South Africa's most switched-on brands are now able to engage with customers on the world's most powerful social media platform following news that Resolve Mobile is an approved WeChat official accounts integration and support partner. Resolve Mobile is the mobile strategy and product development arm of JSE-listed Imperial Holdings Ltd and is headed by managing director and cellular industry expert, Tracy Surkont. "While it's encouraging that more local brands are claiming their official WeChat accounts, few understand how to effectively leverage the opportunities inherent in a social media phenomenon offered in 18 languages and spanning six operating platforms. We're here to show them how," said Ms Surkont.

As a WeChat partner, Resolve Mobile is able to build brand official accounts in a way that enables them to connect with clients on a personal level. Integrated into our WeChat offering for brands, Resolve Mobile's proprietary dashboard reveals hourly customer insights such as the number of new followers, as well as their gender, age and geographic distribution. Explaining its inherent advantage, Brett Loubser, Head of WeChat Africa, said: "WeChat offers a totally new way of experiencing social media. A rich user experience is created by the way video, text and graphics are put together. This enhances the ability to communicate and is hugely-enjoyed by individuals and very sought-after by brands." WeChat specifically offers group chat, voice chat, video calling, location-based services and QR code scanning, amongst other features that define the world's fastest-growing social media experience.

"WeChat's defining feature that has proven so popular with organisations and individuals alike is 'hold-to-talk' with its automatic playing of record-and-release consecutive voice messages. This offers tremendous upside for brands, in particular, as they are able to engage in real-time group chats for the first time on social media," said Mr Loubser. According to Ms Surkont, Resolve Mobile is well-positioned to exploit the myriad of opportunities offered by the WeChat feature-rich experience. "We have a solid history of advising brands across all industry sectors how they can best leverage mobile technology to get closer to their customers."

As an example of a premier South African brand currently harnessing the power of WeChat thanks to Resolve Mobile's expertise, Ms Surkont gave the example of SuperGP. This is the first major South African sports brand to go live on WeChat via its SuperGPSA official account built by Resolve Mobile.

SuperGP is taking full advantage of the high engagement medium that WeChat promises. There is continual engagement on the account with SuperGP followers through live race day streaming, live chats with drivers and constantly-updated rankings that motor-racing aficionados eagerly follow. QR codes available on WeChat are also used to secure entry to SuperGP events.

"WeChat is often described as the preeminent social communication application. Properly harnessed by talented mobile developers, it has a promising future amongst South African brands wanting to offer the next level of quality client communication," concluded Ms Surkont.