6) FUNNY
There are plenty of questions asking for funny answers, like “What’s some logic that you couldn’t help but agree with?”
For serious questions, it’s best to give serious answers. Only use comedy sparingly, like if it fits into a story.
7) PERSONAL PHOTOS
Sometimes photos themselves are enough to be an answer. Just check these 11,000+ answers for “How pretty can a regular person become?”
8) ROMANCE STORY
This works for questions like, “What is it like to have a handsome uk phone number database boyfriend?” Like the last few answer-types, it’s only relevant for specific questions.
Will somebody looking for sensational content check an answer of yours that provides a professional answer to a professional question? Well, no. But, somebody looking for professional answers is likely to get distracted by sensationalist content.
9) “THANKS FOR THE UPVOTES”
Zhihu answers can be edited over time. Some authors return to their original answers to express thanks for all the upvotes they have received. Ex: “OMG, so many upvotes? I never expected it, thanks so much everybody!”
Our Advice on Writing Zhihu Answers
All of the answer types above are common, but only a couple are useful for marketing. We’ve been using Zhihu mainly for marketing schools or B2B-type companies in China, but also for consumer products a little bit. So, many of the writing methods above just aren’t suitable. We wouldn’t want to be offensive or overly silly or even create an answer simply for the purpose of getting upvotes.
Instead, we want to write content that is useful, easy-to-read and accurate. So we write answers that give an actual answer very near the top of the post and then elaborate from there. This helps the reader orient themselves, then they can read through as much content as they want to. From there we add supporting information and images.
Unfortunately, Chinese writing isn’t a skill that is easy to teach to our English-reading readers, so it’s tough to go into the nitty-gritty details. As a manager of marketing teams, these are the rules I would follow:
Have a professional Chinese writer do the writing.
Give them the goal of providing useful, valuable information to readers.
Provide the writer with plenty of information and resources, such as your blog posts and internal reports, as well as access to experts that know more.
Use images whenever relevant.
Listen to the comments of your readers.