The more niche the track, the more popular it is on Xiaohongshu

The Douyin fan-increasing list for March has been released, with the emergence of many new faces, including distinctive faces from niche tracks that stand out. What kind of content model did they use to successfully increase their fans? Kas Data is here to help us analyze and learn, let’s take a look.

Xiaohongshu's March fan growth rankings have been released. Let's take a look at the rankings first:

The top spot went to @董洁, who has been livestreaming on Xiaohongshu recently. With her fame in the film and television industry, her sincere and friendly livestreaming style, and her unique product selection strategy, @董洁 gained 400,000 followers last month, and this month she "went all out", attracting 528,000 followers in a single month, far ahead of other creators.

Ranked second, @李嗲Lydiaaa features a couple with high IQ and good looks. In addition to posting their daily life as a couple, the bloggers also fully utilized their "high IQ" characteristics and took a different path to increase followers for the couple account through professional scientific evaluation videos. This month, they gained 389,400 followers in a single month thanks to a sunscreen evaluation note.

The third place is the male star @Jing Boran. After entering Xiaohongshu, many stars have chosen a "down-to-earth" path, and Jing Boran is no exception. He defines his account as a "circle of friends", and his personal introduction also reads "Welcome to my circle of friends", and he often interacts with fans in the comment area.

Looking through his account, you will find that his notes are mainly daily outfit photos, showing his handsome appearance while also conveying more inspiration to male users. More importantly, these notes that record real life have narrowed the distance between ordinary people and celebrities, and are full of intimacy. According to observations, @井柏然 has been gaining followers since entering Xiaohongshu, and in March he ranked TOP3 on the list with 333,600 followers.

@Jing Boran Xiaohongshu screenshot

Among the remaining accounts, two bloggers gained more than 200,000 followers, and the remaining 15 accounts gained between 100,000 and 200,000 followers. The gap is not too big, which also reflects the fierce competition among bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Except for a few bloggers at the top, the speed of gaining followers of the remaining bloggers is not much different. It can be seen that it will become increasingly difficult for creators to make a name for themselves on Xiaohongshu.

In terms of the types of accounts on the list, in February, the list covered seven categories: drama, celebrities, talent, workplace, games, beauty, and sports. The two tracks with the highest ranking rates were "drama" and "celebrity", with six bloggers on the list respectively. This is consistent with the public's consistent perception of Xiaohongshu, while the ranking of accounts in the other five tracks was relatively evenly distributed.

Next, let’s take a look at the details of several dark horse accounts in March.

1. @李嗲Lydiaaa, a high IQ couple became famous through hardcore evaluation

Couple accounts have long been popular in the short video ecosystem. The reason is that the act of shipping a couple fits the gossipy nature of netizens and satisfies everyone's inner desire to "peek into other people's private lives."

In addition, compared to love in the real world, the packaged couple stories in short videos are more in line with ordinary people's expectations of sweetness and romance. Therefore, many netizens now enjoy the process of "watching" others fall in love.

In this context, Xiaohongshu, which has always focused on appearance and exquisiteness, has become a breeding ground for various couple accounts. @AriaAndBrandon @金圣一, two bloggers that Kass had written about before, have gained a large number of fans on Xiaohongshu with their high appearance and high humor.

The protagonist of the couple account @李嗲Lydiaaa that appeared in this issue's fan-growing list, in addition to the necessary elements we have just mentioned, also has a unique charm that is different from ordinary couple accounts, that is, both of them are highly intelligent: one of the protagonists is a student at Tsinghua University, and the other is a student at Renmin University of China, both of whom are excellent and evenly matched.

@李嗲Lydiaaa screenshot of Xiaohongshu video

It is worth noting that some time ago, the male protagonist also participated in the large-scale brain competition reality show "The Brain", and made his character of "love-brained academic master" famous on the show.

In this program full of experts, the production team designed a "challenge" challenge at the beginning to stimulate the enthusiasm of many contestants. In this section that should be "tit-for-tat", the "challenge" issued by the male protagonist of the account, Xiang Wang Ji Nao Wang, turned out to be a confession to his girlfriend: "My girlfriend and I are getting married soon! If I beat you, can you help our future children with math?"

@李嗲Lydiaaa screenshot of Xiaohongshu video

Such a challenge post seems out of place among a series of "harsh words". Many netizens expressed that they were touched and said that he may not be the smartest brain, but he is definitely the smartest love brain.

The girlfriend also shared this funny story with everyone on Xiaohongshu, which not only attracted a lot of traffic to the account, but also with the endorsement of this highly valuable program, the image of the two people with high education and high IQ became more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, making fans have a stronger sense of trust in them.

Although their daily love life is also very sweet, the reason why their account stands out from all kinds of love accounts is that they have recently taken an unconventional approach and conducted hardcore reviews. Unlike other bloggers who analyze product ingredients or experience products in person and only evaluate based on personal feelings, their experiments focus on the support of scientific data.

For example, one of the hottest blogs in March was a review of sunscreen. Unlike ordinary bloggers who apply it on their bodies and then go out in the sun to compare with the naked eye, their review used a precision instrument said to be worth more than five figures, which can measure the absorption of light in each wavelength band and derive a definitive conclusion.

@李嗲Lydiaaa screenshot of Xiaohongshu video

Together with her boyfriend, the blogger conducted experimental tests on sunscreens from multiple brands, and in order to ensure the scientific nature of the conclusions, they also set up multiple control experiments. They then gave the final answer to the question of "which brand of sunscreen can prevent tanning" from a digitally quantifiable perspective. What's even more interesting is that even when working with brands on advertising videos, the two of them were not soft-hearted.

For example, in the promotion of a brand of repair essence, the blogger chose zebrafish, which have 80% similarity with human genes, for the experiment. By observing the decrease in the number of white blood cells after the stimulated fish were smeared with the repair product, the blogger verified whether the product really had super repair ability.

@李嗲Lydiaaa screenshot of Xiaohongshu video

This kind of evaluation with professional endorsement, scientific basis, and "impartial" testers will undoubtedly be liked by many users and is known as the most reliable evaluation blogger. Kas observed that many people left comments in the comment area about new products, hoping that the two "wild" evaluation bloggers could help them avoid minefields.

2. @Ni Zhixiang, a flower arrangement teacher, is looking for big opportunities in Xiaohongshu

Compared with the early short video content ecology that tended to be more of a single general entertainment attribute, the current short video ecology has gradually shown a more specialized, vertical, and segmented appearance in terms of entertainment tone. Among them, content that uses interests and hobbies to boost user growth has also begun to grow in full swing.

Among them, some originally niche interest-based content has not only gained the attention of specific enthusiasts, but also attracted many users from other circles. The blogger @插花教学倪志翔 on the fan increase list this time has attracted nearly 160,000 fans on Xiaohongshu in a single month with his "Oriental flower arrangement" skills. Observing the works on his account, the videos often use simple backgrounds: a plain background, a white table, and nothing on the table except a vase, which is only illuminated by a beam of spotlight.

Oriental flower arrangement works are also relatively simple, often consisting of only one or two flower branches. They appear concise and clear, and the picture makes people feel the beauty of "Zen". Coupled with the rising white smoke, the atmosphere is full.

@flower arrangement teaching Ni Zhixiang Xiaohongshu video screenshot

Although his videos are short, each video tells some practical flower arranging techniques, such as how to use new branches to fix flowers in a large vase, how to trim flower branches, how to design the layout of the entire flower arrangement, etc., so that flower arranging novices can learn new knowledge.

In addition to teaching flower arrangement skills, his works also offer some life philosophies if you savor them carefully. For example, Ni Zhixiang often says that flower arrangement works should be derived from nature, but also transcend nature; and his choices when cutting flower branches often make fans sigh like the gains and losses in life. Of course, flower arrangement is a relatively subjective aesthetic after all, and different people have different opinions. His comment area is often very lively, and we can see that fans express their opinions freely below, which is very helpful in increasing the popularity of his works.

In addition to flower arrangement, there is another dark horse in this fan growth list, that is photography blogger @夏废疾_(乡外版). In fact, photography is not a niche on Xiaohongshu, but the angle chosen by Xia Qiji is very rare. Her makeup, scenery, and shooting style are always exquisite and reveal a hint of weirdness. Her works are mainly horror aesthetics or grotesque aesthetics.

For example, in a video she posted on March 21, a "Bodhisattva" with delicate makeup and gorgeous clothes was pushed into a mud pit, and muddy hands kept touching her. Even in such a miserable state, the "Bodhisattva" remained seated, with an expressionless face but firm eyes. The whole video was filled with a sense of fragmented beauty.

@夏废疾_(Going to the Countryside Version) Xiaohongshu video screenshot

Frankly speaking, the blogger's style may not conform to the mainstream aesthetics of the public at present, and such works may cause various controversies on other platforms, but on Xiaohongshu, @夏废疾_(乡外版) has attracted many like-minded fans. Looking at other creators of niche tracks on the platform, many of them can gather a group of "like-minded people" with their niche and high-quality content. Analyzing the reasons, Xiaohongshu's equal rights and decentralized distribution mechanism undoubtedly provides them with fertile soil for survival, which is also one of the charms of Xiaohongshu.

What outstanding works and creators will emerge on Xiaohongshu next month? Let’s wait and see.

Author: Kas Data

Source: WeChat public account: "CaasData (ID:caasdata6)"