Click the blue text above to follow "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more marketing and distributor internal management content. The author is the CEO of Beijing Gushan Culture Co., Ltd., @Tongque Shushu, who has handled at least a hundred cases and witnessed at least ten thousand. This article shares hard-earned experience in new media communication. If you like it, please share it to your Moments. Thank you. The following is the main text: The Essence of New Media Marketing At the current stage, new media marketing, from a promotional perspective, has completely become a form of advertising. Fans' intelligence is constantly improving, and channels are becoming industrialized and scaled. The illusion of getting big bargains is gone. So, since it is a form of advertising, the core purpose is one: to convey the information you want to tell consumers/users through this channel. And advertising on this channel has the following characteristics: ** 1. Cheap** This is the fundamental reason why the volume of new media continues to rise. Don't say it's getting more expensive now; yes, even if it's getting more expensive, new media is still the cheapest. Otherwise, what would you invest in? TV ads? Subway? Bus? Video site pre-rolls? Print magazines? App splash screens? None of these are small budgets. On Weibo, a real account with a few thousand followers, even if only one-twentieth of them see it, the reach is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands; each account's followers are somewhat distinct, so actual placement is relatively more targeted. ** 2. Possibly Cheaper** Not just the placement itself, but also, people retweet. Every time someone retweets, it's seen by a few dozen to a few thousand more people. That is, as long as the creative is good, each retweet increases the number of people your money reaches. If targeting is precise, one person @s another, and it creates an impact in a certain circle, that's like finding money. Of course, usually, reach and advertising purpose are inversely proportional. So, don't care too much about retweet count. Be sure to care whether the information is clearly conveyed. When you advertise on the subway, you don't expect many people to take a photo and post it on Weibo or Moments for others to see. When you spent those few thousand yuan, you already covered those people; the cost-effectiveness of that number is not low. Every extra retweet is a bonus; fewer retweets don't mean a loss. What you should care about more is whether the account's followers are real and whether the ad message is clear. Otherwise, that's a real loss. ** 3. Diverse Formats** Traditional advertising was usually monotonous. For example, TV, video sites, and building ads are a few seconds of video, usually charged by time. For example, magazines, posters, website banners, flyers, etc., are usually images with a main visual and few words, limiting what can be expressed. For example, tech blogs, portal news, forums, usually use long articles as PR pieces. But new media like Weibo can be short text, long articles, images with text, simple multi-images, long videos like micro-films, short videos like GIFs, and so on. The constraints on formats are much fewer; you just need to find the format that best suits the product. ** 4. New Media Users Are Users Who Like New Things and Are Eager to Speak Out** Undoubtedly, once any news happens, searching on Weibo is the right move. Not just news, but the latest jokes, memes, and comics appear first on Weibo. Those users who are keen on knowing the freshest things are definitely glued to Weibo updates. And these people, in their own small circles, are usually the spreaders of the latest news. They like to tell those around them the latest news and jokes, and those who are behind often consult them for opinions on the latest things. So in their circles, they are the most influential. Therefore, influencing them on new media, though not measurable by data, often has effects beyond just some retweets. So, based on the above four characteristics, you chose to do marketing on Weibo. How to Start a New Media Communication Plan For new media communication, or social media, the most important thing is that word-of-mouth becomes extremely low-cost. Just retweet, @, screenshot. The core of initiating a plan is to decide what sentence you want netizens to say when they @ another netizen. Or, when they screenshot and send it on WeChat, what are you telling them? It can be understood as two people meeting on the way to the bathroom, exchanging a couple of sentences of news, and laughing together. The key here is not "exchange" or "news," but "a couple of sentences." A couple of sentences. Preferably one sentence. That clearly explains something and is memorable. The biggest taboo in new media communication is being big and comprehensive. With so much information now, who can remember it all? One functional point, one information point, one sentence that gives people a visual image after hearing it. Find that first, then you can start planning. This is actually the biggest test of communication. Once you find the right point, you can interpret that sentence in countless ways, translate it into internet language, and make people remember it more vividly. The latter is relatively easier. If you can't bear to let go and want to cover all functions, what do you do? You have to break it down into small points and communicate in fragments. In the era of fragmented reading, communication must also be fragmented. If someone sees one piece, that's effective. If one person sees two pieces, the impression deepens, and that's a bonus. Still expecting preheating, climax, and other stages? That's just the agency writing to fool the client, with self-consistent logic. Society is so busy now; who remembers what you said ten minutes ago? That's why 4A agencies' new media proposals often have excellent PPTs, with layers of logic from start to finish, but when executed, nothing happens. So, the planning process for new media promotion is simpler than traditional advertising. Because trial-and-error costs are low and changes are fast, execution is much more important. Determine a one-sentence functional point → Identify the target audience → Translate the functional point into a form the audience likes to see/easily believes → Find the right channel to publish → If good results → Chase retweet resources If poor results → Quickly adjust → Translate into another content format → Publish again These steps mainly test four things: First, the one-sentence distillation of the product and audience. This relies on understanding the product and human nature. Second, internet sense, how to translate into a form netizens like to see. This relies on time spent on the internet. Third, understanding of various publishing channels, i.e., each Weibo account's tone, followers, and category. This is also a task that requires time accumulation. Fourth, an evaluation standard for whether results are good or bad. This is experience based on the number of execution and planning cases. The process is not complicated, but it tests real skills. As for event marketing, controllability is too poor; it's a matter of luck. Even though we publish so many ads and non-ads every day, we still can't promise any content will go viral. Anyone who promises event marketing will definitely go viral is a pure fraud and will eventually rely on buying retweets. That's not to say event marketing can't be done; low-cost attempts are fine, but it's best for the client to do it themselves, lower expectations, and keep trying, rather than expecting a third-party agency to create something "guaranteed to explode on the internet." Why People Retweet a Weibo Post Through extensive summarization, the fundamental psychological reasons a person retweets a post are mainly three and a half: First, it's amusing: seeing something that brings joy, like "haha, this person is worse off than me." Second, it's relatable: "Ah, this is exactly about me." Third, it's a mark: "Hey, this is useful to me." The third half: retweet for a lottery. The first type is the most common content written by joke writers on Weibo, like Chaplin and Stephen Chow's funny content, "this person is worse off than me," such as the recent popular Zhao Shi story, or the national football team; people always laugh and retweet. "Worse off than me" is just one element of humor, but it's indeed one of the hottest emotions now, whether it's seeing others' misfortune or self-deprecating. Common examples include the "ugly people should read more" face meme, the "I'd live in any villa" money meme, the single meme, the fat and greedy meme, etc. Funny things make people happy; they retweet to show where their humor lies, or to add a witty remark and continue the entertainment. The second type, relatability, is a strong sense of "that's me." That's why zodiac signs are so popular. More directly, there are posts about struggling in Beijing, colleagues dying from overwork, and many public intellectual events. A sentence that hits a state everyone is in but can't express well, like early Rage Comics or what Xiao Ye Meimei Xue Tu Cao is best at, falls into this category. Not only that, but when a celebrity marries, people "believe in love again"; when they divorce, they "doubt love"; when a famous person dies, they lament their own past; when a famous person gets sick, they worry about their own health or their parents' and friends'. All because certain situations resonate with their own reality. They let others know, "Ah, this is about me." The third type, mark, is actually the easiest to operate. As long as it's useful to me. Whether it's a movie recommendation, a book list, a game guide, or a download link, if it's useful to me, I'll retweet it to show I care about it. This is also the most basic element of information, akin to clipping newspapers in the old days. The third half doesn't need much explanation: retweet for a lottery. Who doesn't want free stuff? When we create content, we always check whether it satisfies one or two of the above three and a half points. If it doesn't hit any, we usually judge that the content won't get retweeted. Have you noticed? The core of these three and a half emotional points is the word "I." Worse than me, my humor, my life, about me, useful to me, I want it. Social networks are selfish. Why are so many people addicted to SNS apps and read news there? Because here, I choose who I want to see; I'm in control. I can follow or unfollow as I please. I don't need to go to a news site to see news I might not care about. The people I follow will retweet what I want to see. Social networks are selfish and self-centered. Only by deeply understanding this can you do communication well. "I" like a certain star, not necessarily because I'm a brainless fan, but because the label "I'm a fan of XXX" shows what traits I have. "I" am very rock, but most are fake rock; they just say "I like rock" to prove I'm rock. Similarly, I prove I'm artistic by liking art films, and I prove I'm novel and fun by retweeting the latest memes. Most importantly, what labels do these traits add to me in my small circle? I don't need to compare with the whole country; it's enough to compare within my circle of a few dozen people. So, when promoting a product, make sure it relates to "me" and what it can express for "me." A self-indulgent story about oneself won't get retweets, because what does it have to do with "me"? A very industry-specific, technical, cutting-edge development that thinks it's awesome but gets no retweets, because what does it have to do with "me"? A high-end, comprehensive, beautiful poster release gets no retweets except from peers, same reason: what does it have to do with "me"? So, from the very beginning of finding that one-sentence functional point, you must choose a point that relates to "me." Then, take that point that can move "me" and explain it from all angles, continuously strengthening the relationship with "me." That's the start of new media communication. Classification of Weibo Ads First, remember that the content of an ad is to convey a certain message. On that basis, classify further. Usually, what's promoted on new media is something new or a new feature. By product type, there are mainly two categories: things you can understand in one second, and things you can't understand in one second. In terms of specific presentation forms, there are three types: hard ads, fun hard ads, and soft ads. Let's go through them one by one. For things you can understand in one second, the simplest and most direct is discounts like JD.com or Dangdang. Everyone understands discounts. This includes products where those who need them already need them, and those who don't won't be convinced no matter what. For these, just put up a big hard ad on various grassroots accounts, like "XXX discount." People scroll past in a second, see it, and that's enough. No need for them to retweet; seeing it is enough. Or embed it in a fun long post, and then, without any warning, a "XXX 50% off all day!" appears. If the rest is fun, people don't mind an ad inserted; they'll retweet as usual, and seeing the info is enough. As long as they see it, they understand. If they have a need, they'll find it themselves. These are all big hard ads. For things you can't understand in one second, people need to understand, which takes time, so you can't go hard. Here, you need to proceed gradually, using exaggeration, analogy, and extreme assumptions to get people to patiently read the scenario and incorporate the product's functional information into it, thereby understanding and remembering. This usually requires fun hard ads to explain. First, ensure the information is conveyed accurately; forget about retweets, if even the viewers don't know what your product is or what it does after reading, that's the biggest loss. On the premise of clearly explaining the function, the more fun (more relatable, more useful to me) it is, the better the retweets it can generate. That's a fun hard ad. Of course, simple information → hard ad; complex information → fun hard ad. This connection isn't absolute; the above are just basic examples. For game ads, simply saying it's fun is meaningless because everyone says they're fun. It's like all bento boxes claiming to be hygienic, nutritious, and tasty, or all English training claiming to teach 2000 words in three days. Because everyone says it, including scammers, so even if the information is simple, the expression needs skill. Game users play not because your game is fun, but because they're bored. They need a game; which specific one doesn't matter much. The key of the ad is to find the target audience's pain point and attract them to try it. Whether they try is the ad's job; whether they stay is the game's job. So, various exaggerated and funny approaches, scattering points to hit different niche groups, and secondary creation of screenshots are all effective. The most effective method is to prove the game is already very popular. Popular means many people think it's fun, so the trial cost is lower, and I might as well try. Like Love Live! kneeling at Shanghai subway stations, or playing Find Your Sister until your eyes go blind—these are ways to prove popularity. These are all fun hard ads. Finally, let's talk about what soft ads are. If you can tell it's an ad, it's not a soft ad. Don't take something weird that anyone can see through and claim it's a soft ad. Soft ads are usually only suitable for already famous brands or products with few substitutes for their functionality. The main methods are two: one is celebrities using it; conveying that information point is enough. Celebrities have social influence and prestige, are wealthy, and have many choices, yet they still use this product, which uses their personality to show it's decent. It's essentially a mini endorsement. Making it convoluted and weird, with copy that people don't believe at a glance, is a waste of such an expensive post. Another type of soft ad is practical value, like a guide or a solution. Then your product is a necessary or process-simplifying key step in solving the problem. They just follow the steps to solve the problem and will use your product. This is also a soft ad. The most common are roundups, like top 10 most anticipated movies, embedding your movie; top 10 office apps, embedding your app; top 10 best restaurants in Gulou, embedding your restaurant. And so on. The above is roughly the classification of Weibo ads. How to Choose Publishing Channels In the current Weibo landscape, publishing channels can be divided into these categories: Grassroots accounts, joke writers, celebrities, and media accounts. Grassroots accounts are the earliest batch on Weibo, like @Weibo Funny Rankings and @We Love Telling Cold Jokes. Their content is mainly collected and reposted, with frequent posting, huge follower counts, team operation, and low personal recognition. They are just channels, with few "fans" in the true sense. Their prices are usually lower, and they're suitable for hard ads that need exposure and information targeting newer, broader users. Despite being cheap, their overall revenue is declining, for reasons like high content overlap, no original content, and questionable follower authenticity, leading to decreased credibility. However, it must be admitted that for information requiring broad reach, they are still very effective. As mentioned in the previous article, big hard ads that people see in a second can be published on grassroots accounts. Joke writers are the most active original accounts on Weibo. Some post jokes, some comics, some love quotes; collectively called joke writers. They are also the main group for ad publishing and Weibo activity. Their characteristics are: they resonate with the public, have niche segmentation, have personal style, and have not just followers but real fans. This can be seen from the Ice Bucket Challenge. As long as they post something, people already have an expectation of a special style. Usually, they'll take a look no matter what. They are best suited for fun hard ads, creating content with each person's unique style. Then they gather other accounts they regularly interact with to retweet and spread, which is the most reliable and acceptable form for the public. Currently, joke writers are divided into three factions, and the biggest problem is uneven quality; you need long-term observation to judge the most cost-effective and best-fitting accounts for your content and product. Celebrities. Usually, a single ad is very expensive. Their main role is to do a micro-endorsement, i.e., soft ads. They try to prove to their fans that they're using it, participating in a topic, or caring about an event. If the relationship and controllability are good enough, they genuinely recommend something. And these recommendations aren't just a one-time post on Weibo. They can be screenshotted and used on other channels to prove product reliability. So, the more celebrity the Weibo account, the more important the "truth" factor. Joke writers also have their own personality attributes; those with strong real-person attributes doing recommendations also need to emphasize "truth." Of course, celebrities should also be careful when taking ads. There have been more than one incident of this kind, right? Media accounts, i.e., the official new media accounts of newspapers and magazines, can also publish information. Besides industry PR articles and public statements in disputes, in marketing, their bigger role is the "final verdict" after a series of marketing activities. That is, through an official media news report, the point is also "truth," to show that this thing was really successful. Now, Weibo events often turn into social news and reports. So, media coverage is a sign of success, a result of product recognition and attention. They can also publish roundup-type soft ads. Hard ads, endorsement soft ads, and fun hard ads are usually not suitable for media accounts. The above are some preferences when choosing channels. In practice, you need to spend a lot of time on Weibo to choose the right accounts and write copy that feels "true." What Should the Client Do in New Media Communication Communication on new media is based on word-of-mouth. Information is short and fast, which has advantages and limitations for communication. The most basic point is that Weibo is more for adding brilliance to the present splendor, amplifying excellent content and functional points. It absolutely does not have the ability to make a worthless product popular. Yes, the most basic characteristic of Weibo communication is that you must be good yourself. It's more about incorporating communicable, especially self-communicating, points into your product. Make sharing lower cost and better able to show your users' traits. Only by bringing this mindset into the product can you truly do new media communication well. Communication is an expression by users, and purchasing KOL channels is just a demonstration of expression, showing others how to do it. For clients, especially small companies, there are three main points to note when doing communication: First, it's best to operate your official Weibo account yourself. Your official account doesn't need to "attract" mass fans. Those who follow your official account, besides forced follows, bought follows, and those waiting for retweet lotteries, are definitely not netizens who follow you because you're fun. If netizens want useful information, there are dedicated accounts. If they want jokes, there are joke writers better than you. Why would they follow you? Only those who genuinely like you and want to know about you will follow your official account. Don't expect an official account to be as popular as a big V. Trying to please netizens with frivolous remarks is meaningless. The main purpose of an official account is to communicate with your users one by one; give them a channel to vent when giving suggestions or seeking customer service; let fans know your latest progress and encourage them to spread within their circles; and have a base for crisis PR. That's enough. If you can do better, praise your users, retweet their compliments, and respond to them. It's great if you can appear whenever they need you. Who doesn't like being retweeted and commented on? When they mention you and you respond, you're demonstrating to more people how to praise you, encouraging more praise. And those who learn about your official account through other channels will also join. At a higher level, through continuous communication, discover fans with UGC ability and influence, gather them in a QQ group, ask their opinions during beta tests, and have them help think and speak during crises. That's the powerful role an official account can play. As for expecting to create fun content that gets lots of retweets and boosts your brand, don't kid yourself. An official account inherently has a strong commercial flavor; everything it does is seen as an ad, and no matter how fun, it's not as good as an external spread. Why hide your ads on an official account? Just clearly explain your ad and user needs. Second, the official account should remember to first tease its existing fans. Since you're running an official account, you're definitely building a brand, so you'll have some fans. It's not about quantity but love. They don't mind spreading for you or telling all their friends about you. So you must be worthy of your fans, rely on them to spread the latest news and tease them to share. Of course, it can't be consumption or deception; you must love your fans. This is usually something agencies can't do; they have to bear your KPIs. Before doing any communication, remember to get your fans excited first. Your fan base will keep growing, slowly but surely, and it's definitely worth it. Third, about hiring an agency. Since you pay the agency, they have responsibility. They usually don't dare to take risky attempts, so either you trust and encourage them, or you do it yourself and let the agency execute. What you need from the agency is definitely not a one-time solution, but to spend money learning what they're good at. For example, their grasp of netizens, experience with timeliness, knowledge of accounts, and some creative outside brains for joint discussion, objectively judging product positioning and status. This requires time and experience to verify, so that's why you need them. If you expect someone to promise to meet all your KPIs so you can sleep easy, then the promiser will just buy retweets. How can there be promises in the ever-changing new media? Water armies have existed since the internet began. As for the creative part, disagreements between client and agency are normal. At this point, rather than distrusting the agency, it's better to switch agencies... Seriously. It's tiring for both. The biggest complaint is that you hire an agency because they're more professional than you in the relevant field. That's the meaning of hiring them. Those who pay and still think they know best usually get the agency to take their money and just please them. Once it reaches the stage of pleasing you, it's really boring. Once I chatted with an acupuncturist who helplessly said that acupuncture usually takes a few seconds once the needles are in, but most customers look deceived and say, "I paid dozens or hundreds for just this?" Fine, then I'll stick needles all over you and have you lie still for an hour, and the customer feels better. How absurd, why bother? To please the client, making up a logical plan that you know won't work and then supplementing data later is, in my view, the biggest tragedy of the entire industry. The Agency in New Media Communication I originally wrote a lot, complaining about peers, but I'm afraid people will take it personally, which is not good. I deleted it all. Let me just say one thing. Although an agency is a paid service unit, There's no need to grovel like a grandson to the client. They hired you because you're professional in this area and they're not, not because you know how to serve. So, everyone has different expertise and division of labor; first, everyone is human. Why do it? Also, everyone needs rest on weekends. Not working on weekends and not promising to deliver on Monday morning what was requested on Friday evening should have long been an industry consensus. Unfortunately, alas. Provide your experience and professional knowledge, teach the client the real judgment criteria, reduce trial-and-error costs, and earn reasonable profits from mental labor. Tell the client honestly that Weibo can't drive traffic or video clicks well. What you're doing is brand and word-of-mouth, not promising first to make money and then relying on later data inflation. If everyone could truly do that, how great would it be? On the Future of Weibo and Weibo Communication If you ask me my attitude toward Weibo, it's firm: optimistic. If last year people were saying Weibo is declining, that's one thing, but saying it now means you can't see the trend. After the Chinese New Year this year, Weibo has been improving. Many great features have been released, and unlike before, new features aren't being criticized as much. I've been following the staff at Sina Weibo, and everything they do is genuinely moving in a good direction. Weibo went downhill, hit bottom around the New Year, and is now steadily recovering. That's great; as long as it's improving, it's really good. I'm genuinely happy for them and relieved. There's always discussion about whether something will emerge to replace Weibo. Not in the next two or three years, but even further, I don't think so. The internet has gone from portals to forums to blogs to Weibo, becoming more personal and lighter step by step. I can't think of a simpler form of communication than 140 Chinese characters, with lower creation and reading costs. Maybe images have lower reading costs, and images are a big part of Weibo, but creation costs are higher. Moreover, major news centers are now using Weibo screenshots for news gathering, major TV shows and dramas are interacting with Weibo, and celebrities have opened Weibo accounts to update their status in real time. The integration is too deep to change. Think about this logic: when a news subject chooses a channel to speak out, they'll definitely choose one with low creation cost and no third-party editing. And no channel is more reliable than Weibo on both points, so people will keep posting new information there, and curious people will gather around. Copying and moving to another platform costs too much and has too little meaning. As long as Weibo doesn't kill itself, it won't die. Especially since Weibo is still improving? As for Weibo promotion, I'm also optimistic. But I must admit it was once overvalued. Weibo promotion will be one link in the chain of promotional channels in the future—not the most important, but indispensable. Big brands rely on it to maintain a voice and public opinion volume, while small brands with hardworking, smart, and good products can use it to achieve more with less. On Weibo are those relatively smart, sensitive, and novel netizens. New products must attract the attention of the new generation. On Weibo, spark discussion and create the impression that "this seems good." In traditional advertising, including hard ad positions on Weibo like banners and splash screens, provide purchase locations. Combine the two to achieve good results. Neither is dispensable. If you rely only on Weibo, I don't believe it myself. If you don't use Weibo, it's very difficult. As for those working in new media, I'm also very optimistic. New media isn't just about external communication; the real core is self-communication. That is, how to tease ordinary users into wanting to tell their small circle of friends, "I'm using this." This skill is an inevitable trend; it's needed for everything. I believe more communicators will bring communication concepts into development, participating at the forefront of products, and doing many new and fun things. Teasing the public to self-communicate, with celebrities and big Vs as examples, might be the ultimate stable state of new media communication. Report --------------------------------------------