-01- Why do we still need to be recommended by users? Some might say, "My brand is a big name, known to all; advertising is enough. Why do we need user recommendations?" Global market research firm eMarketer provides a data point: their research found that 70% of consumers decide to purchase a product because they saw a friend's share on social media. In today's fragmented, tribalized era, relying solely on one-way brand communication cannot penetrate the user's cognitive forest or achieve target audience coverage. Therefore, in our media mix, we must create a communication portfolio that encourages users to interact with us and participate in the dissemination process. As mentioned earlier, a brand is an imagined community built between the company and users. So, if users don't interact with you or spread your message, your brand is essentially just a nameplate. For FMCG products with low involvement and impulse buying, if your product cannot continuously get users to share, your communication costs will rise exponentially. In Wang Ziqiao's book "Content Ignites Growth," there's a viewpoint I find excellent: if we categorize today's content marketing channels by whether they are paid, it can be as follows:

Paid Media: third-party media that require payment, such as CCTV, Focus Media, Douyin, Tencent Ads, etc.

Owned Media: the brand's own self-media, such as official WeChat, Weibo, official Douyin accounts, etc.

Earned Media: media coverage gained through good content or brand innovation, such as news reports or proactive coverage by third-party media.

UGC: user-generated content where users spontaneously spread the brand because they identify with it. Of course, negative reviews after product use also count as UGC, and companies must pay special attention, responding promptly to users and consumers. Examples include user reviews on WeChat Moments, Weibo, Douyin/Kuaishou, Dianping, Taobao, etc. At the same time, we must also note that in small offline social circles, users may evaluate you in non-media, purely social forms. This type is the most direct and effective. For brand owners, UGC is the most effective and lowest-cost form of communication, but it is also the least efficient and hardest to achieve—this is the key part we will discuss today. The combination of these four forms varies by category, brand size, time, and scenario. We must fully understand our consumers, produce targeted content, and place it appropriately at key moments in the consumer's psychological journey. Figure: Consumer's psychological journey Today we focus on the sharing step in the consumer's psychological journey. However, I believe the word "sharing" is not accurate; "recommendation" is more precise.

-02- Grooming, Gossip, and Social Currency Before discussing how to get users to recommend, let's first examine from a behavioral psychology perspective why humans socialize and share. American evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar wrote a book titled "Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language." In it, he argues that humans use language to socialize, specifically by gossiping, thereby strengthening relationships. Gossip is an ability humans developed from primitive group living. Because the natural environment was harsh, people had to live in groups and cooperate, which inevitably led to competition over territory, privacy, food, and sexual resources. But group members needed to avoid killing each other, so humans evolved an ability: forming alliances. Small groups of members could look out for each other, and an important way to form alliances was through gossip, building mutual trust. Chimpanzees and baboons, though lacking language, similarly form alliances by grooming each other. In summary, gossip is to strengthen relationships. Gossip involves exchanging information and building trust. The essence of gossip is to please the other person, investing time and energy in them, to form alliances and gain a survival advantage. Through gossip, we can judge whether others share our values—who are our friends, who are our enemies, who is selfish, who is trustworthy, who is worth associating with. The intimacy between you and others depends on the proportion of gossip in your communication. Because gossip aims to build trust, it requires time and energy, so each person's gossip radius is roughly the same as Dunbar's number, about 150 people, regardless of your communication radius. Yes, Dunbar's number was also proposed by Robin Dunbar. Dunbar's number, also known as the 150-person rule, states that human intelligence limits the size of our social networks; the stable number of social connections we can maintain is about 150. Beyond this number, it's hard to maintain more relationships. Why are military companies limited to 120-170 soldiers? Because in a small combat unit, beyond that number, soldiers can no longer build trust through small-circle relationships, making mutual support on the battlefield difficult. Gossip is a human instinct; what we need to do is provide social currency for those who want to gossip, making them willing to share and communicate with others. Social currency: something that provides added value to both parties. By sharing scarce information (secrets, privacy) or resources, one gains trust and group identity. But I want you to seriously consider:

Is social currency really just talking points?

Is social currency really just copywriting content?

What exactly is the social currency users need? What is its purpose? If the purpose is to build/strengthen/consolidate relationships, then I believe the core of social currency for brands is to provide valuable products/services/content to the other party.

-03- Why Users Share Mark Fisher, in his book "The Hot Spot," mentions that on social networks, the vast majority of people share content related to their feelings, emotions, insights, and personal achievements. For example, look at the Moments of company leaders; they often share articles like "Employees Who Fully Complete Tasks Are Good Employees," "Details Determine Success," "Eight Details That Move Bosses Most," etc. These are the boss's "clothes"—they want to express their feelings to employees but can't say directly, so they share. On the employee side, they often share articles like "There Are No Bad Employees, Only Stupid Bosses," "70% of Excellent Employees Are Driven Away by Mediocre Middle Managers," and they might block their boss when sharing. Different sharing content between leaders and employees expresses their respective feelings. The New York Times found that people share content for five main reasons. First, they consider practicality; they share to help others. For example, articles on time management or how to quickly peel an apple are easily shared. Second, sharing tells others what kind of person they are, showing what they care about. Look at friends who love cats, dogs, or scientific parenting; their shared articles often reflect these traits. Third, they want to strengthen or cultivate a relationship. For example, if it's written by the boss or posted by a friend, sharing shows support. Fourth, they share when they have a sense of achievement. If an article features you, you'll definitely share; or if it involves your hometown, family, or company, you'll share. As some joke, only two types of people read newspapers: those written about and those who wrote them. The same logic applies. Fifth, when content discusses an ideal or brand, people often share. So, to make your content go viral, you should embed topics that trigger emotional reactions from these five angles, making readers feel "awesome," "sad," or "I've learned something new." Marshall McLuhan said, "The medium is the message." Media favor certain forms and content, so different relationships will inevitably be expressed differently across media forms. This is especially evident today. The form of media determines how you interact with users; the form of interaction determines the form of your brand, product, and service. Since social currency is an exchange medium within relationships, the content expressed varies under different Dunbar number environments.

1:1: private, scarce, emphasizing resource sharing;

1:<150: gossip, emphasizing value alignment;

1:>150: professional, emphasizing value recognition; KOLs have far more followers than Dunbar's number. KOL sharing to ordinary people is fundamentally different from sharing among ordinary people. KOLs build trust not through gossip but through professional competence and image. So even if their reach is wide, their influence is limited to their expertise; beyond that, they have connection ability but not relationship coverage. So the person who found Wu Xiaobo to sell furniture definitely chose the wrong person. But if the goal was to break out of the circle for exposure, then the value is a different story. In summary, within Dunbar's number, rely on gossip; outside, rely on professionalism. From a communication perspective, KOLs express product quality through professional evaluation, while consumers more often express product quality through personal experience, altruism, and emotion, using stories.

-04- What Products and Services Can Be Recommended? We don't want consumers to share a clever ad or a momentary emotional post; we want them to have an irresistible reason to recommend after experiencing your product or service. So, what we need to do is find the product's irresistible recommendation point! Undoubtedly, to build a brand that satisfies consumers today, you must make product quality the first element of word-of-mouth. Tang Binsen, the boss of Genki Forest, once told me about his product philosophy: if employees of your own company don't drink it, don't make it. Not only Genki Forest, but also Lin Sheng, the boss of Zhong Xue Gao, shared at a New Distribution conference: if the product can't be given to your own children, then don't make it. What are these two bosses expressing? They are expressing an irresistible recommendation reason to users! Another example: countless brands spend huge marketing budgets to promote in the Beijing market, hoping to occupy the consumption high ground, but many fail. Taishan Beer entered the Beijing market and within just 3 years, annual sales in a single market exceeded 2 million boxes. The key is that Taishan Beer spent zero marketing budget; it achieved this sales purely through consumer word-of-mouth recommendations. If a product can be recommended by KOLs, influencers, and friends, then the product quality, packaging, and service that satisfy users are the prerequisites for recommendation. Social networks, KOL+KOC, bring social fission effects; product reputation and concept can be exponentially amplified through social media. Consumers' ability to discover product strength far exceeds your own promotion ability. When a good product and a bad product launch simultaneously, the outcomes in this era are fundamentally different. Of course, it's not just about products that make users scream; beautiful packaging, good experience during use, or even sincerely befriending users who interact with you can earn brand recognition and recommendations to their friends. In summary, to be recommended by users, you must create irresistible value for them, and this value must have a scarce attribute. The question is, if you can do all this, how can you more efficiently get users to recommend your product? This is the third part of the "New Connection Trilogy"—continuously providing value. In the next article, I will deeply explore: How to get users to recommend on a large scale; how to sustain user purchases and recommendations; and how to build an effective operational system to achieve stable user recommendation and purchase operations. | Founder of New Distribution, FMCG channel expert, author of over 400,000 words of FMCG industry research articles. For communication, you can add WeChat by long-pressing. When adding, please indicate your company, position, and name.