Flourishing social media app WeChat is changing the landscape of journalism in China, how news organizations can use it to reach their audiences?
Let’s start with an amazing fact.
According to Q2 2019, Tencent reported that WeChat has over 1.32 billion MAU (monthly active users) and 34.6% spend over four hours per day. People use this app to chat with others, pay utility bills, order food, hair cars, also they use it to get news.
As the users’ attention is being captured by the social media platform, WeChat is proved to be revolutionary for the traditional news industry. It kills the traditional journalism as people are more likely to get their news from WeChat now. Many news organizations were struggling financially as the shiny digital platforms are eating a huge portion of their advertising revenues.
But at the same time, it also provides a new way for a news agency to ‘refresh’ themselves by understanding the affordance of the platform and harness the digital disruption. It’s increasingly important to gain an insight of “WeChat” for those news organization which wants to reach out vast audiences in China. What WeChat brings to journalism, it’s both challenges and opportunities.
Here are 3 tips for news agency which want to extend their impact on WeChat.
Less is more
The ‘subscription account‘ is one function on WeChat. It is most suited for the news organizations, brands and individual content creators, such as the blogger or celebrities to extend their impact on public. As its slogan suggests, “connecting your brand to a billion users”.
It focuses on information and brand communication, providing users a news way to post stories and information. Users are able to publish once a day to their subscribers and no more than 6 articles. Many news agencies launched their WeChat subscription account to use it as a daily news feed, such as The New York Times, VICE, GQ China.
Because the “subscription account” only allow users to publish ‘ONCE a day,’ the quality of content is extremely important.
People are not allowed to post incessantly to main their position at the top of the search engine so they can concentrate on only a few posts. The news agency or Brands need to capture the user interest with the best possible quality content.
For the content of subscription account, the less is more.
The WeChat account of GQ (an international men’s magazine based in New York City) provides a successful example of the “scarcity strategy.”
Over the past year, it has transformed itself from a traditional print media to an influential KOL (key opinion leaders) on WeChat. They only publish ONE article a day with amusing and inspiring content.
In an era of information explosion and fragmentation, that attention is a scarce source. People hope their online time are “well-spent” rather than fulfilled with spam or meaningless information. GQ china shows their effort in response to this user demand. The limited news post generates more hits and attracts loyal followers.
Build your brand identity
Zhangxiaolong, the creator and product manager of WeChat, is a man who praises the ‘individualism.’ His vision of WeChat is “a space allows everyone to express” (though the right of free speech in China is controversial).
WeChat’ subscription account’ is designed to be individualized and vertical.
Compared to another Chinese social media Weibo (a Twitter-like service), WeChat seems provide more ‘private’ in terms of the news distribution.
On Weibo, news distribution is like spreading the news on a huge public square. Once you post the story, then everyone can read it in real-time. On the contrary, only the user who followed the subscription account can receive its update news on WeChat. If the follower shares the news post to the “moments” (a virtual space on WeChat where users can share and get information from their friends), people can also access the news from here.
Because the subscription account is in particular suited to the individualized and vertical news, it’s an important part to find build a ‘brand identity’.
For example, the WeChat account of GQ lab, it spices up content with humor or sarcasm. They are also embracing comic-strips and internet linguistics to impress audiences. The engaging, inspiring content is especially favored by the younger generation. They describe themselves as “a yuppie with a sense of humor & rich contents” rather than just an online fashion magazine.
Find your loyal readers
A question that newsrooms have been always curious about: how can we find a successful business model?
Now WeChat provides some new possibilities for the answer.
A news organization that has a large readership can make considerable profit from advertising on WeChat. It can be used as an outstanding marketing tool for business to promote their products. When newsrooms update the posts on the WeChat account, they can directly write advertorial content for brands or embedding a click-to-buy button in their articles.
Even for those accounts that don’t have too many followers, there is still an effective way to cash in. They can make money from a high-quality and loyal following.
The platform offers a “pay-to-read” function on the bottom of each article. It allows the readers directly ‘tipping’ authors via the WeChat pay. Just tap the icon of “like the author”, then you can fund authors, and the amount varies. This ‘crowdfunding’ model encourages authors to raise the quality of content and lowering the reliance on ‘hits and shares.’ The trick in here, is to find out the loyal audience and engage with them.
For newsrooms that are seeking to extend their impact on China, the WeChat’ subscription account’, it’s the one thing you should definitely try!
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