Since 2013, Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book or RED) has become one of the fastest-growing platforms in China with over 80 million monthly active users.
But exactly who’s on the platform? And is this a platform you should be devoting resources to?
Xiaohongshu is a curious mix of social media crossed with e-commerce. However, it’s main focus is user-generated content. Users can post their recommendations, demonstrations, and reviews, and they can comment on and save these posts to themed boards.
There are four key features of Xiaohongshu:
Follow
Here is where users keep up to date with their favourite influencers, and where you’d like your brand to end up due to its high engagement. Capturing follows takes a lot of legwork, and requires the regular posting of high-quality content.
Brand
This will show brand-related user-generated content (e.g. product reviews), as well as links to the product in the Xiaohongshu Store tab. Xiaohongshu’s goal is to allow users to research, review, recommend and purchase products without having to leave the platform.
Nearby
Users can be pointed to nearby food, experience and shopping opportunities. This geo-targeting feature is an excellent way to grab user eyeballs as users can only tag their location if they are physically there at that time.
Explore
Users can explore trending content based on topics of interest. These topics include things like food, fashion and travel, but beauty and cosmetics is by far the most popular category on the site. This is where users would go to hear about the latest must-have products, and to look through reviews before making their purchases.
Is Xiaohongshu right for my product/brand?
With young, affluent women being the key demographic, it’s no surprise that the biggest categories on the platform are fashion and beauty.
But even if you don’t fall into these categories, that doesn’t necessarily mean Xiaohongshu isn’t for you. Many users, for example, read and write reviews about nutritional supplements.
Xiaohongshu is also trying to grow its number of male users, so while this is a much smaller market, you might find they’re highly captive and much more likely to find any content geared towards them.
How do I succeed at Xiaohongshu marketing?
One of the biggest reasons that Xiaohongshu users are highly engaged in the platform is because of its authenticity and trustworthiness. This is partly because Xiaohongshu has strict rules about what brands, influencers and users can do on the platform, and how content is pushed onto users’ feeds. In order to succeed in Xiaohongshu marketing, brands have to be across these rules.
Here are our 4 top tips for succeeding at Xiaohongshu marketing.
- Content
This platform is driven by content, so this should be the central focus of any Xiaohongshu marketing strategy. Ensure your content is authentic and relatable – this means taking the focus off yourself and putting it onto your customer.
- SEO best practices
Because the platform is so content-focused, you can almost think of it as a search engine – and employ the same SEO strategies. This means being highly mindful of the keywords and hashtags you use in your content – what terms are your target audience using when they’re doing their own product research? You should also ensure keywords appear multiple times throughout the content, as well as in the title.
- Focus on user
To help limit direct advertising and preserve the platform’s authenticity, the platform tends to give short videos and posts that mention more than one brand greater visibility. This is certainly something to bear in mind when generating content for this platform. Could you, for example, post a video comparing the merits of several products (including yours)?
- Partner with KOLs
There are many rules that govern who is allowed to be deemed an “influencer”, and how these influencers can behave on the platform. Brands must be across these to ensure they get the best value from any partnerships with key opinion leaders (KOLs).