Service Account for Grier school
Grier’s recently posted content
a particular post example
The above article is one of ours. This particular post philippine cellphone number gives students ideas about what to do during the school holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If I select this, I’ll get the full article (or post).
how to get the full article
These articles usually contain short blocks of text with lots of images or, sometimes, short videos.
WeChat articles are unique because the account owners decide how the finished product looks. Content creators can really play around with the formatting options available on WeChat, so there’s a lot of room for customization, which makes for attractive-looking posts.
This would be the equivalent of following a newsletter. In general, email is used much less in China compared to elsewhere, so people are more likely to follow their favorite brands on WeChat.
On the main page of their Official Account, there’s a menu at the bottom which gives us access to additional features.
WeChat custom menu
These might connect to
messages,
articles, or
external websites.
I can also click the keyboard icon to start a conversation with the account.
start a conversation with the WeChat account
Once I initiate, the brand’s agent can respond to any queries I may have. This back-and-forth conversation expires after 48 hours. After that, the agent can only contact me once more to see if I need anything, or if I want to continue the conversation.
The 48-hour limit gives the customer more control over their conversations with brands. As you might well know, giving out your email address to companies means you have no control over the number of messages you receive and when you receive them.
Subscription Accounts
Now we’re on to the second type of Official Account.
Subscription Accounts don’t show up in the main chat area. Instead, they show up in a separate subscriptions folder.
a separate subscriptions folder
Within the subscriptions folder, you can see articles from all the different brands I’m following.
articles from all the Subscription Accounts
The articles look quite similar to the ones in the Service Account.
In general, we use Service Accounts for the brands we’re promoting for two main reasons:
The account appears in the message area so users can see it.
Chinese ICP Licenses only allow Western companies (most of our clients) to set up Service Accounts.
However, the advantage of Subscription Accounts is that they can publish more of these articles, and this benefits magazines and publications that want to publish frequently.
If you want to know more about Service and Subscription Accounts check out our blog post here.
Group Chats
Besides individual chats and Service and Subscription Accounts, you’ll also see group chats in my main message area.
For example, you can see a group chat for my marketing agency, NMG. This functions as an internal work chat between colleagues, although a lot of the conversation is non-work related and usually…well, most of the time, just people sharing memes.
example of group chats
Most of our “serious” (or work-related) talk is done on Slack.
Here’s another screenshot from my hobby business, Synotrip, a marketplace for tour guides.
screenshot from Synotrip group