Now that you have successfully set up your WeChat account for your business or personal brand, how do you grow the following?

Unlike Facebook or Instagram, which provides sophisticated advertising platforms for you to reach out to a carefully selected target audience, WeChat's advertising platform at best is in Beta, allowing only accounts with over 100K followers to open their platform for advertisers to place ads, but the advertiser also needs to have a China bank account tied to their WeChat account, which also requires a China based mobile number for verification purposes. Sounds like a lot of hurdles to jump through to place an ad on WeChat right? So what are some others ways foreign companies outside of China have used to grow their following?

Before we go further into the three tactics to help grow your WeChat following, it's important to note that the methods of 'account discovery' on WeChat are quite limited, and people usually have to 1 / scan a QR code with the WeChat in-app scanner of 2 / click on an article they see in their WeChat Moments (similar to a Facebook Newsfeed) to visit your WeChat account. 

Utilize the Power of Your Network

Or your staff's network. One of the ways for people to find your account is through the WeChat Moments function, which is the same as the Facebook Newsfeed function. People share news stories, things they find interesting on these feeds, and this is one of the ways they can discover your WeChat account.

Similar to western social media marketing, content + attractive headlines are key to driving traffic using this method. Once they are reading your article, make sure to add a call-to-action at the top and bottom of your article for people to follow you. Inserting your own QR code within the article makes it easier for people to scan and follow.
 

Place Advertorials On Popular WeChat Accounts

Since there isn't a widely available advertising platform for WeChat accounts outside of China, another way to grow is to place advertorials on popular WeChat accounts.

What quantifies as a 'popular' account? Do a search for a location name such as Vancouver, Toronto, New York and see which accounts pop up first - those are usually the accounts with the most followers in that geographic region. The way these advertorials work is you would contact their advertising personnel either through WeChat or email and get an advertising price list from them. They sell ad spots much like newspapers, except they are on WeChat. So you can buy a top, 2nd, or 3rd, article spot on their daily newsletter going out to their subscribers, and banner ads within each of these articles. Pricing is based on article position and frequency.

This method gets you in front of a geographically relevant audience and since you are smart and remembered to place your QR code within the article you submitted for posting, people will be able to find your account while they are reading your advertorial. 
 

Engage in Offline Marketing

Is your business a decent size and has a budget for offline marketing for customer engagement events? Setting up a booth at a festival or other community event and handing out free swag in exchange for WeChat follows is another way for you to bump up your WeChat following. The question becomes finding the right event where you can attract the right followers who could convert into customers for you. 

So those are the top three tactics we would recommend for growing your following on WeChat. Want a more tailored plan for your business or brand? Contact us today so our WeChat Marketing Specialists can help you enhance your presence on the WeChat platform. Want to read more WeChat Marketing tips? Click here. 

To see our Cultural Marketer video on this topic, visit here.
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