The Chinese software development ByteDance, responsible for the smash success short-form content app TikTok, has come out with another groundbreaking app, known as Lemon8.

Lemon8 describes itself as a place “where you can discover beautiful, authentic, and diverse content” according to the app’s Google Play description. With its emphasis on posting pictures with captions with ease, it’s a definitive place for influencers, prospective or established, to build themselves and their brand up.

Influencers are a big deal on TikTok. Learn the best practices for influencer marketing on TikTok at this TheInfluhub blog!

Lemon8’s Inspirations

Most creators consider Lemon8 as ByteDances’ take on Instagram and Pinterest. In comparison, TikTok also took inspiration from Vine and Musical.ly, former powerhouse apps before TikTok exploded. When Musical.ly merged with TikTok in August 2018, many features were integrated into TikTok’s functionality. Considering TikTok’s algorithm contributed to its massive explosion, it wouldn’t be surprising if ByteDance incorporated these bright ideas into Lemon8’s algorithm.

Lemon8 also took some insight from another successful Chinese app, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), which has global brands signing up and promoting products. Xiaohongshu was created by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao in 2013, originally as a place for people to post product reviews and their shopping experiences all across China. It has since grown to become much more massive in China, with over 300 million users and funding from some of the most successful companies in China.

It is sometimes described as “China’s answer to Instagram,” with its emphasis on sharing photos. However, their main focus is on user communication, especially for those that love lifestyle-based content. Lemon8 is promoted as a competitor to Xianhongshu in the local Chinese market, and given ByteDances’ smash success with TikTok, it is possible it might overtake the massively successful app.

What Can You Do With Lemon8?

Lemon8 unlocks creation potential through curation and interaction. By users the freedom to see what they want whenever they want, content creators will upload photos that reach their respective audience.

Curate Your Experience

From the very beginning of opening up Lemon8, you’re asked questions to curate your experience. This includes both personal questions, such as your age, pronouns, and top interests. Right now, there’s a wide variety to select from like Fashion, Makeup, Art, Food, Travel, and more. This will choose what appears on your For You page, similar to how FYP pages function on TikTok. The possibilities are endless! 

Interact With Others

With this For You page, you’ll be recommended content based on your likes and engagements. Lemon8 is unique as there are only two types of content postable on it- images and captions for those images. You can like posts, save them, or comment on them. You can also follow creators, so they pop up on your Following page, enabling you to access their content quickly. This can give you an opportunity to support your favorites and hopefully see them become more successful.

Post Yourself!

Like most platforms, actively engaging on Lemon8 can help creators find their own audience. If you’re an aspiring fashionista, model, travel blogger, hobbyist, artist, photographer, or anything, there is a space for you on Lemon8 to build your niche! The hashtag feature allows you to attach yourself to trends or specific sub-niches. An app that’s personalized just for you is the way to go when keeping users hooked.

Similar to Instagram, you have the opportunity to upload multiple images onto one post. These images can be edited in the intra-app editor feature, allowing you to make any last-minute touch-ups. Alongside this, you can also add a caption to your post. There is much less of a restriction to how much text you have compared to similar apps such as TikTok or Instagram, meaning that Lemon8 is perfect for any aspiring influencer to build their image the way they see fit.

Learn about the importance of brand content collaboration and how to find the right partner here.

For Brands: What’s Lemon8’s Potential?

Lemon8s’ accessibility and plethora of options available to influencers give a solid variety of what brands could accomplish by utilizing the app, either through influencers or creating their own accounts and trends. Similar to TikTok, Lemon8 is a very SEO-optimized app, allowing users to search for content with ease compared to its competitors, such as Instagram.

However, Lemon8 is young, launched only in 2020, and has only recently been promoted in the United States. Despite its youth, Lemon8 still has issues with its algorithm when it comes to diversifying feeds and representing marginalized communities. Pieperjames, a black TikTok creator, addressed her concerns about Lemon8’s algorithm. She expects the app to undergo changes to properly credit and represent black creators, similar to how popular Black TikTok has become over the years.

While Lemon8 harbors massive potential, the platform needs to go through changes to better represent a diverse cast of influencers and content on users’ Feeds. After all, everyone deserves a safe space on social media platforms.

Lemon8 Takeaways 

Lemon8 is a groundbreaking new app that’s sure to take a foothold in the social media space. Formed by Bytedance, the company behind TikTok, Lemon8 uses many of the same tactics as TikTok. TikTok’s best features can help make Lemon8 an influencer-friendly app that combats competitors both on a local and international level. If done correctly, Lemon8 will pave a way for a new, innovative experience.

Though similar to other app superstars, Lemon8 is a highly optimized app for influencers and brands alike, but it still needs to be tinkered with to give every creator a voice. With its focus on photos and captions, influencers can give things their own personal touches, and brands can utilize the apps’ successful SEO optimization to garner interest and find fitting influencers to work with.

Overall, Lemon8 is an app one certainly should look out for with regards to something that will become very successful very soon.

Learn how to create an effective social campaign at this TheInfluhub blog!