From the closure of Ergeng Canteen, how should self-media professionals correctly follow hot topics?

Last week, when everyone was immersed in the grief of the stewardess being killed by a Didi driver, the public account " Ergeng Canteen" was pushed to the forefront of public opinion because of an article titled "Thanks to you, the driver who killed the stewardess is lying at home counting money."

The article gave an inappropriate description of the incident, and the wording used was extremely explicit, causing strong disgust among a large number of users. My Zhihu thought timeline was once occupied by this wave of criticism.

This kind of inappropriate use of hot topics to cause serious consequences is not uncommon in an era where self-media is everywhere. In minor cases, the account may be banned or frozen for a few days, and in serious cases, the account may be directly blocked. However, this time it is not a small account, but one of the major self-media accounts that occupies the top traffic, "Ergeng Canteen".

After realizing the seriousness of the situation, Ergeng Canteen CEO Li Ming issued an apology statement that evening:

On May 12, the day after the incident, the Cyberspace Administration of Zhejiang Province, together with the Cyberspace Administration of Hangzhou City, summoned the person in charge of the WeChat public account "Ergeng Canteen" for publishing vulgar articles. It is required to comprehensively clean up illegal and harmful information, severely punish the relevant responsible persons, and submit a rectification report within a time limit. At the same time, the "Ergeng Canteen" public account was blocked for 7 days on the WeChat platform.

On May 13, Ding Feng, the founder of Ergeng, responded on his WeChat Moments to the inappropriate tweet posted by "Ergeng Canteen" on the 11th about the case of "Didi driver killing flight attendant".

From quickly and proactively admitting the mistake and apologizing at the beginning, to the final closure of Ergeng Canteen and the firing of its CEO, the matter should be considered over here.

Unfortunately, I knew that this was probably just one of many similar incidents - after a series of skillful public relations, it eventually disappeared from the public's memory. But I still want to say something, because this incident is enough to serve as a warning to all self-media practitioners.

Don’t be slapped in the face by the “original intention” you keep repeating

In the era of self-media where people never stop making shocking statements, the reputation of some large-scale traffic accounts is not very good.

I remember that before Mimi Meng switched from traditional media to new media , she published an article titled "The Painful Jin Shengtan" in Han Han's "The Chorus". I was deeply impressed by her writing style at the time. That was the first time I knew Mimi Meng.

As time goes by, self-media has flourished. The master of literature who graduated in classical literature and was good at deconstructing celebrities and subverting common sense has become a self-media person whose articles are full of words such as "bitch, low, loser, whore, idiot, get out".

How many self-media people dream of producing an article with over 100,000 views? Their goal is to write an article like Mimi Meng's "To the Bitch" that will explode the entire Internet. So they try to say something shocking and eye-catching in any way possible. How to cultivate yourself into a clickbait headline writer is a must for new media editors. The JDs recruited by major new media outlets explicitly require that the editor has written articles with more than 100,000 views.

With the popularity of Mimi Meng, this industry has become extremely impetuous. Behind the 100,000+ figures, how many people have given up their original intentions. As long as they learn how to come up with a title that is explosive enough, the quality of the content is not important; they choose a topic that is enough to arouse public emotions, spread hostility and gather onlookers; they even do not hesitate to stir up trouble, confuse right and wrong, and play with the public's IQ. I did so much just for that 10w+ number.

What is the vitality behind numbers? At the beginning of the rise of self-media, people could be happy for a long time for writing an article that was widely circulated with 10w+ views. Now, how many editors are proud of writing an article that has 10w+ views? If there is no opinion behind the text, or even if it promotes ugly values, what is the meaning of such numbers? It's just a bunch of numbers.

The founder of Ergeng said in his apology letter that as an entrepreneur from traditional media, his original intention was to build a company that is valuable, contributive and responsible to society. This incident is not just a simple mistake, it has tarnished the company's brand . When we talk about Ergeng Canteen in the future, we will think of how it did everything it could to catch the attention of the public.

We often say some chicken soup like "Don't forget why you started out when you go too far", as if if we say it long enough, we will really not forget it. The word "original intention" should not just be regarded as an excuse after making a mistake, it should be a knife hanging over your head every day, and you should always keep it in mind. That is the true original intention.

The correct way to take advantage of the hot spots

A self-media that does not follow hot topics is not a good self-media. For a long time, major business owners and self-media have always regarded chasing and riding on hot topics as an essential marketing method. Durex 's amazing skill in following hot topics has pushed hot topic marketing to a climax. Therefore, Party A's new media department works almost all year round, and it is common for them to temporarily follow up on hot topics and make a poster on the weekend if there is any slight disturbance. Party B is on standby 24 hours a day, preparing ABC plans in advance and being ready for action.

Everyone is very nervous, fearing that they will miss out on the hot topics. They just refuse to admit that apart from showing their presence, following or not following has little impact on the brand. If you are not careful, the wrong pursuit method may have a negative impact on the brand. The more recent incident was the Uniqlo incident , and the more recent incident was the murder of the flight attendant.

As the self-media industry has developed to this day, any corporate new media team of a certain size will have a set of review processes, including how many times to review, what to review each time, and who makes the final decision. There are corresponding rules. It is precisely because the content production process mechanism of Ergeng Canteen has failed to prevent the appearance of such content that we discover that the real problem lies in values. So no matter how carefully or how many times you review it, it will not change the outcome of the matter.

As early as the Uniqlo incident, everyone was hoping that Durex would follow this hot topic, and some netizens even made several hot topic posters for Durex. But in the end, Lao Jin (Jin Pengyuan, founder of Huanshi Interactive, whose company is famous for serving Durex) did not follow this hot topic. It can even be said that those brands that chased after Uniqlo back then were extremely stupid. Why not do something when you are capable of doing it? The reason is to stick to your values ​​and do the right thing.

Through the Uniqlo incident, Lao Jin gave a set of correct postures for chasing hot spots, which is still very meaningful to share today:

When a social hot spot emerges, the following judgments must be made before taking appropriate actions.

1. Is it positive? The Uniqlo incident was clearly an infringement of privacy rights, and it is even less likely that it was Uniqlo's marketing for virtual dressing.

2. Whether it is related to the brand. A friend of mine once said that 99 percent of today’s hot marketing is garbage, and I totally agree. It is better not to rigidly associate hot topics with brands.

3. Whether it is reasonable and legal. Many brands directly use celebrity portraits when celebrities become popular, which is an infringement. In a country ruled by law, this mistake would result in huge economic losses.

4. What are the audience’s emotions? Cyber ​​mobs exist, and even if you do something right, ambiguous words may lead to a brand disaster.

5. Timing is critical. Although it is said that speed is the only way to succeed in the Internet , we cannot compromise on quality just because of speed. For general hot spots, if they cannot be linked within six hours, there is no point in doing anything.

Judging from the above five points, even if you think carefully about the first point, you will not try to take advantage of this hot topic. It is shameful to exploit the suffering of others, but there are still self-media like Ergeng Canteen who do not learn their lesson and take risks, not to mention the piles of emotional public accounts that have not been discovered by the public.

If the King of Hell orders you to die at the third watch, how dare he keep you until the second watch? I don’t know whether the closure of Ergeng Canteen’s official account will be a huge economic loss for Ergeng Company. What is foreseeable is that, as I said before, this incident is just one of many inappropriate things that are done to take advantage of the hot topics. The public will forget, but those working in the self-media sector must not forget. Ergeng Canteen should not be forgiven even if he resumes his old business using a secondary account in the future.

In an age where entertainment is everything and quick money is made against one's conscience, saying no to them is a form of persistence. We often despise these public accounts for producing junk articles, so please don’t turn yourself into junk traffic who likes to read such public accounts.

If we forgive them, what is the meaning of the existence of those who truly work step by step, stroke by stroke, and stick to their principles?

A body without a soul is an empty shell. Behind the impetuousness are people who have lost themselves in the pursuit of fame and fortune. The closure of Ergeng Canteen is just one of the many chaotic situations in the self-media industry. We all need to ask ourselves, what would you choose between interests and upholding your values?

The Ergen incident is a long-lasting alarm.

The author of this article @欢喜Fancy compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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