A practical case study of new media operation of a social app: How did I take advantage of the Mother’s Day trend?

Since entering the new media era, many companies have suffered from "social syndrome " , that is, regardless of whether they have the need or not, all channels related to new media must become standard brand features. It is true that these companies have reasons to be complacent about the fact that they have taken advantage of the overall social environment, but it is easier to have a child than to raise one, and it is even more difficult to raise a child like Durex .

Why has Durex become a benchmark representative of many corporate new media? To put it superficially, they are good at riding on the popularity of the topic. To put it more deeply, they are good at telling the whole world how they ride on the popularity of the topic. In fact, the reason is very simple. The hot spot is equivalent to the starting line. Everyone has the opportunity to run ahead, and everyone relies on their own abilities. In this competition, it is difficult to stand out by relying solely on the strength of your own legs. You need a lot of boosters . I will take a recent hot topic I have been working on - Mother's Day, and tell you roughly about what I have worked on and gained in the process of " riding on the hot topic " . I would like to ask for your advice.

How is the “ Most Beautiful Mother ” selection made?

The author is currently in charge of the new media resource operation and promotion of an interest-based social APP called " Jingjing " . It takes user interests as demand points and provides ordinary people with a variety of offline interest or social activities. Before May, Jingjing had already targeted the " Mother's Day " which is popular for a while every May, and launched an activity to select the " Most Beautiful Mother " at the end of April: let children put on makeup for their mothers and upload comparison photos of the effects before and after makeup, and the public will publicly select the " Most Beautiful Mother " for Mother's Day and give out various prizes carefully prepared by Jingjing APP .

As a selection activity, how to enrich the theme of the activity is crucial. The action of putting makeup on mom not only combines the current very hot topic of makeup, but also demonstrates the emotional bond between children and mothers through intimate actions between two generations. In terms of the significance of the activity alone, it is still good. But for Jingjing APP , the significance of successfully promoting the event is obviously more important than holding the event.

Event Promotion: You can’t fight alone

The " Most Beautiful Mom " ​​campaign was launched on Jingjing's official WeChat account. By publishing the campaign text and combining it with a third-party voting platform (third-party voting platforms offer more diverse voting display formats than WeChat, and users can also upload photos and vote independently), the campaign was officially launched on April 25 .

When it was first launched, some users had already uploaded their own entries and attracted some ordinary users to vote for them, and the number of fans on the official WeChat account also increased. However, since this event has a certain entry threshold, and the official WeChat account of Jingjing has been in operation for a short time and has a small fan base, the ability to spread the message or increase fans is very limited. So we immediately contacted some big WeChat and Weibo accounts and started to enter the stage of promoting communication.

1. WeChat promotion

Although WeChat is a relatively closed system, its high frequency of usage and focus are unmatched by any major platform, including Weibo. Therefore, even though the cost of cooperating with WeChat accounts is much higher than that of Weibo, it is still necessary. We screened the comprehensive indicators of multiple life service accounts with Shanghai as the main radiation area, including the number of fans reaching 20w+ and the daily reading volume reaching 15w+ , and selected some accounts as potential cooperation partners.

However, the water in the WeChat circle has become more and more complicated in recent years. For example, some subscription accounts that have posted less than 20 articles can have a reading number of 50,000+ . How do you think the many WeChat editors who work so hard to write feel? It is not uncommon for some subscription accounts’ headlines to easily receive over 10,000 views, but their second headlines only receive a pitiful few thousand. Is such a huge “ rich-poor gap ” really a good thing?

Even if we are cautious when screening accounts, there are still times when we fall into traps: several WeChat accounts we chose to cooperate with brought more than 50,000 readers to the Mother's Day event, but the reading conversion rate was less than a hundred people. I believe you probably have a rough idea of ​​the " mystery " at this time.

All I can say is that WeChat promotion has both advantages and disadvantages, but the advantages generally outweigh the disadvantages!

2. Weibo promotion

Although Weibo is no longer at its peak, its open environment is still very suitable for event promotion. The accounts we chose are also life service accounts in Shanghai, but we let them post directly and use guiding words, hoping to use the influence of the accounts to let more people know or participate. However, as Weibo is also tightening its dissemination regulations, the content of some blog posts with attached QR codes is relatively sensitive, and we were unfortunately caught in the crossfire this time. Although we had expected that some of the content posted by the cooperative accounts would be blocked by Sina, it was still quite frustrating when it really happened, and it was blocked twice ...

Fortunately, the cooperative account agreed to resend the content to us, and eventually it diverted a small number of users, which is an acceptable outcome. But when I see that the number of readers of blog posts directly posted by Weibo celebrities is as high as hundreds of thousands, but the conversion rate is pitifully low, I can only say that the Weibo era is no longer there. So, let me remind you here that Weibo is now more suitable for wealthy companies to invest heavily in it. After all, you can't risk your luck. If your budget is limited, you can basically just spend money to buy fun.

3. Promotion through other channels

In addition to Weibo and Weibo, we will also carry out matrix communication for this event on major mainstream platforms such as Toutiao, Sohu Self-media , Baidu Baike, etc. The number of views brought by Toutiao, Sohu, etc. is no less than the output of the investment in Weibo and WeChat. The reading balance on mobile terminals has obviously been broken, and there is a serious imbalance between investment and return. Let me reveal a little detail. When promoting on mainstream media platforms, you should pay more attention to details, such as " group buying " keywords and QR code images. Even if they pass the review, they will not be recommended for support .

In addition, the returns from Douban, Zhihu and vertical communities are even pitifully small. A Douban group with over 50,000 members only has a dozen valid replies a day, and it’s unclear how many real users can be converted. Vertical communities that have passed the review can usually last for about two days before facing the risk of being deleted.

Tieba, which is not mentioned yet among the "Three Musketeers of SNS " , is also utilized as a resource in this promotion. It’s just that because the platforms or channels are different, the promotion methods are also different. Of course, the problems encountered are also varied, including posts being deleted, no one responding to posts, etc. These problems usually require using multiple accounts to create momentum, which is easier to control than the two Weibo accounts. My colleagues also understand how complicated the problem is, so I won’t go into details.

It can be said that all jobs related to self-media are hard work, whether it is producing content, doing promotion, etc., anyone who does it knows it. Laymen only see the excitement in the final picture and text format, but only practitioners know the ups and downs involved. So, it’s not easy to take advantage of hot topics and participate in activities, so do it and cherish it.