How to create popular content on Xiaohongshu?

As one of the social platforms, Xiaohongshu’s mission is to “Inspire Lives” to share and discover the wonders of the world. It records life details, shares lifestyles, and forms interactions based on interests through short videos, pictures, and texts. Currently, Xiaohongshu has become an important platform for promoting new consumption and empowering new brands.

Its current core is still to consolidate the content barriers. On the Xiaohongshu platform, high-quality popular notes mean high exposure and continuous long-tail traffic. So how to create popular notes?

By analyzing the TOP 1,000 most interactive notes in the beauty industry on the Xiaohongshu platform in 2022, we have summarized the entire process of creating Xiaohongshu's popular notes for everyone.

▲The idea chain diagram for creating a hit note

Determine content direction based on user reading needs

1. Elements of a Hot Note

Align with the platform's content requirements:

The slogan of Xiaohongshu platform is "Mark my life", so when we create content, we must combine the characteristics of the platform and consider what type of content the platform needs. We cannot go against the content needs of the platform. Tag my life, - content suggestions are closely related to life, and should highlight the reality and beauty of life.

Keep in line with the user's value recognition:

Before creating content, you should think about whether the content you are going to write is what users need and are interested in, and whether they will actively search for it.

How to determine user needs?

We can use the hot search word list and popular notes to judge users' demand for reading notes on the Xiaohongshu platform.

First, look at the daily changes in the popularity of hot search terms and find hot search terms in the industry that can maintain their popularity for a long time. Such content topics are the type that users have long-term reading needs;

Second, look at the hot search terms that have grown rapidly recently. This type of content is the focus of users' recent attention.

According to the recent hot search terms list of the beauty and skin care industry in the past three months, it can be found that related content such as daily skin care, saving sensitive skin and saving acne-prone skin are the directions that users read for a long time and at a high frequency; and sunscreen as a keyword such as March sunscreen sharing and "apply sunscreen every day" has risen rapidly recently, and this part of the content direction will be the focus of users' attention in the near future.

2. Features of Hot Notes

Follow the hot spots in time

Where to find hot spots? You can start with topics and hot search words, and then combine them with popular information in the current industry, hot TV series, entertainment stars, etc.

For example, in the beauty industry, when popular beauty brands launch new products, some bloggers will be the first to unbox and review the new products. These new product review notes will attract a large number of active searching users to check out the reputation and user experience of the new products, thereby influencing users' decisions to purchase related products.

Segmentation scenarios should be appropriate

Improve the verticality of notes by creating scenarios that are applicable to the product. For example, whitening manicures in spring and summer, sweat-proof and non-fading foundation in summer, and time-saving daily makeup creation are all segmented scenarios that users will actively search for. When writing content, you must start from the user's perspective and consider that the content of the notes must be highly consistent with the user's search needs, and it must create value for the user and be recognized by the user in order to become a popular note.

Good product recommendations should be authentic

A common way of posting articles is to express your own product experience by using the products yourself. By recommending good products you have used yourself and giving real experience reviews, you can increase the trust of the blogger and the note.

3. Presentation of Notes

Xiaohongshu's content presentation is divided into videos and pictures and texts, and each has its own advantages.

Video: Tutorial content is mostly presented in the form of video, especially makeup video teaching content is the most popular among users. Video can clearly and completely show the steps and techniques. Compared with pictures, videos are more realistic than pictures and texts.

Graphics and text: The advantage of graphic notes is that when demonstrating a product, you can use only one picture to demonstrate multiple color numbers for comparison. For example, users can use graphics and text to choose the color of their favorite lipstick or foundation product and choose the color that suits them.

IV. Length and Format of Notes

This article summarizes the top 1,000 popular notes with the most interactions in the past 90 days and found that:

Whether it is a picture and text note or a video note, the text part will make good use of emoji expressions to make the picture and text content of the note more vivid and lively. The text portion of video notes is relatively short, and only uses words to summarize the core ideas of the video content, thereby strengthening the content. Graphic notes mainly mark more information on the pictures to reduce the length of text.

5. Appropriately insert hot search terms into the note content

How to select the hot search words for the industry in which the notes are located

This is consistent with the idea of ​​judging user needs: first, find the hot search words in the industry that can maintain popularity for a long time. This type of content selection is the type that users have long-term reading needs; second, find the hot search words that have grown rapidly recently. This type of content is the focus of users' recent attention.

For example: According to the recent hot search terms list of the beauty and skin care industry in the past three months (the list is listed in 1.1 above), keywords such as "my skin care routine" and "easy-to-use face cream" have long been at the top of the hot search terms list and can be used as long-term hot search terms. As shown in the daily list below, "Share with everyone", "My affordable stuff" and other words can be inserted into the note content as rising hot search words.

How to accurately display high-traffic words among similar words

When you want to add a more specific category of words, such as adding sunscreen-related words as the title, since words such as sunscreen, sunscreen recommendation, and sunscreen sharing have similar meanings, which one is the most appropriate? You can use the hot search function to view recent trends in vocabulary popularity, filter out the words with the highest traffic, and increase traffic for your notes.

How to come up with a good title

A good title should have the following three characteristics:

1. The title text should be clear so that users can quickly grasp the core information of the article and stimulate their interest in reading.

2. Some titles contain words that have been popular for a long time or are on the rise, which will increase the exposure of the article.

3. The end of the title will include a popular or industry-related topic with high verticality to facilitate the improvement of the verticality of the article.

There are several types of titles:

1. Title text type

Problem-solving: Determine the target audience of the article + provide users with solutions

It must be through the experiences, specific scenarios, and user pain points that most people have to achieve user resonance, thereby stimulating users' interest in viewing notes.

• Things girls must buy when shopping at MINISO (specific scenarios)‼ ️Cheap and easy to use! ——Number of note interactions: 202,000
• The more you shave, the thicker the hair becomes❓The faster it grows❓ (real experience) Teach you how to remove hair from your entire body without leaving any black spots✅——Notes with 336,000 interactions

Essential content: extracting core content and providing solutions to users

Xiaohongshu users search actively more, so tutorials or strategies are the users’ primary search needs. The title placement solution facilitates users’ active searches.

• Spring Juice Lips‼ ️Limited edition color replacement for big brands (content extraction) I found it? Invincible image‼ ️——Number of note interactions: 208,300
• Useful information | Share the formula for leveling up (content extraction)! —— Note interaction number 758,000

Creating a persona: Professional persona label + core content extraction

• 211 Skin Care Master (Personality)? When you think eye cream is not cheap...❓——Note interaction number 118,000
• 985 Master of Chemistry (Personality), 4 years of experience in repairing the barrier of sensitive skin (user pain point) I know a lot! ——Number of note interactions: 165,000

Make good use of rhetorical questions: determine the target audience of the article/hit the user's pain points + problems

• Always losing hair and dandruff! How to choose shampoo in the supermarket? ? —— Note interaction number 208,300
• Puberty? 4 characteristics, getting more beautiful as you grow older❗️How many of them do you have❓—— Note interaction number 593,400

Digital attraction method:

• 4 tips on developing a sense of nobility through details—— 467,000 note interactions
• 3 tips to increase your looks✅0 cost counterattack on the school beauty during winter vacation❗️—— Note interaction number 315,000
• Farewell to the bearded grandma! Get rid of lip hair at 0 cost✅4 steps to get it done! —— 300,000 note interactions

2. Include keywords and hot topics in the title

Keyword classification

By extracting high-frequency words from the titles of the top 1,000 popular notes in the past 90 days, these words can be divided into functional demand words, segmented scenario words and hot search traffic words.

Among them, functional requirement words and segmented scenario words will correspond to the user's search habits for viewing notes, while strengthening note tags and increasing verticality; and hot search traffic words will increase traffic for notes.

Functional demand words: whitening, sun protection, acne removal, yellowing, blackhead removal

Segmented scene words: spring, summer, daily, commuting, dating

Hot search traffic words: recommend, share, good things, affordable, personal use

Example note title:

• Spring throbbing｜Gentle pseudo body fragrance! A niche and affordable perfume is so high-end—— 200,000 note interactions
• How fake can a girl be in summer⁉️ Summer goodies to share?—— Note interaction number 182,000
• Summer whitening nail art cute graffiti rainbow nail art—— Note interaction number 122,000

3. Don’t forget to add the hot topic at the end of the title

Adding hot topics related to the article content after the title can increase the exposure of the article.

The following are the top 30 topics in the beauty industry from January to March 2022, with a focus on the relevant data of the hot topics in March this year.

Two or three things to say about the cover image

Summary of the features of the cover photos of the hottest notes in the beauty industry on Xiaohongshu:

1. Attach the core text of the content to the picture to highlight the key points;

2. The cover image is high-definition and exquisite;

3. Shoot in real life scenes, with people and products in the same frame;

4. Tutorial videos feature real people, and the contrast between before and after makeup is strong, creating a visual impact.

How to improve note interaction data

The interaction data of a note reflects the vitality and monetization ability of an account. At the same time, the interaction data is also a key factor in judging the quality of a note. The higher the interaction data, the more likely it is to enter a larger traffic pool and gain more traffic exposure.

If you want to improve the interactive data of your notes, you can start from the following points:

1. Increase the number of likes

The selection of note topics is based on user needs to create content that is valuable to users. High-liked popular notes are essentially users' recognition and approval of the note content.

2. Increase the number of comments

Set up the fastest way to increase benefits: comment in the comment section and enter a prize draw.

Example: If you are sisters, share the burden. Unboxing a famous brand and asking to take it away online - 8933 comments

It’s uncontrollable to complain about the content: the content of the note leaves users with points where they want to comment, interact and complain.

Example: I will transform into a werewolf for you - 8933 comments

Ask high-quality questions: questions that are specific and meaningful for interactive discussion.

For example: Sisters, what is your first big-brand lipstick? 8933 comments. One person said a cosmetic that is difficult to use - 11,000 comments

3. Increase the number of collections

Insert relevant words of suggestion collection in the video broadcast:

I talked about eye makeup in great detail in this issue, and I hope you can save it well. This is the eye makeup I will draw when I make a big change on super super important occasions (Dry goods | Share the formula for big eyes!, 381,000 collections)

This video is full of useful information, I suggest you collect it (I promise, this is the most hardcore foundation tutorial you have ever seen, with 236,000 collections)

I would be really sad if anyone doesn’t learn his geometric nose shaping method, okay? (Is this the secret of my mother’s beautiful nose? The geometric nose shaping method is really good, with 279,000 favorites)

Analyze the video content attributes from the hot words in the comments of the top 3 hot-selling products in the beauty industry in the past 30 days:

Videos that can provide value to users, are easy to replay, easy to use, and highly practical are easily collected by users.

From the hot words in the comments, we can see that many users thanked the blogger in the comment area. The users collectively recognized the content of the video and felt that they gained a lot from it.

Note release time

Notes posted between 17:00 and 19:00 have more user interactions

Publishing only three notes at 6 a.m. will grab the first small wave of traffic during the morning commute. The first small peak of note publishing will come at 12 noon, and the second peak of note publishing will come at 6 p.m. Judging from the corresponding note interaction volume, notes posted between 17:00 and 19:00 have more user interactions.

Xiaohongshu's Q1 2022 beauty industry rankings

1. Top 30 hot topics in the beauty industry from January to March 2022

2. Top 30 hot search terms in the beauty industry from January to March 2022

3. The top 30 beauty industry hot-selling notes with the most interactions in the past 90 days