Wechat is the new top popular Social Media in China and the new source of information for Chinese. More convenient, easy to read, low advertisement and content recommend by your friend circle. Launched by Tencent, the high Tech Giant that created QQ wechat continue his growth in China with more than 541 millions users in 2015. source
According to the figure of Tencent , 80% of wechat users follow official account in 2015.
- 73% of Official Accounts that netizens follow are brands and media accounts.
- 41% of users follow Official Accounts
As a marketer, this new plateform is not easy, and commercial account are difficult to broadcast, here are 10 tips to make your life easier
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Every account needs a Strategy
Wechat without strategy will be a mess . Of course, we need to set up an account, but before you really need to understand your target, your competitors, and why people should follow your account, your brand. A specific design and line of conduct (discount, event, offer…)will make sure that customers will associate your account with your brand.
guideline and actions related to the account . Wechat is not a sipple pur online media, it is linked to 020, and you also need to decide what offline action will be done to attract follower.
Example of this account strategy : become the reference in Music to promote bluetooth speaker
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Account setting, set up the option and develop services
You can set up different account. For a brand you recommend an official account , service account and subscription because you has more functions than an unofficial one. For example, when people search for some keywords on wechat, official accounts will rank higher; and you could set up a custom menu to add more service on the wechat you could offer.
After, user may be more sensitive to account that are nice , well designed with a lot of options.
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Contents makes you attractive
Setting up content plan will help a lot when you manage the account. It is the contents and the information you post every day that keep your potential customers following you. Basically, we need some high-quality contents to make people believe us as a helpful and interesting account.
Content on wechat are long, well illustrated by pictures and usefull for the reader.
Example of Content Published By Qyer on their wechat account.
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Encourage sharing
You have a group of followers and they could help you a lot if you doing good job. That means that you need to encourage them to share more. Except the high-quality contents, small design could help you to gain more forwards. Your fans’ sharing will increase your exposure and you will get chances to develop their friends as your fans.
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Guiding people
On wechat people are passive, they read do not really click , share or follow… you need to guide them. You could put links of your wechat shop / your website and the download links of your app in the articles. Be sure to guide them to click on the right links, and nice design to not let the readers miss it. Put instructive words or pictures to lead people to click on that links.
You could answer their questions and be interesting when you send them messages, or organize discussion on groups. Post your interactions with fans at intervals, and it will give an impression to the people who see you the first time, and which kind of people are really interested in your content.
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Wechat games
There are some games on wechat, inviting your fans to interact with you. You could use the games on wechat like psychological test, also you could set activities to encourage people to share and follow you, giving out some presents to the winner.
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PR on wechat
Now, a lot of people like to search something on wechat directly, and if you do good on some popular keywords and people will find you directly. Of course, it will improve your exposure gradually. Anyway, it needs clear strategy and also needs you to have a great knowledge of your potential customers.
QQ news are well promoted on wechat, they have huge community and make regular buzz.
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Offline to Online
Wechat provide QR code and when people scan it, they will see your account, and that’s the most popular way to get followers on wechat. Brands need to be active offline to success on wechat and organize offline activities. Offline to Online will be more efficient and you could give “privileges” like coupon or small presents to let people follow your account directly.
For example this jewerly Brand has promted themself on a event
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Other platforms online
Make good use of what you have. If you already have an initial reputation online, put the QR code on these platforms and let them know it is more convenient to get to know you. And if you are a new brand, integrate all the platforms you have, spread the QR code on online media like forums to improve the engagement of your potential customers
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Title is the Key
The challenge on Wechat is to not only encourage them to share and take part in your wechat games, the most important is the title that will appear on your moment. It will insist people to click on the article and that you have a group of fans.
If you want more information about wechat management, if you want an agency to manage your account to get more exposure and better results, do not hesitate to contact us.
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Good post , good information, but you did not really explain how you really promote your account.
I have the feeling that Wechat marketing cost a lot of Money and is basicly links to event
The starting is hard and almost nobody care about what you writte…
Dear Jerome,
What will truly trigger engagement is what you write actually. You need content that people will want to share. As for the cost it depends how you do it. Should you have any need in that area, please feel free to contact us 😉
Thanks for the tips that are very helpful. I think it’s very useful for companies that want to gain visibility. It is important to create an official account to expand its market in China. Quality content on WeChat is also very important.
Is it possible for a company to use a normal account, I mean, an unofficial account? Thanks a lot
it is possible, but not recommend. Chinese People have a Trust problem, they only trust official Verified Account usually…