If you want to get your brand on WeChat, you’ll need to go through a setup process that is more in-depth than the average Western social platform.
There are a few things about the setup that you should decide saudi arabia phone number ahead of time; otherwise, you could run into big problems later.
We’ve helped Western businesses set up many WeChat accounts, so we’ll share our advice with you here.
What you’ll learn in this guide:
What is a WeChat Official Account?
Should You Use a Service or Subscription Account?
How to Set Up a WeChat Official Account
Limitations for Foreign Accounts
Should You Co-operate With a Chinese Business?
Who Should Operate Your Account?
Setup Steps
FAQ
Table of Contents
What is a WeChat Official Account?
Should You Use a Service or Subscription Account?
How To Set Up a WeChat Official Account
LIMITATIONS FOR FOREIGN ACCOUNTS
SHOULD YOU COOPERATE WITH A CHINESE BUSINESS?
WHO SHOULD OPERATE YOUR ACCOUNT?
SETUP STEPS
FAQ
What is a WeChat Official Account?
An Official Account (OA) is different from a personal account. It should be one of the key hubs for your brand in China.
With an OA, people can follow you, and you can post articles and create a mini-website within WeChat. You can even create mini-programs that function like apps, accept payments, provide customer support, and more.
To Chinese fans, your WeChat OA really is official in their eyes. If you don’t have one, they’ll probably think you aren’t serious about doing business in China yet.
Should You Use a Service or Subscription Account?
There are two main types of OAs: “service” and “subscription”.
Most businesses will want a service account (服务号) because it has stronger functionality and allows your posts to show up in the users’ main chat feed. This makes it more prominent and helps increase the open rates for your articles. With a service account, you can publish up to four posts per month, with each post containing up to eight articles.
Subscription accounts (订阅号) were made with media organizations in mind and they have one key strength—they can publish one post per day containing up to eight articles. Users can find the posts from all the subscription accounts they follow within the subscription folder. This means the content those accounts publish is an extra click away and mixed in with other providers’ content. Overall, we’ve found it common for Chinese users to follow up to 100 subscription accounts.
If this sounds a bit confusing, check out a 5-minute video here, where I show the two different account types in action on my phone.