Recently a lot of people ask me about Xiaohongshu marketing and how to choose the right KOL. RED is a very special social platform with 88% female users and 60%+ millennials. In order to understand what RED users like to read, you can start from getting familiar with the top KOLs on RED.
I have shared 5 top RED KOLs and explain why they are popular and how they help brands on marketing. Glad to see that many of you find it interesting. Here I summarise these 5 KOLs into an article and will share some advice with you at the end. Hope this can give you an idea on how to work with them.
Remarks: These KOLs all start from normal users. We don't discuss celebrities like Fan Bingbing here.
1. @陈白羊
The first KOL I share today is @陈白羊. One of the examples RED staff always talk about.
陈白羊 was born in 1992, graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy and already has 2 kids. She has 1.6 million followers on RED.
She likes to share about fashion ideas, makeup tips, travelling, and her 2 kids. One time she worked with Japanese luxury jewelry brand I-PRIMO and promoted a constellation diamond ring worth RMB 60-70k. The next day a lot of young couples went to I-PRIMO offline shops with her photo and asked for the ring 陈白羊 posted.
She has also worked with a lot of famous beauty and baby products brands including CHANEL, Unicharm, AVENT, AVEDA and Fan Bingbing's brand FANBEAUTY.
2. @Irene林恩如
Today I will introduce you the second KOL @Irene林恩如. Irene was born in 1995. She joined RED in March 2016 and now she has 1.9 million followers. She is one of the most famous KOL on RED and has a very close relationship with RED staff.
She went to Singapore when she was 15. At the age of 21, she had already obtained her master degree. She then came back to Shanghai and set up her own fashion brand LRENE. Now she is operating her own brand shop LRENE STUDIO on RED and Taobao.
Irene likes to share fashion mix & match, travelling, and beauty tips. Her fans like to call her “Little Fairy (小仙女)”. She has also been one of the spokesperson of RED, helping promote REDHome, MissRED, REDSelect and RED 6.6 anniversary sale.
Irene has been working with a lot of fashion and beauty brands, including CHANEL, FENDI, L’OREAL, OPPO, and SEPHORA etc.
3. @Ritatawang
Rita Wang is a 25-year-old fashion brand owner, having joined RED only two years ago in August 2016, she already has over 2.6 million followers and is undeniably one of the most influential KOLs on RED.
Rita got her master degree from College of Art & Design in Central Saint Martins and was offered job opportunities to work with two renowned fashion brands, CELINE and Burberry. When she was struggling whether to stay in the UK or come back to China, her followers on RED encouraged her to start her own business.
In June 2017, she returned to China and created her own brand Ritatawang on Taobao. After 2 months of preparation, she launched her first collection in August, then received 1200 orders in one day, and everything was sold out.
Rita enjoys sharing her outfits, life, mood and more on this platform and loves the positive energy and feedback she obtains from RED. She was also invited by RED to the REDHome opening and to talk about her own experience on REDTalk.
4. @詹小猪Coco
@詹小猪Coco, with 1 million followers on RED, is still a year-4 student in Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.
Coco joined RED only one year ago in March 2017. Her first post was about the Valentine’s Day with her boyfriend, with a photo of herself holding a bunch of roses. 2 hours after her first post, she received 1000+ followers and 100+ comments, which surprised her that users are not only interested in shopping tips, but also her daily life. 3 months after she joined RED, she was selected to be one of the KOLs on RED 6.6 Anniversary Sale Poster.
In her own words, Coco’s RED posts are about “3L” – List, Love and Lego. List represents song list, movie list, and book list she always shares with her followers. Love is about her boyfriend, college and daily life. She once joked that her boyfriend was even more popular than her. Lego is her biggest hobby – Coco is a huge Lego fan.
Coco was invited several times to join brand events, including REDHome opening, an interview with Diane von Furstenburg, Shiseido x Yazbukey event in Tokyo, CHANEL Game Center, and Dior Haute Couture Show etc.
5. @凌听雨
@凌听雨 is one of the most popular KOL on RED with 2.3 million followers. She joined RED less than 2 years ago on September 2016. @凌听雨 is famous as a KOL in sports and fitness. She likes to post her workout photos and videos, and shares about how to keep fit. If you have a sports related brand, like sneakers or workout clothes, you may want to contact her.
Her boyfriend @大狗熊先生, a photographer, takes most of her photos and appears a lot in her posts. Although he has only 1000+ followers, the couple always comes together when promoting a brand.
@凌听雨 has been working with brands including Estee Lauder, SK-II, NESCAFE, TOM FORD etc.
SUMMARY
At the end of the article, I'll summarise by answering the following 2 questions.
What do these 5 KOLs have in common?
The answer is that they are simply all well educated, middle class millennials with a good and stylish fashion sense. They are keen on sharing their personal life (outfits, love life, school life etc.) with their followers who represent the vast majority of RED users, young girls who wish to live like them.
What content does RED users like to read?
By reading KOLs' contents and comments from followers, we can find out what types of contents are attractive to users. There are essentially 4 key points, the content must:
Have photos/videos and be very attractive and eye catching
Be soft and not focus so much on hard selling
Share more personal experience, not just promote a product
Interact with followers
Hope this will be helpful for your future marketing campaigns on RED.