Interpreting the growth opportunities for creators and brands from the content ecosystem characteristics of Xiaohongshu

The threshold for producing pictures and texts is low, and creators can try it out on Xiaohongshu at a low cost. The author of the following article explains the opportunities for content creators on Xiaohongshu based on the community ecological characteristics of Xiaohongshu. Let's take a look.

I don’t want to discuss increasing followers, but I hope that creators can have a deeper understanding of the core of this ecosystem and gain fundamental insight into growth opportunities.

From the aspects of content creation, monetization and personal IP building, the following four characteristics are extracted:

1. Low threshold for content creation
2. It is easier to monetize low-volume products
3. The content paradigm is very clear
4. Flexible creation of personal IP

The following is a detailed account, from core ideas to ecological characteristics, hoping to inspire content creators of Xiaohongshu.

1. Low threshold for content creation

Core ideas:

The threshold for producing pictures and texts is low, and creators can try them out on Xiaohongshu at a low cost. This reduces the difficulty of going from 0 to 1 in the early stage, and makes it easier to optimize in the mid-term.

Ecological characteristics:

From the perspective of content supply, the cost of producing pictures and texts is low and the efficiency is high; the situation is the opposite for videos, which are high in cost and low in efficiency.

This feature is more suitable for novices or UGC, who can join the content creation camp of Xiaohongshu without investing too much in the early stage. This is a good thing for the platform.

From the perspective of content consumption, text and images are more efficient because it takes people much less time to recognize images than to consume videos.

Let me give you a simple example.

If I want to recommend a list of 10 books, consumers can finish reading it in 10 seconds using pictures and texts; but if I use short videos, even if I go at 2x speed, it may take more than half a minute to finish reading it.

Moreover, pictures and texts are presented separately instead of being mixed, which lowers the threshold for content production, just like posting a message on WeChat Moments.

Therefore, the conclusion is that the threshold for producing graphic content is low and the consumption efficiency is high, which is worth continued attempts by creators.

To extend.

The difference in consumption efficiency between pictures, texts and short videos is like the difference between Xiaohongshu and Bilibili.

When I was communicating with Liu Zhi, the operations VP of Bilibili, we discussed the issue of "how to view the high efficiency of consuming graphic and text content on Xiaohongshu". This may not be a threat to Bilibili, but it is at least a problem that it has to face.

Users have released their consumption demand for structured content on Xiaohongshu and will not look for it elsewhere.

From this perspective, it is easier to understand the advantages and value of graphics and texts.

Some friends are worried that Xiaohongshu is already pushing videos, which will squeeze the space for pictures and texts.

From an overall perspective, pictures and text will definitely receive less traffic. But as the foundation of the ecosystem, Xiaohongshu will leave a certain proportion of traffic for pictures and text, and will not let its scale become too small.

As for what the proportion will be, it is hard to say. For individual creators, it is not important.

As long as there is space for pictures and texts, you can try to do it. Moreover, it does not mean that you only produce pictures and texts. The best way is of course to update pictures, texts and videos interspersed.

2. It is easier to monetize low-volume products

Core ideas:

Xiaohongshu is more friendly to creators with low fans, and there are many cases of creators with thousands of fans turning a profit.

The "friendly" mentioned here includes two aspects: creator growth and monetization. The reason why it is called "more friendly" is mainly because it has an advantage in this aspect compared with Douyin and Kuaishou.

Ecological characteristics:

The characteristic of Kuaishou is that fans have strong stickiness and are willing and able to buy. But the problem is that the account creation cycle is too long, which takes about 3 months on average, and many creators give up before they can persist.

Tik Tok has long been in a state of excessive inward-lookingness. Apart from the phenomenon of low-fan monetization in life services, other tracks are unlikely.

But on Xiaohongshu , there are many creators with thousands of fans, and they all have cases of monetization.

There are two main reasons, both related to content distribution:

First, the double-column model is people looking for content, while the single-column model is content looking for people. Relatively speaking, the former has a stronger decentralized attribute, and low-fans have more growth opportunities.

The representatives of double columns are Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu.

Let’s talk about Kuaishou first. It is friendly to low-fan creators in terms of distribution.

The early Kuaishou had two columns, which made it easier to see a variety of interesting content. The content was very rich, which was friendly to low-fan authors from a distribution perspective.

A few years ago, we often saw articles describing the richness of Kuaishou’s content on WeChat Moments, with each article having over 100,000 views.

Contents such as craftsmen, rural joke tellers, crane drivers, outdoor picnics, and construction site fitness. There was even a spontaneously made mixed-cut video by netizens called "Existence is Perfection" which became popular on the Internet.

Later, Kuaishou launched and strengthened the single-column format, which improved the data, but lost the richness of the content. And from the perspective of the composition of creator growth, the head effect is more obvious. That is, the head creators will get more traffic and increase their fans faster.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the top content creators have better data results because of their better content creation abilities. But judging from the results, at least it is more difficult for low-fan creators to grow.

In the words of a PR colleague: When the columns were doubled before, you could find interesting cases by just browsing like this, which could be used for publicity, but now it is no longer possible.

From the Kuaishou case, we can at least see that double columns are more friendly for low-fan creators.

Xiaohongshu currently still mainly uses double columns, which is the default tab. Single columns only appear in the scenarios of follow-up and content details pages, and will not have much impact on the ecosystem.

Secondly, Xiaohongshu users have a strong search mentality.

According to the data, the search penetration rate of Xiaohongshu is very high. I remember that the data a few years ago was 40%. In other words, 4 out of 10 people would use search.

This is very reasonable and understandable data.

Xiaohongshu’s predecessor was the “Hong Kong Shopping Guide”. Its DNA includes attributes of consumer decision-making and e-commerce recommendation. Its content types are also useful, so there is a perception that users actively search for content.

The high proportion of search behavior means that this is also a way of content distribution.

Since user searches are very fine-grained, highly personalized, and less timely, the recalled search results will be highly discrete.

In other words, a content distribution method such as search focuses more on the matching degree between search demand and results, and pays less attention to dimensions such as the number of followers of an account.

Therefore, Xiaohongshu's strong user search mentality is more friendly to the growth of low-fan creators.

It is precisely because of the golden combination of search mind + useful content that Xiaohongshu’s e-commerce grass-planting attributes are strengthened, so brands also pay more attention to this platform and will place advertisements.

Search will bring about accurate distribution of traffic and cover many low-follower accounts.

For brands, they can spend less money to target low-follower accounts; for low-follower creators, they can receive business orders earlier, which is a win-win result.

3. The content paradigm is very clear

Core ideas:

On the question of "what content is more popular on Xiaohongshu", there is a definite description, which is easier for people to understand. This reduces the difficulty of content production and gives novice creators the confidence to join.

Ecological characteristics:

When it comes to content, let’s start with the core data of the product, including product positioning, production and consumption, and user awareness.

Product positioning:

It focuses on useful content and is a lifestyle platform and a portal for consumer decision-making. Through search and useful minds, it meets most of the needs of Dianping/Zhihu.

User mindset:

• Young women's circle of friends
• encyclopedia
• Good things sharing and recommendation platform

Consumer products:

Food, beauty, fashion, and travel strategies account for more than 30%; they are irreplaceable in vertical categories such as food, travel strategies, recommendation, and home improvement;

User profile :

The majority of users are women (70%), young users under 35 years old (77%), and users from third-tier and higher-tier cities (70%). Women, young users, and users from higher-tier cities account for a higher proportion.

Consumption data:

User stickiness is high, with more than half of users using the app more than four days a week, and 65% of users using the app for more than half an hour. Female users have higher stickiness than male users.

Consumption form:

More than half of users mainly consume videos (54.7%), more than pictures and texts; the discovery page is the most consumed page (43%).

Xiaohongshu’s clear content paradigm is reflected in the following points:

1. Content that gives you a sense of achievement

Useful content emphasizes the user's sense of gain. It is mainly divided into collections, reviews, product recommendations, experience sharing, etc., as shown below.

That is, there are clear categories to try, and creators can understand what the content of these categories should be like.

I remember when I was chatting with MCN or influencers on Kuaishou, they would always ask me a question:

What kind of content do you want us to produce? As long as you can clearly state it, we can do it, and of course the platform must help promote it.

Not to mention others, I myself cannot explain this issue clearly and satisfy the other party.

Jokes, looks, food, emotions, and games are of course the largest categories, but this is not the answer that creators want to hear. I don’t need to say anything about such coarse-grained things, people know them too.

What the other party wants is not only a more detailed and fuller description, but also something that can be understood and broken down.

In this regard, Douyin and Xiaohongshu are the best, while Bilibili and Kuaishou are relatively worse. But I think this is not due to lack of human ability, but the content paradigm and interpretability of the latter two platforms are very weak.

Therefore, Bilibili uses the human sea strategy to serve creators. It invests a large number of creator service and operation personnel to connect, communicate, teach and motivate creators to produce content.

Douyin can basically explain how to play a category using a Feishu document.

Xiaohongshu doesn’t even need documentation.

2. Structured content

The graphic content must be logically clear, easy to read, and easy to understand. It has the following elements:

• Paragraphs: Divide into more paragraphs, it will look clearer;
• Comparison; Four-square grid: for example, before-and-after comparison, comparison of different products, etc.
• Steps: If it is a graphic content of practical experience, list them step by step;
• Add a small logo: in line with the tone of the Xiaohongshu community.

Click on the above image to enlarge it. Such cases can be easily found and understood without the need for documentation.

3. Beautiful cover

For a double-column product like Xiaohongshu, the first step is to increase the CTR, which is the first step in the conversion funnel.

It is the cover that determines the CTR.

To make a good cover, we need to focus on two aspects, namely aesthetics and content elements.

The cover aesthetic should cater to the audience of young women, and must have the following content elements: keywords + numbers + pain points + hot spots.

A brief explanation:

• Keywords: highlight the core theme of the content, or the product you want to talk about. For example, Gates's book list, bathroom goodies, and camera turning into SLR in seconds;
• Numbers: From a human visual instinct, titles with Arabic numerals are more attractive. 10 books recommended by Gates;
• Pain points: those points that directly hit the user's heart, such as how to negotiate layoff compensation and how to scientifically remove blackheads in 10 minutes;
• Hot topics: If you can link with current hot topics, the effect will be better. Of course, you have to use them reasonably, otherwise there will be negative effects. For example, ByteDance laid off more employees - how to discuss compensation, and the cultural figure (referring to Dong Yuhui) brought products to the Internet, is it really just an accident?

4. Segmented topics

As long as the content selection is good, it will bring a lot of reading or playback. This is like positioning a product, which is more important than experience.

Because Xiaohongshu has the ability to distribute long-tail categories, it can refine the topic and provide a formula:

Segmented topics = crowd + scene + location + product

The logic of this formula is to use more limiting elements to portray a more three-dimensional theme. For example, what kind of house can a single female programmer with a salary of 10,000+ rent in Beijing West Phase II?

5. The character can be extended

When creating a short video account or a personal IP, everyone knows that they need to create a persona, but the ways to create a persona are different on different platforms.

Taking Douyin and Xiaohongshu as examples, the former emphasizes consistency in personal image, while the latter encourages diversity.

Judging from the Douyin and Kuaishou examples in the above picture, if you want to become popular on such a platform, the most basic thing to do is to post content with the same personal setting frequently, and constantly strengthen the recognition of this account in the minds of users.

Therefore, the frameworks such as the characters appearing on screen, content patterns, and covers are all relatively consistent.

The above picture is a case study of a content creator on Xiaohongshu, which I found randomly.

In this account, content from multiple categories is posted, including outfits, book lists, and decoration, three completely unrelated categories. But judging from the data, fans are accepting of it.

This reflects the ecological characteristics of Xiaohongshu: since it is a lifestyle, it focuses more on people and is not limited by content categories.

Just like the Tsutaya Bookstore and Decathlon in the picture below, both of them focus on lifestyle, and the way they select and combine products no longer follows the logic of traditional shelves.

The character setting can be extended, which is a good thing for content creators, as it allows for a wider range of topics to choose from. The more choices there are, the lower the difficulty.

If you only create content around one image, it will run out of steam in two or three months.

4. Flexibly build personal IP

Core ideas:

Experiential content is suitable for building personal IP at low cost.

First of all, "experience" is individual, subjective, and diverse. There is no objective and unified correct answer, and the production cost of this type of content is low.

Secondly, the experience content highlights the personal differentiation elements, is more human, and is more suitable for portraying the IP image.

Ecological characteristics:

From the perspective of content supply, Xiaohongshu’s content positioning is useful, and what everyone shares is life experience.

For example, when it comes to rapid fat loss, everyone can have their own experience. As long as it is real and effective, not pseudoscience, this content has consumption value.

Moreover, precisely because they are personal experiences, each piece of content is very "human".

Possessing a strong personal touch, emotions, likes and dislikes. These characteristics further strengthen the character, because only expressions that are real, close, and emotional can attract fans and be remembered.

From the perspective of content consumption, consumers have their own ability to distinguish and judge, and they also accept this type of content.

In response to the creators’ emotional expressions, consumers also gave friendly and polite positive feedback in the comment area. Of course, this has a lot to do with the platform’s initial control of the atmosphere in the comment area.

Once formed in the community, the friendly interactive relationship between creators and consumers will continue.

To extend.

In this regard, the counterpart to Xiaohongshu is Bilibili.

If Xiaohongshu’s keyword is “experience”, then Bilibili’s keyword is “hardcore”. Obviously, hardcore content has a higher production cost, fewer creators meet this condition, and a longer production cycle.

The high production cost doesn’t matter, and B station’s monetization is not that smooth, so it can only generate electricity for love.

What's even more difficult is that the users of Bilibili are very picky, causing creators to often suffer both mental and material blows.

By comparing with Bilibili, it is easier to see through the characteristics of Xiaohongshu's "experience" content and guide content creation.

For example, you will understand that such content has low production costs; is suitable for presenting real personal characteristics and creating IP; and covers a wide range of content, with more content choices.

Author: Han Xu

Source: WeChat public account "Operation Dog Work Diary (ID: yunyingriji)"