Xiaohongshu KOL promotion: the secret of Xiaohongshu’s operational thinking!

Many people may be confused here. Why is doing well on Xiaohongshu related to operational thinking? Does it have anything to do with Weibo or Moments?

Because I think that whether you are using Xiaohongshu, WeChat public account, or Douyin, except for the different platform rules, their account-making skills are essentially the same, so the most important thing for us is to learn this "operational thinking".

Xiaohongshu is not Weibo or WeChat Moments

Based on the questions that many people have asked me recently, I found that most people who use Xiaohongshu are also active users of Weibo or WeChat Moments. So when they suddenly switched from Weibo or WeChat Moments to Xiaohongshu, they just regarded Xiaohongshu as a new "Weibo or WeChat Moments". This also means that they have successfully fallen into the trap, either because of illegal traffic restrictions or because no one reads the content.

I have always emphasized that Xiaohongshu is different from Weibo and Moments. What are the differences? In order to figure out how this platform operates, we must understand the history of this platform. Although it may be energy-consuming, it can save you from many detours in the future.

Little Red Book

Xiaohongshu was founded by Mao Wenchao in 2013. It was originally just a PDF version of an overseas shopping guide. In that year, almost all online travel websites or communities only mentioned how to have fun abroad, but they did not mention how to buy things, what to buy when going abroad, and which country has cheaper things? The content was completely blank, and the result was predictable. This PDF version of the overseas shopping guide was downloaded 500,000 times. Strike while the iron was hot, at the end of 2013, Xiaohongshu launched an App called "Xiaohongshu Hong Kong Shopping Guide". With the large number of people going to Hong Kong to shop during Christmas and the hot purchase of iPhones, Xiaohongshu got the first batch of seed users. Since then, as this group of seed users of Xiaohongshu continued to share shopping guides in other regions, Xiaohongshu truly became a UGC (user-generated content) community and was officially renamed "Xiaohongshu Shopping Notes". Since then, as shopping content has continued to expand to other categories, including travel, dressing, fitness, etc., these high-quality contents that are helpful to others constitute the current Xiaohongshu.

Weibo:

Weibo was founded in 2009. The word "Weibo" can be understood as a tiny blog if broken down separately. Before 2009, many people had the habit of blogging. However, with the rapid development of mobile devices, the time cost and difficulty of writing a large number of long articles limited the user's ability to participate. So once Weibo was launched, it quickly began to seize the market. Everyone can speak freely and record their daily life on their own small blog. Because of the openness and recommendation mechanism of Weibo, making friends has become easier than before, and it is more like a public speaking channel to the world. Therefore, Weibo subsequently introduced the celebrity and big V mechanism, and Weibo quickly ushered in another boom. However, this also led to the concentration of the right to speak in the hands of the top players, causing the loss of some individual users. Weibo became a speaking channel for a few KOLs, celebrities, or institutions, and because the data represents a person's "fame", false traffic was rampant, and Weibo gradually began to decline. However, Weibo is still the source of various official announcements, and its user base is also extremely large. After cooling down, Weibo has somewhat recovered in the concept of "community".

Friends Circle

Friend Group is a feature of WeChat, which was launched in 2012. Compared with the openness of Weibo, the Friend Circle is private because it is only visible to friends and only friends can see comments. Originally, the circle of friends was undoubtedly a private space, but as the use of WeChat has expanded beyond social interaction to include work, the circle of friends has become less pure, with sales, advertising, corporate news, etc., mixed with many interests. Of course, for many of our KOLs, WeChat is also a good place to cultivate fans.

Based on the history of each app we know above, we can summarize the characteristics (based on the situation that you want to build a good account, if you just play around and post whatever you like):

1. Characteristics of Moments: The content posted in Moments can be told to someone or not to anyone, and can be simply published. However, you cannot bring in new friends through the content in Moments. You can only maintain existing relationships and create a sense of trust, superiority, or social interaction in a small circle.

2. Characteristics of Weibo: The content on Weibo can be spoken to someone or not. Most of the time, when it is used as a channel for official announcements or KOLs to maintain fans, the content is not spoken to anyone. It is simply published, and fans can freely choose to participate or not. However, high-quality content must be topical, and only through dissemination can it bring fans and data (comments, etc.). The core advantage of Weibo lies in dissemination.

3. Characteristics of Xiaohongshu: As a product with a strong community atmosphere, content release must be targeted at a certain group. If the content is useless, there will be no data product. However, content can bring fans, attention, likes, etc.

If you don’t understand what I’m saying, it’s okay. I’ll give you an example (unless you are a KOL or a celebrity):

You posted on three platforms: The sun is so bright today. The accompanying picture is a sun.

Possible feedbacks are:

Moments: Like + comment; friends will say: "Yes, it’s so sunny today", "It’s so hot", etc.

Weibo: Some friends or passers-by may reply: "Be careful about sun protection", "The weather is really hot this year", etc.

Xiaohongshu: In most cases: no one will pay attention to you.

Why does this happen?

Because their natures are completely different. Weibo is based on weak relationship links between strangers, Moments is based on strong relationship links between acquaintances, but Xiaohongshu is different, it is completely based on content links. So the content is not good, sorry, I don't know you.

Therefore, if you want to do well on Xiaohongshu (if you are not a KOL or celebrity who can bring in your own traffic), your content must be valuable. You cannot just gain support from your friends by creating a sense of superiority like you do on Weibo or Moments.

Although the official has repeatedly emphasized that you can use Xiaohongshu in the same way as posting on Instagram and Weibo, both users and Xiaohongshu officials have discovered that this routine is difficult to implement at present. Xiaohongshu has survived for 6 years relying on the barrier of content. It will take time for it to suddenly change everyone's impression of it into another product form. Moreover, under the current mechanism of Xiaohongshu that each user has a different face, this kind of content will not bring any benefits after being released. Instead, it will cause users to lose their sense of participation and leave.

Back to our perspective as users, if you post this kind of "Weibo or Moments" content, congratulations, you have already started to say goodbye to Xiaohongshu.

What kind of content does Xiaohongshu need?

After reading the history of Xiaohongshu, you will clearly know that the core of Xiaohongshu lies in its content. The reason why Xiaohongshu can survive the competition among multiple Internet companies is entirely because the content it provides is of considerable value. For example, the original shopping guide, as well as the fitness methods, shopping guides, travel plans, etc. in Xiaohongshu now, is also entirely because these contents are meaningful. You can think about why you or many people like you downloaded Xiaohongshu in the first place. Is it because the content can help you solve problems?

So when we start working on Xiaohongshu, we don’t talk about the direction and positioning, nor do we talk about the personality, but the content must be valuable and helpful to others.

If you don’t understand, here’s an example:

(A great collection of game recommendations)

Why are collections or guide notes considered to be representatives of valuable content?

Since people are lazy, it is of course troublesome to organize the information by oneself. After others have organized it, you will be the biggest beneficiary. Although the information introduced in it may not be used for the time being, it does not matter. Just collect it as a respect. So we can see that valuable content that is helpful to others is the most popular in the community.

A change in mindset

After the above summary, you may find that writing excellent Xiaohongshu notes is so simple!

Yes, that’s right, it’s that simple, so operating a platform is easy in terms of skills, but the most difficult thing is the change in one’s way of thinking.

Earlier we discussed how to change your view on the way Xiaohongshu operates. If we only talk about the way of thinking in operational thinking, it actually includes multiple aspects such as directional thinking, user thinking, and logical thinking. But today I will tell you the simplest and most general way of thinking. You don’t need to understand any concepts, just follow them, and you can do it like an operational expert.

• Setting goals

We must be clear about what our goal is in doing something and what its significance is. Take Xiaohongshu for example, is this note mainly posted to attract fans? Or is it mainly used for users to collect? Or is it because of traffic restrictions and you need to post content to restore your weight? You have to be clear about why you are doing this. If you say that you just want to post something when you have nothing to do, that’s fine, but this deviates from the goal and it will be difficult to become a KOL quickly through “skills”. The best you can do is rely on luck.

• Dismantling Target

After setting the goal, what we need to think about is how to achieve it, so we break it down.

For example, I hope a note can increase the number of collections.

Then we have to think

1) First, he must be able to see my notes

2) Secondly, he must be willing to click on my notes

3) My notes are collectible

So we have broken down the goals, and we can complete the corresponding content settings based on the breakdown of these items.

• Complete the goal

According to the above disassembly goals, we can do this:

1) Completion: First he needs to be able to see my notes

The content in the secret of weight can reveal the platform rules. If you want to be seen, it has to score two parts. One is to be included, and the other is to be displayed under the keyword ranking. Therefore, our note must be original, because non-original works will not be included. Secondly, it cannot violate the rules, otherwise it will not be included. In order to display under the keyword ranking, we have made it very clear in the previous article that the keywords must be included in the title, and the entire content must be written around the "keywords". This is the only way to have a higher ranking.

2) Completion: Secondly, he must be willing to click on my notes

Based on reverse user thinking, we can know that users are more willing to click on content with interesting titles and exquisite pictures, so this requires us that in addition to adding keywords, the title must also have characteristics, such as rhetorical questions, statements, exclamations, etc. And the pictures must be exquisite. What does exquisite mean? At the very least, the image must be clear, level, and without any obstructions. You can also add text or stickers as appropriate so it looks beautiful enough.

3) Completion: My notes are worth collecting

Or think about the problem from the user's perspective. What kind of content would make you want to collect it? In fact, most of the collections are things I’ve been interested in, or they are guides or collections.

So we can choose a guide-type content, such as a Tokyo Disneyland travel guide, but it definitely does not mean that you only need to be a Tokyo Disneyland guide. Instead, your notes must be detailed to be called a "guide."

(Take the Disney guide as an example, and you can see how big the gap is between collections and likes)

Describe each step of what you want to say in as much detail as possible, and add some emojis to divide the paragraphs, but do not exceed the 1,000-word limit of Xiaohongshu's notes.

After completing the above, we can send out the notes. If the weight is correct, I believe we will achieve good results.

I would like to add that creating content requires persistence. It is normal that only one article has no effect. Many public accounts are updated every day, but they only start to grow after a few months. The same logic applies to Xiaohongshu. Persistence is very important.

Related reading:

1. Do you know the operation and promotion strategy of Xiaohongshu?

2. There are 7 ways to promote on Xiaohongshu. Have you ever made a mistake?

3. For promotion on Xiaohongshu, just read this article.

4. Xiaohongshu promotion: Xiaohongshu user growth methodology!

5.How to promote on Xiaohongshu? 2 program steps!

6.4 major strategies + 7 major skills, a comprehensive interpretation of Xiaohongshu promotion strategy!

author: Mr. Elk Sky

Source ID: Mr. Elk Sky (IDmilusir94)