What are the most popular company WeChat accounts? And how did they become popular?
Based on NewRank’s report, these are the most popular WeChat accounts in consumer brand’s sector. Data was collected on April 2016.
Everyday fashion & sports wear
- H&M
- Nike
- Adidas
H&M won consumers’ heart by sending useful dressing guides. Popular contents includes: how to pick the right sandals for this summer; how to follow the fashion trend within your budget; how to dress like a Hollywood star with H&M selections. Instead of promotion, H&M’s provides useful information which increases sharing rate and ultimately leads to conversion.
Adidas also used a similar marketing technic. For example, a step by step dressing guide on how to look good in sportswear.
Nike uses a different technique: segregating users based on their interests and sending them targeted messages. Nike has several accounts each targeting women, runners and basketball players. Based on the preference of the targeted group, Nike selects celebrities that appear to the specific target group and endorse products.
Cars
- Volkswagen
- BMW
- Mercedes-Benz
Volks Wagen knows the key to creating viral content: posting content that’s associated with trending events. For example, “5 strange car issues after the rain” was published right after a heavy thunder storm in Beijing. It also posted the schedule table of the UEFA when the football games were about to start.
Cosmetic
- Lancome
- L’Oreal
- Shiseido
Lancome’s engages users through giving out small quantity of samples. In one campaign, users can leave their names and phone numbers in a contact form to win a surprise gift (limited to 20 users). In another campaign, users can leave comment about their Lancome experience, and the first three comments that get most likes will be able to win a 5ml face cream sampler.
Both of these campaigns got surprisingly high engagement despite the limited number of gifts that were given out. In almost every post, Lancome includes some promotion inviting users to participate in exchange of a small prize. The key is to build this engagement habit.
However, this kind of “like us to get a gift” campaign is specifically breaking Tencent’s terms of use. Brands need to be aware of the risk of getting account blocked by Tencent, which is constantly increasing as Tencent tightens regulation. First offense is usually only punished with a temporary block, so experimentation remains possible.
See full ranking list here: http://www.newrank.cn/public/info/rank_detail.html?name=brand
Alipay
Alipay, the major competitor of WeChat payment, got very high engagement on WeChat. Alipay’s success on WeChat marketing seems effortless: no formatting, no eyes catching pictures, just posting single sentences teasers.
For example, on the night before a working Sunday (people have to work on Sunday due to the holiday schedule of Dragon Boat Festival), Alipay post a one-sentence article to remind users to setup their alarm clock. This post got 100,000 views within first hour, and the comment to tease about the article got more than 3k likes.
Besides these shameless single sentence articles, Alipay also uses a lot of trendy emojis and slams in other articles. It could be a way Alipay is demonstrating how effortless it could get attention on WeChat, without breaking any kind of Tencent Terms of Use. On a strategic level, this playful social media image is suitable for users of all age, after all, Alipay’s targeting audience is literally the entire population of China.
Conclusion
All top ranking consumer brands have taken one or several actions to stand out from the crowd. Whatever is the choice you take for your own account, the key is consistency. By adopting one strategy and sticking to it on the long run, these brands managed to build engagement among an initial number of followers, which turned into long term growth.