Making Money With Your Phone: The Mobile Internet Marketing Revolution

Chapter 5 Content Strategy: Why Users Follow You (1)
2.1 Not much content, but popularity

2.1.1 Refined content: every word conveys value

The core of mobile Internet marketing is high-quality content, so what kind of content is high-quality content?Taking Weibo as an example, Weibo is limited to 140 characters per day, so how to provide the best quality content within 140 words, attracting fans' attention and forwarding?In fact, the quality of the content does not lie in the amount of text, on the contrary, the 140-character limit is exactly the motivation for high-quality content.

Back then, Jack, the founder of Twitter, proposed the idea of ​​limiting characters because each English text message had a limit of 160 characters.Jack wants Weibo to also have a character limit so that it can be sent via text message.To allow 20 characters for the sender's name, Twitter has a limit of 140 characters per post.Later, other similar microblogging services followed this seemingly arbitrary but infinitely interesting rule.

The limit of 140 characters per Weibo narrows the distance between professional writers and amateur netizens.Everyone can easily and freely record bits and pieces on Weibo, without long speeches.Publishing content online is no longer a task that requires long hours of concentration, but a matter of seconds.Every microblog can be forwarded and read at the fastest speed, affecting all audiences and thus the whole world.

Once you enter more than 140 characters, the webpage will remind you of the excess characters. At this time, you need to see which words can be deleted, and then delete them to within 140 characters, and then click "Broadcast" button to send Weibo.It is precisely because Weibo that exceeds the number of words cannot be sent, and splitting the content into two Weibo does not conform to the reading and forwarding habits of Weibo fans, so this requires companies to repeatedly refine when planning Weibo content .

2.1.2 Forecasting hot spots: ahead of the topic

It is not enough to refine the text, and the things described in the Weibo content must also conform to the hot spots.Therefore, companies usually follow the process of designing Weibo content: mining hot spots through hot search words, screening based on the correlation between hot spots and brand positioning, selecting the most suitable hot spots for follow-up, editing content and optimizing it within 140 .Sometimes, it is not enough just to follow the trend. Enterprises must also be good at discovering information that may become popular, because according to the law of Weibo dissemination, people are always used to following and reposting the most popular Weibo for the same hot spot, so do a good job on hot spots. Only good predictions can occupy the high point in time.

You and your Weibo marketing team have to learn to predict what topics your potential consumers will be talking about, and even sometimes, you can create an interesting topic or two based on clues.When you stay ahead of trending topics, you maximize exposure and attract new followers.

Next, we still take Weibo as an example to explain what types of topics and content tend to become hot spots.

[-]. Fresh

Weibo with fresh content is a relatively scarce part of Weibo content, and it is also the most likely to attract widespread attention.Just imagine, an explosive entertainment news is suddenly uploaded from a certain Weibo, and it will soon attract the attention and forwarding of countless Weibo fans. Someone on Twitter immediately reported that a plane landed on the Hudson River. Singer Han Hong also used Weibo to live broadcast the accident in the first place. Faye Wong and Li Yapeng announced their divorce on Weibo...the number of reposts of these news All amazing.The latest consultation will naturally become the focus of public opinion. It is precisely because of this that Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang chose to use his Weibo to broadcast live during the big S wedding in order to promote Sohu Weibo.

Of course, freshness is not all big news. Some users have never seen it before, and creative activities that are unique can be regarded as fresh categories.

Joyvio's casual snack brand "Chihuo" launched a Valentine's Day confession gift "Jujue wants to nuclear you together" made of "jujube" and "walnut" before Valentine's Day.On the day of its launch, 1314 copies of the limited-edition "Zao Wanhe You Together" in its Tmall flagship store were sold out in less than 4 hours, causing a wave of hot topics. "Trophy".

In fact, jujubes and walnuts are not the favorites of modern foodies purely in terms of products. However, due to Joyvio’s ingenuity, they have made them into "Chinese-style chocolates" that have never appeared in the market, which has increased the added value of the brand, and has a homonym. It is packaged as a confession gift on Valentine's Day, which makes it so popular.

Two, fun

Fresh content is rare, but interesting content can be artificially designed.In most cases, people use Weibo to obtain easy and convenient happiness.The convenience here has both the original meaning and the meaning of "no need to go through the brain to think over and over again".Therefore, this kind of interesting content is usually not advanced humor, but more like a "fast food culture".But for companies that need to maintain the popularity of Weibo, this kind of culture is very speculative, otherwise they will have to work hard to compile a high-quality humorous joke every day.

Take the example of Weibo called "Hot Funny Entertainment", which often posts jokes that only use simple humor techniques, but the effect is remarkable, often attracting a large number of retweets.

Facts have proved that this type of joke is the most popular among Weibo fans. On the list of Sina grassroots fans, two of the accounts of this type have long occupied the top three.

Of course, this is not to make companies post some jokes every day to make fun, but that companies should make the information they want to release more interesting.Take the above Weibo as an example. If it is an underwear company, it can be adapted into a soft advertisement to promote its own underwear. It only needs to modify the words of the characters.

Three, affordable

Although many people don't like advertisements when they play Weibo, if there is a real discount, I believe they will not refuse it.Nowadays, many companies will publish Weibo such as "Forward and @your five friends will have a chance to get a copy of xx from our company" when doing promotions. little attention.We recommend that enterprises do not publish this kind of Weibo separately and frequently, the effect of doing so is not ideal.It is best to launch it in a timely manner in conjunction with other marketing activities of the company, so that it will not cause aesthetic fatigue to users, but also increase the input-output ratio.

[-]. Professional

Although Weibo content is "low-end" compared to WeChat, this does not mean that Weibo fans do not have high-end, professional content needs.Weibo has a huge fan base. As long as you locate your target users accurately, even if they only account for a small part of the overall number of fans, their number is still considerable.Therefore, "science popularization" content that is related to the company's profession, has a special perspective, unique views, or comprehensive summaries is also very popular, and this kind of content is more in line with fans' expectations of you, and it is easier to build a professional brand image based on it.However, professional microblogs are best presented in the form of pictures and texts. It is difficult to be professional and detailed in 140-character text microblogs. This requires corporate microblog marketers to learn the content layout of WeChat and use a combination of pictures and texts. , gif animation demonstration, video and other different ways to introduce.

[-]. Interaction

The era of one-way advertising has passed, and interactive marketing represents the future.Therefore, interactive Weibo is also very important. This kind of interaction not only includes common questions, surveys, and product activities, but also can be carried out in creative ways such as soliciting product names or LOGOs, and voting for plots of brand advertisements.The core of this kind of Weibo content lies in whether the setting of the event itself is novel and interesting, not in the writing of copywriting.

[-]. Mystery

People have a curiosity-seeking mentality. They are afraid of many unknown and mysterious things, but they can't help but explore them.Therefore, if an enterprise has some products related to elements such as mystery and adventure, its Weibo content can also be edited in a deceptive way.For example, there was a video on Weibo about a supernatural event in Fengmen Village, Henan, which was widely circulated. Even Meng Fei, the ace host of Jiangsu Satellite TV, reposted this Weibo.Taking advantage of this hot topic, some authors of adventure books compiled and released posts such as "Top Ten Supernatural Events in China" and "Top 10 Scariest Places I've Been", which quickly became popular and attracted a large number of fans.

Seven, moving

Touching Weibo content can easily resonate with others and get more support and forwarding.For example, when the movie "To Youth" hit the theaters, there were a lot of microblogs reminiscing about youth. At this time, some old clothing, sports shoes, and food companies should follow up immediately and sort out some such as "We passed through those years together" The contents of "Pullback Shoes" and "Do you remember the Raccoon's Crispy Noodles" are touching and resonate, so the spread of these contents will be high.

2.2 Be an integrator of fragmented reading

2.2.1 You only have 30 seconds to attract readers

With the development of technology, human beings have bid farewell to oracle bone bronze, bamboo and wood slips, and even paper has been replaced by electronic screens.In the era of mobile Internet, reading has become more convenient and quicker. We don’t have to put heavy books in our bags. Tens of thousands of books can be stored in a small mobile phone or Kindle. With just a flick of our fingertips, fresh and rich information is available. One after another, it can be said that each of us carries a mobile library with us.

While mobile Internet reading has brought us unprecedented convenience, it has also brought about a problem, that is, reading fragmentation. In Chapter 1, we mentioned that time fragmentation is one of the most important characteristics of the mobile Internet era. It is precisely because of time fragmentation that people's reading habits have also become fragmented.Even if a mobile Internet user has a whole period of free time, the content he chooses to read is mostly fragmented information: 140-character Weibo paragraphs, pictures and short articles in the circle of friends, news summary in the headline news app... The users are generally A quick glance will bring it over, and even if something piques his interest, he won't have the patience to read it carefully for more than 10 minutes.

Therefore, the primary focus of mobile Internet content strategy is how to quickly attract users' attention with the most concise content, and the speed here should not exceed 30 seconds.If your content doesn't make the user feel valuable or interesting within 30 seconds, he will skip it immediately and won't pay attention next time.

2.2.2 Refining + Sustainability = Value

Therefore, hoping to attract the attention of mobile Internet users and even become fans of your brand through one or two pushes of high-quality content is tantamount to wishful thinking.The fragmented reading of mobile Internet users requires companies to follow two principles in providing content, one is concise and the other is continuous.Refining is to meet their fragmented reading habits and catch their attention; persistence is to maintain the popularity and provide you with a process of continuous accumulation and splicing of fragmented content, and finally achieve the purpose of building a brand image.

Let’s take a look at the examples of self-media making money through the provision of content: Weibo celebrity Zhang Facai compiled "None of It Seriously" with historical gossip on Weibo; As the saying goes"... Immediately afterwards, celebrities from all walks of life followed suit and compiled their Weibo quotations into a book for publication.

This phenomenon makes us realize that although each piece of fragmented content is isolated and fragmented and of little value, when integrated together, its value will have a qualitative leap.It's like you can't make any substantial progress by reading a marketing article occasionally, but if you study a whole marketing book systematically, you can have a good understanding of marketing.Therefore, enterprises must learn to integrate the fragmented content of the mobile Internet to provide users with the most valuable and high-quality articles with internal continuity.

2.2.3 Screen the fragments and integrate the essence
It is not that simple to be an integrator of mobile Internet fragmented reading, you must at least be proficient in the following points.

[-]. Filter information

First of all, you must have the ability to select high-quality information from massive amounts of information.Massive information can easily cause reading fatigue, while a limited amount of high-quality information can stimulate users to read at their best.This is equivalent to not only picking out the books that readers are most interested in from the sea of ​​books, but also picking out the brightest content of each book and matching it with the most appropriate title.

This is like CCTV's popular program "The Tenth Screening Room". It not only helps movie viewers select the most representative films from the massive number of films released every quarter, but also provides vivid and interesting introductions according to the characteristics of each film. .This style has won a large number of fans for "The Tenth Screening Room", and its Tucao series of videos have an astonishing hit rate on the Internet.

[-]. Screen the audience

Second, you need to have the ability to filter a limited audience from an infinite number of users.This is the most important point. Although unlimited mobile Internet users sound attractive, it also means the uncertainty of the audience and target users, which will bring great difficulties to marketing.Precisely targeting limited target users and concentrating on providing them with high-quality content can be considered targeted.

Chen Xun, a trader at a securities company, said: "I read tens of thousands of words of fragmented messages every day. A piece of fake news may have an impact on the stock market, so it is necessary for us to obtain more information.” His daily reading is inseparable from the Internet: every afternoon after the market closes, the first thing to do is to go to QQ and Weibo, and exchange the latest information with friends and peers, and then log in to major websites and forums to read news and participate in discussions on hot topics.

Lin Zhiyu, a 27-year-old newspaper editor, said: "Mobile phones, Weibo, and iPads have completely fragmented my time and reading. I have downloaded more than a dozen reading apps on the Pad, including various media clients and information collection. Tools, every time I open them, it’s like opening a black hole. Just downloading and updating will take a lot of my time, but after the updated content, I often just glance at the title and rush to find other It’s updated.” His day begins with Weibo and ends with Weibo, and every day before going to bed, he takes out his mobile phone and opens Weibo to check for new news.

The full-time wife Chen Fei said: "After giving birth, I became a full-time wife. At first I was a little worried, afraid that I would be out of touch with society. I had sisters who comforted me. Now it is not like the past. Register a Weibo, every day. You know what happens in the world. Sure enough, although I spend a lot of time at home with my children, I can communicate with my friends through Weibo to learn about the outside world. I can also go to forums to discuss parenting experiences with mothers of similar age Many friends from all over the world go to forums and look at Weibo every day, and learn a lot, and my life is much richer, and now I feel that a full-time wife will really not be lonely."

We have seen that different users have different needs for mobile Internet content. There are those like Chen Xun who pay attention to industry information, those like Lin Zhiyu who just want to check new news and pass the time, and those like Chen Fei who want to relax Communication and life experience learning in the process.Enterprises should provide the most accurate content for target users according to their own positioning.

[-]. Screening time

Again, you need to master the corresponding relationship between instant communication and delayed release.Although mobile Internet users are attracted to the mobile Internet because of the convenience of instant communication, this does not mean that their reading habits are also the same.Both Weibo and WeChat have a scheduled publishing function, and the time for companies to release content must conform to the reading habits of target users.Pushing messages too early or too late may be overwhelmed by other information later because the user ignores them at the first time.

Take Sina Weibo's weekly list of popular Weibo as an example. The Weibo on the list is generally released between 8:10 p.m.

[-]. Screen hot spots

Finally, you also need to have the ability to analyze and create hot spots.The quality of the content can be seen from the popularity of its dissemination. Instead of following hot spots and "scrambling" attention from hot topics, it is better to create hot spots yourself and let others follow suit.

Take the hot topics on Sina Weibo as an example. The topic of food is usually a hot topic of discussion, and the general food hotspots are mostly discovered by "foodie" themselves, such as "late night food to retaliate against society", "afternoon tea time", etc. , but smart catering brands will also wait for opportunities to create hot spots when new products are launched or daily promotions, attracting the attention of foodies.Take the micro-topic list on April 2014, 4 as an example. The top-ranked topic is the topic of McDonald’s launching a new ice cream product.

What needs to be reminded is that if you want to be a high-quality fragmented content integrator, you need long-term human investment, because high-quality content is scattered in every corner of the network and requires different collection and organization methods.In terms of original and highly entertaining Weibo content, it cannot be crawled by search engines, which means that your content search tools must not be limited to search engines.

(End of this chapter)