WeChat, a mobile application started as a mobile messaging service that took over the Chinese media landscape, challenging many industries by revolutionizing the social and business interaction between B2C and B2B. On January 21, 2011, Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China created this communication product by providing its users chat service that enables them to send voice, video, pictures, text and online polls to their contacts. The application is free to install, use and download and is supported by all smartphone platforms.
Because social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are blocked in China, China’s homegrown social media app WeChat has become a benefactor of the ban, leaving many opportunities for it to become a powerful multi-media platform for computer-mediated communication. In 2012, Tencent launched its public account platform, where media companies, institutions, businesses and individuals are encouraged to register and use the system to offer content for their consumers.
Via this unique feature, operators can release content and monitor the data and information of the readers and receive traceable metrics in consumer behavior. This has not only become a new, comprehensive media platform where the public can acquire information, engage in public debates and exchange opinions, but also opened new doors for marketers to be closer to their target audiences. With over 80 percent of its 889 million users subscribed to the public accounts and use them as one of the major channels to obtain news and information, WeChat is definitely a must-have tool for foreign national marketers who are interested in the robust Chinese market.
With over 889 million users, 10 million official accounts and 200,000 WeChat developers polled in 2017, this app has become a common occurrence for marketers in China to fully utilize its user base to promote and execute campaigns to maximize their reach and impression.
QQ, another desktop messenger application developed by Tencent in 1999 was the dominant software that China used to communicate with one and other prior to WeChat’s rising success in the late 2010s. In Q4 of 2016, official statistics has shown that WeChat has surpassed QQ in total monthly active users for the first time, showing significant incremental growth in the past few years.
The average number of WeChat contact per user has broke through the maximum Dunbar number of 150, which is the maximum number of individuals with whom humans can maintain stable relationships. With a surplus of 44 persons in comparison to the full capacity, it is shown that people are actively using WeChat for not only personal interactions but also for other business related activities.
The statistics shows that 76.8% of the respondents indicated that they join large group chats of 100+ people for work related purposes. This evidentially support the notion where WeChat is rapidly transforming from a social platform into a conglomerate of business opportunities, whether it is for B2C, B2B, internal corporate communications, professional networking (external corporate communications), and other forms of mixed usage from the poll answers.
Study has also shows that in recent years most new WeChat contacts added to personal accounts are for work related purposes, further supporting its growth into the business world.
According to official statistical reports from “Penguin Intelligence”
- The average number of WeChat contacts has increased significantly over the past year.
- Large increasesin the amounts of money running through WeChat pay from last year.
- The average age of a WeChat user has shifted significantly in the past year
- Average time spent in WeChat increased significantly over last year, with it’s users spending 66 minutes per day in app.
- 83% of respondents now use WeChat for work.
- WeChat pay is used by 93% of those surveyed for offline purchases in tier 1&2 cities in China.
- 5% of users claimed not carrying cash was a reason to use WeChat pay.
https://chinachannel.co/1017-wechat-report-users/
The Chinese News Classifications
Traditionally, news and information is divided by the following topics; politics, finance, civic, foreign affairs, military, health & science, sports, art and lifestyle. Considering politics, finance, civic, foreign affairs and military news outlets are all focused on the ruling Communist Party. The Party and its decision has imposed huge influence on China’s society. With the latter 4 classifications having more capacity for marketers to work around. Health & science, sports, art and lifestyle content are utilized to shape brand image and public impressions. Health & science has become the most prominent topic in China where it pertains to discussions around how to maintain youthfulness and live a long life, and the audience is generally happy to share those content to their friends, family members and acquaintances.
How to make Headlines?
In order to make headlines in the social media platforms, especially on the WeChat’s public platform, there are categorized focuses in which your content should emphasize. These categories are facts, opinions, emotions and queries.
Facts: Narration of events that entails what happened during the situation, pin-pointing the key information of the articles in the headline and grab people’s attention at first sight.
Opinion: Opposite of fact-based headline, where it offers a subjective perspective on a topic that aims to influence readers.
Emotional: Content that arouses people’s emotional feelings, activating audience association with their product & services.
Queries: Triggering people to think, question and ask questions to reflect social norms.
A report by Digital News has found that people share their stories more when they are experiencing strong emotions such as anger, happiness, and sadness, meaning that the success of the most-shared content are likely the results of its capacity to bring people into deep emotional states, turning its content viral.
In order to be fully prepared to launch your WeChat public account, here is a list of questionnaire to help you actualize your marketing potential.
- What is the intention of your WeChat public account?
- What is the target of your WeChat public account?
- How do u measure popularity of your public account?
- What are the key factors to produce the most popular articles on WeChat public platform?
- What is the market competition and how do we differentiate ourselves from them?
- What kind of strategies do you use to attract the attention of the readers?
- Do you differentiate WeChat public account platform from the traditional media organizations you are affiliated to?
Now, how to actually get 100,000 likes on your article? There is no simple formula for your articles, videos, and photos to successfully become viral, however the intricate planning of the incumbent phase that goes behind content creation will increase its chance of becoming viral. Of course, stories about celebrities, pop stars, writers, musicians and films can drive huge readership traffic, but it is not the only factor that attracts huge amount of attention from the public.
In perspective to the success of viral WeChat articles in the news industry, content is always preposition to continue upon an existing hot topic. Topics that have gained the most attention from different social media platforms are most likely to lead to exposure on mainstream media with follow-up opportunities to create viral videos. Also, the most liked headlines also tend to generate emotional feelings among readers. Surprise and amazement was two of the big driving force for viral content, the shock value that comes along quality material can drive popularity.
A study from Reuter Institute in UK said that indirect headlines could greatly stir up people’s curiosity and become viral on the WeChat public account platform. “A lot of headlines of the Global Times are indirect, ambiguous, which means you cannot tell what the story is about simply by reading the topics. Such as strategy arouses people’s curiosity to click on the headlines and read the whole story. Most headlines of the most liked stories of the Global Times are also sensational, either with strong opinions, strong contrasts or queries. For instance, one of the most liked story headlined with “Absolutely nothing? Sensational: ordinary people get dumped 100% by the scam. The story got over 100,000+ likes because it invented a strong contrast.”
Reader engagement has always been a vital part of marketing campaigns, when discussing how to get viewers to follow your account, not only you have to know your audience but you also need to get up-close and personal with them as well. If you are using other existing online platforms, it is best to not deviate from them and continue to pass on the same values in conjunction with your organization. For example, The Global Times WeChat account stays close to the obvious characteristics of the “leftist” daily, publishing nationalist stories when it comes to international issues. Operators also cite editorials of the newspaper from time to time when they feel obliged to or as a result of orders from the editor-of-chief of the daily.
They regard the social media platform as “an extension of the traditional media”, and if there is a difference, it lies in the different levels of understanding about readers and varied ways of reaching out to readers. They both agree that they have a better understanding about the readers compared with the editors and journalists of the traditional media companies. For public WeChat accounts that relies on public trust, it is important for them to stay authentically connected with readers, and in many ways the reciprocal relationship between news source and viewers are built up by time and sometimes it could take one article to ruin its reputation.
Engagement is both important online and offline, a good campaign often runs through the course in the very beginning to the end. Through managing content output, and collect, analyze and synthetize different opinions, accounts are often well equipped to make judgments and share values by publishing content. Editors of Global Times organize readers’ clubs by organizing different online and offline events. They have set up three QQ chatting groups so that they can communicate with their readers directly via online chatting.
In some typical cases, online subscribers/fans were encouraged to contribute to the story. In a story of a public debate over whether or not the Chinese customs have imposed an extra tax on overseas online shopping items, two subscribers, an official of Beijing customs and a PhD candidate, were interviewed by editors of Wechat public account and offered professional opinions, which eventually was compiled into the story. In another case, the Global Times Wechat editors have tried to bring in new readers by covering issues that matter to certain occupational groups. So far, they have published articles promoting the interest of doctors, policemen, teachers, and LGBT groups. Wechat public accounts of Global Times value human rights of the disadvantaged, which helped boost its popularity among the readers.
WeChat User Habits
For traditional media, it is difficult to answer the specific characteristics of their readers. However, WeChat provides the backstage operation systems that makes it possible for operators to retrieve specific consumer metric. The gathered statistical data collected from the users over a period time can range from, content target key performing indexes, fluctuation of the number of subscribers, the curve diagram of the viewing numbers and other reader-related data. With the results being immediately analyzed within convenience, it has made the marketer’s job much easier with tailored content to grab the attention of their target demographic.
Official statistics from China Channel has shown that WeChat usage is incrementally more relevant to adults who entered the workforce. It is not an app that is heavily used by teens, while teens prefer to use QQ, MOMO and other plethora of live-steam and short video apps over WeChat. WeChat is continuously gaining audiences who are middle aged adults and in senior groups. The most difficult group to reach on WeChat are those with higher average disposable income.
General polls show that users tend to favor content that is related to their personal lives, and not generic ads related to products and brand displays. However, business can look into sponsorship of famous internet content creators to integrate brand and products into their personal life records, and content related to personal interests, personal opinions and trending news.
WeChat users also spend more time actively in app than before. In 2015, users spend on average 66 minutes per day in app, while in 2016, most users spend more than 4 hours in app. This means that there is a robust macro-environment for content material in the WeChat, users are now more engaged with more streams of product and services offered in-app and other entertainment and business extensions.
Now days, users are also more willing to pay for content and information on WeChat. This shows that the audience care for quality material content from their viewership and are less likely to accept general ads into their day-to-day interactions. This study also indicates that there is a market on WeChat for paid content materials, opening doors for industries who consider to transfer from traditional print to digital media subscription.
At the end of each articles on WeChat, there is a function that allows viewers to tip the author or the operating account. Statistic show that 58.60%of WeChat viewers had voluntarily tipped money to public accounts. From the comparison between WeChat and other platforms, WeChat is proven to be the dominant content provider in the Chinese media market.
