A Few months ago, I was introduced to a CEO from the MedTech industry. He asked me to send him a quote for marketing and Public Relations activity in China. I put on my best smile and asked him for his WeChat account ID that we can communicate better. He refused and said he doesn’t use WeChat because he doesn’t trust its safety. I smiled and asked him if he also like eating pizza without a cheese or to watch Fc Barcelona without Leo Messi in the lineup.
We all need to understand - There is no "half pregnant" in china. Without WeChat, you are useless, you are wasting your money, marketing isn’t relevant for you. WeChat is the king, the major practice for individuals and businesses.It is the all-in-one app, provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast messaging, video calls and conferencing, video games, photograph and video sharing, as well as location sharing.WeChat users can register as an official account which enables them to push feeds to subscribers, interact with subscribers and provide them with services.For work purposes, companies and business communication, a special version of WeChat called Enterprise. WeChat contains elements that are familiar to Facebook users, such as the “Moments” where users post photos, status updates and news. WeChat allows users to transfer money. Just like other social networks, WeChat can be a place to spread news, recommend products and trends.I have a costumer that believes that thanks to an interesting content and having the ability to target the right audience and the relevant network to his WeChat account, he succeeded to sell respectable units of solar panels.
My 5 golden rules for an effective WeChat account:
- Identify your potential audience -A professional research and brainstorming will help you find the best way to serve your targeted audience.It is important to build a relevant community that have interest on what you have to provide.
- Provide the relevant content – News is good, launching products are great, achieving prizes are impressive but content that the client can benefit from is the best. The most useful way is providing your client with valuable content that can improve their life quality and habits.it’s important to provide them accurate and unfiltered information. "Trust" is something that you can achieve easily, much more difficult is to keep it, so keep it. Your headlines and summaries should be social media-friendly. On the WeChat "Moment Wall", the headline is the only thing that’s displayed.
- Respect your audience’s time-WeChat is primarily a chat app, readers have limited time to get impression. When they read posts, they can't receive a chat notification, so make their time worth it and help them get through stories quickly.
- Increasing followers - The easiest and cheapest way is by educating and training your team to share the QR code and your account to clients, distributors and partner. The more expensive but faster way is to use relevant and reliable Key opinion leaders (Kol's) - sometimes called influencers. KOL is a member of a community whose expert advice is respected by others in their field. Key opinion leaders are authorities on a specific topic; they usually have a targeted audience specific to their niche.
- Launching an account- The way you set up the WeChat account affects the audience you can reach. If reaching an audience in China, or reaching Chinese citizens, is important to you, register an Official Account in WeChat’s Chinese interface. If you don’t, WeChat users who registered their accounts in China won’t be able to access your account. There is no serious reason to fear from WeChat more than one might be worried about WhatsApp, Facebook or LinkedIn- WeChat is as safe as other popular messaging and communication apps, as it requires user registration, a verified mobile phone number, and a password to sign in. It is a fact that a unique and an authentic WeChat account is like a breathing business card and much better than any website you can imagine or create on the web.
Need your own WeChat Official Account? Need to increase awareness to your company in China? Do you have more questions regarding public Relations in China? Don’t hesitate to contact us!!
Original message: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/having-wechat-account-china-like-eating-pizza-without-lior-varona/