6 key points of self-media marketing in the Internet era

Any society coexists with its information and media. In the era of the Industrial Revolution, marketing relied on the media, and the media sold the residual value of attention. However, in the Internet age, media is reaching specific channels and fragmented people. Behind this is the disintegration of all forced adjacent relationships, and the profit models of all traditional media are collapsing.

1. All industries are media, and all content is advertising

The value generated by most industries is proportional to their profitability, but advertising is not the only one. A few years ago, I interviewed the boss of Xunlei and asked them about their business model. He said he didn’t find it and now relies on advertising. I said, isn’t advertising a business model? He said of course not, we are doing downloads, so of course the faster the better. But the faster the download, the shorter the ad stays, and the lower its value. Can this be called a business model?

This is the problem that traditional media encounters. For businesses, this means that the stable marketing channels of the past are gradually being lost. What should they do? Create your own media. To put it shockingly, in the future, nothing will be media, and nothing will be advertising. All industries are media, and all content is advertising.

2. Future economic scenario: finding ways to entertain each other

I have known Pan Shiyi for many years, and he also knows countless people in traditional media, but none of our friends can earn his advertising fees. Why? Because he himself is the media of SOHO China. He puts on shows, opens a blog, posts on Weibo, holds exhibitions, makes movies, and runs a "commune at the foot of the Great Wall". The energy generated by these eye-catching activities all flows back into his industry, forming his competitiveness. Therefore, Pan Shiyi does not need to purchase media.

Starting from having enough food and clothing, the Industrial Revolution helped us extend and replace our limbs and many organs, but there is one ultimate organ whose demand is unlimited, and that is the brain. How many vacations should a person take in his lifetime? How many movies? How many novels have you read? There is no end to this, so the future economic scenario is: you tell me a story, I sing a song for you, and we entertain each other in different ways. Therefore, the value attribution of each industrial chain in the future will depend on the media, which is the essence of the experience economy.

3. What is lacking most is not content, but attention

In the era of product economy, economics believes that if there is value, there must be a price, which is wrong. This implies a condition - scarcity. On Earth, the thing with the greatest value to humans is air, but who can sell air on Earth? In the Internet age, information has become so abundant that it is no longer scarce. Therefore, what the world lacks most is not content, but attention.

After so many years of development in China, the most valuable things are first the products in the value chain, then the channels, then the content, and the next step is that people are the most valuable. The media industry is therefore undergoing a turning point. The greatest value of the media has shifted from information value to personality value. It is not good content that brings good communication, but good personality that brings good communication.

4. Future marketing form: Building self-media with personality as the core

The first person to land on the moon was named Armstrong, who received the same training and took the same risks. Who was the second person? The world has become flat. If you rise as high as a millet grain, you can reach Mount Everest, but you have to be the tip. This is a very cruel point in the law of communication. Therefore, establishing self-media with personality as the core will be a basic state of future marketing.

In the past, channels were the key to a company’s marketing. Self-media are individuals, such as Zhou Libo and Guo Degang, not big Weibo accounts or WeChat public platforms. Traditional media is a bit like the Yangtze River with a clear path, while self-media is like a snowy mountain. When spring comes, flowers bloom and the snow and water flow down the mountain. As for how many paths it is divided into, it is actually not important.

Typically, there is only one brand experience that a company wants to create, but there are multiple ways to achieve it. Some companies are promoting their products without spending any money, or even making money.

Each enterprise is not an organization that produces a certain service in traditional industries, but is actually a value entity. If marketing is a cost center for a company, then it’s better not to do it. If you do it, make it profitable.

In the future, the line between media and products will be very blurred.

5. Proactively exposing a crisis is more effective than controlling it

Many companies encounter brand crises, and when they ask for my advice, I usually advise not to refute it, because it will soon pass. In the Internet age, scandals develop logarithmically. Once they enter the logarithmic period, the speed is too fast and no public relations will be able to cope with it. If they do not enter the logarithmic period, they will not break out and you don’t have to worry about it.

In fact, proactively exposing your own crisis is more effective than controlling the crisis. In the past, we were always deceived by an illusion that enterprises in the market were like walking on the galaxy-like streets in white dresses, without any mud on them. But now is an era where you wear overalls, have a spittoon in your left hand and feces in your right hand. We must learn to adapt to bricks flying on the streets, and then regard every crisis as a help to move forward.

6. Only cloud stories can be spread

With mass media gone, small stories are basically impossible in this world. The so-called short story is a story that is not spreadable in itself, but is powerfully spread through channels and forced into your mind. What is emerging now is the cloud story. Without the cloud story, communication will not happen.

There are four types of cloud story archetypes in China: the first type is hatred of the rich; the second type is hatred of officials; the third type is national sentiment and regional discrimination; and the fourth type is gender. So far, all the events and crises that have exploded have been variations of these four cloud stories, and I haven’t discovered the fifth type yet.

So when you face a crisis, know clearly what your cloud story is.

How to solve it? My ultimate method is to make the story bigger and create another story.

In the dispute between Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao, Wanglaoji fell into a story - the strong state-owned enterprises suppress the weak private enterprises. If this story is not changed, Wanglaoji will not win, no matter how much advertising money it spends. In the Internet age, what matters is the story structure. If the story doesn’t change, the more you struggle, the more you will fail.

Finally, let me remind everyone: the Internet era is not the era of marketing planners, but the era of marketing co-dancers. The premise of planning is to be able to control everything, but in fact you can't control anything.

Author: Luo Zhenyu

Source: Luo Zhenyu