How to do influencer marketing? Share 9 tips!

Recently, due to the popularity of short video apps such as Tik Tok and Kuaishou , many friends who are doing business asked me whether this is a sales trend, just like the Wechat business in the past. After all, many sales myths have been created using new forms of entertainment, such as:

1500 yuan chopping board sold 10,000 pieces

Wu Yifan sold 174 smart cars on Tmall in one day

Angelababy sold more than 10,000 Maybelline lipsticks in two hours of live streaming

They started thinking about the following when they started their own company:

“Can I also foster a KOL within the company to bring in a lot of sales? After all, it doesn’t seem that difficult to become popular on short video apps now.”

This article mainly analyzes the principles of live streaming and short video marketing , and then looks at what products are suitable for sales in this way. Before we begin to examine live streaming and short videos, it’s helpful to take a step back and look at the role played by the influencers created by these platforms.

1. The difference between internet celebrities and stars

Recently, there have been many internet celebrities who have risen instantly on Tik Tok, and then were banned due to off-site factors (such as Miss Wen Wan). But it is undeniable that these rising short video celebrities are worth a lot of money.

We who are also worth a lot of money can think of various big-name celebrities, whether in the entertainment industry or the sports world, who endorse different brands . Internet celebrities will also recommend some products through their own exposure and traffic .

In fact, if we think about it carefully, for the marketing of a product, what is the essential difference between celebrity endorsements, advertising and live broadcast recommendations by internet celebrities?

One of the answers that psychology gives us is the difference between social scenarios and market scenarios .

In our minds, there are two completely different scenarios for every person or thing, namely the social scenario and the market scenario. The difference between the two is: the market talks about gains and losses, while society seeks peace of mind .

Simply put, everyone will unconsciously compare costs and benefits in the market scenario, and demand that there must be gains if there are efforts . for example:

Employees compare the intensity of work and the level of salary

The entrepreneurial partners compare the resources they put in and the equity they gain

When girls go on blind dates, they consider whether the other party's assets and income match their own conditions.

In social scenarios, people are more likely to make unknown or even unprofitable efforts . Here, society means belonging to a group, feelings, and self-realization. for example:

Employees work for the security of a civil servant's iron rice bowl

The purpose of entrepreneurial partners is to make the world a better place and realize the value of life

The girl decided to marry the Phoenix man for love

By the way, in the workplace, eating lunch is a very particular matter. Because everyone thinks about problems in market scenarios during their daily working hours. As a result, cooperation between departments, teams and even individuals often involves many pros and cons, which often hinders the progress of tasks or projects .

When you encounter obstacles, having lunch with relevant people is a good way to break through. Because when having lunch, everyone's thinking changes from the market environment to the social environment. Everyone defines the group as " people working for the same company ." At this time, it is easier to compromise for the company's goals and things can be moved forward more easily.

Once you understand this theory, you can understand the difference between celebrity endorsements and internet celebrity recommendations.

When people get to know and talk about celebrities, it’s always in commercial settings, such as movies , TV series or variety shows. When the audience sees them, the feeling they get is a commercial scene . Therefore, when everyone sees a celebrity endorsing a product, their first reaction is " he/she must have received a huge amount of endorsement fees and is here to cheat us consumers' money ."

Relatively speaking, what was the scene in which everyone got to know internet celebrities? Basically it is on social platforms, such as Weibo, official accounts , short video apps, etc. Consumers are basically in fragmented leisure time when browsing these platforms, so Internet celebrities provide consumers with more social scenes . When consumers see recommendations from influencers, they don’t first look at it from the perspective of cost-benefit. Instead, they think, “ Hey, this is interesting, why not try it? ”

Having said that, if what celebrities provide to consumers is a commercial scene, then wouldn’t the companies that hire celebrities to endorse their products lose a lot of money? Actually, it is not. Because in this article we are discussing the help with marketing and sales. In terms of promoting sales alone, internet celebrities are indeed more cost-effective than celebrities .

The value of a celebrity lies in integrating his or her own personality and image into the brand image, and continuously deepening his or her position in the minds of consumers through the mere exposure effect.

The pure exposure effect means that when an event or object is exposed to our attention multiple times, we tend to believe in its authenticity and even develop a favorable impression of it because of familiarity . The idiom "three people make a tiger" explains this phenomenon very well.

It is also easy to understand from a genetic perspective. In an environment like the primitive jungle that is full of dangers and uncertainties, some of our ancestors were closer to familiar areas and things that have been proven to be safe. These ancestors were more likely to reproduce because they were less likely to be killed by unknown dangers.

To sum up, the biggest difference between celebrities and internet celebrities is that the scenarios in which they interact with consumers are different. Celebrity endorsements are in commercial scenarios , while internet celebrity recommendations are in social scenarios . Celebrities continue to consolidate brand value through pure exposure effect , and Internet celebrities increase purchase conversion rate through other values, which will be mentioned below.

2. Why can influencers increase purchase conversion rates?

Internet celebrities always seem to have a mysterious power that can make the audience more willing to be attracted to them, from the earliest live broadcasts of playing games to sell clothes and snacks, to later live broadcasts of going to restaurants/hotels to sell experiences, and now to live broadcasts selling beauty products, health products, and even houses and cars . The biggest feeling it gives everyone is: Internet celebrities can sell anything? !

What exactly causes products to generate higher conversion rates in the hands of internet celebrities?

In our lives, just like there are teammates and opponents in LOL , we will roughly divide everyone into two categories in our minds: our own people and others .

According to social psychology research, we attribute different things to these two types of people.

For example:

You find that a friend of the opposite sex hasn’t replied to your WeChat for a long time, and no one answers your phone call. If you think he likes you (one of his own), then you will think that he is too busy to answer the phone or reply to WeChat (external attribution); if you think he doesn’t like you, then you will think that he ignores you because he finds you annoying (internal attribution).

Or you may see a friend in your circle of friends posting pictures of their travels around the world. If you think this person is your friend, you will be happy for him because he went to a beautiful place (external attribution). On the contrary, if this person is not your friend, you will think this person is very showy and boring (internal attribution).

This phenomenon of interpreting oneself differently from others is called fundamental attribution bias .

A large number of studies have shown that when we make attributions for ourselves , we tend to make external attributions ( situational attributions ); on the contrary, when we make attributions for others , we tend to make internal attributions ( personal attributions ).

For most audiences, internet celebrities are just like one of their own (specifically how this can be achieved will be discussed in the following section).

Therefore, when influencers express positive emotions (happy, coquettish, excited, etc.) in live broadcasts or short videos, the audience will naturally think that it is due to external reasons (it may be the environment, objects, services, etc.).

For example, if Papi Jiang does a live broadcast or short video, and shows off that she is in a good mood recently because her skin is smooth and tender, and then inadvertently reveals a facial mask she is using. Then many viewers will remember what brand this is and go buy it. Because for consumers, Papi Jiang is one of their own, and she is happy and has good skin because of this mask (external attribution) .

Appropriate exposure of products that need to be recommended can naturally lead to their acceptance and stimulate purchases, especially for those influencers with large traffic, the conversion rate will be relatively high.

3. How to become one with target consumers

As mentioned above, in order to sell things without any sense of incongruity, influencers need to become one with the audience. How can we become one with the audience?

Many people may say that having a pretty face or knowing how to put on makeup and photoshop photos is enough.

This explanation is not entirely correct. In fact, you can easily search hundreds of photos of good-looking faces on the Internet, and many less famous anchors actually have good looks. Then why didn’t they become Internet celebrities, but instead people with ordinary faces like anchor Dong Xiaosa (I don’t mean to discredit Director Dong, just stating the facts) became Internet celebrities?

This shows that in addition to appearance, Internet celebrities actually provide other more important core values ​​- playing a specific role in a group .

The core value of an influencer = group affiliation * role played in the group

Below I will analyze for you the core values ​​that Internet celebrities can provide from the perspective of groups and the roles they play in the groups.

Group affiliation

When talking about groups, what group do you think of first?

The answer is blood relationship . From the primitive gathering society to the present day, family members are the people whom everyone trusts the most (therefore, if a product or service is recommended by a family member, it is more likely to be purchased).

But is it possible for an internet celebrity to be related to all of his or her viewers?

In reality it is impossible, but in name it is possible, and this would allow one to get closer to the masses very quickly. This is also why many Chinese and Korean celebrities and even famous rich second-generations have recently called themselves "national XX".

There are three main groups that influencers can choose to form with their audience:

1. Common interests

In today's Internet world, due to the diversification of entertainment, many subculture circles have emerged (if you want to know what circles are, just search on a certain Baidu forum and you will see them).

Common hobbies have become the biggest bond between members of these circles.

An internet celebrity can position himself/herself in a certain circle, the most typical example being the game anchor. From the earliest anchors who live-broadcast League of Legends to those who later live-broadcast Hearthstone, Ronin, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, most of the audiences of these internet celebrities are fans of their respective subculture circles. (You can even see many less popular live streaming circles on the live streaming platform )

In addition to game live streaming, there are many video producers on Bilibili and Youtube who create videos based on a certain hobby, such as cover songs.

In short, common hobbies are an important bond that forms groups between many internet celebrities and their audiences.

2. Shared disgust

If there are common hobbies, there will naturally be common dislikes. The basic psychology of this group is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." One of the most classic cases is a self-media person telling about his experience of easily writing a popular article with over 100,000 views by “scolding men to death.”

To explain it from the perspective of psychological balance theory, when you and I both have negative attitudes towards a certain thing, the possibility of a positive relationship between us is very high , because the product of the psychological balance triangle needs to be positive. (For more explanations of the balance theory, please refer to the previous article "Seven Deadly Sins of Consumers")

The behavioral characteristic of this kind of group is that they complain together, and the object can be a certain type of people, certain values ​​or social phenomena.

For example, Papi Jiang complains about the unreasonable but hypocritical phenomena in daily life, Mimi Meng complains about girls' non-independent personalities, and Li Mochou from Financial Street complains about scumbag men. In addition to self-media, there are many spontaneous groups on the Internet for many social phenomena, such as opposing the behavior of eating dog meat, opposing pro-Japanese, etc.

For this type of group, the relationship between internet celebrities and their audiences is to identify a common enemy and complain about it to death .

3. Shared identity

The last group is characterized by a sense of identity. We live in a melting pot society, and there are always many labels on us that we acquire or passively accept. These labels represent the groups of people with whom we share a common identity. This type of label can be divided into four main categories.

(1) Geographical identity

Fellow villagers have always been a very typical and clear label for a group. From the hometown cliques in ancient officialdom (such as the famous Qi, Chu and Zhejiang parties in the history of the Ming Dynasty) to the hometown associations in modern society, it is easy to divide people into groups based on geographical identity, similar language, customs and even living habits.

When a host uses a local dialect or a landmark as a background in a live broadcast or short video, it is easy to gain recognition from people with the same geographical identity.

(2) Value affiliation

Compared with geography, values ​​are a less clear label, but they will be inadvertently revealed in the daily communication of Internet celebrities.

For example, the group formed by optimistic, lively and self-deprecating internet celebrities will be very different from the group formed by cold, rational and sarcastic internet celebrities, because they belong to different values. For example, the groups of Korean fans and Japanese fans are also very different.

(3) Social status

Since the audience of internet celebrities is relatively popular, their social status is basically divided between the bottom and middle classes. For example, Yang Chaoyue, who has caused a lot of controversy recently, is an internet celebrity whose supporters are the audiences who recognize the social status of "struggling from the countryside to the city" (because she positions herself as the village beauty who carries the hopes of the whole village). Similar groups include those who moved to Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

It is not uncommon to see groups that are at the same stage of life, such as new mothers in the city and white-collar workers who work in the workplace every day. These groups all have corresponding internet celebrities.

(4) Imagined group belonging

This type of group is the most diverse of all types, and basically all recognition of organizations and individuals can be attributed to the same group . For example, they are all fans of Jay Chou (recognizing the star), fans of Manchester United Club (recognizing the football club), fans of the Chinese football team (recognizing our motherland), etc.

Roles in the group

After determining the group, another important positioning for an internet celebrity is the role in the group. In other words, " what do you contribute to this group ?" It is mainly divided into three categories: entertainment, appeal, and instrumentalization .

1. Entertainment is the most common positioning of Internet celebrities in the group, and there are many ways to entertain, but the purpose is to bring joy to the audience in their spare time . Here are some examples:

• "Adou is back" entertains movie lovers through film editing and narration
• "Wild Food Brother" entertains people who love food through documentaries
• "Feng Timo" entertains young people who have free time through singing

2. A call to action is to give the audience a reason to motivate them to do something important but not urgent . for example:

• The fitness public account calls on everyone to do a few specific sets of exercises and check in every day
• The reading club’s official account calls on everyone to read books every day
• Luoji Siwei calls on everyone to use fragmented time to listen to knowledge

3. Instrumentalization means that the information provided by the influencer can effectively help the audience achieve certain goals . for example:

• Wang Ziru's electronic product reviews help viewers choose products more effectively
• Beauty public accounts teach viewers how to choose skin care products based on their skin conditions
• Food videos teach viewers how to make different home-cooked dishes

IV. Conclusion

Today I analyzed the difference between internet celebrities and stars. Stars usually interact with us in market scenarios, while internet celebrities usually interact with us in social scenarios.

The reason why influencers have better sales conversion rates is that the audience regards them as their own people, resulting in fundamental attribution bias. We feel without any sense of disobedience that our own positive emotions are caused by external factors, while other people's positive emotions are caused by their own personalities.

If internet celebrities want to become one of their own with the audience, they need to have their own core values—playing a specific role in the target group.

So whether a company wants to make a KOL famous, or an individual aspires to become an Internet celebrity, face is important, but you can also refer to the table above to find your core value.

Author: Mr. He, authorized to be published by Qinggua Media .

Source: Yuanwai He (ID: Yuanwai-HE)