How to use the "expert" economy, which is more lethal than "Internet celebrities", to market products

How to use the "expert" economy, which is more lethal than "Internet celebrities", to market products

Jiuzhilan Interview: A one-stop strategy for building a talent economy that is more lethal than "Internet celebrities" Preface: Not long ago, major news portals were dominated by news such as "Aaron Kwok's current girlfriend is a post-80s internet celebrity", "Wang Sicong's internet celebrity girlfriend earns 100 million yuan a year", and "Internet celebrity Zhang Dayi's annual revenue reaches 200 million yuan". The potential of the "Internet celebrity economy" is amazing! Little do people know that the Internet celebrity economy known to the public is just the tip of the iceberg of the talent economy. The potential of the talent economy is even greater. What lies before us is the profit blue ocean of the talent economy that has not yet been fully developed. The expert economy does not only belong to big C. When the dividends of channels such as search engine marketing gradually fade away, enterprises can also take advantage of the "expert economy" and enjoy high returns with low investment. The Internet has given the influencer economy wings to grow rapidly, especially a series of platforms such as Weibo, Meipai, and Meilishuo have become incubators for the influencer economy. Today, Jiuzhilan invited Wang Chuanpeng, a senior executive of Sina Weibo’s advertising department, to give us an in-depth analysis of the unique business model of “Talent Economy”, as well as a practical guide for enterprises and big Cs to build the Talent Economy. In addition, there is an easter egg at the end of the article: From the outside, the relationship between Sina Weibo and WeChat, Fanstong and Guangdiantong has always been delicate. How does the person in charge of Sina Weibo advertising evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of Fanstong and Guangdiantong? Jiuzhilan: The talent economy is still a relatively unpopular industry for many people. Can you give an accurate positioning to the talent economy? Wang Chuanpeng: First of all, let’s take a look at what an expert is. The definition of an expert is very broad. Anyone who has a certain degree of expertise in a certain field can be called an expert. It could be a writer, director, or model. The expert economy is how we achieve commercial monetization through this type of people. The influencer economy became popular in China in 2012. The representative one at that time was Lefeng.com, which sold cosmetics through stars and celebrities. Because these stars and celebrities have a lot of fans, launching products in their names will be sought after by many people. The traditional business model is B to C, but the expert economy adds a link, which is B to big C and then to small C. The reason why Big C exists is that Small C does not have the experience and methods to judge what is good in the current environment. Big C plays this role. Big C tells Little C what to do based on his existing experience. This is called shopping in real life. When we go to Walmart or Carrefour to buy things, we will encounter shopping guides, but these shopping guides are of low status and will just stand there. However, on the Internet, they will play a more critical role. Platforms like Weibo and Xiaokaxiu adopt such a business model. The talent economy came into being. Jiuzhilan: When did the talent economy emerge? What is its development history and current situation? Wang Chuanpeng: The concept of talent economy appeared in foreign countries very early and has been very popular in China in recent years. Because people from all walks of life want to share their experiences, and then also want to monetize these experiences. The Internet provides them with a good platform for display. Lefeng.com is the first brand in China to develop the expert economy. After Lefeng, Mogujie and Meilishuo appeared, guiding ordinary netizens to buy things through some buyers. In theory, there are only two shopping channels for ordinary netizens: direct search and purchase, and purchase through shopping guide recommendations on the page. Things purchased with the guidance of professionals may be more in line with their expectations. These more professional people are one of the groups of experts. In addition, many forms of experts have appeared on Weibo and WeChat, for example, self- media is also a type of expert. Analysis of the current situation of the talent economy: First of all, there are more and more experts in all walks of life. For example, I used to be a shoemaker, but now I am very good at handwork, so I can also become a master. Second, the living environment of these talents is getting better and better. For example, I love writing articles and writing them on my blog has little impact on their dissemination. But there are currently many platforms that allow them to leverage their experience and skills to gain more influence and fans. Third, the monetization methods are becoming more and more diverse. For example, if I am a core link in the industrial chain, then I can sell goods myself. In addition, there are experts in matching products who assemble corresponding products and promote them as a whole. Jiuzhilan: How can companies use the talent economy to develop their own business? Wang Chuanpeng: Companies that want to engage in the influencer economy need to take the following steps: First, they need to position themselves, find the influencers who suit their brand and are loved by their fans, and then package and train them. The second step is to attract fans. The most important feature of the talent economy is that it is people-oriented, so you have to maintain your own fan base. Only with the involvement of a large number of fan groups can you complete the next step of commercial realization. Finally, companies can use some tools , for example, platforms such as Weibo have relevant tools for cultivating talents. Jiuzhilan: With the booming development of the talent economy, more and more companies are eager to try and join in the construction of the talent economy. For enterprises of different industries and sizes, what should they pay attention to when participating in the development of the talent economy? Wang Chuanpeng: From a technical point of view, there is not much difference in the methodology and use of tools in the development of talent economy in different industries and enterprises. The same method can achieve good results. The difference is that even though there are many tools on social media that can help you, ultimately how big the influence of an influencer can be cultivated and how much commercial monetization can be achieved depends on the influencer's professionalism and commitment. For example, the more high-end internet celebrities on Weibo now are second- or third-tier stars who have become internet celebrities. They may post ten Weibo posts a day, and they need to carefully manage how to post on Weibo and what kind of photos they should take. The tools and processes used by these influencers are the same, but for those who are account-centric, there are some differences in the way they operate , and different companies have to figure this out. Tools only provide unified and fixed methods. Companies also need to understand their product positioning and find different methods in the process of maintaining influencers and maintaining fan relationships. Jiuzhilan: Which industries are suitable for the high ROI channel of the talent economy, and which industries are not? Wang Chuanpeng: First of all, we will definitely enter non-standard industries, such as clothing, food, and beauty. Secondly, there are products that are of a discussion nature. Industries that meet these two conditions will have better results in the environment of the expert economy. Because the talent economy requires an atmosphere for corresponding communication. For example, when it comes to clothing, people will discuss whether the clothing looks good, what style it is, how much it is worth, and why it is worth that much money. The B2B industry is not very suitable. Because there are fans in the talent economy, there is a reflection of society. But B2B itself has very few fans, so there is nothing particularly matching it in the current talent system. Jiuzhilan: Are there any successful cases of earning tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan in revenue through the development of the talent economy? Wang Chuanpeng: At present, the economy of talents in the clothing, food, beauty, culture and other industries is developing well. During the Double 11 and Double 12 shopping festivals in 2015, the transaction volumes of influencers were staggering. According to incomplete statistics, 50% of Taobao traffic came from influencers. There is a top 10 internet celebrity named Zhang Dayi, who has an annual personal revenue of 200 million yuan. Zhang Dayi is a model of "Rayli". She is beautiful and a model. In addition, Weibo has an automatic fan-attracting function, which makes her have a lot of fans.

(Picture from Zhang Dayi's Weibo)

(Picture from Zhang Dayi’s Weibo) Her growth pattern is quite typical: first, she is good at dressing herself up. In addition, he is quite diligent in posting on Weibo, expressing himself verbally and interacting with fans . Third, social platforms were used for commercial monetization, and a complete business chain was established. At the beginning, I just posted on Weibo, and then suddenly I realized that I could act as a shopping guide and sell some related products. Later, I found that it would be much easier if I could control the production and supply chain in my own hands. So now she has a complete business chain. She doesn't sell other people's products, but sells her own branded products. Fourth, make use of tools and guidance from internet celebrity economy companies. Nowadays, there are internet celebrity management companies that specialize in packaging and guiding them on how to do this job. And reasonably apply various tools on the platform. She used to use the nine-square grid tool on Weibo, but now she posts videos, which are more efficient and can basically show the whole story. Her development is a relatively good idea for building the talent economy: understand what your fans need and understand what this platform can do. Jiuzhilan: If a company wants to participate in the talent economy, how should it implement it? Wang Chuanpeng: If a company wants to do brand promotion and make some new commercial attempts, the influencer economy is a better choice. First, find suitable influencers who match the brand, and also need operational staff to serve the influencers. Theoretically, a popular internet celebrity needs a team of 20 people to operate. Routine work includes how to post on Weibo, how to monetize your products, and how to access such tools on the platform. In the early stages of operation, 2 to 3 people are enough: one is responsible for the talent, another is responsible for communicating with the platform, and another is responsible for the corresponding integration. In order to successfully create an influencer, you need to have sufficient understanding of the current platform and have sufficient resources. Fundamentally speaking, an influencer’s Weibo account is itself a traffic entrance. If they sell goods, it is a commodity entrance; if they sell texts, it is a cultural entrance. To develop this entrance requires professionals to understand this big platform: how to grow it, how to post more Weibo posts to let fans interact with you, gather popularity, and make use of this platform. Jiuzhilan: If a company participates in the development of the talent economy, what data should it pay attention to? Wang Chuanpeng: The most important thing for a talent is relationships. The first thing to understand is the degree of match between the company's products and the influencers. Another thing is that you need to have a good understanding of the expert’s fans. These two data are worthy of attention. If you analyze Xiao C directly, it will be very difficult because you have to do marketing, user profiling, etc. But if you have a big C, it will simplify the problem a lot. Because we naturally assume that Little C follows Big C. The number of big Cs is limited and controllable. There are 3 data that can be measured here. The first is the number of relationships achieved, which can be measured by the number of fans. The second is the number of readers of the promotional blog post. The third is the commercial monetization of blog posts or users, which can be either the website traffic brought by the expert economy or the sales of goods. Jiuzhilan: How to use big data to improve the effectiveness of the talent economy? Wang Chuanpeng: Weibo is still a hodgepodge. Currently, in the field of big data, we mainly analyze it from the perspective of relationships. We will use some indicators to measure relationships, such as similarity and the concept of circles. Another thing we still emphasize is to achieve which user behavior patterns are more appropriate. Of course, the underlying foundation of big data is ultimately to analyze fans and influencers well, and to analyze the two tos: B to big C to small C. It also includes recommendations, and big data also needs to be used to deal with things related to recommendations. The most important thing is fan data management and analysis. Jiuzhilan: What is the current scale of the Sina Weibo influencer economy? How did Internet celebrities become popular on Sina Weibo? Wang Chuanpeng: In theory, e-commerce on Weibo has developed through the influencer economy. There are two types of experts. One is self-media, which spreads culture. The other type is the shopping guide. Internet celebrities are also shopping guides, but they do it themselves. Reasons for the explosion of Internet celebrities:
  • First, it is determined by the characteristics of Weibo users: the age group is mainly between 19 and 24 years old, accounting for 50%, of which 60% are female. This group of people have money and time, and they also advocate greater freedom and personalization. They will follow Internet celebrities and want to live a life like them or wear clothes like them.
  • Second, the entire Internet environment has created Internet celebrities. Internet celebrities are not only popular on Weibo, but also on other social platforms.
  • Third, the experts and their fans hit it off immediately. Experts gradually realize their own value and know how to monetize this value. It just so happens that ordinary users also need guidance from experts, so this is a perfect match.
 Jiuzhilan: What is the product concept of Sina Weibo's talent economy tool and what advantages does it have? Wang Chuanpeng: The most important thing in the talent economy is the talent, so we will make some divisions based on the characteristics of these talents. We will also conduct some big data analysis to understand the fan groups of these talents and manage the fans in a targeted manner. For example, we will analyze what kind of content the influencers should post to attract more fans. Therefore, Sina Weibo developed the talent economy tool based on big data, which can meet several needs of enterprises: The first is to ensure that the influencer has enough influence and that his fans are numerous and accurate enough. Second, we discover platforms with precise content to help them attract new fans, consolidate old fans, and allow influencers to grow gradually. The third very important part is commercial monetization, and the tool also has corresponding commercial monetization functions. These are three relatively complete systems. Of course, we will also allow people who join this system to enjoy more of the results of data mining. In this process, more and more companies will join in. The construction of the expert economy is a high-return-on-investment channel for companies and will be of great help to the company's marketing. Jiuzhilan: If influencers want to increase their influence and gain more fans, they may consider advertising on Weibo or other platforms. What suggestions can make the advertising more accurate? Wang Chuanpeng: I think there are two ways to achieve this: The first is to change the marketing idea and replace blind investment with targeted investment. There are two ways to use Fans Link: the first is to invest in certain people in a certain field; the second is to invest in a person’s fans, which is more effective. As I just said, it is difficult to invest in small C, but it is easier to invest in big C. This is a good combination. This is a change in marketing thinking. As long as I have the big C, I can do it in any industry. The second point is to use big data to establish an industry-wide, cross-platform shared DMP. For example, Weibo itself is a data platform. We now hope to turn this data into an API. We will create our own DMP based on this data and share the data so that everyone can use it together. The current talent economy is in a booming development process, and no platform can fully meet the needs of talents. For example, internet celebrities have now developed to the point where I no longer post directly on Weibo, but instead use live broadcasts or videos to showcase products more directly. Therefore, the live broadcast platform is also a better medium for the expert economy. Therefore, we can build a shareable influencer DMP for the Chinese market. This platform gathers influencer and fan data from various vertical fields, and fans of influencers from all walks of life can be found through this platform. But to achieve this, data needs to be exchanged and then integrated together to serve various business owners. This should be a more practical solution. Jiuzhilan: As you just mentioned, to build a DMP for influencers, you need to introduce more third-party data, such as WeChat data. But the problem is that although WeChat has a large amount of data, it is also relatively closed. Will they consider cooperating with you? Wang Chuanpeng: Theoretically, if we think WeChat data is important, we will definitely find a way to obtain it. But at present we believe that Weibo’s data on influencers will be better. Because Weibo's social platform reflects reality more. For example, the people he follows on WeChat are all his relatives and friends, and his attention is limited. But on Weibo, you can follow many celebrities and experts, which is actually more in line with our needs in real life. In real life, if I want to see a doctor, I will pay attention to the doctor; if I want to study, I will pay attention to the teacher. Therefore, this kind of relationship is more in line with reality and has a wider scope, because we will have more Weibo friends and a larger circle. So judging by the current Weibo data, there is still a lot that can be done. Of course, the effect will be even better if the WeChat data can be introduced. Jiuzhilan: The relationship between Weibo and WeChat, Fanstong and Guangdiantong has always been rather delicate. The budget of enterprises is limited. In terms of advertising, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of Weibo and WeChat? How should enterprises choose? Wang Chuanpeng: The WeChat advertisements that we can see now are probably more general and topical. In fact, it goes against the characteristics of one's own circle of friends, which should be private and personal. There is still some difference between this and the form of WeChat itself , but WeChat's product experience is good. So if we really want to give some advice to these companies, technically speaking, it is to do AB testing. Another point is that you need to understand who your target audience is. Most of the people on Weibo are young people. If you want to do non-standard clothing and makeup, I suggest you choose Weibo. If you are doing brand promotion, there is not much difference between WeChat and Weibo, but it is still recommended to choose Weibo, because brand promotion is to attract attention, and Weibo has the nature of dissemination, and its dissemination is wider. WeChat is actually quite closed. Therefore, brands tend to prefer Weibo. But if you prefer to be more precise and have a thorough understanding of your users, WeChat is an option. Jiuzhilan: What is the future development trend of the talent economy? Wang Chuanpeng: I think the future development of the talent economy will have the following trends: First, there will be more platforms. Second, there will be more underlying data foundations to support them. Third, more experts from all walks of life will emerge to drive consumption of others. We hope to provide a platform for more big Cs to display their abilities, and we need to provide these big Cs with some shelter so that they can display their talents. These big Cs also have considerable size in China, and the number of internet celebrities just mentioned is huge. First, I am optimistic about the field of cultural engineers, who are also a type of talent. Culture is a broad concept. Everyone needs to communicate. In today's environment where pressure is so great and housing prices are so high, you need cultural engineers to help you relieve this pressure. Therefore, I am more optimistic about the more vertical field of the talent economy - culture. Cultural engineers are actually an extension of self-media, because when you read texts you are actually absorbing culture. The implicit concept here is that these big Cs have the ability to provide services and can realize corresponding profits, while small Cs have personalized needs waiting to be fulfilled. To give a more realistic example, repairing our home appliances is actually very difficult nowadays, and we need to look for previous orders. If there is an expert in this area, it can be solved quickly with just one phone call. At the same time, the talent economy is related to the entire social form. Although we form a cone-shaped group, the people in the middle layer play a greater role. If the number of people at the top of society is small, then the society is not sound. We need to support the people in the middle - that is, to support the talented people.

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This article was compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion) by @九枝兰. Reprinting this article requires the consent of Top Promotion , and please attach the link to this article!

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