According to the well-known Weibo marketing agency Zhaowen, as of May 2012, Sina Weibo users - 324 million; Tencent Weibo users -- 425 million. Of China's nearly 700m Internet users, about 500m are microbloggers (some have both Sina and Tencent microblogs), of which more than 100m are active and growing.
What does such a large number of Weibo users mean to the enterprise?
Asomitong believes that where consumers appear, corporate marketing communication activities should appear. Undoubtedly, micro blog is changing, even subverting the marketing model of the traditional era.
Below, the senior editor of Zhaomitong makes the following analysis on the great impact of microblog on enterprise marketing.
1. Weibo -- Disruptor of traditional advertising
Before the emergence of Weibo, high-quality media resources were basically monopolized by TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, portal websites, etc., and the major marketing activities of enterprises could only be spread through the above-mentioned media platforms.
However, the emergence of micro-blog with natural media temperament has shown the formation of a huge shock wave to the traditional media. With its live broadcast, text + picture + video + audio, microblog makes information transmission more timely and fast, and has become the first front for many netizens to obtain information.
Thus, as far as the nature of media is concerned, microblog is the propaganda position that enterprises have been dreaming of for many years. This position, basically belongs to the enterprise completely, can effectively control, almost zero cost.
Moreover, once the micro blog information released by the enterprise is very "valuable", it is likely to be automatically rebroadcast by many fans, like nuclear fission diffusion and spread. Birds of a feather flock together. Fans of fans are likely to be potential fans or consumers of enterprises. In this way, every fan in an enterprise's microblog may become a small radio station, transmitting the information released by the enterprise continuously until it finally fades. In the traditional model, old customers help to attract new customers, although there is a certain incentive measures, practical operation is not easy; And a repost on Weibo may realize this long-cherished wish. The virality of microblog is beyond the reach of traditional media.
2. Micro Blog -- a practitioner of precise interactive marketing
In the mass media era where traditional TV, radio and paper media are king, the precision of advertising marketing activities is basically impossible to achieve. In the era of Web1.0, although the effectiveness of advertisements can be judged by the click-through rate, the accuracy is not high and the interactivity is poor.
The emergence of Weibo makes accurate and interactive marketing possible. Information such as fans' labels, microblog content, participating topics, gender, occupation, age, region, and specific accounts can be accurately and effectively targeted at the enterprise. Whether it is the launch of new products, market research, research and development, or advertising testing, we can get accurate feedback information with the help of Weibo. And these, in the traditional mode of operation, not only time, effort, money, but also may cause a large error.
The ultimate goal of all marketing actions of an enterprise is nothing more than the following five items:
1. Add new customers;
2. Retain old customers;
3. Increase the purchase rate of old customers;
4. Improve the purchase grade of old customers;
5. Cross-sell.
For the vast majority of large and medium-sized enterprises, or not newly established enterprises, adding new customers is not the most important, how to achieve the other four goals, is the top priority. Remember, it costs six times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an old one; 20% loyal customers of the enterprise create 80% of the profits; The 20% of lowest value users consume 80% of marketing costs.
If Weibo is effectively associated with the CRM and ERM system of the enterprise, it is easier to identify, lock and analyze the types of customers, which is convenient for the enterprise to adopt accurate marketing methods. This will undoubtedly revolutionize the traditional way of marketing.
According to the analysis, research and practice of Zhaowen, the structure of a healthy and good enterprise micro blog fan system is roughly as follows: the first level is 10% loyal user fans (and most of them are hardcore enterprise supporters); The second tier is 70% of regular users who have purchased products/services from the company. The third level is 19.5% of ordinary fans (who may be interested in the enterprise but have not yet purchased the enterprise's products/services); The remaining level of less than 0.5% is the fourth level of corporate executives, employees, related media, other followers, etc.
Therefore, Aswen told enterprises that Weibo fans, not more is better. The key is to expand the number and proportion of first-tier fans; Consolidate Tier 2 fans and convert them to Tier 1; Effectively "persuade" Level 3 fans to buy the company's products/services; For the fourth level, it is necessary to give full play to the subjective initiative to help the enterprise micro blog publicity. Among them, the first and second level of fans, is the enterprise should pay attention to and focus on the cultivation of the object.
3. Weibo -- Disruptor of traditional sales channels
Selling products or services through Weibo is no longer a dream.
Kuaischoolbag sells books and other products on Weibo. With the help of @Kuaischoolbag, fast delivery of goods in one hour is achieved in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xi 'an, Changsha, etc., which has impressed the industry. Shortly after the launch of Sina Weibo, the micro blog is selling well, which makes the micro blog and e-commerce realize seamless connection.
Near where I live, there is a specialty restaurant that has been offering microblog ordering and offering 20% discount to those who make microblog reservations. Originally, their publicity was to place orders widely and accept telephone reservations. The operation is costly, time-consuming, environmentally unfriendly and difficult to monitor. Through microblog, they not only greatly reduce the publicity cost, but also well display their dishes, ingredients, production technology and dining environment, well realize the interaction with consumers, spontaneously mobilize a large number of active "voluntary propagandists", and gain a good reputation and loyalty.
Like many localized businesses, it is entirely possible to use the Weibo platform as an effective channel to sell products/services. Under traditional circumstances, people's offline business circle, generally no more than a radius of 3 kilometers. Through Weibo, distinctive businesses can fully use the network "7 days * 24 hours" to attract consumers across the business circle. Of course, the premise is that the product or service of the business, must have certain characteristics, and obtained a good reputation of consumers, otherwise, it is difficult for potential consumers to overcome the barriers of the business circle to consume.
In addition, for many businesses that rely on Taobao, Jingdong and other e-commerce platforms, they can also make use of Weibo as a sales channel to achieve lower-cost precision marketing.
Perhaps, all products or services sold under the traditional channel model can be sold through Weibo.
Iv. Weibo -- Disruptor of traditional crisis public relations
In the world of Weibo, all lies and pretence can be stripped to pieces; Any customer dissatisfaction, it is possible to brew, ferment into a crisis.
In November 2011, Luo Yonghao, an online celebrity, smashed three refrigerators owned by musician Zuo Xiaozuzhu, writer Feng Tang and Luo Yonghao at Siemens headquarters with a sledgehammer, urging Siemens to acknowledge the quality problems of refrigerator doors as soon as possible and propose solutions. Luo's attack on the fridge quickly went viral on Weibo and sparked heated debate. However, Siemens lukewarm treatment, "angered" Luo Yonghao's dissatisfaction, the incident is further fermented, many media have followed up and tracked the report. This incident, no doubt caused a great impact on Siemens, but further enhanced Luo Yonghao's popularity and reputation.
It is also possible to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
The "floating photo" incident in Huili County, Sichuan Province, in June 2011, is an excellent case of Weibo public relations, which can still be used as a good textbook of Weibo public relations. Less than 48 hours after the incident, Huili County authorities, who were responsible for the "suspended inspection" photos, opened Weibo accounts to explain the situation to the public. The "perpetrator" was also very calm, not only did not hide the mistake, but also opened a micro blog self-deprecating, saying, "I will be practicing Photoshop skills behind closed doors for a while, welcome everyone's guidance", and publicly apologized. Huili County successfully resolved the surging public opinion crisis, and took the opportunity to publicize the local tourism resources, and completed a beautiful "reversal" from "crisis" to "opportunity".
In this incident, the relevant departments of Huili County perfectly explained several important principles of crisis public relations: first, the first time to respond to the crisis; The second is to tell the truth sincerely and truthfully, and put an end to cover-ups and lies.
In addition, enterprises should timely and properly handle complaints or complaints expressed by consumers on microblogs to prevent the situation from expanding. In traditional times, a consumer's dissatisfaction, even if the enterprise does not do any treatment, generally can only vent in a very limited range; In the era of microblog, if the enterprise does not deal with the dissatisfaction of a consumer actively and effectively, it is likely to become like a high-risk infectious virus, showing the spread and spread of nuclear fission.
In microblog era, enterprise marketing behavior is being completely overturned. Enterprises should take advantage of Weibo to actively "have a relationship" with target consumers and build Weibo into a "bonding agent" for brands to communicate with consumers.
