|
Internet celebrities, KOLs , big Vs, self-media, etc., no matter what they are called, today we are talking about this group of people. I used to work on branding for the client and on strategy for the contractor. Now I can barely be considered a KOL in the vertical industry, and I have some understanding of the positions and needs from various angles. So, let’s talk about what kind of mountains KOLs are facing today and how to overcome them. The share of content marketing and social advertising has been rising steadily in recent years, constantly eroding previous media advertising, and KOLs are at the center of content marketing, requiring all practitioners to pay close attention. Party A needs to know how to choose KOL; Party B needs to know which KOL to recommend; KOL needs to know what to do next. Three reasons for accelerated elimination: brand, users, and content. Brands are getting smarter with their spending, users are getting more discerning, KOLs are running out of creativity and lack brand awareness. Today I am not here to complain or create anxiety. I am trying to provide solutions and find a way out so that talented and valuable KOLs can stay and make money, and the idiots can be eliminated. I hope it helps you. Enjoy: Social spam under the flow logic Let me first talk about the current situation I have seen. It can be summarized in one sentence: social garbage under the logic of traffic. Recently Luo Yonghao was live streaming to sell goods, and almost all self-media KOLs seized the opportunity to watch and interpret Luo from various angles, whether he succeeded or failed, or became wilted and cowardly. In short, 99% of them were idiots who watched the fun and created anxiety, and 1% were serious reports. No one provided any constructive suggestions. Do those self-media articles that just for fun have any traffic? Really, there are, many cost over 100,000; are they valuable? There is no positive value, perhaps some negative value; does it have any constructive suggestions for the industry or for Lao Luo? Really not. This is the social garbage under the logic of traffic. It will go wherever there is traffic. Regardless of whether the content is good or bad, it will first give it a sensational title and add three exclamation marks, and the traffic will be guaranteed. The three tricks are to take advantage of hot topics, attract fans, generate traffic, and build an account. It can be understood as a bonus period. The so-called bonus period means that the entire content ecosystem happens to lack content in this field, and you happen to fill the gap. You don’t need to be original, just integrate the existing things and re-post them, and then you will have traffic and advertisements. So they are called "new media editors". What are editors? They are interns who know nothing and can only search the entire internet for content and then edit and publish it. It is scary to think that just a few interns can support content that has millions of fans. So it can only be "new media operation", with an average monthly salary of 6-8K. What is operation? They are people who can increase fans by editing content without any real insights, and some even give classes everywhere. An out-of-date KOL may become popular again by passing on "successful" experiences, similar to how a new media rookie can manage 1 million followers in 3 months. Since last year, I noticed that some KOLs have traffic but don’t make money, some have traffic of 100,000+ but no brand investment. The traffic of some KOLs has dropped sharply. The backend shows millions of fans, but the actual traffic is only three or two thousand, and the content is getting worse and worse. The knockout rounds have already begun, and after experiencing this epidemic, the elimination process is accelerating. I talked with a well-known MCN boss last week, and he said that at least 70% of MCNs will be eliminated this year. I agree. To sum it up briefly, over the past many years, we have always been adhering to the logic of traffic when creating content, which has resulted in a lot of ridiculous content, and we even took the ridiculousness as inspiration. Fortunately, the absurdity is coming to an end. Garbage is garbage after all, and creators will not succumb to desperate garbage. Next, let’s talk seriously about how creators and KOLs shift to content logic, how to create sustainably and commercialize sustainably. Content value and staying firmly in the second tier Two core points: one is to upgrade from traffic logic to content logic; the other is to stay firmly in the second line, with the focus on "stability". We are not afraid of being ruthless, but we are afraid of stability. What I want to talk about are creators who are serious about content creation and have a long-term perspective. As for those non-creators who suddenly become popular and make a lot of money, just treat it as if they won the lottery. Let’s talk about content value first. I think the standard for creators is: Are you creating something that has never existed in the world before, and does this thing create value? Under the logic of traffic, all content is generated around traffic and eyeballs, repeating previous things or venting extreme views. The traffic will pass by without leaving anything. What people pay attention to is the event itself, not the creator. The logic of content is to take the value of content as the starting point of creation, whether the content is helpful to users, and whether the content is effective in the long term. There may not be large traffic in a short period of time, but as time accumulates, there will be traffic and content brands, and the creator's brand will be built. For example, as a KOL in a vertical industry, my audience is not that large. I just accidentally published two articles that had over 100,000 views, and I almost never followed hot topics. There will still be some traffic anxiety, but as long as I think the content is valuable and can help others, even if it only helps one person, the amount of traffic is not important. Traffic logic is like doing a SPA, it feels good but it doesn’t cure any disease. The logic of the content is that seeing a doctor to treat an illness, treating one person is more valuable than doing SPA for 100,000 people. The SPA industry may disappear, but doctors will always be there. Do you understand? Create unprecedented content and make it as helpful to others as possible. Let’s talk about those who are firmly in the second tier. Internet celebrities and KOLs all want to become phenomenal and become people like Li Jiaqi who earn eight figures a month. But as a creator, it is important to have a relatively happy life, obtain long-term sustainable creativity, and stay firmly in the second line. "Stable" means sustainable creation. One good content is not enough. Only continuous and stable good content is needed to establish a content brand. I like the film director Woody Allen very much. Not only do I like his intellectual satire, but I also admire his vigorous creativity. The old man is 85 years old this year, and he still insists on making a movie every year, without interruption for decades, and the quality is stable. He is an excellent creator in my mind. Perhaps it is difficult for everyone to understand why the second-tier companies do not become first-tier companies. Becoming the most phenomenal thing means that there will be overdrawn attention, expectations will be higher, and you will soon get bored and switch to someone else for attention. How many phenomenal internet celebrities and young handsome men have been replaced in these years? Therefore, be a talented creator, and don’t be a phenomenal internet celebrity. All phenomenal internet celebrities are a curse. Creators with stable output generally do not become out of date. Embrace business and become an advertiser Commercialization is a problem faced by most KOLs, especially nowadays. Almost all internet celebrities KOLs rely on payment from commercial brands, and very few rely on payment from users. Therefore, without the intervention of commercial brands, KOLs will have no source of income and will be eliminated. Under the traffic logic, brands pay for traffic, and content is not the focus. Everyone must have seen the "surprise twist" advertisement, which is an unexpected advertisement that appears suddenly at the end of an article. My observation is that this type of advertising is disappearing and the world is getting better. The mentality of KOLs is that it is shameful to accept advertisements, and the content of the advertisements can be written casually. This mentality gives people a feeling of "being both powerful and independent". To this day, there are still KOLs who accept advertisements with conflicting feelings, and there are still fans who accuse KOLs of “making money”, which is all wrong. All creators should actively embrace business, not just accept advertisements, but co-create commercial content with brands. This is something that most KOLs have not done. As far as I know, the commercial competitiveness of major MCNs and KOLs has been declining rapidly since last year. They used to be able to make money by lying down, but now they have to kneel down to make money. The reason behind this is that, on the KOL side, content can provide very limited help to brand marketing. On the brand side, brands are becoming smarter in spending their money as decisions shift from traffic to content. The advice for KOLs is: sort out your own marketing role, what marketing problems can you help the brand solve, and what are the necessary reasons for the brand to purchase you? If it's just traffic, it means you have no competitiveness and can be replaced at any time. I briefly mentioned this when I talked about PGC before. No matter what type of content you create, if you want to be more competitive, the content must be recognizable and at the same time be able to help brands solve marketing problems. For example, when you buy GQ, you are buying fashion temperament and fashionable people; when you buy New World View, you are buying content creativity and urban youth; when you buy Dingxiang Doctor, you are buying the endorsement of the brand by an authoritative doctor. These all have competitive content, but when you buy Papi Jiang, what are you buying? When I was discussing planning with MCN last week, I said that the content must first have marketing value and user traffic, only then will the IP be valuable. It is dangerous to accumulate traffic first and then think about commercialization. Now we can see many content IPs that have traffic but no commercial value. I suggest that all MCNs and top KOLs set up brand planning departments. They should no longer be just MCNs, but become professional digital marketing agencies with their own content IP and traffic. Let’s take Luo Yonghao’s live broadcast as an example: Luo Yonghao’s live streaming is fundamentally different from Li Jiaqi and others. Luo's intellectual temperament, previous experience in press conferences, and his status in the technology field enable him to turn every live broadcast into a brand launch conference. A digital marketing agency with hundreds of people can be set up behind Lao Luo, with Lao Luo’s live broadcast as the core to do brand communication for new products. Preliminary planning, product tone setting, communication strategy, full network dissemination after live broadcast exposure, and subsequent long tail, etc. A whole set of digital marketing solutions for new products to enter the public opinion. Live streaming is just a part of leveraging larger and more resources. By focusing on launching a new product a week, you can crush all marketing companies. Lao Luo's marketing value and role are: he is the key node for new products to enter public opinion and he sets the tone for new products in public opinion. If he can accomplish this, the brand is willing to pay a higher premium, and selling goods on site is really just a by-product. The competition among KOLs has entered the second half. Traffic is important, but not the most important. For KOLs, they are now facing a transformation and upgrade and must switch from traffic logic to content logic. This process will eliminate a large number of KOLs. KOLs without content competitiveness will be abandoned by brands, which means losing their commercialization capabilities. KOL creators with competitive content need to think about another core question: What is the marketing role of content? What marketing problems can it solve for the brand? Let’s make two assumptions. First, a KOL produces a piece of content but there is no traffic. Is the brand willing to pay for this content? The second is content + traffic. What value can a complete content IP provide to a commercial brand? Apart from pure traffic, why should brands work with you? Small and medium-sized KOLs should think clearly about their marketing roles and then create continuously. It is okay to make a little money, but remember not to get too arrogant. For already institutionalized KOLs or MCNs: it is recommended to immediately set up a brand planning department and upgrade to a digital marketing agency to bring higher premiums for commercial content. |
![Operate the local delivery ordering group project, zero threshold operation, simple and fast monetization [Video Course]](/upload/images/67cc30221a0d9.webp)
