Live Streaming on WeChat Channels

June 7, 2022

Live streaming is the new Holy Grail for brands and businesses that are constantly looking for new methods to better engage their customers. This allows businesses to better understand their customer preferences, which aids in sales conversion and increases brand awareness. 

WeChat is a great medium for getting to know your customers and providing them with a variety of content that keeps them engaged and connected to your brand.

In this article, let’s look at another type of content to broadcast within the WeChat ecosystem beyond the WeChat Article and WeChat Channels video feeds: live streaming on WeChat. Tencent offers two different ways to stream live video: 

  • Through own mini programs’ integrated live streaming capability,
  • WeChat Channels’ built-in feature.

Brands that decide to use their own mini-programs to live stream have more flexibility when it comes to the live stream format but on the downside, these sessions won’t be discoverable on the growing Channels tab. Tencent has ambitious plans for Channels as it was highlighted during the Weixin Pro class earlier this year with already more than 450 million Daily Active Users. 

In the last couple of months, we’ve seen WeChat boosting its live steaming feature by providing brands with more ways of promoting their live streams and increasing the number of touchpoints where users can discover them. WeChat Channels accounts’ main page even shows how many live streams each account hosted.

In our blog post today we will focus on how to live-stream using WeChat Channels. 

What Are the Benefits of Using WeChat Channels Live Streaming?

WeChat live streaming is a new feature that allows you to live stream videos directly from your WeChat account. It’s an amazing tool for businesses and individuals who want to get their content out into the world and engage with their audience. Here are just some of the benefits of using WeChat live streaming:

  • It’s easy to use. Unlike other streaming platforms, WeChat has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for anyone to create a live broadcast.
  • The platform is free and easy to access on any device (desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile). You can even access it from multiple devices at once.
  • Businesses can learn about the feelings of the audience right away by looking at their comments and reactions. They can also get honest customer feedback in real-time.
  • Learn what matters to customers when it comes to product selection.
  • Brands can reach a larger audience with less effort than ever before.
  • Companies can increase brand awareness and build a loyal fanbase.
  • Accounts can seamlessly incorporate e-commerce into their live streams and conserve with the clients. 

Top Live-Streaming Formats & Approaches

WeChat Channels Live Streaming Formats

Top WeChat Channels Live Streaming Formats

  • KOLs, live streamers 

Format: The host of the Livestream introduces and tests products.

Objective: Mainly to drive sales

Examples: Lee, Only

  • Fashion show

Format: A Livestream of a fashion show, with no host for the most part.

Objective: Awareness

Examples: Armani, Givenchy

  • Discussion rooms

Format: Hosts speak about various topics and respond to questions

Objective: Awareness, sometimes sales

Examples: HEYTEA, Shiseido

Livestream – Discovery: How Do Users Find Out About Live Streams?

Users can learn about your live streams in a variety of ways, including:

  1. A brand can add a plate informing about the upcoming live stream into the article. 
  2. WeChat displays a red dot and the name of the account that is currently live-streaming on the ‘Discover’ page.
  3. The streams of subscription accounts are promoted within the subscription folder with the currently streaming accounts encircled in red.
  4. A button to ‘reserve‘ (be alerted) when the live stream begins is included in all accounts.
  5. On the main channel page of WeChat Channels that are now streaming, there is a tile displaying the stream cover.
  6. Brand zone when searching for the brand through WeChat Search.
  7. And potentially more to come.
WeChat Channels Live Streaming Discovery Touchpoints

WeChat Channels Live Streaming Discovery Touchpoints

💬 If you are new to WeChat Channels you might want to get more familiar with the best tactics and grow your fanbase before organizing your first live-streaming sessions: WeChat Channels – How to Post for Success? 

Notable Livestream Features

  • Livestream – Purchase Path: When visitors enter the live-stream room, a floating window displays on the screen with a link to a direct e-commerce product page. By clicking on the ‘shopping bag’ icon, users can browse additional products. Users can look up additional information about a product and add it to their cart, or they can buy it right away and pay.

    WeChat Channels Live Streaming Purchase Path

    WeChat Channels Live Streaming Purchase Path

  • Livestream – Customer Service: Users can use the ‘comment’ function to ask questions, and they can also go to ‘customer service from the product page. Brands can also include a button to add a WeCom customer service contact to talk to the sales team one-on-one. By clicking on the ‘phone’ symbol (a rarely utilized feature), users can call the host live. Users can also participate in a live video or audio call with the host in real-time.
  • Livestream – Sharing a Stream: The stream can be shared with friends or uploaded to Moments. The user will be given a preview similar to WeChat Channels (live-stream cover). The preview will be blurred if the live stream has already ended. Users can click to reserve a live stream if a brand has already planned one.
WeChat Channels Live Streaming Sharing

WeChat Channels Live Streaming Sharing

  • Other features of a live stream: Livestream also offers the ability to hold lucky draws and create red packets. Users are invited to ‘comment’ (typically a brief message) to enter a random drawing for a prize – usually a tiny e-commerce coupon (which is quite popular). Red packets gifts can also be set up by hosts for their guests (Not very popular)

How to apply for WeChat Live Streaming?

Brands cannot start a live stream automatically. WeChat requires a formal application in the WeChat Channels backend to open the live streaming function.

Fill in:

  • The type of live streaming, 
  • Short-term and long-term plans, 
  • Contact information.
WeChat Channels Live Streaming Application

WeChat Channels Live Streaming Application

For the live stream, the WeChat Channel operator can stream directly from their mobile phone or computer desktop. 

When the application is approved in the WeChat Channels backend will share the streaming address and key provided by the video account assistant to output live streams through third-party platforms such as OBS.

Additional options: 

  1. Target Audience: when applying for the broadcasting, the brand can choose to allow only users on the list to watch your live broadcast – this requires uploading a list of WeChat IDs of selected users. 
  2. Products & Coupons: brand can upload a list of products and coupons in the backend that can be later on used and shared with the viewers during the session. 
  3. Teasers & reservations: brand can create a live steaming reservation and fill in the live steaming time and introduction. After successful creation, a brand can then insert the reservation card into the official account posts. At the same time, it can also be directly displayed in the video of the channel. A QR code is also available to download.
  4. Additional links: there are 4 types of links that that account can place during the live streaming:
    • Link to the next live stream and its reservation (to receive notification)
    • Link to the official account article
    • WeCom customer service contact card
    • Hongbao – red packet.
WeChat Channels Live Streaming Links

WeChat Channels Live Streaming Links

Before preparing your next live streaming session don’t forget to read out article on live streaming dos and don’ts.

Conclusion

WeChat has emerged as an extremely useful and powerful tool for businesses looking to expand to the Chinese market. From its live-streaming feature to its various other content, WeChat represents the growing trend of mobile-first social media. 

Its continued success is evident in the way it has already become an indispensable platform for businesses to market their products and build brand influence, not just in China but across Asia. That’s something brands would be wise not to overlook. 

If you wish to know more about WeChat and its various features, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact at contact@thewechatagency.com.

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WeChat Channels – How to Post for Success?

May 7, 2022

WeChat Channels, which was released for beta testing in early 2020, is a relatively new short and largely untapped video platform within WeChat that allows users to produce and share short video clips and photographs to their own WeChat Channel.

The WeChat Channels feed also allows users to discover information posted to other Channels (by their friends and other WeChat accounts). Here’s our Beginners Guide to WeChat Channels if you want a shorter version or TL: DR one

WeChat Marketing Strategies

WeChat Channels, with over 200 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), are becoming an increasingly essential touchpoint for marketers in China. They greatly aid in brand discovery because the content is displayed to all users rather than just followers, as is the case with articles on official accounts. With fully open content dissemination and adoption of hashtags, content is discovered in a whole new way on WeChat. Compared to official accounts where updates are only visible to followers, this is truly a gamechanger. 

What Are Some of the Advantages of WeChat Channels?

Channels provide numerous options to promote your brand by encouraging people to share with their friends or in their Moments. Viewers can like and comment on the post, as well as on the remarks of others. Channels content liked by your contacts will be automatically shown to you in the tab ‘Liked by friends’ and they will see content liked by you too (unless you change your privacy settings). 

Each WeChat Channel post may have the following elements:

  • A short description 
  • A number of relevant, popular, branded and contextual hashtags
  • A location tag
  • A link to an article on WeChat Official Account or a red packet 
  • A link to an online event (live streaming)

Trending Content on WeChat Channels

The most popular WeChat channel content is very similar to that found on Douyin or TikTok. It is viral in nature and is driven by trends and hashtags such as dancing challenges, lip-sync skits, memes, and fashion and food-related videos. 

However, Channels are also a great brand discovery tool for B2B brands with a much more mature audience that uses WeChat on a daily basis for professional communication – educational content and news are among the top content. That’s why visual and video professional content has much higher chances to resonate on WeChat compared to other short video platforms. 

According to the Weixin Class pro, Tencent will pay even more emphasis on Channels in the coming months, and there are already some modifications in the works, such as the addition of WeChat’s own services menus.

Read about WeChat Class PRO 2022 (WeChat creator’s annual competition)

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Channels on WeChat

Step 1: Open your WeChat account.

To begin, log in to your personal WeChat account using the WeChat app.

Even if you have an Official Account on WeChat, Channels must first be launched by personal accounts before they can be linked to brands.

Pro tip: Before you start, keep in mind that if you want to link between your Official Account and Channel account (these two are not automatically connected), the admin of the OA and Channel account must be the same. 

Step 2: Proceed to the WeChat Channels tab.

Once you’ve logged into your personal account, go to the main navigation bar and click on the ‘Discover’ button, then select ‘WeChat Channels.’ This will take you to the WeChat Channels feed.

Step 3: Select the camera icon in the upper right corner.

You should see a small camera icon in the upper right corner of the WeChat Channels feed – click on it, and then the ‘new channel’ option appears.

Step 4: Complete your WeChat Channel profile.

You will then be prompted to submit the following information:

  • Name (use your brand name)
  • Bio
  • Gender
  • Location 

Fill these in and click ‘create’.

Next steps: As a next step you might want to connect your official account with the newly created Channels account and apply for verification (blue tick). 

Posting on WeChat Channels

Today, we’ll go through how to post on channels to get the most out of your efforts.

There are two methods for posting to Channels.

  • One from the mobile (for brands account only for the admin mobile)
  • One from the computer (operators can be added in the backend)

Apart from a number of video editing capabilities that are useful for on-the-go artists (adding music, cropping video), both offer the same options for post-production optimization.

WeChat Channels

WeChat Channels Backend View

WeChat Channels Content Types – Formats

What goes into a post on a WeChat Channel?

  • Up to 9 images can be uploaded.
  • Videos can be up to one hour long, 2GB in size, and in mp4 format.

Pictures function similarly to Instagram carousel posts, but video footage can be preferred by the algorithm. So, if you have a few photos, you can try to edit them into a film to get better results.

When it comes to videos, bear in mind that the attention span on WeChat is relatively short, so while you can publish extended movies, try to make them brief and relevant.

Choose a vertical format whenever possible! Users usually check WeChat Channels on mobile devices, therefore horizontal may not be attractive for viewers.

WeChat Channels

Tips to Optimize Post Description 

  • Length – Keep it brief and to the point, just like you would for Instagram. Keep in mind that only the first few lines of our copy will display, therefore hook.
  • Hashtags – will help to increase your visibility, but Channels are not entirely hashtag-driven platforms. Concentrate on a few well-chosen hashtags, such as your business name, campaign topic, or broad topic. Put the hashtags at the beginning or end of the copy.
  • Mentions – In your post, you can tag the accounts of other Channels. Excellent for collaboration. 
  • Location – you can include it to boost exposure, but it’s optional.
  • Link – From an official account or a red cover, you can link to an article. To find your article link, open it in WeChat and click (…) in the upper right corner, then ‘copy link.’ Use this feature to direct traffic to your official account.
  • Activity – you can add a link to a live-streaming event 
  • Time of publication – You can schedule your post or publish it immediately.

Conclusion

Short video content has become the latest trend in China and is growing at an astonishing speed. It is reported that the number of short video users has reached 920 million by end of 2021.*  

WeChat has been pushing users to make and watch videos on WeChat Channels, so it may see increased traffic in the near future. If you wish to know more about WeChat channels or need assistance in optimising your WeChat account, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact at contact@thewechatagency.com.

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A Beginner’s Guide to WeChat Channels

April 8, 2022
WeChat Channels Video

Posting on WeChat Channels on Mobile

WeChat has developed a new dedicated space for video content, similar to Instagram Reels. It is targeted towards content creators, brands, businesses and individuals who want to reach out to a new (or existing) audience beyond their circle of WeChat followers.

This new touchpoint can potentially be a great convergence of opportunities, especially since the short video market is on a steep rise.

As of mid-2022, WeChat Channels have approximately 450 million Monthly Active Users, it’s a 50% growth since the last year and we can only see Tencent investing more and adding new functions as they have already announced at Weixin Class PRO – an annual conference for WeChat creators.

1. Introduction to WeChat Channel

What are WeChat Channels?

It’s not a new app. It’s a new feature inside WeChat that allows users, influencers, and brands to create short format videos (or carousel, up to 9 pictures) and distribute them on their feed. Other info that can be added to the post is:

  • Hashtags to improve discoverability
  • A WeChat Official Account article link, if any
  • A location

A video feed on WeChat Channels looks similar to the type of feed on other popular short-video Chinese apps like Douyin (Tik Tok as it’s known internationally – see what’s the difference between TikTok and Douyin) or Kuaishou. Users can scroll through the feed infinitely to discover what their friends & their favorite brands have posted as well as content from the other users, influencers and public accounts.

As with any feed, this feed too is ruled by an algorithm that displays content not only from your WeChat contact or the WeChat Official / WeChat Video Account you follow but also from the rest of WeChat, depending on your behavior on the app. That means WeChat users are able to explore content and follow users that are not in their contact and WeChat Official Accounts that they are not following.

This brings a new trajectory to increase discovery on WeChat, which has been a relatively closed ecosystem before (in terms of privacy settings and discoverability).

🔥We prepared this helpful step-by-step list for WeChat Channels – How to Post for Success? Get familiar with it to unlock your reach.

 

Here are some important algorithmic factors to determine content display:

  • Number of likes = Popularity
  • Geo-location
  • Your WeChat friends/contacts’ engagements and activities
  • Followed accounts

2. Posting on Channels

How to register to WeChat Channels to start posting

You can apply to post by clicking on the camera icon on the top right top of the screen from your WeChat personal account. For official brand account, the admin for both WeChat Official Account and WeChat Channels account must be the same. 

Here is the information to fill in during the registration of your Channels profile:

  • Name
  • Brief description
  • Gender
  • Location

Once completed and created, you are able to start posting.

We recommend that brands go a step further and undergo an additional verification process to enjoy more features like connecting their WeChat Channels video account to their official WeChat account (where articles are posted) and live streaming and e-commerce.

➡️ Check out our: ULTIMATE Live-Streaming Guide for WeChat Channels

 

Live Streaming Channels

Live Streaming on WeChat Channels

Functions that are accessible from the WeChat Channels Dashboard are:

  • List of WeChat Channels Account you follow
  • List of followers
  • Number of views
  • List of interactions (comments / likes / notifications) with your WeChat Channels Account

3. How to access the section ‘WeChat Channel’?

There are 2 main opportunities to drive traffic:

  • From the ‘Discover’ section

This feature is accessible from the ‘Discover’ section in the main menu. The ‘Channels’ item is just below the ‘Moments’ item.

  • By Sharing

There is a ‘Go to Channel’ CTA on the landing page after clicking on the Channels-related post shared card. 

 

WeChat channels provide a great opportunity for KOLs and brands to up their short-video game and leverage the huge WeChat user base at the same time. Because of the boom in the short-video market, many brands have already started leveraging WeChat Channel’s features, and more are pushing their marketing plans to accommodate it.

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