Creating popularity: 6 key points to summarize the communication routines of screen-sweeping

At the beginning of 2018, the entire marketing circle was shrouded in a cloud of gloom due to three companies.

Which three companies?

New World View , NetEase and Sanlian Life Weekly.

Let’s first look at Xin Shi Xiang. It launched a course - Xin Shi Xiang Marketing Course, which leveraged its brand awareness and distribution communication strategy to sweep the circle of friends of marketers .

Before the new world view, NetEase had already captured people's attention. The "NetEase Drama Class" jointly launched by it and Qianliao was the first to open the faucet of marketing to stimulate people's anxiety.

After that, Sanlian Life Weekly, which had been unknown until then, used the same routine to detonate more people's circles of friends, causing people to fall into the "knowledge trap" once again.

To be honest, compared with Sanlian Life Weekly, New World View and NetEase are well-known in the marketing industry.

The former created the " Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou " and "Book Throwing Campaign" that went viral on WeChat Moments, while the latter created multiple popular products and H5s and has always been the subject of research by marketers.

So, why can Xin Shixiang create screen-sweeping events so many times? Why can NetEase create popular products? Why did Sanlian Weekly suddenly explode?

The logic behind this has actually been explained a long time ago in a book called "Contagious".

As long as you understand "Contagious", you can also acquire the ability to create trends like New World and NetEase, and even change the "direction of the tide."

So, how does "Contagious" explain these communication routines? Come with me and find out.

1. Social Currency

A product that is easy to spread can have many characteristics, such as spontaneous dissemination, giving users something to say, impeccable performance, a sense of honor, etc.

If you want your product to become truly popular because of these features, you must include one thing in the product design, that is, social currency .

The so-called social currency is something that can provide topics for people's continuous communication and interaction - because social interaction is like a transaction, social currency is the "general equivalent" that supports this "transaction form" of social activities.

Topics of conversation, common topics, and popular preferences are all social currencies, and can also be seen as a simple understanding of their concepts.

Therefore, whether a product can provide the public with social topics and common topics, and satisfy people's desire to share their thoughts and opinions, is a prerequisite for whether the product can become popular.

So, how to mint social currency?

1. Manufacturing Excellence

Excellent products will give people a sense of attraction, making users feel high-end and better, which can be converted into social currency to attract more attention, such as: iPhone.

In addition to excellence, unconventional things can also create many surprises, mysteries, and can be controversial, which can attract people's frequent attention and thus serve as social currency, such as Xin Shixiang's "Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou".

2. Design the game

Why do people like to play games?

This is because games can stimulate people's desire to participate and compare, so if game elements are added to the product, or the product is a game, it can serve as social currency.

Tencent has done the best in this regard. The reason why games such as Honor of Kings and Jump Jump Mini Program are so popular is that games can serve as social currency.

3. Create a sense of belonging

Another good way to create social currency is to amplify the scarcity and exclusivity of products and services and give users a sense of belonging.

A word that has been frequently mentioned recently is " super user ", the essence of which is to create a sense of exclusivity - because this is the thinking of designing products from the user's perspective, it is also called super user thinking .

Because only when super users recognize your product will they have a sense of belonging, connection and identity with your product. In turn, super users will also feel excited and proud.

In the words of "Crazy":

So how do we create a sense of belonging?

It’s very simple, that is, make the products, services and experiences different from others; in other words: differentiate the groups of people and provide differentiated products, experiences and services.

For example: create a three-level system of VIP members, paid members, and ordinary users. Different levels have different service experiences, and the highest level can generate word-of-mouth communication.

Therefore, the uniqueness of the product will give users a unique feeling and form a specific label, while also arousing the public's curiosity and triggering discussion and dissemination.

2. Causes

In addition to social currency, there also needs to be a suitable reason so that the product can be mentioned or the frequency of mention can be increased; and this reason is called an inducement.

What is the inducement?

The explanation in the book is: One thing appears in the mind because one sees something related to it. This factor that causes associative thinking is the inducement.

Therefore, a common way to generate incentives is to associate products with common "incentives" in life. For example: Melatonin is associated with gift-giving and filial piety, so that users will think of Melatonin and the brainwashing slogan when they see the act of gift-giving.

Of course, the inducement cannot be found casually, but it is necessary to be clear about the characteristics of the inducement.

1. High frequency

High frequency is one of the most important characteristics of inducements, which can be a person’s high-frequency characteristics or high-frequency behaviors at a certain time.

Gift-giving is a high-frequency behavior, and because of its association with Melatonin, it has created the sales myth of "only accepting Melatonin as gifts".

Internet hot spots also meet the characteristics of high frequency. The reason why Durex has become an expert in chasing hot spots is because of its high frequency. It chases hot spots as soon as they appear, which not only makes people always want to read its copy , but also allows the brand to be effectively spread.

2. Dedicated

In addition to high frequency, specificity is also the most important feature of incentives, because the selection of incentives must be combined with the audience's living environment, feelings, experiences, scenes, etc.

The brand Jiang Xiaobai actually has the characteristic of being specific - it is only integrated with the social scenes of young people. When young people eat and drink together, they will think of and drink Jiang Xiaobai's liquor.

Emotions

Psychological research shows that things that can trigger emotions are often discussed by people; for example, escaping from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou triggers people's desire for freedom due to the pressure of life.

Therefore, creating some emotional events can greatly stimulate people's desire to share.

What kind of emotions can stimulate communication effects?

Based on emotion research, psychologists have found that emotions with high arousal characteristics tend to inspire people to actively spread emotions.

What are the emotions that are characterized by high arousal?

Positive emotions such as awe, surprise, amusement, excitement, and humor; negative emotions such as anger, worry, anxiety, and fear; and complex emotions such as emotion and nostalgia.

When it comes to experts in using emotions to create communication events, NetEase Cloud Music is the best. Its music reviews are mostly nostalgic, which has contributed to the recent popularity of NetEase Cloud Music.

Therefore, we must make good use of emotional strategies, turning products or copywriting into vehicles for expressing attitudes and behaviors to the outside world, and allowing users to become disseminators and spokespersons for the product.

IV. Principle of Publicity

Another key factor that motivates people to share is the principle of publicity, which means that the product can be easily recognized in public, making the user experience a public guide.

In other words, it is to improve the visibility of the product, which is a key step for niche products and new products to quickly open up the market.

So how do we improve it?

1. Visual differentiation

From the product perspective, we strive to differentiate and enhance recognition through physical products such as different shapes, packaging, and colors, and service products such as faculty from famous schools and a teaching and research system.

2. Crazy advertising

From an advertising perspective, increase exposure and make the brand appear more frequently in people’s lives; for example: advertise crazily online and offline.

Of course, people prefer to spread positive information and avoid sharing negative information, so we need to shape the publicity, combine it with user scenarios, and pay attention to factors such as time, place, frequency, etc.

Of course, increasing product visibility not only increases purchases, but also allows users to promote the product for free when using it; therefore, visibility can sometimes be seen as part of social currency.

5. Practicality

Visibility is part of social currency, but a product cannot just look good but not practical; it also needs to be practical in solving problems.

The practicality of a product promotes user sharing in two main ways:

1. Share the profits

The so-called sharing for profit means that users can gain benefits by forwarding, such as: sharing for free listening, getting discounts, getting gifts, etc., or even sharing to get red envelopes, such as the fission red envelopes after each order on Hungry?

2. Actively share

If the product itself has practical value, it can encourage users to share voluntarily, for example: there is content that users want to express but cannot or dare not express, or it provides practical tools , knowledge or resources.

But there is a problem, that is, users will try to prevent others from discovering their sharing, or make the shared content disappear after a short period of sharing.

This happens because "people tend to share things they see that are beneficial to them."

In other words: even if there is an incentive to do so, users will be smart enough not to share things that they subjectively believe are meaningless.

Therefore, if you want to use practicality to encourage people to share, you must further polish the product's use value and guide users to voluntarily share and spread it.

This point is more applied to articles in public accounts - because the design of the article title shows practicality, and the article content itself is also practical, it will naturally encourage users to actively forward it.

Pinduoduo has made good use of the principle of practicality. Its group buying and bargaining methods, which made it famous, are based on saving money as a sharing point, making users believe that it is a good deal to get bargains with good friends, and sometimes it can even enhance friendship.

6. Story

Sometimes, what users remember most easily is not the straightforward information, but the ups and downs of the story. The ability to tell stories is one of the essential skills to create popularity.

Stories are an important way to understand the world. In the marketing process, packaging marketing content in the form of stories and then spreading product concepts and values ​​is a very appealing way.

There are actually three ways to write a good story:

(1) Entrepreneurship story

It mainly contains entrepreneurial stories of company founders, featuring inspirational sentiments, and is suitable for start-ups or brands.

(2) Brand History

That is, telling the brand's historical story, which is very suitable for time-honored brands.

(3) Concept and personality

Telling stories about characters that reflect brand concepts is an increasingly popular approach used by many brands. The characters are not necessarily real people, but can be story interpretations of personified images. For example: the comic strip "Wang Nima" and "Jiang Xiaobai", most of them design a cartoon character and use it as the protagonist to tell the brand story.

When designing a story, always follow the principle that "the purpose of the story is to spread product information", otherwise it will affect the communication effect.

For example: Although Xin Shixiang’s Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou went viral, the sponsoring corporate brand did not receive effective exposure, so this was a failed marketing case .

Summarize

As a " growth hacker ", there are two abilities that must be constantly improved: one is high conversion rate , and the other is high spreadability.

The former’s concept is the marketing funnel, while the latter’s thinking is viral communication .

Source: Dugushang