Understanding post formatting is critical when it comes to optimising your articles and obtaining the intended results on Xiaohongshu. Whether you’re working with a KOL or writing content for your own brand page, here are some key elements to consider:

A Conversational Tone Of Voice

KOLs and brands on Xiaohongshu must utilise a conversational tone of voice in order to build trust with their audience. Even if your brand tone is usually formal, when it comes to Xiaohongshu you will have to slightly alter it – just as an author would modify their tone of voice according on the media outlet for which they write.

The content should be of high quality, but not overly polished. Consistency is essential, and the content must be relatable. The key to engaging millennials on Xiaohongshu is to make marketing messaging genuine and authentic; contrived posts do not work well with this user base. Brands must enable KOLs to write spontaneously; they should not try to cram their articles with predetermined selling points.

Post Text

There is no dedicated section to enter the title when publishing a post; it is merely the first 21 letters of the body text. It is critical to include keywords in the title to capture people’s attention and aid with SEO.

A post can include up to 1,000 characters of text; longer, more in-depth posts tend to do better. Long postings are beneficial to both SEO (Baidu) & the people searching in the app.

Users tend to utilise emoticons as bullet points to create structure because there are no formatting options. KOLs, for example, employ numerical emojis to differentiate each product, money bag emojis to represent the product’s price, an exclamation sign to show crucial terms that differentiate this product, and a Xiaohongshu mascot emoji next to the longer product description.

Using Hashtags

In the past, hashtags were a fantastic tool to increase the visibility of posts. In the body of each post, users could include up to ten hashtags.

The regulations for hashtags have been modified since. Multiple hashtags inserted in the body of a post no longer work. When they publish a post, users can choose one hashtag or ‘topic’ to engage in. While the ability to select only one topic is likely to reduce reach, the new approach does make it easy to look for the best hashtag to match that specific post, which may boost search results.

The hashtag or ‘topic’ directory in Xiaohongshu displays popular hashtags, the number of times the hashtag has been used, and categorizes hashtags by topic.

Mentions

Mentions are useful for brands to consider for a variety of reasons. If a user tags a brand in their post, the user’s post will appear under the ‘tagged’ tab on the Brand’s Official Account. The brand may also choose to collect the user’s post. Interacting with and gathering user generated content about your brand is an excellent approach to build customer and KOL loyalty.

Xiaohongshu has a number of official accounts that curate and repost top user content, allowing it to reach a much larger audience. KOLs will generally tag the official Xiaohongshu account in the industry linked to the subject of their post, in the hopes of receiving a repost or a like.

Additional Optimization Tip

Brands must ensure their presence at key touchpoints as well as a seamless customer journey across numerous platforms. Little Red Book combined with Weibo or Wechat would ensure that marketers follow and guide clients throughout their purchasing process.

Because customers can freely move and communicate with brands on Little Red Book, they may also do so on platforms such as Weibo, Wechat, and others. Brands require a team to connect, monitor, and follow up on customer activities regardless of platform.

In Summary

• Images or videos with tags are an essential component of a post.

• Make sure your post title is interesting & catchy

• Brand posts do well when they are extensive and in depth

• Participate in 1 topic (hashtag)

• Mention/tag other users

• Add product/shop links (only within the Xiaohongshu app, no external links are permitted).

Connect with the right Chinese digital marketing agency to increase conversions in China within your budget.