heats up against the likes of Douyin (i.e., TikTok) and Kuaishou, WeChat Channels—which now taps into advertising and livestreaming revenue streams—opens the door to new opportunities for Tencent.

WeChat Channels used live broadcasting of notable local events in 2021—like the launch of the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft or the return of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to China—to draw online audiences in the millions to the then relatively new video platform. Similarly, in late 2021, the famous Irish boy band Westlife appeared on WeChat Channels in a virtual concert that attracted 27+ million Chinese viewers.

In 2022, we predict WeChat to place heavy emphasis on attracting more creators to WeChat Channels, and on cultivating an environment where original video content—particularly around lifestyle, entertainment, and informational topics—will thrive. The platform also recently announced its Creator Incentive Program to support over 10 million original content creators.

What’s more, by integrating with WeChat Pay, Enterprise WeChat, and other products in WeChat’s ecosystem, Channels will offer creators more tools and scope to build and operate their own communities.

WeChat Marketing Trend #2: WeChat’s Ad Revenue Growth Will Revolve Around WeChat Channels

In early 2021, a paid promotion function was enabled for all WeChat Channel accounts through the applet: Video account promotion. By August 2021, WeChat incorporated more ad formats and audience targeting options while simplifying the process for advertisers.

Around the same time, WeChat Channels leveraged the online shopping frenzies of the Double 11 and Double 12 festivals in late 2021 by streaming live broadcasts for each of their biggest promotion deals.

In fact, the top 30 e-commerce-related WeChat video accounts accumulated a total of 320 million live views that helped contribute to a gross merchandise value (GMV) of RMB ¥157 million in November 2021 alone. Based on this trend, it might not be long before WeChat Channels surpasses one billion e-commerce broadcasters on its platform per month.

Looking forward, you can expect WeChat to introduce even more advertising formats and engagement tools to attract B2C brands of all sizes to grow their e-commerce business on WeChat Channels which could, in turn, grow WeChat’s ad revenue stream from video content.

WeChat Marketing Trend #3: Higher Brand Visibility on WeChat Search

WeChat Search—WeChat’s in-app search function—connects users to the many distinct products within the WeChat ecosystem, from Official Account content, Moments posts, Mini Programs, to WeChat Channel videos, and more.

WeChat positions Search as the portal for its 700+ million MAU to discover high-quality content and services available on WeChat. For example, over 100 million medical appointments have been made with 5,100+ public hospitals on WeChat Search to date.

WeChat Search will continue to optimize its evaluation of content and the quality, usability, and availability of its services. And among the critical areas for optimization will be the Brand Zone on WeChat Search’s result page, which provides users with a consolidated view of a brand and its products or service.

We can also expect WeChat to expose Search in more areas around the app, thus enabling users to conduct searches “at their fingertips” and search for virtually anything on WeChat.

WeChat Marketing Trend #4: Paid Group Chats

In the past, WeChat users and marketers alike have given most of their attention to Official Accounts content, while neglecting the value of user communities hidden within each content creator account. Consequently, many creators have suffered from a lack of traffic and struggled to commercialize their high-quality content and reap the rewards of their efforts.

But in the Internet era, content is king, and as “pan-knowledge” content—that which improves personal knowledge and skills, and helps everyone in their lives—grows ever more popular, payment in return for knowledge is no longer limited to traditional education scenarios and can be supported by the rise of the fan economy.

WeChat—as a platform for communities—may well play a critical role in this shift. Case in point? QQ—also a Tencent-owned instant messaging app—had paid group memberships for gated group chats and membership perks (e.g., exclusive content, rewards, discounts). In much the same way, paid groups chats could be an emerging trend with properties like Enterprise WeChat.

WeChat Marketing Trend #5: Enterprise WeChat will play a critical role for brands

Enterprise WeChat is much more than a business chat app. Besides increasing work productivity as an internal collaboration tool, it helps businesses connect with customers and vendors through their WeChat accounts and has features like customer groups and customer moments.

How does this help brands? It lets you promptly respond to customer inquiries which, in turn, sheds light on customer demand and their satisfaction towards your product or service.

Today, more and more companies are leveraging Enterprise WeChat: In fact, 1.2 million business employees use Enterprise WeChat to serve their customers on WeChat, culminating in 140 million service interactions every hour.

The latest version of Enterprise WeChat introduces integration with WeChat Channels, among other features.

We expect Enterprise WeChat to continue strengthening its interoperability with WeChat’s ecosystem and provide businesses with more functions to achieve customer success.

***

WeChat’s ecosystem has become a breeding ground for content creation and engagement—one that will continue to develop over time as more brands and users embrace it. From a brand perspective, only by experimenting and evaluating different approaches on WeChat will you know how to best leverage the platform for your marketing goals.

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WeChat Feature Updates on New iOS 8.0.21 and Android 8.0.22

Coco Gao — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:32:53 +0000

WeChat Feature Updates on New iOS 8.0.21 and Android 8.0.22

WeChat recently rolled out its latest app update for iOS 8.0.21 and Android 8.0.22, with a handful of changes to how users can manage their accounts and interact with each other on the app.

Here, let’s explore these feature updates and what they entail for the WeChat user experience.

Note: At the time of writing this article, the updates have been applied to all WeChat user accounts.

WeChat Feature Update #1: Newsfeed Posts on WeChat Moments Can be Forwarded

In WeChat’s latest version, users can now long-press any newsfeed post on their WeChat Moments and tap “Forward” in the pop-up bar to send it to themselves or (more commonly) other WeChat friends. This serves as a way for users to share content—whether text, images, videos, or links—to each other on WeChat Moments.

WeChat Moments: Newsfeed posts can now be forwarded to yourself or other WeChat friends

When you receive a forwarded newsfeed post, it will appear in a standalone message like any ordinary message on WeChat Moments—but you’ll not be able to see which account or author the post originated from since it was forwarded.

WeChat Feature Update #2: Group Admins Can Attach Images, Files, and Location to Group Chat Rules

Previously, WeChat group admins could only share information under group chat notices/rules in written form.

After the update, however, group chat admins can now attach images, files, and location tags in the group rules section, which gives announcements more clarity and context for members to understand.

WeChat group chat admins can now attach images, files, and location tags to group chat rules

WeChat Feature Update #3: Easier Managing of App Storage Space

WeChat tends to occupy a considerable amount of storage on most mobile devices. So, if a user wanted to free up space on their device by cleaning up their WeChat storage usage, they would have legitimate concerns that doing so might erase messages they did not plan to delete.

In its latest version, however, WeChat lets you know exactly how much space is occupied by different media types and categories within the app, from messages and stickers to images and applets. This means you can clean up your WeChat storage space based on your personal needs.

Similarly, users can also clear caches from WeChat properties of their choice—like WeChat Moments or WeChat Channels—and delete message history from private or group chats.

WeChat now shows users how much storage space is used by different media types within the app

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WeChat Feature Update #4: Showcase Your Ringtone History

In WeChat’s Android 8.0.22 version, the ringtone interface for incoming calls now showcases a historical record of ringtones you’ve used in the past, which is also visible to other WeChat users.

WeChat’s latest Android 8.0.22 version showcases a history of your ringtones

WeChat Feature Update #5: Optimized QR Code Payment Function

WeChat’s Android 8.0.22 version has optimized the QR code payment function, adding more user settings like automated voice reminders for receipts of payment.

Each user’s real name—identified by an asterisk—and any of their associated WeChat usernames or nicknames are also displayed above the QR code.

WeChat’s QR code payment interfaces for iOS 8.0.21 (left) and Android 8.0.22 (right)

***

Although seemingly small-scale and incremental, these WeChat app updates make for a more streamlined user experience and are also in line with WeChat’s wider push to minimize disruption and focus user attention on key products.

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WeChat Digital Trends: Chinese New Year 2022 Edition

Coco Gao — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 07:50:10 +0000

WeChat Digital Trends: Chinese New Year 2022 Edition

Chinese New Year (CNY) is the most important family-oriented holiday in China, and often a key period for seasonal campaigns for many brands. As the biggest social platform in China, WeChat naturally saw considerable brand engagement and user activity throughout the period.

Just last month, WeChat published figures about how its platform and features were used during CNY 2022.

The biggest takeaway? Custom digital red packet covers are the new hot trend!

In fact, between January 31^st and February 5^th, more than 380 million custom-design covers were collected and saved by WeChat users—and out of that, over five billion were sent as red packets across the platform.

And there were some other figures from CNY 2022:

More than 800 million consumer coupons were issued via WeChat Pay for various CNY campaigns.
WeRun—WeChat’s pedometer that tracks a person’s daily step count—recorded 12.9 trillion total steps among its users.
The total reading time of all WeChat Read users was as high as 17.65 million hours.

Here, let’s explore the biggest WeChat trends from CNY 2022—particularly the craze behind its custom red packet covers—and how you can leverage their popularity to engage Chinese audiences during the country’s biggest national festival.

WeChat CNY 2022 Trend #1: Mainstream users can now create custom red packet covers, further fueling their popularity

One of the most popular customs of CNY is the exchange of “lucky money” in ornate red packets between families and friends as blessings of luck and fortune. As the digital adaptation of this real-life practice, it’s no surprise that digital red packets took WeChat by storm after being introduced on the platform in 2014.

Since then, WeChat’s digital red packets—along with their cover designs—have been used by brands to engage customers and promote themselves around and during CNY.

However, 2022 was the year in which the popularity of digital red packets truly skyrocketed among mainstream WeChat users. The reason for this? Now, virtually all individual users can create custom covers after WeChat recently forwent its criteria that limited the feature to business accounts and individual accounts with large followings.

At the time of writing this article, the cost to send a custom red packet cover was RMB ¥1 per recipient. This meant it would cost you RMB ¥10 to create a custom cover to distribute to 10 people, who in turn could save your design and use it when sending out red packets to their family or friends. So, by making mainstream users eligible to create custom covers, WeChat has also potentially opened itself a door for a new revenue stream in the form of micro-transactions.

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WeChat CNY 2022 Trend #2: Consumption of Digital Red Packet Covers was Ecstatic Across WeChat

The consumption and perceived popularity of custom red packet covers among mainstream users was also amplified by WeChat’s channels of engagement during CNY 2022. Let’s delve into some examples:

WeChat Users Could Shake Their Phones to Win Special Edition Red Packet Covers

Between January 12^th and February 10^th, users would encounter ads with the phrase “shake for a surprise” while scrolling through WeChat Moments, whereby immediately shaking their phones gave them a chance to receive a custom-shaped Spring 2022 special edition red packet cover.

Thus, the more they scrolled through their feed, the higher their chances of encountering these ads and possibly winning these custom covers—this, in turn, led to more engagement and user screentime on WeChat Moments.

WeChat’s “shake for a surprise” ad for its custom-shaped Spring 2022 special edition red packet covers

WeChat’s Spring 2022 special edition red packet covers

Random Lucky Draws for WeChat Livestream Viewers

As part of its larger push towards livestreaming concerts and events, WeChat livestreamed the nationwide-popular 2022 Spring Festival Gala on WeChat Channels on January 31^st. In doing so, WeChat aimed to attract more viewers—who were likely going to watch the landmark program anyway, whether on television or other streaming platforms—and showcase WeChat Channels’ interactivity to users who hadn’t fully bought into it yet.

For example, users could watch the livestream and chat among themselves simultaneously. And at every hour of its duration, organizers of the gala sent out custom red packet covers to viewers at random.

WeChat Spring Festival Gala red packet cover

In commemoration of the Year of the Tiger per the Chinese zodiac, users who commented on the livestream and shared it on their WeChat Moments even had their comments decorated with tiger-themed designs.

WeChat’s Spring Festival Gala viewers could share the livestream and have any of their comments made on it decorated with a CNY theme

WeChat Users Could Send CNY Wishes to Win Digital Items

Once users on WeChat sent popular CNY greetings to their friends, the screen interface would spawn an animated tiger and a mystery bag that potentially contained a red packet cover or other digital items like lucky money, QQ music VIP memberships, and WeChat beans.

This encouraged more users to use WeChat to send lucky blessings to their family and friends.

Send CNY wishes to your friends to win a pack of digital items

New Holiday Greeting Feature on WeChat Chatting Interface

The new Holiday Greeting red packet feature this year lets users send digital red packets to friends and family along with a Chinese New Year blessing.

However, users cannot decide how much to send in these digital red packets as WeChat’s system will randomly set a figure based on numbers deemed lucky in Chinese numerology (like 3, 6, and 8)—e.g., RMB ¥2.88, ¥6.66, ¥8.88, ¥0.88, and ¥2.33. Also selected at random is a CNY blessing and accompanying animation effects.

There are a variety of blessings and animations, so users can have fun generating the ideal holiday greeting red packet to send out.

WeChat’s “Holiday Greeting” red packet

What’s more, after receiving a WeChat Holiday Greeting red packet, recipient users can set the accompanying CNY blessing (like “一夜暴富”, meaning “get rich quick”) from the red packet cover as their WeChat status.

After doing so, a small tiger emoji will appear alongside a welcome message—based on the recipient’s CNY blessing—on a custom profile background cover, which can be a dynamic image or a video loop.

A custom profile background cover with the welcome message (“好运连连” or “good luck”) as this user’s WeChat status

WeChat CNY 2022 Trend #3: Mini Programs Continue to Support China’s Pandemic Recovery

As an immense part of the WeChat ecosystem, mini programs permeate virtually every aspect of daily life in China, enabling people to order food, hail cabs, pay bills, purchase products, and more.

During CNY 2022, China State Council’s official mini programs, which provide lifestyle and livelihood services to the public, effectively helped minimize the spread of COVID-19 in the country with its health-check features.

According to WeChat’s report, the number of online visits to the State Council’s mini program for its health declaration QR-code increased by 248.8% year-on-year (YoY), while visits to general healthcare mini programs rose by 62.7% YoY.

Some of the health check features on China State Council’s mini programs

Simultaneously, whether for family gatherings or travel purposes, the movement of China’s citizens over CNY 2022 was more environmentally friendly than before, partly thanks to WeChat’s mini programs. Indeed, data showed that the number of paperless check-ins via WeChat mini programs for air travel and hotel stays increased by 82.3% and 22.2% YoY, respectively.

WeChat CNY 2022 Trend #4: Holiday Greeting Coupons on WeChat Pay Drove Higher Spending

During CNY 2022, the Chinese government and local trade unions supplied WeChat Pay with more than 800 million consumer coupons. As of February 6^th, more than 50% of users who participated in the coupon collection scheme had used the coupons while shopping, which increased spending by nearly fivefold.

On top of that, online transaction volumes on mini programs for fresh food brands rose by 51.8% YoY, while visits to the mini programs of local department stores and shopping malls increased by 25.5% YoY.

***

Today, cultural phenomena increasingly dictate marketing strategies—and Chinese New Year is a prime example.

As social campaigns are heavily engagement-oriented, brands should experiment with different strategies to see what works best for them—whether that means organizing lucky draws or gifting digital red packets to users in return for their “follow”.

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The post WeChat Digital Trends: Chinese New Year 2022 Edition appeared first on The Egg.

Coco Gao, Author at The Egg

The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China

The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China

1. Xiaohongshu (小红书)

XHS’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu?

How to do B2B Marketing on Xiaohongshu?

2. Bilibili (哔哩哔哩)

Bilibili’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Bilibili?

How to do B2B Marketing on Bilibili?

3. Douyin (抖音)

Douyin’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Douyin?

How to do B2B Marketing on Douyin？

4. Zhihu (知乎)

Zhihu’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Zhihu?

How to do B2B Marketing on Zhihu?

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5. Maimai (脉脉)

Maimai’s User Demographics

Why should you do B2B marketing on Maimai?

How to do B2B Marketing on Maimai?

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XiaoHongShu (RED): China’s Rising Social Platform – Impact, User Demographics and Marketing Solutions

XiaoHongShu (RED): China’s Rising Social Platform – Impact, User Demographics, and Marketing Solutions

A Global and Local Powerhouse in Influencing Chinese Consumer Behavior

China’s Social Media Landscape: How XiaoHongShu is Differentiating Itself

XiaoHongShu IP: Revolutionizing Social Content Marketing

User Demographics: A Diverse and Trend-Seeking Community

Why Should Brands Market on XiaoHongShu?

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What Industries Thrive on XiaoHongShu?

Marketing Solutions on XiaoHongShu

Ad Types

Pugongying (Dandelion, 蒲公英):

Shutiao (French Fries, 薯条投放):

Juguang (Aurora, 聚光平台):

Key Features of Advertising Types

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Digital Marketing News + Insights

How to Boost Organic Traffic to Your WeChat Official Account

How to Boost Organic Traffic to Your WeChat Official Account

Tip #1: Regularly Update Your Content

Tip #2: Spur Engagement

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Tip #3: Focus on Your Niche

Tip #4: Write Clear and Concise Titles

Tip #5: Make Your Content Easy to Understand

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WeChat B2B Marketing: How to do Advertise with WeChat’s New Search & Video Ads

WeChat B2B Marketing: How to do Advertise with WeChat’s New Search & Video Ads

WeChat Search Ads

Where do WeChat Search Ads appear?

WeChat Search Results

WeChat Super Brand Zone

WeChat Channels Ads (i.e., Video Ads)

Where do WeChat Video Ads Appear?

WeChat Channels Video Feed

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WeChat Update: Bind Multiple Accounts with One Phone Number, Carousel Image Posts, & WeChat Article Annotations

WeChat Update: Bind Multiple Accounts with One Phone Number, Carousel Image Posts, & WeChat Article Annotations

New WeChat Feature #1: Users Can Bind up to Two Personal Accounts with One Mobile Phone Number

New WeChat Feature #2: WeChat Official Accounts Now Support Carousel Image Posts

New WeChat Feature #3: Underline Sentences in WeChat Articles

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