As we explained in part one of this series, WeChat matters. It sits at the heart of China’s online and social media ecosystem, making it essential for companies doing business in China to prepare strategies for leveraging its potential. In this article, we look at WeChat Official Accounts, which are company accounts that have differing functionality depending on the type selected.

What are the types of WeChat Official Account?

Although there are technically three, we will discuss the two most common and relevant WeChat Official Account types. The first is a Subscription Account. It is best suited for companies that are concerned with content marketing on WeChat.

Companies with a Subscription Account can be followed directly by users interested in the content they produce. Importantly, a Subscription Account allows companies to push one message per day to their followers, which acts as a notification that can contain up to eight articles. To open this type of account as an overseas company, a Chinese registered branch or partner is needed.

The second type of Official Account is the Service Account. This is the best option for companies interested in using WeChat to offer services like e-commerce and customer support. The trade-off is a limitation in content functionality compared to the Subscription Account. Service accounts are only allowed to push four messages, each containing up to eight articles, to their followers per month.

A Service Account also comes with access to WeChat’s API library, which can be used to build in additional functionality to its service offerings. Examples include managing contacts and accessing lists of chats and calls on WeChat. This type of account can be opened by overseas companies after undergoing an account verification process, provided the company has a business licence in China.

It is important to note that an Official Account cannot be changed to another type once opened. However, companies can have up to two Official Accounts if it makes sense for their aims.

How does WeChat differ from other social media channels?

It is not uncommon to hear Chinese social media described in the context of international social media – for example, “WeChat is the Facebook of China”. Such comparisons are not strictly wrong, given some of the similarities between Chinese and other social media channels, but they also are not sufficient to capture the breadth of what platforms such as WeChat can offer.

Unlike some international social media channels that are simply communication tools or content-sharing platforms, WeChat is very much a full lifestyle application.

In many ways, WeChat simplifies social media for foreign brands seeking to reach Chinese audiences. If you need a tool for sharing content, there is a Subscription Account dedicated to doing so. If you want to sell products and services, a Service Account allows you to do this effectively.

This breadth of capability, paired with a user experience that makes it easy to find the brands associated with a Subscription or Service Account, positions WeChat as a fairly comprehensive tool for businesses operating in China.

Moreover, the app supports a wide range of content – video, articles, surveys and more – and communications capabilities, which businesses can leverage to drive engagement with their audience.

How can users discover and interact with WeChat content?

WeChat Official Accounts offer businesses the tools they need to interact with their target market in China. But how exactly does engagement happen on WeChat? How does content gain traction once it is 'out there'? There are three main ways:

Sharing: WeChat users who read an article or watch a video they enjoy can share it directly with friends who might then do the same, or re-post it in a WeChat chat group, giving it visibility among the group's members.
Engagement: Users can 'like', comment on, or give a 'thumbs-up' to content on WeChat. Each article published by an Official Account that a user engages with is tracked and can be spread using a function called 'Wow'. The Wow button at the bottom of an article enables a user to share that article with their friends. Users can also see the top articles that their friends have shared through the Wow function.
Search: WeChat has its own search engine, whereby users can discover content through keywords. This brings into view what can be considered as a form of WeChat search engine optimisation, whereby content creators try to ensure their publications include the keywords they would like their work to be associated with.

Next steps

This introduction to WeChat’s Official Accounts just scratches the surface and is intended to get you thinking about what is possible for brands engaging with this social media platform for the first time.

If you would like to chat about how to begin using WeChat for your business, please contact us here.

In the next part of this series, we will cover content etiquette on WeChat – explaining how to avoid cultural missteps and reputational crises.

An Overview of WeChat Official Accounts for Businesses