Behind the popularity of Xiaohongshu, how is the community operated?

Half a month ago, Xiaohongshu announced the completion of its US$300 million Series D financing . Xiaohongshu, which had been silent for a long time, returned to the media spotlight.

Xiaohongshu was originally a platform for overseas cosmetics shopping with shopping guides. However, as the e-commerce bonus period passed, Xiaohongshu began to avoid the term "e-commerce". Its co-founder Qu Fang once publicly stated that Xiaohongshu is not an e-commerce company.

"Basically, I try to avoid e-commerce-related meetings and interviews whenever possible."

Today, Xiaohongshu’s slogan has been changed to “Mark my life”, directly calling for it to become a UGC content sharing community.

This "regressive" transformation has begun to show results. Xiaohongshu gave a set of data in an internal letter for its Series D financing: as of May 2018, Xiaohongshu's monthly active users were close to 30 million, three times that of a year ago.

So, here comes the question. How does Xiaohongshu, whose activity has skyrocketed, operate its community? Below, I will analyze this set of replicable content operation strategies from three aspects.

01 The ever-expanding content direction of Xiaohongshu

Content direction is the basis for the execution of all subsequent content operation strategies in a community. If the direction is wrong, all efforts will be in vain.

From 2013 to now, Xiaohongshu has gone through a process from serving only female users who planned to go shopping in Hong Kong at the beginning , to female users interested in overseas purchases, to online shoppers who buy cross-border goods without leaving home, and then to today's lifestyle sharing platform. The target user scale has been expanding, so the content direction is also becoming wider and more numerous.

How to determine the content direction? After the content direction is determined, how to choose topics and subjects? What kind of content is high-quality content?

Below, I will analyze the current content direction of Xiaohongshu from 4 perspectives.

1) Content positioning

① Analysis of target users of Xiaohongshu

According to the data provided by iResearch App Index, we can see that the main users of Xiaohongshu are young girls born in the 1990s who come from first- and second-tier developed cities and love beauty and pursue a refined life.

② Xiaohongshu’s content positioning

Targeting this user group, Xiaohongshu’s content positioning is to provide young girls who love beauty with relevant guides on fashion, skin care, and lifestyle.

2) Content topic

The content topic should be relevant to the positioning. Currently, Xiaohongshu’s content covers 18 topics including fashion, skin care, makeup, celebrities, etc. Content related to the lives of young girls is the content topic scope of Xiaohongshu.

This can be seen from Xiaohongshu’s slogan “Mark my life”. Currently, Xiaohongshu’s content covers 18 topics including fashion, skin care, makeup, celebrities, etc.

Such topic classification is not achieved overnight. In the beginning, in order to attract women who like shopping, we only focused on topics such as beauty, skin care, and fashion. Later, Xiaohongshu added and adjusted topics based on the platform's user and content data analysis .

3) Content selection

The content selection of Xiaohongshu mainly comes from two aspects. One is to focus on the topic and use relevant keywords to select topics; the other is to follow hot spots.

① Focus on the topic and use relevant keywords to create new topics

Under different topics, the dimensions of topic selection are also different. Some are divided according to user growth paths, some are divided according to user life scenarios, and some are divided according to categories.

Taking the topic of "Fashion and Wear" as an example, the topics under it are divided according to categories.

For example, bags worth buying, weekly outfit sharing, the most beautiful nude boots in winter, summer matching formulas for denim skirts, the most popular designer brands in Korea, etc.

② Follow the trend

For example, with the recent start of the World Cup , Xiaohongshu has done a lot of related topic planning.

For example, #Watch the World Cup with Crayfish#, #World Cup Carnival Color#, #World Cup Watching Artifact#, #World Cup Best Fan#, etc.

4) Content Unit

A content unit refers to the smallest useful content in a product that generates value for users. It can be pictures, texts, videos, or even content of a certain specific structure. The content units of Xiaohongshu are "notes" and "videos".

A high-quality Internet product must have its own high-quality content units, and Xiaohongshu is no exception. Xiaohongshu's content units first meet the following two characteristics:

① Deconstructible

The notes and videos on Xiaohongshu have a very clear structure, which makes it easier for users to read and reduces their production costs. When new users post notes, they don’t need to think about what content to put or how to put it, because Xiaohongshu has already provided templates.

Taking notes as an example, the content structure of notes includes: user information, pictures, tags, titles , text, likes, comments, collections, related notes, and some notes also include purchasable items and similar product recommendations.

② You can participate

As a UGC sharing platform, as its scale expands, most of Xiaohongshu's content units are now created by users.

The high-quality notes and videos on Xiaohongshu usually meet the following three characteristics:

① Independent

High-quality notes/videos can independently generate value for users. A high-quality note can ensure that users will gain something after reading it. For example, the notes shown in the picture provide users with practical dressing guides.

② Can be summarized

High-quality notes can be included in the corresponding categories. If the content does not conform to Xiaohongshu's positioning, it will be difficult to classify it into categories.

For example, although many people like to read "jokes", they cannot be included in any category on Xiaohongshu, and therefore cannot be exposed or recommended.

③ Can be integrated

High-quality notes can be organized in any form. When users see high-quality notes, they will collect them into their own albums; and editors will also include high-quality notes under corresponding topics, or have them collected by official accounts and recommended to more users.

According to observations, high-quality notes collected by the official website usually have the following characteristics:

a. The pictures are beautifully taken, and the labels such as brand, price, etc. are as complete as possible.

b. Detailed and practical experience, with lots of useful information

02 Refined content production method

Content production mainly includes three aspects: content production source, content processing, and content organization (topic planning). Next, let’s take a look at Xiaohongshu’s content production mechanism.

1) Content Source

There are three main sources of content for Xiaohongshu: UGC, PGC , and PUGC represented by celebrities and influencers.

① UGC (User Generated Content)

UGC is the main source of content for Xiaohongshu, and this part of content production accounts for the largest proportion. A large number of users create notes every day, and Xiaohongshu also has initiatives to encourage users to create UGC.

Xiaohongshu has built a user growth system, which requires users to go through 10 levels from diaper potato to crown potato, and the requirements for upgrading include "content production."

Xiaohongshu's user level growth

In order to encourage users to produce high-quality content, Xiaohongshu also released relevant content production guidance notes.

In addition, Xiaohongshu also attracts users to produce content by recommending topics in search boxes, hot searches, and other places.

② PGC (Professional Production Content)

Xiaohongshu has opened multiple vertical official accounts based on the classification of content topics.

For example: Captain Potato, Fashion Potato, Video Potato, Entertainment Potato, Life Potato, Sports Potato, Daily Potato, Foodie Potato, Photo Potato, Superstar Potato, Campus Potato, etc.

Xiaohongshu’s vertical official account

③ PUGC (Professional User Generated Content)

PUGC users are mainly divided into three categories. The first is the experts/teams invited from other MCN platforms, such as Shenyefawu ; the second is the expert users cultivated by Xiaohongshu. These experts are heavy users of Xiaohongshu and provide a large amount of high-quality content.

The third category is celebrities. Xiaohongshu uses celebrity influence as endorsement and has brought in a large number of fan users. For example, Fan, Lin Yun, and Jiang Shuying are all senior celebrity users of Xiaohongshu.

Fan Bingbing joins Xiaohongshu

2) Content Processing

① Content classification

Under "Homepage-Discovery", editors will classify user-generated content into nearly 20 categories, including "Video", "Fashion", "Skin Care", "Makeup", "Fitness", "Food", etc. Users with different needs can view content under different categories.

Category breakdown on Xiaohongshu’s homepage

On the other hand, Xiaohongshu’s various vertical official accounts will collect high-quality content and divide it into different themes.

② Secondary processing editing

All high-quality content officially accepted will be processed by Xiaohongshu editors before being pushed. The purpose is to provide users with a better reading experience and to let users who produce content know what kind of content is good.

By comparing user-generated content with edited content, we can see that the original author's notes tend to record life. The edited content directly extracts important information, allowing users who read the notes to quickly get the key points they want.

3) Special topic planning

There are three main types of special planning on Xiaohongshu: special planning for popular online phenomena, special planning for original content, and special planning for some foreseeable major events.

① Plan topics for popular phenomena on the Internet

For example, Xiaohongshu recently took advantage of IKEA’s internet-famous food and launched a special topic called “Whole Orange Ice”, allowing users to upload their own production and consumption notes.

② Plan special topics for native content

Original content topics such as "Rosehip Whitening Pills", "Liposuction", and "Bun Hair" integrate and recommend high-quality content on related topics on the site.

③ Make special plans for foreseeable major events

With the recent start of the World Cup, Xiaohongshu has launched a series of special planning.

For example, #World Cup fans online#, #pick my World Cup#, #come to Xiaohongshu to watch the World Cup#, etc. Grasping topics that the public cares about can, to a certain extent, help Xiaohongshu reach potential users and achieve user acquisition.

However, there is a problem here. This topic may not be accurate enough for Xiaohongshu. The reading data of the event description officially released by Xiaohongshu is not high.

From the perspective of user group analysis, this topic is a "niche topic among target users" for Xiaohongshu, and the activity content set up cannot arouse the interest of users of the entire platform (such as myself).

Therefore, the target users of the activity are mainly users in the sports segment, rather than the entire site.

Based on current observations, for vertical products like Xiaohongshu, the data for special planning based on native content is the best, and usually there are millions of views.

03 Recommended strategies to cover the entire population

1) Push time

The push time should be consistent with the user's living habits and reading habits. As a content-based platform, Xiaohongshu generally determines the push time of regular content based on user reading habits. The content of Xiaohongshu tends to be leisure and entertainment, so the push time will avoid the user's working hours.

Based on my observations, I found that Xiaohongshu follows two rules when recommending content (Push, message notifications):

Push is usually pushed every two hours;

Message notifications are usually sent during the user's rest time at noon or in the evening after get off work.

2) Push channel

The core purpose of content push is to attract new users , promote activation and retention , and attract users to register and download, retain and like the product. Therefore, below I will analyze Xiaohongshu’s content recommendation channels from the two aspects of user activation, retention and new user acquisition.

① User activation and retention

In the "Operation Map" of our operation agency, you can see that the platform usually has different recommendation strategies at different stages of the user life cycle .

Reply "Operation Map" in the background to get the full version

a. Beginner Period

During the user's novice stage, Xiaohongshu's content recommendation strategies are mainly machine algorithm recommendations and popular high-quality content recommendations.

During the new user registration stage, Xiaohongshu set up a "three-way recommendation mechanism".

First, it provides users with nearly 20 content categories and allows users to select the four that interest them most. After the user successfully registers and enters the homepage, Xiaohongshu will make machine algorithm recommendations based on the user's choices and push content that the user is interested in.

Second, provide recommendations for "high-quality users", including celebrity users and expert users of Xiaohongshu, to attract new users with professional and high-quality content.

The "high-quality users" recommendation here will refer to the content category selected in the previous step. For example, after I selected the categories of " mother and baby " and "wedding", the recommended users were hot moms and wedding diaries.

Third, recommend users "friends who are using Xiaohongshu" and use "friend relationships" to attract and retain users.

When a new user enters the homepage, Xiaohongshu will first recommend some celebrity notes (especially the top two). I refreshed it multiple times with a new account, and it was all high-quality content produced by celebrities.

When new users arrived, Xiaohongshu had not yet obtained much information about the users and was unable to make machine recommendations based on their portraits . Therefore, they prefer to use celebrity content to attract users, making them feel a sense of authority and trust, while also attracting fan groups.

b. Growth stage

When users reach the growth stage, Xiaohongshu will obtain more and more user data and adopt richer content recommendation strategies. There are mainly the following ways:

Machine algorithm recommendation:

As Xiaohongshu obtains more and more complete data packages from users, it will be more inclined to recommend different content based on user preferences, thereby increasing user retention . As a heavy user of Xiaohongshu, I found that every entry on the homepage is related to the keywords I have searched or the notes I have read.

Recommended further reading:

Pushing content based on the relevance of content units is also about pushing content that users are interested in, extending their reading, and improving user retention.

Recommendations based on friendship:

There is a "Follow" tab on the homepage of Xiaohongshu, which will recommend updated content from influencers and friends that users follow, leveraging social relationships to retain users.

Nearby recommendations based on distance:

There is a "Nearby" tab on the homepage of Xiaohongshu, which will recommend content posted by users within 20 km.

Editor's Recommendation:

Xiaohongshu has its own official account, which collects users’ high-quality notes for recommendation.

Message notification:

Use machine algorithms to push relevant content based on the different needs of different users. There is also recommended shopping mall discount information.

The push time is generally around 9:30 in the morning, 12:00-13:30 in the afternoon, around 18:30 in the afternoon and around 21:30 in the evening, which are mostly the time when users get off work or relax, which is in line with users' reading habits.

Push:

The main purpose of Push is to promote activation and retention. There are two main types of Push on Xiaohongshu. One is to push content that users are interested in, and the other is to push notes posted by influencers that users follow. It uses content that users are interested in and high-quality content on the platform to promote activation and retention.

Search box:

The search box usually contains Xiaohongshu’s main topics to promote the platform’s special content and attract users to participate in creation.

For example, Xiaohongshu has recently been following the hot topic of the World Cup and planned the #Come to Xiaohongshu to watch the World Cup# event, and put it in the search box to increase the exposure of the topic and improve participation.

b. User acquisition

WeChat public account :

Xiaohongshu has opened an official public account "Xiaohongshu App", and its current estimated number of fans is around 600,000 (with around 20,000 picture and text readings). This is Xiaohongshu’s daily content recommendation channel. A QR code or the original text will be used at the end of the picture or text to divert traffic.

Weibo:

Weibo has over 3 million fans and is another daily channel for Xiaohongshu. The topics pushed on a daily basis come from high-quality content produced by users on the platform. Brand building and user introduction are carried out through content, but the normal interaction and forwarding volumes are not high.

The data for content with celebrity topics is relatively good, such as forwarding Weibo posts about celebrities joining Xiaohongshu, posting celebrities’ Xiaohongshu notes, etc., which will bring better interaction and communication effects.

Media Advertising:

In 2018, Xiaohongshu placed media advertisements in the variety shows "Produce 101" and "Idol Producer", including mid-inserts, oral announcements, and post-production subtitles.

When Qu Fang, the founder of Xiaohongshu, was interviewed by the media, she stated that promoting content on variety shows was a promotion strategy that the team had planned long ago.

Due to the precise crowd matching, "Idol Producer" and "Produce 101" brought significant brand exposure and user growth to Xiaohongshu, especially "Idol Producer" (hereinafter referred to as "Idol Producer").

According to iResearch data, since the launch of “Idol Producer”, the number of monthly independent devices of Xiaohongshu has increased by 4% month-on-month in January and jumped to 20.9% in February.

In March, as the competition became more intense, the increase reached 38.4%, and the diversion effect was very powerful. (Note: The broadcast time of "Idol Producer" is from January 19 to April 6, 2018)

In addition to promoting content in variety shows, Xiaohongshu also placed mid-inserts and advertisements in the TV series "Beijing Women's Illustrated Book".

I think Xiaohongshu should invest more in this area in the future. On the one hand, the audience of the program is precisely matched with the user group of Xiaohongshu. On the other hand, it also takes advantage of the celebrity effect to attract a large number of celebrity fans to register and download.

3) How does Xiaohongshu improve the opening rate of content recommendations?

There are generally three ways to increase the opening rate of content recommendations, namely strong benefits, strong associations and special symbols. The specific content is explained in detail in the content editing course of the operating agency.

① Strong welfare

This is mainly reflected in the push of mall activities, such as "66 yuan coupon has been received, save more after coupon", "50% off", "50 yuan off for purchases over 199 yuan!"

② Strong correlation

Based on my observation and impression, Xiaohongshu usually uses this method when recalling users. There was a time before when I hadn’t opened Xiaohongshu for a long time because I was too busy. Xiaohongshu sent me a push message saying “During the time you were away, xxx you followed posted…”

③ Special symbols

Almost every push on Xiaohongshu will be accompanied by special symbols to attract users to click, such as "Click to view details>>>". In the platform system notifications, there will also be "text + special symbols" such as "click>" and "grab>" to guide users to the mall.

Summarize

Today we analyzed the replicable content operation strategies behind Xiaohongshu, which mainly include three routines.

First, determine the content direction according to the target audience. Second, organize and refine the content production method from production to processing. Finally, formulate a content recommendation strategy that covers the entire user life cycle.

Here are a few tables to summarize. If it helps you, please collect and spread it.

This article was compiled and published by @Operation Research Society (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games