When Taobao, Alipay, and Cainiao play Su Chao’s sponsorship into a mutual drama, the official name “whole work” is not only a hot search joke, but a compulsory course to write brand personality into the context of young people.
Recently, Alibaba’s Taobao flash sale, Alipay, Huabei, Yuebao, Ant Insurance, and Tmall Premium have sponsored six Suzhou Super League teams respectively, forming a spectacle of “bulk Alibaba vs. bulk Jiangsu”.
But the rookie who is also a member of the Ali family has been politely refused sponsorship by major teams one after another because of the brand name Taicai, and has become the object of collective ridicule by the Ali brothers brands, #菜鸟赞助被拒遭兄弟团群嘲#竟还成了热门话题.
The picture comes from Weibo
In fact, this is not the first time that Alibaba’s official account has been “lived” out of the circle.
Looking through the Xiaohongshu and Weibo homepages of Taobao and Alipay, from the interesting interaction of nodes to the daily mutual scolding, almost every piece of content has attracted a lot of ridicule and likes. Even other brand official accounts are vying to rub the heat in the comment area, hoping to attract more fans.
The picture comes from Xiaohongshu & Weibo
This can’t help but make us think: at a time when information is exploding and users’ attention is extremely distracted, how much value is left of the brand official account? Are major brands worth further operating official accounts? If the official account operates well, will it be a good deal to make a steady profit without losing money?
Follow the perspective of “Crowley”, let’s take a look!
01 From the official website to the main position of communication
I don’t know from which day it has begun to become the standard configuration of major brands, and its importance has been higher than that of the official website. Even if it is a small company that has just been registered, there are only three or five people, and it is necessary to register a brand account on Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin first.
Compared with the serious stereotypes of the official website, the official account can flexibly communicate with users, and can release the brand voice, disseminate information, and shape the image through content release, comments, forwarding and other behaviors.
Unfortunately, the above effects are too ideal, and not all brand official accounts can achieve this effect.
It is no exaggeration to say that the vast majority of official accounts either release product information that no one cares about day after day due to lack of operation, or mechanically copy industry information, even if they are updated for many years, they are only stuck in the stage of “talking to themselves”.
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Because without a suitable operation strategy, it is difficult to have too many user interactions, and it is even more difficult to break the circle and be noticed by the public.
In a certain sense, the operation status of the brand’s official account is a direct embodiment of the brand’s communication ability.
If the brand communication ability is not strong, it is tantamount to a fool’s dream to rely on one or two editors to make the year-end music report of NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music.
02 How to do a good job with the official number?
A copywriting, a poster, and a reply seem relaxed on the surface, but there is a sophisticated communication logic hidden behind it. As long as you look closely, those brands that can operate their official accounts well basically understand the way of “whole work”.
Because these brands have attached importance to these methods of official account operation from the beginning, they can operate in a targeted and directional manner, rather than blindly following and imitating.
1. Use youthful language to break into the young people
Young people are the main force of social platforms, and they are the consumer group that most brands want to strive for. Therefore, the first essence of the official title “whole life” is to know how to use the language of young people to hit the hearts of young people.
This is also the reason why many official accounts frequently use Internet hot memes, homophonic memes, and like to blacken themselves. This method is more acceptable to young people, which can not only dissolve the sense of distance of the brand, but also poke the laughter and itch of young people.
Just like the official WeChat public account of “Customs Release”, it should be a serious and authoritative government account, but it used interesting titles such as “Yang Laosan, I Ask You”, “No Master Accompanying LABUBU”, “Bullet Bullet, Switchblade” to release interesting science popularization of seized strange items and interpret customs policies with buzzwords, attracting a large number of young people to like and leave messages.
The picture comes from the WeChat public account
Then there is the WeChat public account of the “Shenzhen Health Commission”, which has 100,000+ readings, and each video account has hundreds or thousands of likes, which is in sharp contrast to the operational effect of the official account of the Health Commission in other regions.
Such an account is a model of the official account “revitalizing” through the language of rejuvenation and breaking the circle of rejuvenation.
2. Clever use of “stalks” to amplify the spread effect geometrically
As mentioned earlier, these official titles that can break the circle will use a lot of memes in the process of operation. There is no other reason: good memes have their own communication attributes, and they are easy to be spontaneously forwarded by netizens, recreated, and even triggered media follow-up, forming fission communication.
@Laoxiangchicken, which was previously famous on Weibo, initially operated in a serious official blog way, distributing promotional materials every day, engaging in interaction and lottery, and no netizens bought it at all.
It wasn’t until 2019 that @老乡鸡 posted a “clucking” blog post that it began to attract a large number of netizens to interact.
The picture comes from Weibo
Now that 6 years have passed, Laoxiang Chicken will still post a “cluck” every day, which can still attract hundreds of users to interact. And the stalk “clucking” has become synonymous with Laoxiang chicken.
Only by making good use of memes and allowing users to take the initiative to support them can we create joy and amplify communication.
3. Improve your brand’s responsiveness
The official name “whole work” is not improvisation, but also a concentrated embodiment of brand agility. This requires the brand’s communications department to improve the organization’s response speed.
When hot events occur, whether they can respond within the golden time; When traditional festivals or marketing nodes come, can memorable topics be created; In the face of users’ complaints and doubts, can they be resolved in a clever way…… All test the brand’s quick response ability and teamwork efficiency.
The linkage of Alibaba’s collective sponsorship of the Suzhou Super League team seems to be accidental, but it is actually the result of the tacit cooperation of the team behind it.
From the planning of sponsorship plans to the interactive ridicule of each account, they are interlocked, which not only highlights the characteristics of a single brand, but also strengthens the overall existence of Alibaba. This agility of group operations is the core capability that most brands find difficult to replicate.
Even if the scale and business complexity of many brands are much smaller than Alibaba’s, it is not easy to make up for this capability.
4. Create a brand persona
The ultimate purpose of the official name “whole life” is actually to strengthen the brand personality. Therefore, before the brand uses the official name to “revitalize”, it is best to have a relatively clear brand persona. Because the official number can communicate directly with users, the persona can make users more acceptable.
Just like Alipay’s financial butler image, it can remind users to return to Huabei and will send red envelopes during festivals; Taobao can not only recommend good things, but also joke with users. These personas are not fabricated out of thin air, but through continuous content output, users have a personalized perception of the brand, and the operational content they publish daily does not conflict with the persona.
When the personality is recognized, the relationship between the brand and the user can be upgraded from merchants and consumers to friends, and users may pay attention to the brand because they like the content of the official account, choose products because they agree with the brand’s personality, and even take the initiative to defend the brand when the brand is controversial.
This is the emotional stickiness brought by the character design, and it is also one of the most precious values of official account operation.
03 “Whole life” is not a panacea
The successful cases of official titles are enviable, but the risks behind them cannot be ignored.
Many brands blindly follow the trend when they see others playing well, and in the end either draw a tiger and not become an anti-dog, or cause a crisis of public opinion because of a wrong step.
Therefore, the following questions need to be thought about clearly by the brand in advance:
1. Playing memes out of control and causing negative controversy
The core of “whole work” is the grasp of “degree”, once the stalk crosses the line, it will cause discomfort to users at best, and touch the red line of public opinion at worst.
For example, some brands make jokes about social events and historical topics in order to attract attention, which seems to have gained short-term traffic, but overdraws brand reputation; Some brands forcibly rub hot spots, and the content is out of touch with the brand tone, which makes users feel greasy and insincere.
The larger the flow, the stronger the magnifying glass effect. Every piece of content of the official account can be interpreted infinitely, and any minor oversight can be magnified into a public relations crisis.
In recent years, there have been many cases of risks because of the official name, and we will not list them one by one.
What “Crowley” wants to emphasize is that a strict content moderation mechanism must be established before “whole work”, keep the bottom line of law and morality, and not be swallowed up by traffic in the end.
2. Only learn the skin, not the essence
Durex’s official Weibo has always been a myth in the marketing world, and their creative copywriting has been imitated by countless brands. But after many years, there are very few brand official accounts that can reach the same level. The reason is simple: each brand has different genes, and blind copying will only make it unaccustomed.
Durex’s “soft pornography” and “edge ball” copywriting are highly consistent with its product characteristics, and it may look vulgar if replaced by other brands;
The “mutual hatred” of Alibaba’s official accounts is based on the synergy of resources within the group, and it is difficult for a single brand to replicate this linkage effect;
The “rotten” of Laoxiang Chicken is an accurate grasp of the psychology of young users, which is not applicable to all brands.
What is more important than the above, but often overlooked by most brands, is that successful official account operation requires continuous investment, a professional team, sufficient budget, and long-term strategy polishing.
Many brands only see the highlight moments of others, but ignore the precipitation behind them, and in the end they can only learn the form, not the god.
Of course, we do not deny that some official accounts are lucky and explode with just one operation, a blog post or short video, but the vast majority of official accounts cannot do it, because this probability is no different from buying lottery tickets and getting rich overnight.
3. Traffic does not equal sales
The official number “whole work” can bring traffic, but whether the traffic can be converted into actual income is always unknown.
For example, a few years ago, China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom became popular with the short video of “Miss Dancing”, which attracted a lot of attention in a short period of time. But now looking at these accounts, although the young lady is still there, the number of likes has long since returned to mediocreness.
The picture comes from Douyin
Moreover, it is difficult to measure how much growth the original traffic boom brought.
Fundamentally, the core competitiveness of a brand is always products and services. Users may pay attention to the official account because of an interesting piece of content, but in the end decide whether to pay, whether the product is good or not, whether the price is reasonable, and the service is not in place.
The “whole life” of the official title can be the icing on the cake, but it cannot be a relief. If you only pursue traffic data and ignore the product itself, you will eventually fall into the trap of traffic bubbles.
4. Gimmick headline party, seriously overdrawn trust
For the sake of traffic, too many official accounts currently deliberately use exaggerated gimmicks or headlines to attract clicks, such as “Shock! A certain brand actually did such a thing”, “Don’t regret it! The secret is finally exposed.” It may increase the open rate in the short term, but it is like a short-acting stimulant, which will only consume user trust in the long run.
After clicking, users find that the content is seriously inconsistent with the title, or there is no substantial value behind the gimmick, which inevitably leads to a feeling of being deceived.
Once or twice, you may be able to rely on freshness to get by, and as the number of times increases, users will gradually develop negative perceptions of the brand such as insincerity and hype, and even actively block accounts. It seems to earn traffic, but in fact it greatly reduces the brand image in the minds of users.
Truly valuable communication is never about gaining attention with deceptive words, but about winning respect with weighty content.
04 Write at the end
The collective “whole life” of Alibaba’s official account is out of the circle, showing the important value of the official name in the communication process, but what brands need to understand more is that “whole life” is only a means, not the ultimate goal.
The ultimate value of the official account does not lie in the temporary hot search, but in establishing a long-term emotional connection with users through continuous and warm content.
From Internet celebrity to long-term popularity, it is not only the creative ability that tests the brand’s clear understanding of its own positioning and long-term respect for user needs.
In this era of scarce attention, being able to operate the official account as a “friend that users are willing to chat with” is the real wisdom of spreading wisdom.
