Weibo operation and promotion: From 0 to a large account with more than 3 million followers?

The article shares some key points and practical experience in Weibo operation and promotion. I share them with you and hope they will be helpful to you.

I joined Sina by accident in 2011 and was considered one of the earliest new media practitioners in China. After that, we went further and further on the road of operation.

The second job was in the technology and digital industry, where I was responsible for new media operations for mobile operating systems. Although it is a Fortune 500 company, its operations are placed in the R&D center, which is equivalent to an internal entrepreneurial team within the company, so there is basically not much funding for operations.

In this context, within a year and a half, I built the company's Weibo account into one with more than 3 million followers, and it was listed on the Sina Weibo Top 100 Companies List for several consecutive months. It is also the Weibo account with the least funding, the highest influence and activity among the company's matrix Weibo accounts.

How did I build my corporate Weibo account to over 3 million followers in just one and a half years without much marketing funding?

First, we must clearly define our positioning

Clarify stage positioning

First of all, it is necessary to clarify the stage that the corporate Weibo is in, whether it is in the starting stage or the mature stage. The operational focus at different stages is different. During the start-up and development stages, we must focus on basic operations.

Clarify channel positioning

Secondly, it is necessary to clarify the positioning of Weibo. Is it to be a window for corporate news, or to be an influential self-media account that speaks in human language? Should we create to B or to C content? Don’t have a face that is to C, but have a heart that is to B. Many business owners are not clear about what kind of self-media account they want to create. When they see others doing well, they just follow the trend and end up creating something that is neither here nor there. This made the new media editor feel devastated!

Clear user positioning

Secondly, it is necessary to clarify the user group of the channel. Based on the user characteristics of the brand and product, identify the user group of the Weibo channel. Are the users mostly male or female, are they students or working professionals, what is the age distribution, etc. But don’t be limited by the user groups of products and brands. Just look at the user groups of brands and products. Don’t forget that the Weibo platform itself has its own user group characteristics. Plan Weibo channel content based on channels and user positioning.

The following are the dimensions for reference of user portraits:

The Weibo account I was in charge of at the time was a technology and digital product, mainly used by men. The users were mainly students and young people who had been employed for about three years. The Weibo operations were planned based on the characteristics of this type of users.

2. Basic Operations

The so-called basic operation is also called reputation operation. For corporate editors, it is necessary to operate new media channels with the mentality of product operation. Treat corporate Weibo as a product. We know that the product must first ensure that the basic functions have no major bugs and the page UI is not too rough. By the same token, as a corporate Weibo, you must first consider these things: whether it is authenticated, optimization of interlinks, interaction with users, etc.

Reputation

Weibo background wall optimization, PC and mobile terminals need to be optimized. Keep it simple, and remember not to put a logo on the background wall! Many companies are always worried that others don’t know which company they belong to, so they put several logos on the background wall! Your Weibo icon and Weibo name there are enough to let people know which brand and company you are.

To unify the style of Weibo pictures, you can consider making some Weibo picture templates and designing a series of templates for different column series. On the one hand, you can’t ask graphic designers to design all the pictures on Weibo because the manpower investment does not allow it. On the other hand, you can design a series of illustrations that this group likes based on the channels and user positioning mentioned above, so that the Weibo post will not appear to be low-level.

User Interaction

Every comment and private message from the user must be replied to one by one. Don't think it's a waste of time or boring. If you don’t believe me, try replying to every comment one by one. Your Weibo activity level will increase immediately.

In addition, if users see high-quality original content, they can share it to stimulate UGC. Even if you don't repost it, at least leave a comment or a like. Don’t be so arrogant as to comment and forward based on your mood.

Weibo style

Personalized operation: based on user positioning, you can give the official WeChat account a personalized name. This can shorten the distance between the company and the users on the other side of the screen and give the company’s Weibo a sense of warmth.

At that time, the accounts operated by the mobile operating system were mostly men. Therefore, when interacting with users, the personalized image of "Sister V" is used to interact with users outside the screen, shortening the distance and making the company's account no longer have a cold image. We also designed the VI, personality and speaking style of "Sister V". Xiaomi's Mi Rabbit is actually a personalized brand operation. As soon as you see Mi Rabbit, you can actually know that it represents Xiaomi.

In this way, without investing too much money in the event, you can customize peripheral gifts on Taobao based on this personalized character, which saves money and adds value to the gifts.

Standardize the language style of Weibo. Many official Weibo accounts often give people a sense of pretentiousness when interacting with users. Or the Taobao style. You can standardize the language style of your Weibo based on your own channels and user positioning and combined with your personalized image.

Update cycle

How many Weibo posts are appropriate to post in a day? How long does it take to post a Weibo? Based on my years of practical operational experience, about 8 points are more appropriate. The best interval between blogging is 30 minutes to 1 hour. At the same time, Weibo has several peak times: 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and after 11 p.m.

3. Refined Operation

If the above basic operations can be implemented, Weibo operations will be half successful. Basic operations to a large extent provide a healthy soil and platform for refined operations. Many companies have not yet established the basic operations of their Weibo accounts, but have already started spending money on various activities. However, if basic operations are not up to standard, once users are lost, the cost to acquire them again will be N times the original cost. Generally, refined operations can be carried out during the development stage of Weibo.

To put it simply, operations are about attracting new customers, retaining them, and promoting activation. Therefore, the so-called refined operation is to consider how to attract new users, how to retain users, and how to activate users.

1. Content Operation

Content is king, and high-quality content can attract a large number of fans and users.

The content is divided into OGC and UGC (PGC), namely official output content and user-generated content.

The official output content must first be based on product and user characteristics and output content that users prefer. You can output more useful information. If it is a mobile phone type Weibo, you can output some mobile phone common sense, flashing instructions and other useful content. Secondly, you can plan activities based on time nodes and hot events. But if you can take advantage of the hot spot, then take advantage of it. If you can’t, don’t force it.

Weibo column operation can develop some columns based on channels and user positioning. Such as #玩机小课堂#, #VIBEUI体验我来过#, #Wednesday福利日#, #爱踢在线# and other columns.

Weibo cannot only have official content. The official must stimulate users to output content, activate users, and stimulate user participation. You can get users involved by launching some activities, or stimulate the generation of GUC by interacting with users. For example, on Weibo for technology and digital products, you can launch an experience post activity to allow users to post content about their experience using the device. Based on the content output by users, the official will re-plan and package this content. On the one hand, it can be disseminated secondary, and on the other hand, it is also an affirmation of users, which can stimulate their greater participation.

2. Event Operation

The activities are divided into online and offline activities. Online activities are the fastest way to increase fans, and can also stimulate activity, especially during large-scale marketing events, seizing the opportunity of large-scale marketing events. The key to increasing fans through offline activities is how to maximize traffic.

To initiate online activities on Weibo, it is recommended to use the Weibo activity platform more often. The events that come with Sina's Weibo event platform are equivalent to free event advertising resources. This is a great way to increase effective and active fans, especially when there is no marketing advertising funding. In activities I have done before, a selfie stick worth about 15 yuan can bring in 80-100 million fans, and a mobile phone worth less than 1,000 yuan can add more than 30,000 active fans.

Since online activities involve the investment of prizes. When funding is extremely limited, investment in prizes must take into account maximizing the number of fans and exposure of the event. Therefore, setting up prizes also requires great skills, such as how to invest the least amount of prizes to gain the most fans.

Regarding large-scale marketing activities, many Weibo editors worry that their Weibo accounts are relatively small or their companies are small and there are no large-scale marketing activities to plan. You can create marketing activities, such as anniversary events, new product events, or celebrations of how many tens of thousands of corporate Weibo followers there are, etc. In short, you have to create various reasons to play with users.

Regarding offline fan activities, if there is a lucky draw session in the offline activities, this session can be bound to the follow-up account and processed together. Sina Weibo big screen is recommended. This can not only increase the most real fans, but also bring dissemination and exposure, without spending too much money. Of course, some product features do not require offline fan activities, so this can be ignored. However, it is still necessary to know how to direct traffic offline and online. Please see the sharing below.

3. Channel diversion

Channel diversion is also divided into online and offline.

Online channel traffic mainly comes from official websites, WeChat, QQ, Tieba, communities and other channels.

There are many ways to attract traffic online. One is to attract traffic through advertising space, which is a way of attracting traffic without any cost investment; the other is to launch some targeted traffic-driving activities.

Offline channel traffic diversion, especially offline stores, Weibo and WeChat QR code exposure, can bring considerable fans. At the same time, you can consider making exquisite small cards with channel QR codes, which can be given to users when they purchase products in the store.

4. User Operation

The purpose of user operation is to retain these fans and cultivate them into core users.

Through QQ groups and WeChat groups, we maintain the core user group and establish a partnership mechanism to allow these core fans to become product partners. I will not elaborate on how to conduct user operations here, and I will write about this topic later when I have the chance.

5. Data Analysis

Speaking of data analysis tools, the analysis function of the Sina platform itself is quite powerful. The background data can be used to analyze user age, city distribution, PV, UV trends, etc.

By making tables and analyzing data trends, you can analyze the peak time periods of corporate Weibo users, users' reading preferences, etc. Continuously optimize Weibo operations based on data.

The above are all operational experiences accumulated through trial and error on Weibo. It was through this trial and error process that, without much marketing funding, a Weibo account with a few thousand followers was turned into one with 3 million followers.

Author: Meng Fanyu

Source: vjielus