LINE Message Sharing: Bringing Viral Marketing to Chat Apps
On social media, Facebook has a Share button, Instagram lets you repost to Stories, and Twitter has retweets. Nearly every social platform has sharing built in so content can spread quickly. Sharing on chat apps, by contrast, is one-way push. Most brands use their LINE channels to send deals and giveaway announcements, which people rarely feel like forwarding.
ILING WuProduct Marketing Manager
According to a 2021 social media survey, LINE beat Facebook and Instagram in Taiwan to become the social platform with the most active users. But chat apps work very differently from social networks, and brand LINE accounts have traditionally not designed their messages with sharing in mind.
Viral marketing spreads a message by word of mouth, passing it along like a virus to more and more potential customers. Today it mostly happens through “shares” and “tags” on social media platforms, carrying a brand's value and ideas further and further.
The beauty of viral marketing is that it turns consumers into your best marketing tool. Compared with traditional tactics, it not only slashes your marketing costs but also lets users pass your message on to more of their friends.
Chat apps don't lend themselves to sharing
On social media, Facebook has a Share button, Instagram lets you repost to Stories, and Twitter has retweets. Nearly every social platform has sharing built in so content can spread quickly.
As people use social media more and more, the cost of sharing keeps rising. People used to share anything fun to their own timeline, but once friends, online acquaintances, and personal branding entered the picture, many began filtering what they share, and some even set up secondary accounts just to follow the fun, useless stuff they enjoy.
Compared with social networks, sharing on chat apps is one-way push. Most brands use their LINE channels to send deals and giveaway announcements, which people rarely feel like forwarding.
In LINE, you have to select native messages yourself to forward them; Messenger only lets you share certain message formats directly; Telegram has the most intuitive sharing of the chat apps.
On top of that, forwarding is less common in chat apps. In Facebook Messenger, apart from images and some cards, most text has to be copied and pasted to friends manually. LINE also requires you to select a message before forwarding it, far less convenient than sharing on social networks.
Why do chat apps need sharing?
Sharing in chat apps generally falls into a few scenarios:
- Inviting friends to add the official account
Users invite friends to add the official account and unlock a reward once enough people join. Many official LINE accounts do this, for example, 10% off for inviting 3 friends and 20% off for inviting 10, using member-get-member to grow the account's follower count fast.
- Rallying friends to join a campaign
LINE TAXI ran a “rally for rewards” campaign: the sharer received a NT$30 ride voucher, recipients could claim a random NT$5–60 ride voucher, and hitting the target unlocked even more deals.
- Sharing useful information
Useful information, such as COVID-19 updates, can be shared through chat apps to alert the public, and people can pass it on to friends and family so those around them stay alert too.
Sharing in chat apps can be easier
If chat apps made sharing easier, like the one-tap sharing on social networks, they would gain far more viral momentum, and information from LINE Official Accounts would have a better chance of spreading.
LINE digital business cards were the first feature we tried. An official account automatically and quickly generates your own LINE digital business card, and better yet, you can forward the card straight to friends and clients.
Within just two days of launch, about 300 people had used the feature. It was not only fun but also became a conversation starter with clients, and even a story picked up by the media.
Forgot your business cards? No problem. Make your own LINE digital business card in 3 steps | TechOrangeWhen you're out and about, you might find yourself without business cards, or running out of them. Don't panic! In just 3 steps, you can create your own LINE digital business card.https://buzzorange.com/techorange/2021/04/13/oakmega-line-business-card/
Sharing isn't limited to business cards. Even broadcast posts can be shared directly with a button (sharing the entire post), enabling true viral spread.
Conclusion
Chat apps are now mainstream. LINE alone has 21 million users in Taiwan, so practically everyone has at least one LINE account. Chat apps let us share all kinds of information, but most importantly, chat is just the medium. As we keep trying to talk with our users, let's not forget that “communication” is what matters most.
That means not pushing one-way ads, and building interaction into every post. Imagine a friend who only ever sends you messages you can't respond to. Wouldn't you eventually stop chatting?
For more on Social CRM, remember to subscribe, and feel free to leave a comment in the OakMega community. Let's keep this article spreading like a virus!
📣 OakMega, the Social CRM built for marketers
Your applause keeps us going. Press and hold to clap again and again!
Website / Facebook Page / Instagram
