Real KOC and fake traffic pool

Recently, everyone must have been flooded with a new term "KOC", right?

Many people asked me to talk about my views on "KOC" and "private domain traffic". To be honest, I don’t have any opinion. My opinion is that they are all “concepts”. The so-called concepts are made-up nouns. But if we must talk about it, I would like to ask you a question first:

Besides my books, what else can I recommend that you guys consume?

I have done experiments before, recommending movies, drinks, books, and courses, and the result was that people bought the courses and books.

Some time ago, I was chatting with Xu Ye, and I joked, Xu Ye, if I open an account on Kuaishou to sell goods, can you give me some traffic support?

Xu Ye said, stop kidding, you can’t sell it.

I asked him why, and Xu Ye said, people like you and me, who have a sense of dignity and cannot brag, cannot do it this way, so forget it.

This one sentence ended my idea of ​​becoming an influencer on Kuaishou.

I have a middle school classmate who posts various Taobao products on his WeChat Moments every day. Those who work in the Internet industry know that he is a Taobao customer. When others make purchases through the exclusive link, you get a share of the CPS.

When doing Taobao, product selection and copywriting are very important.

I don’t know how much money she can make in a month in this way, but I think she should be able to make some money, otherwise why would she post it every day. However, the money she earns is definitely not enough to achieve financial freedom, otherwise she wouldn’t have to post it every day.

Do you think my classmate, who uses WeChat Moments to do Taobao CPS, is taking advantage of "private domain traffic"? But how big is her private domain traffic? I think it shouldn’t be larger than mine. After all, I can no longer add people, and my number of friends has reached the upper limit. PS, the number of friends of another account is also approaching the upper limit.

By the way, for a while, the way I cleaned up my friends’ positions was to search for “cosmetics” and “clothes” to see which people in my friend circle were obviously micro-businessmen, and then delete them directly to make room. I didn’t delete my middle school classmates simply because they were my middle school classmates. If they were strangers, I would have deleted them long ago. But even if I didn't delete it, I wouldn't be interested in what she posted, or even pay for it.

Some people joked that because the client couldn't afford to pay the media and KOLs, they started charging 200 yuan for each KOC. This statement is actually just a complaint. Why?

Wherever there is traffic, it is worth investing, it is just a matter of efficiency.

Whether it is media, KOL or KOC, what actually corresponds to is the scale and efficiency of its ability to obtain traffic.

What are "KOC" and "private domain traffic"? In essence, they are the anxiety about acquiring traffic and the desire to continuously lower ROI.

I've said it many times, and I'll say it again.

The logic of acquiring online traffic has not changed since the thing came into being, and the core is: supply and demand.

When a market is a blue ocean, traffic is easy to obtain because at this time, supply is short, demand is released in large quantities and concentrated on the first entrants. When the market is discovered by others and they enter to compete, they enter a competition for product capabilities. When products are highly homogenized, they enter a competition for marketing and operation capabilities. During this period, those who grab the traffic will say that this is a "bonus period."

Therefore, at the beginning, traffic is always cheap and easy to obtain, but it gradually becomes expensive and may not be able to be pulled in at last.

So you will find that organizations that play with traffic are always looking for new blue oceans. In the Web era, when Baidu was the core traffic entrance, SEO and SEM became popular, advertising was easy to sell, and its value was recognized by the market and continued to expand; with the rise of Apps, information islands became more and more obvious, so traffic entrances were dispersed, but all traffic was concentrated on social and communication tools, so WeChat became the traffic entrance.

So what did you find?

In the Web era, Taobao refused Baidu’s crawling, thus locking the traffic within the company; in the App era, Taobao refused WeChat sharing (don’t argue, in fact, the fact that Taobao products cannot be spread on WeChat does not necessarily harm Taobao’s interests), thus continuing to lock the traffic within the company; why are Toutiao and Douyin so concerned about WeChat’s restrictions? Isn’t it because the traffic is not inside but outside? Of course, when Toutiao and Douyin are big enough, they will threaten WeChat. This is why Tencent is determined to develop short videos.

The core is the same: whatever the traffic follows is what you need to use to lock the traffic.

The competition for Internet traffic is essentially a competition for attention and a division of user time.

Zhang Xiaolong said that a good product is one that can be used when needed and left when finished. Think about it carefully. If we follow this statement, isn’t the search engine the outstanding product?

But why do search engines also have various problems?

Because it is a product, you have to make money, otherwise the company will not survive, so how can you make money?

Revenue - cost = profit.

No one thinks the cost is low, and no one is afraid of high income. The question is, how to do it.

If we understand that the core logic of competing for traffic is the relationship between supply and demand, and that the universal truth of acquiring traffic is that the earlier the traffic, the cheaper it is, and the later the traffic, the more expensive it is, then it is not difficult for us to understand why no matter what application it is today, we will consider "User Referral".

It’s very simple. Users believe the recommendations of people around them, and don’t believe the platform’s statement that it is suitable for you. This is a question of trust cost. Because the trust cost of friend recommendations is low, the cost of attracting new customers is also low. Therefore, whether it is the previous fission or the "KOC" and "private domain traffic" mentioned now, the essence is to lower the cost of acquiring customers and obtain traffic more cheaply through low trust costs.

But, is it useful to do this?

Fan Bing used a picture in her speech, which said: "I treat you as a friend, and you treat me as my private domain traffic." It is very interesting and to the point.

When everyone is eager to become a "KOC" and exchange benefits through "private domain traffic", who do you think you can still trust?

In fact, the industry’s advocacy of “KOC” and “private domain traffic” is a very dangerous behavior, because at this point, the cost may indeed be further reduced, but what is accompanied is actually the destruction of “trust” itself.

Why do I refuse to be paid for advertising? Could it be that Brother Liang has already achieved financial independence?

Of course not!

You will say that I want to protect the value of my personal brand; he will say that he doesn’t value the advertising fee…

Both are correct.

But what is the core?

If I take an advertisement just for money, and you buy something I recommend and don’t think it’s good, once, twice, three times, will you still trust me the fourth time?

No more.

If everyone around you recommends to you the so-called things they consume, and you buy them and find them not good, once, twice, or three times, who can you still trust?

Without trust, do you think you would be happier or unhappier?

When everyone regards others as their own private traffic and is eager to become a "KOC", it may be the greatest sadness of the times. By then, will you still want to see your circle of friends?

Please correct it. Will you still have friends by then?

So, what do I think about "KOC" and "private domain traffic"?

I am very happy to have a "KOC", which confirms the slogan of WeChat public platform: "No matter how small an individual is, he or she can have his or her own brand." But the reason why I broke this matter into traffic for you is actually to tell you:

If you have the ability to become a "KOC", that's a good thing, but if you focus on "private domain traffic" and individual customers in the "KOC" field, then I have to say that it's sad.

Because, KOC may be real, but the traffic pool is really fake.

Author: Zhang Leo

Source: Zhangji Grocery Store