What are the minefields in Xiaohongshu’s promotion and operation? Getting Started Manual!

Xiaohongshu, which started out as a UGC community, has over 250 million users. According to the latest official data, the daily exposure of community notes has exceeded 3 billion times.

Among them, pictures are a major feature of Xiaohongshu notes. When we interviewed an internet celebrity agent not long ago, he repeatedly mentioned the importance of image processing capabilities to a Xiaohongshu blogger.

So, what are the picture usage techniques on Xiaohongshu? What are the rules and regulations for publishing pictures? How does the platform allocate image traffic?

We talked to several Xiaohongshu bloggers about their experiences and opinions, and combined with our observations of the platform’s content, we summarized 8 tips for Xiaohongshu image production and processing.

1. The first picture is very important

Posting multiple pictures is now the norm in Xiaohongshu community notes. The upper limit of pictures is 9. "Taking into account the richness of the content, we would recommend bloggers to post 6 to 9 pictures at a time," Xiaoping, the operations manager of "Thousands of Faces for Thousands of People" Xiaohongshu, told us.

In the context of multiple pictures, the importance of the first picture is self-evident. There are only two standard sizes for posting pictures on Xiaohongshu: 3:4 or square .

The first picture focuses on highlighting the key points and overall content of the notes, while the content of the picture varies from person to person.

Based on the personal experience of bloggers in using first pictures that have good exposure and my observations of the content of many notes on the discovery page of Xiaohongshu, I have summarized the following common first picture formats for your reference:

1. Put the key points of the note in the first picture

For example, in the collection of selfie poses released by "Nicole with Single Eyelids", an original video author of Xiaohongshu, she integrated 9 selfie poses into a homepage picture in the form of a nine-square grid. She explained that this operation was because "it not only contains a lot of information, but also ensures the visual cleanliness of the image."

2. People + Product Display

Beauty blogger "Corgi Eats Grilled Fish" said that this would make it easier for fans to directly understand the products and effects in the notes.

3. Maximize product features

For example, when blogger "Liwaner" chooses the first picture, in addition to directly placing the product picture, he will also note some of the most attractive features of the product in the picture.

4. Comparison chart

Common comparisons include before and after product use, before and after fitness/weight loss, and outfit comparisons. Create visual impact through contrast and catch the eye.

5. Single person photos

This type of first picture is often used in fashion, street photography, and travel notes.

2. Personalized content is easier to remember

For Xiaohongshu bloggers, personalization will become an important way to create a distinctive personality and differentiate themselves from homogeneous content.

In a post about summer photo poses by "Women Hanhan", a blogger with 1.6 million followers, each pose is accompanied by the same hand-drawn picture on the right, which is playful and vivid. According to her agent Maomao, Hanhan has a solid foundation in hand-drawing, and such content is created based on her own expertise, which makes it difficult to simply copy it in large quantities .

In addition to personal skills or specialties, personalized identity can also be developed from long-term style habits.

"Qiu Zi in the North" is a fashion blogger who is pregnant. In addition to the label "pregnancy", almost all of her fashion notes use the combination and comparison of "model pictures + upper body pictures" to form her own unique style.

3. Appropriately integrate popular elements from Xiaohongshu pictures

"There will be some popular elements on the platform for a period of time, such as the recent three-in-one combination and filters," said Xiao Ping, content operator of Xiaohongshu.

Appropriately incorporating the currently popular elements of Xiaohongshu can increase traffic to a certain extent. In other words, using pictures to "catch the heat."

For example, "Corgi Eats Grilled Fish" has transformed the popular "three-in-one" on Xiaohongshu into its own characteristics. She adopted the "three-in-one" model in many of her eye shadow pictures and texts: "The top picture is the product, the middle picture is the effect on the face, and the bottom picture is the eye shadow swatch."

At present, the most popular color trial notes on the Xiaohongshu platform are "three-in-one" or "four-in-one". If you put too many together, the key points will be difficult to highlight, and if you put too few together, the amount of information will be insufficient.

"The purpose of the puzzle is to present the product from multiple angles," Xiao Ping added, adding that "four-way puzzles are mostly used for lipstick color test content. But not every account is suitable for three-way puzzles or four-way puzzles , so you need to try first and then decide."

4. Appropriate beautification in real conditions

Xiaohongshu has always used "real, beautiful, and diverse" to describe their content ecosystem. Compared with the previous complaints about Xiaohongshu pictures being "too filtered" and "distorted colors", there are now many bloggers on the Xiaohongshu platform who use no filters and no beauty.

Bloggers and MCN agency operators all say that "real" content is now more likely to attract user attention and platform recommendations. Another insider in the industry said that Xiaohongshu does not interfere with the content, nor is there any content being recommended because the platform likes it.

It is reported that "authenticity" is the direction advocated by Xiaohongshu, but only real content that is liked by users can gain more traffic. So what kind of pictures are “real”?

"We don't recommend bloggers to do too much post-processing. You can slightly modify some flaws, but don't over-edit the photos." Xiao Ping, operations manager of "Qianren Qianmian", the official MCN agency of Xiaohongshu, explained.

Excessive modifications in pursuit of aesthetics and tone may even be suspected of being "advertisements" and will not bring any additional traffic to the content. However, it is not a wise approach to not retouch the pictures at all and only emphasize authenticity.

"Hey Sister Fun Life", a lifestyle blogger with 600,000 followers, believes that "overly realistic but unaesthetic pictures can make people click on them out of curiosity, but they are not very helpful for the blogger to increase his or her followers."

How to do this?

"Nicole with Single Eyelids" told us that most of her photos are taken in a real and natural state, using clever use of light. Such content is more likely to be liked by other users, so her photos are mainly taken between 2 and 5 pm.

Therefore, "beauty" and "truth" are two important elements that complement each other. It is a safer approach to appropriately beautify while retaining the truth .

5. Images that convey useful information are more popular

"Liwaner" mentioned that after being a blogger for a long time, it is easy to fall into the aesthetic deviation between bloggers and ordinary users. Many bloggers feel satisfied that they have "spent a lot of effort to make pictures", but this kind of carefully crafted pictures may not be what users want.

What type of image content do users want to see? The answer given by many bloggers is: pictures that can convey useful information. Convey enough information to users in the shortest time.

"Hey Sister Fun Life" has made a "Home Cleaning Schedule". The first picture is ordinary text and a table, but because the content is practical, it has received 1,749 likes and 4,357 collections. It is one of her most exposed notes. After all, for users who love to promote products, practicality is above all else.

6. Some minefields in using pictures on Xiaohongshu

It is understood that although Xiaohongshu will not interfere with the content traffic, the official has repeatedly introduced content rules such as "Not Recommended Note Protection Guide".

What kind of picture content is likely to cause "mistakes"? Based on the official tips from Xiaohongshu and the experience and lessons of bloggers, we have summarized the following situations where it is easy to make mistakes:

1. All pictures in the note only show one item

This type of content may be judged as advertising by the system, or reported by users as soft advertising. It is reported that users on the Xiaohongshu platform have a low acceptance of soft advertisements, and this type of content is often restricted due to reports.

After Xiaohongshu introduced "eco-officers" to maintain community content, the eco-officers will also receive tasks to help assess whether the content is suitable for display. If the account is frequently complained about, and the ecological officer deems the content inappropriate, it will be difficult for this note to gain traffic in the future. After a certain number of notes have accumulated, the account may be blocked or unable to receive traffic recommendations.

Xiaohongshu Ecological Officer reviews the content page

At the same time, Zoe, the operator of MCN agency Xiaohongshu, said that they do not recommend bloggers to publish 2 or more promotional content consecutively , even if the blogger has become a "brand partner" in the Xiaohongshu community.

2. Non-original images, such as images copied from other platforms or with watermarks from other users, screenshots from official websites, etc.

Xiaohongshu places great emphasis on the originality of content. Non-original content may constitute infringement and lead to penalties more severe than traffic restrictions, such as blocking accounts for violations.

3. Low-quality images, such as blurry, dark, large-scale, etc.

Such low-quality images will be captured by the system and restricted.

…

Faced with these minefields, bloggers, out of caution, often do not accept pictures directly provided by advertisers as content for publication, and the operators of MCN agencies also mentioned that "it is not recommended for bloggers to directly post pictures from brand owners."

7. Picture exposure < video exposure?

It is understood that the Xiaohongshu platform has successively released measures to promote the production of short video content, and the video content on the discovery page is also much more than before. This phenomenon makes many people feel that the exposure of videos on the platform is increasingly greater than that of pictures. Several bloggers expressed their feelings about the difference in exposure when sharing their experiences.

More short video content appears on the discovery page

Is it true that the video exposure on Xiaohongshu is greater than the picture and text exposure? According to industry insiders, the platform does not have any special recommendations for video content.

Xiao Ping, operations manager of Qianren Qianmian, believes that "the support for short videos is the direction conveyed by the platform, but when it comes to content, first, it depends on whether the content is suitable for the video format, second, it depends on the blogger's own attributes, and third, it depends on the quality of the content. "

No matter how the form changes, the most core part is still the content. High-quality graphic and text content can still bring enough traffic, and short videos just provide another possibility for the content.

"It's too naive to think that you can take advantage of this opportunity to get video traffic. Xiaohongshu is becoming more and more professional, and the most important thing is to focus on producing good content," Xiaoping added.

8. Finally, some mapping software is recommended

1. PC

Photoshop: All-round drawing and photo editing player

Lightroom: Another photo editing software from Adobe, it focuses more on image color adjustment and can process images in batches. It is often used with PS

2. App

Photography apps:

Beauty Camera, B612, Faceu, Wuta Camera, Beauty Camera, Light Camera

Photo editing and drawing apps:

Meitu XiuXiu, Tiantian Ptu, Facetune, Facetune2, PicsArt

Filter and color adjustment apps:

VSCO, MIX, Snapseed, Foodie, Butter Camera, in, LINE Camera

Jigsaw Puzzle Poster App:

Jigsaw, Simple, Layout, PhotoGrid

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What are your thoughts on Xiaohongshu’s picture-using techniques? Welcome to communicate in the comment section.

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Author: New List

Source: Newrank (ID: newrankcn)