Click to read the original article for details Now, ask yourself: what is a KOL? Can you answer immediately? KOL stands for "Key Opinion Leader", which refers to individuals who have more and more accurate product information, are accepted by relevant groups, and can influence their purchasing behavior. Many internet celebrities, bloggers, streamers, stars, and even corporate CEOs can be considered KOLs. In recent years, brands have increasingly focused on deploying KOLs across major online media platforms. Based on their personas, KOLs can deliver product information to consumers more quickly and effectively than traditional advertising, influencing their purchase decisions. For brands, KOLs are a crucial link in reaching consumers. To a certain extent, KOLs can help brands establish and refine their image in consumers' minds. For example, in July 2019, Proya's "Black Sea Salt Bubble Mask" went viral on Douyin, securing the top spot on the "Douyin Skincare & Beauty Ranking". Besides the product's novelty, the brand's collaboration with numerous top and mid-tier KOLs on Douyin contributed to the platform's explosive popularity. Since the product's target audience was male, Proya specifically selected male KOLs for live-streaming sales. Given that KOLs can generate powerful market effects for brands, how to effectively deploy KOLs has become a key focus for many brands. In the following sections, we will delve into three aspects: "The Purpose of KOL Deployment", "KOL Introduction, Retention, and Growth", and "KOL Marketing Objectives and Strategies". KOL Deployment: Purpose, Platform, and Type Our general understanding is that brands deploy KOLs to sell more products, which is typically true for emerging brands. For established brands, deploying KOLs on platforms is not only about selling products but also about enhancing brand awareness and image among the public. This is understandable: established brands already have a place in the market, and the focus is on continuously maintaining their image to retain or even increase customer loyalty. However, for new brands, if products don't sell and no one experiences or recommends them to friends and family, the brand cannot build a reputation. Additionally, platforms are experiencing growth in user numbers. While text-and-image-focused platforms like Weibo and Xiaohongshu have hundreds of millions of daily active users, short-video platforms are still growing at an astonishing rate. Bilibili, Kuaishou, and Douyin rank among the top five short-video platforms with growth rates of 55.4%, 45.8%, and 24.0% respectively, with Douyin's daily active users reaching an astonishing 657 million. Beyond the immense potential from rapid growth, platforms are also gradually launching KOL marketing programs. For example, Douyin's Ocean Engine (Ju Liang Xing Tu) platform launched live-streaming services and content submission tasks in May and June 2020. Additionally, Ocean Engine introduced the "Star Plan" to enhance the commercial awareness and capabilities of potential influencers. In July 2020, Bilibili launched the "Huohua" commercial cooperation platform, providing an official channel for UP主 (content creators) and brands to communicate, while encouraging grassroots UP主 to join the marketing wave. In August of the same year, Kuaishou's "Quick Order" feature comprehensively upgraded services such as client ordering and ad placement qualification review, optimizing the efficiency and experience for brands. In September, Kuaishou upgraded the influencer screening, recommendation, and matching processes for "Quick Order", adding new influencer data dimensions to help advertisers precisely match with influencers. In November, it renamed "Quick Order" to "Magnet Star" (Ci Li Ju Xing), allowing influencers' works to be distributed in both private and public domains. The platforms' emphasis on the KOL economy indicates that the KOL economy will continue to grow, and effective KOL deployment can bring brands greater market influence and even more revenue. Besides platforms, KOLs themselves come in various types and forms: Short-video influencers, celebrity CEOs selling products (e.g., Dong Mingzhu is a classic example of CEO live-streaming), top KOLs becoming celebrities (e.g., Viya appearing on various variety shows), virtual idols like Luo Tianyi who sell products across different circles, and finally, the gamification of live-streaming sales. Celebrity CEOs selling products typically provide endorsement for the products, such as a celebrity with good skin endorsing cosmetics, a celebrity with good fashion sense endorsing clothing brands, or the chairman of a major air-conditioning brand personally selling products. Similarly, top KOLs generally provide strong product endorsement based on their deep expertise in a specific field. Virtual idols and gamified live-streaming are primarily entertainment-oriented, using emotional engagement to promote products and brands. Different brands and products require different types of KOL deployment. For products like cosmetics and daily chemicals, consumers are curious about professional knowledge and functions, so KOLs who can provide product endorsement are more suitable for selling. For products related to industries where consumers don't pay much attention to professional knowledge, virtual idols or gamified live-streaming can be used for promotion. KOL Introduction, Retention, and Growth When brands begin introducing KOLs, "pace" is a key point. In the early stages, it's not advisable to introduce too many KOLs at once, as excessive content promotion may neglect interaction with fans. Conversely, too few KOLs can lead to insufficient exposure, with users having little content to read, resulting in fan loss. When selecting KOLs, there are four dimensions to consider: First, the KOL's image and temperament must align with the brand. Many brands believe that top KOLs with many followers are suitable, as they can bring significant brand and product exposure, but this is not necessarily true. The key is whether the KOL's image matches the product category. No one would hire a formally dressed man to talk about fashion, nor would they invite a trendy streamer to recommend computers to viewers. Second, the KOL's values must match the brand. If a KOL's values contradict the company's values, the KOL's language during promotion will not feel sincere to consumers, posing a significant risk to brand promotion. Third, the KOL's influence and expressive ability. A cake that looks good but tastes bad has no market. A KOL is like an online salesperson; influence determines whether consumers listen to the KOL, and expressive ability determines whether consumers have a good shopping experience. Fourth, the KOL's professionalism. A professional KOL is more likely to convince consumers, especially when explaining highly technical content, making users feel more trustworthy. Furthermore, introduced KOLs come in two types: internal KOLs and external KOLs. Internal KOLs are typically brand users who have purchased the product, find it excellent, and are willing to recommend it to others. These KOLs don't need high activity levels, but the quality of their content must be high. Compared to content quality, activity is easier to cultivate and improve. When recruiting external KOLs, brands must first clarify the purpose of the introduction—whether it's to enhance brand image, increase product sales, etc. Before communication, brands need to develop a cooperation plan and clearly explain the cooperation purpose and process to KOLs to avoid potential misunderstandings. Then, brands can contact KOLs through the contact information they publish on social media. At this stage, whether big or small, it's crucial to treat KOLs with sincerity during communication, as KOLs will influence the brand and product's image in the market, ultimately leading to cooperation. Everyone knows that after closing a deal with a client, regular follow-up visits are necessary; the same applies to maintaining relationships between brands and KOLs. Besides simply creating KOL profiles and communicating promotion rules, KOL development is divided into three stages: early, middle, and late. Early-stage KOL development mainly involves packaging the KOL's persona and providing professional skill coaching. With persona packaging, such as unique life experiences or special character settings, KOLs can have a unique image in users' minds. Just as a homeroom teacher might only remember the most mischievous student from years ago, a KOL with a unique image is more likely to be remembered by users. Mid-stage KOL development involves how to retain them. At this point, KOLs may be poached by other brands, so certain exclusivity constraints are essential. For example, signing additional contract clauses with KOLs, where if they don't cooperate with competitor brands, they receive incentive policies—early on, spiritual incentives; mid-stage, material incentives; later, interest bundling—this helps companies retain capable KOLs. In the later stage, brands need to consider long-term cooperation with KOLs, where emotional maintenance is also important, in addition to interest bundling. Just as many companies give stock dividends to high-performing employees, brands need to bind capable KOLs into a "community of shared destiny" to prevent them from leaving once they mature. Methods such as making the KOL's live-streaming account company-owned rather than privately owned by the KOL make it difficult for KOLs to leave, as they would have to weigh the pros and cons. Emotional maintenance can also be achieved through regular team-building activities, dinners, outings, etc., allowing KOLs to feel genuinely cared for and supported as they integrate into the team. Having said all this, the cooperation and relationship maintenance between brands and KOLs still require careful research and improvement by brands. KOL Marketing Strategies After understanding the various platforms, deployment purposes, and KOL introduction and retention, the next focus is how to execute KOL deployment. Here are several common marketing strategies: 1. Mass exposure to create buzz 2. Hotspot ignition to trigger interaction 3. Widespread topic dissemination 4. Seeding to build reputation 5. Radiating across multiple circles to break boundaries Of course, the marketing environment varies across platforms: 1. Weibo Marketing Environment User growth is slowing, with main competition coming from short-video platforms and content community platforms. The user base is younger, with users born after 1990 and 2000 accounting for nearly 80%, favoring entertainment hotspots. The platform is trending toward video, with over 15,000 video accounts having over a million followers. Pan-entertainment content is the fastest-growing segment for gaining followers. 2. WeChat Marketing Environment The main strategy is ecosystem-based, driving traffic to official accounts, acquiring new users, and increasing exposure. Video accounts are a traffic pool that can drive traffic to official accounts, increase public domain exposure, or direct users to mini-program stores to boost purchases. From these perspectives, WeChat KOL marketing will face competition from video content in terms of user numbers and time spent, and brands need to consider this disadvantage. 3. Douyin Marketing Environment The platform is accelerating the construction of an e-commerce closed loop by cutting external links and continuously improving internal e-commerce infrastructure, forming a "seed + harvest" closed chain within the platform ecosystem. Brand accounts display hot-selling products, promotions, and coupons on their homepages, guiding users to shop while browsing. 4. Kuaishou Marketing Environment The platform focuses on "breaking circles" culture, including galas, supporting two-dimensional content, celebrity appearances, and cooperating with Spring Festival Gala, attracting more users while enriching the creator ecosystem. Additionally, the platform integrates public and private domain traffic, advancing both ends. 5. Xiaohongshu Marketing Environment By focusing on live-streaming, bloggers interact, share, recommend, and chat with users, but conversion rates are relatively weak. Diversified content sections promote communication between creators and users with similar interests, turning both sides into friends. The platform is also actively laying out video content, gradually shifting its internal ecosystem from text and images to video. Furthermore, the platform provides brands with traffic and financial support, giving them opportunities to grow rapidly within the platform. The above-mentioned platform marketing environments and strategies are the main forms; detailed methods require brands to conduct deeper strategic segmentation based on the platform and their desired outcomes. For example, a mature snack brand might deploy KOLs on Weibo to promote its legendary development history and product philosophy, with the main goal being to generate buzz on media platforms and trigger widespread dissemination, rather than rushing to seed and sell products. At this point, brands can write stories about the brand or its social charity activities, purchase online buzz and spread it, reinforcing a positive brand image in consumers' minds. In conclusion: As KOL deployment has gradually become a mainstream brand promotion method, brands need to formulate deployment strategies for different media platforms, using combined tactics to achieve effective and efficient exposure for their brands and products. Besides carefully considering platform selection, KOL investment, and KOL marketing methods, brands can also try new models, or even mix and match several methods, launching a combination punch. Innovation in any direction—product, channel, or strategy model—can help brands seize the initiative in the market. Are you "watching" me?