RED Marketing Case Study: How to Grow From 0 to 10K in 20 Days
Starting a new account on RED isn’t hard, but how do you grow the account after that? This is usually the big question we get from all of our clients.
We had recently started a RED (小红书）Marketing YouTube Video Series and also hosted a chat session in our China Marketing Club on Clubhouse to share our insights and tips. What happened after that, is awesome. For context, Gloria joined our Clubhouse chat on RED Marketing, and subsequently followed all of our RED Marketing tips, which took her from 24 followers on her RED account to over 10K followers in just 20 days.
She simply followed the tailored tips we offered her and everything fell into place. The issue was that she wasn’t ‘speaking the right language’ at the party. We see every social media platform like a party, you go to Facebook you’re using maybe a few photos and a long paragraph; you go to Twitter you’re speaking in short tweets and being concise; you go to Instagram, you better have a nice photo. So, what should you bring when you come to the RED party?
Your AUTHENTIC self.
Here’s what won’t work.
Overly polished photos. Even though RED is a visual-forward platform focused on photos and short videos, the platform doesn’t like overly edited photos. The more authentic and organic the content looks, the better.
Formal / press release language.
Photos with QR codes on them. Anything that tries to take users out of RED will be penalized by the algorithm.
Posts with external URL links in them. Same reason as above.
Anything that sounds like a sales pitch more than a real consumer experience.
Here’s what WILL work.
Authentic Photos. You still want to make sure you have good lighting, and the photo is properly framed, but think of how your photos help to tell a story. You can add up to 9 photos with each post.
Tagging your photos/videos. You can add location, product, brand, even film name tags to your content. The key on RED is to share your authentic experience with the different products, brands, destinations, etc.
Select a hashtag that will get you the most exposure. Similar to other social platforms, you can also add a hashtag to your content, BUT, you can only choose ONE, so make sure to choose carefully. For example, I post regularly about Vancouver food, so I use a hashtag that translates as “Sharing Delicious Food in Vancouver” from Chinese (#温哥华美食分享）
Make sure not to include external links and/or QR codes in your content.
Use language like you are talking as a friend to your readers/potential followers. It goes back to the old marketing saying “what’s in it for them?”
Repurpose content from your other channels. This was a big one for Gloria. She had already recorded, filmed and edited a bunch of videos for her YouTube account and other social platforms in Chinese, so we suggested that she repurpose all this content for RED. All she needed to do was to re-edit some of the clips. Contrary to what other platforms suggest would be best for mobile (ie. portrait orientation), videos on RED perform just as well if they are in landscape format.
After Gloria incorporated all of our comments by repurposing her videos, changing up her RED content writing style, and selecting content that would be useful to others (such as healthy recipes, the top 10 carbs to avoid, etc.) she instantly saw her engagement and following skyrocket. Let us follow Gloria’s journey to growing her RED following with key dates outlined below.
GLORIA’S GROWTH PATH ON RED (小红书)
2019.12.02 My sister made me open a RED account.
2020 no postings
2021 mid-January. Started posting again after a friend told me Maggie Q has an account there (I love watching Designated Survivor)
2021.02.19 Friday. Spoke to Flo on Clubhouse and received tips on posting strategies - 24 followers
The next day, I rewrote my bio. And for the subsequent 7 consecutive days, I’ve chosen various content to test responses. I tested photos with recipes, photos with no recipes, short vs long videos. Most of these contents were repurposed from previous contents I created for Facebook/YouTube/IG.
2021. 02.26 Friday. Received notification that the Creator’s Studio function 創作者中心 is now unlocked. Specifically, the analytics function was unlocked.
When your following reaches above a threshold, additional Creator functions will be unlocked
2021.02.27 Saturday - 1k followers
2021.03.06 Saturday - 6k followers
Jumped 6 levels in account status; Went from 奶瓶薯 to 銅冠薯 in 2 weeks. 2 extra functions were unlocked; individualized water marks, as well as customized stickers.
There are various status levels within RED, and as you gain more followers, you will unlock more functions
03.11 Thursday - Reached 10k followers.
We want to congratulate Gloria on achieving such stellar results by implementing our recommendations. In fact, as of this writing on March 25th, 2021, her following is already over 15K!
If you’re curious as to the type of content she ended up repurposing for her RED Account. Make sure to check out her account on RED!
This diagram shows that in the last 30 days Gloria grew her account with an additional 10,448 new followers
ALL YOU NEED IS TRACTION
As you can see, reaching 10K followers isn’t hard, you just need to be sharing content that gets traction. You need to understand the type of content that will resonate with the audience on RED, and tailor your visuals and writeup accordingly.
If you need advice on how to grow your RED account, make sure to join us on Clubhouse in our China Marketing Club, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as we are always creating new content to show you the latest and greatest functions!
You can also get in touch with us by shooting us an email at info@catalystagents.com. Let us help you grow your following today!