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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

As public relations professionals, we’ve mastered the art of writing a press release. Catchy headline? No problem. Securing that perfect quote from the CEO? Easy. When it comes to crafting that ideal, newsworthy press release, we’ve got it down. So there’s nothing worse than sending it out to your list of media contacts and having it fall flat.

The hard truth is, that a press release is only as good as your pitch. And with reporters getting dozens (if not more) pitches in their email inbox every day, you need to make sure yours stands out.

In this blog post, we’ve compiled some best practices on how to pitch your press release to journalists. The following steps will make sure your pitch is more than just a mass email blast and help your team secure the visibility you’re seeking.

Follow these steps to pitch your press release to journalists:

1. Prepare Your Press Release for Distribution

There are a few simple ways to optimize your press release to make it even more appealing to a journalist. As always, be sure it has a compelling title and is descriptive enough that it gets your point across while sparking curiosity. You want whoever's scanning the titles to stop and want more.

Including a quote is a simple way to show off your brand’s human side, and a visual will catch their eye as something they could include with their story. These examples of press releases are great inspirations.

https://meltwater-experience.pages.dev/meltwater-blog-micro-content/how-to-pitch-a-release/

When it comes to building a list of media outlets and reporters you want to target, there is a delicate balance you should be shooting for. While volume is important, it’s more essential to research and make sure you’re pitching outlets and journalists that typically write about the topic or industry your story entails. Spending the time to build a good-sized list of reputable, relevant outlets will be well worth your efforts.

Research. Research. Research. Who are you speaking to and why? Thoroughly learn everything you can about their interests, their needs, and their audience. Read past stories they’ve written and follow their social accounts. This allows you to craft an effective pitch that will resonate with the person you’re speaking to. 

Only Meltwater offers a media contacts database that allows you to search for journalists by recent media coverage. This will help you tailor a media pitch to their most recent interests. Along with phone and social media contact info, you’ll also be able to send email straight from the tool and keep track of your open rates.

Important questions to ask yourself before you begin pitching your press release:

Do you have prior journalist relationships you can leverage? 

Before you begin the pitch process, it’s useful to know the audience you’re pitching to. Traditional media and influencers, such as bloggers, might have slightly different motivations for covering certain topics.

The modern convenience of media databases means that email pitches make it easy to spam hundreds (or even thousands) of journalists and influencers at the click of a button. If you’re tempted to do this, take a deep breath and reconsider. You can now create a list of journalists who are writing about topics like yours and in the cities or regions in which they are relevant. Use a media database to find those contacts more easily.

Is the only time you have contact with media or influencers when you want them to cover your brand or company? If so, you may reconsider this strategy.

Once you know where and by whom you’d like media coverage; try to establish an ongoing relationship. Starting a dialogue as soon as possible (especially when you aren’t immediately asking for coverage) will only to work to your advantage.

This can be as simple as following them on Instagram and commenting on their photos or engaging with them on relevant topics on Twitter. Or you can invest a bit more time and try asking those who are located near you out for lunch or coffee.

Once you’ve identified an interesting topic, make sure that how you’re coaching the pitch for maximum impact. Can you explain simply and quickly? Or in other words, will your audience “get it” right away. Find someone outside your company and give them a 60-second elevator pitch. 

Did you make all your most important points? Did they find them interesting? If the answer is no, focus in on what’s important, condense if necessary, and try approaching the topic from different angles. Is there a human interest angle? New hire? How does this impact the community-at-large? Ask yourself why someone should care. Ask an outsider again if they think how you’re saying, what you’re saying, is interesting. If the answer is still no, rinse and repeat, until the answer is yes.

Your pitch should be informative but concise. The sweet spot is between 4-6 sentences. Use this space to include your who, what, where, when, and any other critical or newsworthy details.

If a pitch gets much longer than 6 sentences, a reporter is more likely to skim it and miss important points. 

It's recommended to ensure your pitch is both timely and relates to something the journalist has written about previously or recently.

You could write a stellar pitch, but if the email never gets opened, then it won’t do you any good. To increase the chances that your email is opened, writing a compelling subject line is absolutely key.

The subject line for your PR pitch should be short (around 5-7 words), compelling, and lead with the most important part of your story.

Be cautious about beginning your subject line with “press release,” “pitch,” or “story idea.” Everyone does this! Did we mention reporters receive hundreds of pitches per day? Yours should stand out; not blend in with the masses.

Additionally, you may have heard to start your subject line with “Fwd:” or “re:” as to imply you’ve already been in a conversation with this reporter (when you haven’t). Don’t do this. Reporters will see right through this and ignore it. And if they do fall for it? Well, as soon as they open the email and realize they haven’t actually been in communication with you, your email will go in the trash bin — and so will any potential professional relationship with them.

In most cases, people focus on the subject line of an email, yet the pre-header text — the text that shows up to the right of the subject line in the recipient’s email — matters a lot too.

The goal of the pre-header text is to act as a teaser of what your pitch has to say. You want to grab the recipient’s attention in the pre-header as well as the subject line. In fact, after optimizing their pre-header text, on of our clients saw a 30% increase in their pitch open rates!

Now that you’ve written your basic pitch and email subject line, you should personalize the content of the email to further stand out to the journalist you’re sending it to. And yes, this means no CCs or even BCCs. 

When at all possible, you should be sending a unique and personalized email to each and every reporter on your list. Learn more about the power of personalized PR.

That means addressing them by name. Beginning your email pitch with “To whom it may concern” is the online equivalent of saying “Hey, you!” when you don’t remember that new colleagues name — not terribly friendly and likely to leave a bad taste in their mouth.

When you have an understanding of the reporter’s media outlet, focus, and style of writing, you’ll be able to explain why your press release may be of use to them and offer valuable story ideas.

As a general rule of thumb, never attach your press release or media kit/press kit to the email. Instead, include a link within the email text where they can view and download the materials. This is a much easier and more straight-forward than asking them to deal with an attachment. It's a simple measure you can take that will better your chances of success. 

Finally, be sure to include all relevant contact information. Offer your phone number as well as email address so that you’re easily accessible to answer any questions they may have.

The final step is all about timing. Your send time and date might be one the most strategic pieces to the puzzle when it comes to pitching your press release. Something is only “newsworthy” for an extremely limited time. And since most reporters need between a day and a week to turn around a story, you’ll need to send your pitch well before you expect the article to run. Email marketing software can help get manage email campaigns and gain more visibility to any type of content you’re pitching.

Not every pitch you send will result in a story, but if you follow these steps, you’ll certainly better your chances of snagging some coverage.

Another key thing to get right when pitching journalists is the ever-important follow-up.  

Stay persistent and persuasive and explain the benefits of picking up your story. Give them concrete reasons why your story is better than anyone else’s. There is also a fine line between being persistent and being annoying.

Give the journalist a few days to process your pitch. If they sound busy, don’t take up too much of their time, and if the journalist says no, ask them why. Rejection is par for the course in PR - turn it into a learning experience by using the opportunity to ask what future topics they would be interested in.

Pitching your press release to journalists can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Follow these steps for a simple way to increase visibility and build valuable relationships with your media contacts.

When sending press release pitches, it’s important to track performance so you can analyze how successful your emails are, and glean any learnings. 

See also: 14 PR KPIs and how to track them

While open rate matters, it doesn’t take into consideration what the recipient does after they view the email. If a journalist opens an email and deletes it, they are probably not a candidate for an even more personalized follow-up.

Along with looking at who opened your email, you’ll want to look at how long they spent reading it, and whether they clicked on any links. 

These actions show engagement and will help you determine who you should continue to pursue. Making the extra effort to follow-up, based on everything you know about their interests and audience, signals that there is a strong story for them to write.

Think of your initial email as a way to test the waters and the follow-up as a way to zero-in on your most promising prospects. When a journalist engages, signaling that they’re ready for additional details, provide the clincher that will lead to the kind of coverage you need.

As our industry continues to evolve, it’s clear that focusing on the relations part of PR is essential in pitching reporters. Here's what some top PR and media professionals had to say about the best way to achieve success. This advice, coupled with the help of a media intelligence platform and access to an influencer database, is a sure-fire way for brands to get results. 

“It takes more to build a pitch of interest than it did say five years ago,” says Susan Thomas, founder, and CEO of Bay Area agency 10Fold. 

“Gone are the days when writing a clever pitch and working with the right reporter would be enough. Now, you have to have a ‘why’ — and it has to be impressive. It takes more forethought, more planning, more research. It’s no longer about product coverage, especially for unproven companies.”

Lauren Stewart, media relations advisor for Canadian airline WestJet, agrees. “Spending more time preparing and researching will bring you more success when pitching your story. And when I say pitching your story, I mean it. Not a product. It takes some skill to create a story that will make the journalist interested in talking about you. No reporter wants to be a shill for your product.”

So what should you pitch? “Often, it’s the people side of things that get coverage,” says Stewart. An example involved her company WestJet giving away what they dubbed “Christmas miracles,” and allowing the media behind-the-scenes access to those who received the “miracles,” which included vouchers for air travel. “We got fantastic in-depth coverage with a third-party telling our story for us.”

What else works when you want to make a pitch about more than the product? Thomas, who works primarily with technology clients, says that even for funding announcements, the standards have changed.

“Because the media is tougher on validation and proof points, we have to think beyond the pitch and go further to get the coverage.” 

For example, Thomas suggests conducting a survey so that you can include the results in your pitch to help validate the need for the product. However Thomas cautions that for this strategy to be effective you have to start long before the announcement date. 

Taking advantage of a trend can also lead to success. Meagan Ewton, a public relations coordinator for Rogers State University, explains how her team was able to ride the wave of Pokemon Go’s popularity to promote a community event by pitching a story instead of issuing a press release.

“Our most successful pitch this year was for a Pokémon Go event held three weeks after the app’s launch. There was synergy there for reporters already covering the story, so we took advantage of that. We were able to share about our game development, software development, and graphic design programs, and this made it into the story, which drove up attendance at our event.”

Another piece of advice to create a winning media pitch comes from Karen Swim, PR consultant and founder of Words for Hire. “The most successful campaigns begin with a clear-eyed focus on the result” says Swim. “The objectives aren’t merely to ‘get press’ or ‘increase visibility’ but have specific end-goals that are measurable. It’s critical to have tools that allow you to analyze and measure your efforts and then use that feedback to inform your next steps.”

“Data-based decision making has become part of our everyday lives,” adds Thomas. “You need to have data that backs your performance.”

You’re ultimately selling a story. If you are diligent about how you approach pitching a press release you will increase the chances of getting your emails opened, read, and acted upon. Be persistent, persuasive, and stay confident.

Meltwater is here to help! Request a demo by filling out the form below to explore our PR solutions and strengthen your strategy.

How to Pitch Your Press Release to Journalists

Where do you go for quick, initial healthcare advice? For many consumers, the internet is the first stop for learning more about illness symptoms and how to treat them. So when cold and flu season comes around, it’s no wonder that internet users look to one another for advice on relieving common symptoms like runny nose, congestion, and coughing. But which cold and flu remedy has been recommended most?

We used our social listening and analytics platform to learn more about what remedies consumers are sharing online. The following insights were drawn from English-language queries looking at relevant keyword mentions across blogs, forums, and 12 different social media networks from September 1, 2022, through August 31, 2023.

Read our healthcare industry consumer intelligence report for a data-rich analysis of current consumer trends and preferences.

The overall common cold/flu remedy conversation

During the period we analyzed, there were 45,600 mentions of cold and flu remedies, an increase of about 440% compared to the previous 12 months.

As this chart of mentions over time shows, the cold and flu remedy conversation rose slightly from mid-September through January, corresponding with the Northern Hemisphere’s cold and flu season. The conversation saw its highest spike on April 13, 2023, the day a Reddit user shared a video clip from a 1959 BBC report on home flu remedies. That post in the r/OldSchoolCool subreddit, went on to reach 17.7 million people. 

People giving home remedies for the flu, 1959.

The second-highest spike occurred on October 3, 2022, when another Reddit post titled “Just a little suggestion before flu season really takes off” reached 4.73 million people. (That post has since been deleted.)

A word cloud of the overall common cold and flu remedy conversation revealed three of the most talked about home remedies: 

We used the platform’s compare search function to measure mentions of those remedies against two other common ones, cough syrup and hot drinks.

Is a cup of hot water or tea your go-to cold and flu remedy? They are for many people! Hot drinks had the highest share of voice of the five remedies analyzed.

Some of the top hot drinks mentioned were ginger tea, black tea, green tea, hot water, and general herbal tea.

Taking medical advice from social media isn’t always advised, but in this case, the science backs up the popular recommendation. In 2008, a study from the Common Cold Center at Cardiff University confirmed that hot drinks do indeed help relieve common cold symptoms.

Our share of voice by sentiment chart reveals that garlic had the highest proportion of positive sentiment of all of the remedy conversations. 

And though garlic does have some health benefits, the scientific consensus on its use to prevent cold and flu symptoms is still mixed.  

On the flip side, the cough syrup conversation had the highest proportion of negative sentiment, which included mentions of supply shortages, questions about safety, and concerns about side effects.

In the end, there is no cure for the common cold; instead, experts recommend rest and staying hydrated to treat colds and mild cases of the flu. While the internet can be a great resource for initial research, trusted healthcare institutions and professionals — especially ones you know offline, like your primary care physician — are the best resources for healthcare advice. 

For healthcare industry marketers, the key to reaching consumers is understanding their information-seeking habits, preferences, and needs. Read our 2023 Industry Snapshot: Healthcare report for a deep dive into the sector’s biggest trends, challenges, and new opportunities. Then, learn more about how Meltwater consumer intelligence insights can boost your marketing strategies with a free demo today.

Consumers' Most Recommended Cold and Flu Remedies

For global luxury brands, China - and its 1.39 billion people - is the holy grail.

China’s e-commerce industry is predicted to be worth $1.8 trillion Yuan by 2022, and a large chunk of this growth is expected to come from the fashion and luxury goods market.

Enter Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book”), China’s most trusted social shopping platform.

Based in Shanghai, this innovative app helps over 100 million users - mostly younger women - to discover and review beauty and health products that can be hard to find in China.

This represents an amazing opportunity for global brands to build their market presence in China. It’s why big players like Chanel and Dior are paying so much attention to the platform and are including it into their social media marketing efforts.

In this post, we’ll give you the low-down on this amazing site. In particular, we’ll show you how global brands are jumping on Little Red Book in a big way, using it to help drive their growing presence within the Chinese market.

How Does Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) work?

Who is using Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu)?

Which industries are Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) best suited for?

How are global brands using Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu)?

What you can expect to see from Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) in the future

Don’t miss out on this innovative platform

Created in 2014, Xiaohongshu, also known as Little Red Book, or simply Redbook, has grown to become China’s foremost fashion and luxury shopping platform.

And now, the tricky part: Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) isn’t really a shopping platform at all.

Rather, it’s first and foremost a content sharing site, where users can post product photos with reviews and tips for other users to read, comment, and save to their boards - like Pinterest.

In fact, some have described the platform as being a product search engine, or “like Instagram and Pinterest sprinkled with a dose of Taobao”.

In contrast with other e-commerce platforms, Little Red Book focuses on a unique blend of trusted user-generated content, word-of-mouth advertising, and online community-building.

However you describe it, this curious mix has proven to be a huge hit with young urban Chinese women, who often struggle to find trusted sources of product information.

Little Red Book users can engage with platform content in three ways:

Liking the content - similar to Facebook’s “like” feature.

Collecting the content - saving it under a bookmark for future reference.

Commenting on the content - interacting with the post and the user.

Little Red Book focuses heavily on building trust and reliability between the platform and consumers, rewarding users for posting suggestions and advice to followers.

By posting regular, quality content, users can quickly attract significant followings, and can even earn commission by becoming influencers - more on this below.

In fact, the most popular posts on Little Red Book tend to be author-tagged lists of convenient, economical, or easy-to-use products.

The popularity of these kinds of posts shows the value of authenticity on the platform, with users rewarding influencers for realism, accessibility, and being relatable.

For an example, let’s turn to the following post - a user discussing the trials of finding products suitable for sensitive skin:

Interestingly, Little Red Book avoids many typical e-commerce practices. It doesn’t allow anonymous reviews or one-click ratings, for example, instead encouraging detailed, immersive product reviews known as “notes”.

The site also includes a high focus on security, with qualified brands and retailers having to submit an application before being accepted on the platform.

All of this adds up to a unique value proposition for the platform, in that users can share content, review products, and purchase items all from the same place.

Combine this with a strong focus on trusted communities of like-minded shoppers, and it’s not hard to see why Little Red Book has resonated so strongly with users.

Now, let’s take a look at who exactly is using the platform.

Little Red Book had attracted 100 million users by late 2018.

Crucially, 90% of these users are middle or upper-class women with higher degrees of disposable income. This is an incredibly lucrative market for global fashion and cosmetics brands.

Since its launch, Little Red Book has hit some amazing stats. For example, on June 6 2017, Little Red Book held a shopping festival to celebrate the anniversary of its founding, with sales revenue exceeding 100 million RMB in just two hours.

Co-founder and CEO Mao Wenchao has said that 70 to 80% of Little Red Book’s users are women. What’s more, over 50% of users are between the ages of 18-35, and are living in Tier 1 and 2 cities in China.

And it isn’t just online users who get to benefit from Little Red Book - the platform also launched a brick-and-mortar store in Shanghai in June 2018.

So, that’s a quick overview of the 100 million people using Little Red Book.

But which industries have the best chance of succeeding on the platform?

With its strong focus on the beauty and fashion markets, Little Red Book has set itself aside from other Chinese social media and e-commerce platforms such as WeChat and Weibo.

This content focus, plus the unique demographics of Little Red Book’s user base, make it a great fit for luxury beauty brands like Dior and Chanel, as well as high-end cosmetic brands like Fenty and Lancôme.

The strength of this market focus has also helped Little Red Book to secure $300 million USD in series D funding from investors, including e-commerce titan Alibaba.

A makeup listing on Little Red Book. Source: Creative Union

However, Little Red Book also features a lot of content about lifestyle products such as nutritional supplements. Posts concerning tourism and overseas destinations are also popular, with a lot of travel bloggers getting in on the action.

Helpfully, Little Red Book also features an “explore” section, letting viewers explore other users’ content on topics like fashion, food, and travel.

There’s also a “nearby” section to alert users to shopping experiences in their physical environment.

Tourism posts on Little Red Book. Source: Jing Travel

These features help show the versatility of the platform, with huge opportunities for global brands throughout the lifestyle and beauty industries, including cosmetics, clothing, and travel products.

Next, we’ll take a look at how global brands are using Little Red Book to drive sales.

Currently, there are around 8,000 verified brands featuring products on Little Red Book, including many major global brands.

Even Kim Kardashian is getting in on the action, creating an official account in late 2018 to help promote her makeup line, KKW.

In an effort to appeal to the local audience, a lot of global brands are translating their packaging into Mandarin, and are partnering with Chinese Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)). This includes Chanel, Gucci and Dior, all of whom have all enlisted Chinese celebrities for their ads.

This kind of engagement can take a lot of effort at the local level, and potentially requires input from translators and production agencies.

In late 2018, Little Red Book also opened a “brand partner platform”, a feature aimed at connecting brands with influencers and KOLs to arrange for sponsored content.

Little Red Book’s brand partner platform. Source: Marketing To China

The Meltwater Blog

How to Pitch Your Press Release to Journalists

Consumers' Most Recommended Cold and Flu Remedies

What is Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) and Why are Global Brands Jumping on it?

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