If you live in a multicultural community like we do here in Vancouver, by now, you would have come across WeChat — a messaging app from China with more than 1 billion monthly users worldwide.
On top of simply sending messages, WeChat also allows you to follow official accounts of brands, celebrities, and any businesses or organizations able to establish their own accounts on the platform.
So why exactly do you need a WeChat official account? What can it do to help you reach a bigger audience and build brand awareness with the Chinese-speaking community?
We at Spotlight West have the top five reasons below!
1. Significant Presence (How many users are we talking about?)
According to Business Insider, WeChat is estimated to have gained more than 1 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter in 2018, generating billions of lifestyle and entertainment spend and ranking at No. 5 among all social networks worldwide — just after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Since the majority of users are, of course, the Chinese consumer, those looking to connect with that audience and tap into that community (whether locally or overseas) must utilize the WeChat platform … starting right now.
Global Social Networks ranked by Monthly Active Users in millions (as of April 2018)
2. Multi-functional (What’s so special about it?)
Coming from a country leading in world population for centuries, WeChat — along with most other social apps in China — is designed to be as versatile as it can be. Other than its messaging feature, it is often used to transfer money, make payments, share content, create personal feeds, connect to e-commerce and third-party services (such as booking cabs or purchasing event tickets), and get direct information from official accounts. It’s reported that 80% of Chinese users are following and checking official accounts on a daily basis!
3. High Interaction (What can you do with your followers?)
Think about a WeChat official account as a Facebook page — where brands are able to update content on a daily basis. Meanwhile, since WeChat is fundamentally a messaging app, the relationship with your followers is also like running a Facebook Messenger account, with followers notified much like in the Messenger app. On one hand, followers have easy access to direct services and contents from their favourite brands, can share articles with selected friends, and able to engage and interact with promotional campaigns. On the other hand, brands can divide their followers into customized groups, select which comments to display, and pin the best responses to the top of the comment section.
Campaign by Dior’s Official WeChat Account that allows users to interact
4. User-Friendly (How easy is it to use?)
Other than it’s massive following (obviously), another statistic which stands out with WeChat is that 86.2% of its users are between the ages of 18 to 36 — basically a mix of Millennials and Generation Z. Catering to the appetites of this young audience, WeChat puts a strong focus on optimizing its interfaces. The users can choose to add different tags to each of their contacts, which helps organize their contact groups. Once into an official account, they can interact with the menu bar at the bottom of the page, which the brand can customize to allow followers to connect with campaigns, services, or previous posts.
WeChat Users by Age
What a WeChat Official Account Actually Looks Like
5. One-Way Communication (How can you “talk” to your followers?)
By being able to select which comments to display on their WeChat posts, brands are able to monitor more efficiently with aggressive or unwanted comments on the platform. When followers are provided with high interaction, you’re also guaranteed to maintain a power of control over the contents that they generate, which is very rare among other English-centric social media platforms.
There you have it! Go where the Chinese audiences are. Start setting up your WeChat Official Account now by giving us a shout at info@spotlightwest.ca.
In our future #SpotOn blog posts, we will be sharing more insights about Chinese social trends and platforms, so make sure to follow us on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!