Written by We have already talked about Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu 小红 书) also called just RED, the Chinese social media most similar to Instagram (for more info on RED click here). It is a product review platform, which has a tremendous impact on brand awareness and sales and therefore has earned a commendable position among the most important social media channels for marketing in China.
Why choose RED
RED primarily caters to a specific user group: young shoppers living in high-end cities with strong buying power. So a more inclined to spend money on imported goods.
It has 100 million active users per month, and although WeChat has many more (1.2 billion per month!) RED plays a completely different role in the customer acquisition journey: RED ranks on top of it, where the brand obtained. great visibility, while WeChat is at the level of loyalty (you already have the customer and you keep him connected to you).
In particular, RED generates:
• Awareness: it is one of the most used channels to discover new brands.
• Interest and desire: Just like Instagram, it’s a good channel for creating more touchpoints with consumers, who discover products through photos posted by users and read reviews before purchasing.
• Sales: RED users usually decide to shop directly on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, JD.com and Pinduoduo.
This is where WeChat comes in: after converting a user to a customer, the official WeChat account and WeChat groups are the best channels to build loyalty. The fun part is that your loyal customers could post photos of your product, right on RED.
Another strong point of Little Red Book is the duration of the posts on the platform. Many RED post publications continue to receive traffic even after 1 month. The amount of exposure a post is determined by the algorithm, so it has to do with the keywords and interactions with the post. In comparison, WeChat’s content duration is much shorter – usually around 2 days. WeChat posts are only assigned to followers of the official account, it is very difficult to get organic, and that’s why other platforms (like RED) are needed to take care of the acquisition part.
So many are the pros of this platform, let’s now see the limits:
1. Compared to WeChat and Douyin, Little Red Book is a much smaller social media channel. The user demographic is very biased towards women and high-level users.
2. The industries best suited to promotion on Little Red Book are skin care, cosmetics and fashion. The F&B sector has also been growing in recent years.
3. It’s nearly impossible to track sales conversion data.
Little Red Book blocks third party linking and any other mention of other apps (like WeChat, Tmall). Brands need to think of creative ways to drive traffic to the right sales channel.
How does a RED promotional campaign work?
It is possible to open an official channel on RED (just like with WeChat) but even without this one can organize a promotional campaign. Normally the communication is delegated to KOL and KOC particularly suitable for your product. To be effective, a campaign on RED should last from 3 to 6 continuous months.
Last but not least: how you can make content go viral on RED
First of all let’s see what RED posts look like
Little Red Book’s design is very similar to Instagram: images with text related usually between 20 and 200. The style of content on Little Red Book is often personal, often with lots of emojis. Content distribution is driven by an algorithm. Like on Instagram, users can interact with content via likes, favorites, sharing, private message and comment.
Having said that, it is clear that what must be kept in mind is:
1. Choose images with great impact. Remember that communication in China is very different from that in the West, do not fall into the trap of repurposing content created for the Western market. RED is a community and requires authentic content. A photo that appears to have been taken by a real customer tends to attract more clicks.
2. Pay attention to keywords. RED is like a search engine, make sure you optimize your keywords and avoid censored keywords. Little Red Book content is based on algorithms; therefore, the performance of posts is strongly linked to the volume of search and the engagement they generate. Therefore, keyword optimization in your post is a shortcut to success.
3. Spend some time creating the right content. A very famous influencer could get a lot of likes even with just a few emojis, but brands need to spend a few words for the public, especially if you are new to the market and want to make yourself known.
4. Lucky Draw always work! Little Red Book has an official tool available to brands to generate Lucky Draws. How do they work? Users can participate by following a new account, bookmarking or liking content to win the prize. It’s a great way to quickly promote a new account to a wider audience.
5. Test and keep testing. Digital marketing isn’t an exact science and it’s hard to say what exactly makes a Little Red Book post go viral, but brands should keep testing different styles of content, analyzing what competitors are doing, and finding their own way towards success.