Seize your own business trends: Look at content marketing from the New Year's Eve speech of "Friends of Time 2018"
Time flies, and Luo Pang (Luo Zhenyu)‘s “Friends of Time” New Year’s Eve speech has entered its fourth year. If he really follows his plan, it will last another 17 years.
The content of the 2018 New Year’s Eve speech was commented by many online friends as being too watery (meaning it was mixed with a lot of water) and having too little substance (meaning the key points). Some people said that half of the time was spent in professional production, and a lot of the rest of the content was not created by Luo Pang himself. But to be honest, this is not Luo Pang’s problem alone, but the team’s overall content planning situation, so it doesn’t make much sense to just talk about Luo Pang. Content marketing is not the responsibility of one person, but an important responsibility that the team must shoulder together. This is also the key point that Content Hacker has emphasized to everyone in the past.
Regardless of whether Luo Pang’s halo has faded, the “small trend” he proposed this time is consistent with the “sort out your own trend views” that Teacher Vista and Bai Xiong mentioned repeatedly in content hacker lectures or courses last year. It is necessary to discuss it in depth with everyone.
Let’s first look at an interesting story about “major trends/minor trends” that seems unrelated. In the detective novels Sherlock Holmes, Watson once compiled his observations on Sherlock Holmes’s knowledge level:
- Literary knowledge: None.
*Philosophical knowledge: None.
- Astronomy knowledge: None.
*Knowledge of political science: superficial.
Botanical knowledge: not comprehensive, but knowledgeable about hyops clover preparations and opium. Has a general knowledge of poisons but no knowledge of practical horticulture.
Geological knowledge: more practical, but also limited. But he could tell the different soil textures at a glance. After returning from a walk, he once showed me the mud spots that had been splashed on his trousers, and he could tell me where in London it had been splashed based on the color and solidity of the mud spots.
Chemistry knowledge: profound.
*Anatomy knowledge: Accurate, but unsystematic.
Source: Sherlock Holmes detective novels, Wikipedia
In other words, in terms of basic knowledge, Holmes cannot be said to have failed, but he is a true “paranoid”. Knowledge that had nothing to do with solving the case, even common sense, was thrown into the trash can. Not to mention that when he gets bored, he’ll get high knowing it’s illegal.
So what does this have to do with “major trends/minor trends”? In fact, the relationship is huge. The above basic knowledge is equal to the general trend. The clues and reasoning that Holmes needs to handle the case are small trends. Basic knowledge is indeed important, but it may not necessarily help solve the case; in special circumstances, it may even form an inertia and become a stumbling block to thinking. When we translate this situation into business language, it means: Even if you understand the general trend, you may not be able to find appropriate countermeasures that will have a positive impact on your business.
The famous Zhuge Liang [Borrowing the East Wind] (https://www.thenewslens.com/article/106665) in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is also a situation of “major trends/minor trends”. Do you remember what the novel said? At that time, Zhuge Liang took advantage of Cao Wei’s army’s habitual belief that the northwest wind would blow in the local winter (the general trend) and did not prevent fire attacks. The Cao Wei army did not expect that Zhuge Liang could seize the short-term change in terrain wind direction (small trend), use the short-term reverse southeast wind, and cooperate with the Soochow army to successfully burn the chain ships and repel the large number of Cao Wei army in the north.
Find your own small trends among the big trends
So how do we respond to this situation and carve out our own marketing path in the stormy market? In fact, it is nothing more than using “taking advantage of the situation” and “building momentum” to create a favorable situation for yourself.
1. Taking advantage of the situation:
Fluctuations in consumer preferences are often as volatile as the stock market. Although this kind of fluctuation follows the general trend, “southeast wind” often occurs, and a sudden change of direction may cause the boat to capsize accidentally. Therefore, for those who operate their own brands, they need to pay attention to these changes in the situation at all times and take advantage of the situation. They do not seek to reverse the situation with one home run, but seek to score more hits to accumulate points (profit).
Although economists will predict an overall increase or decrease, the “news” is not an uncertain variable that economists can grasp. Interested parties often release bad or bullish news, causing a short-term rise or fall in the stock price of a specific stock. Issues that consumers pay attention to will also suddenly make certain items and characters “popular” due to certain stimulations. We don’t have that much energy to read all the news, so how do we know the latest hot keywords to take advantage of the trend?
At this time, it is recommended to use tools such as Google Trends and Internet Thermometer to regularly track current affairs keywords, and spend some time thinking about how to combine them with the tasks you are engaged in.
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Google Trends: Use the “Daily Search Trends” to pay attention to the continuous changes and new popular keywords.
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DailyView Internet Thermometer: Provides various hot topics on the Internet such as daily surveys, Internet celebrities, top 100 word-of-mouth, and hot article lists, and can track popular keywords of people and things.
2. Build momentum
What should you do when you have to keep an eye on keywords and news to take advantage of the situation, and you may not be able to immediately figure out how to link it to your business keywords? Then you should consider “if it doesn’t exist, just create it yourself”, that’s why it’s called “building momentum”.
This part is to steadily produce content for the long term, based on one’s own observations of the market, user scenarios, and changes in consumer habits. These data and suggestions are all based on your own observations, so that you can fully demonstrate your intentions for consumers, and you don’t have to worry about colliding with other competitors. They are suitable for long-term brand management.
These observations and data are actually easy to obtain, because these are the experiences accumulated by everyone in their own operations, so they know very well:
*Sales ranking list: Just like the sales ranking list from the blog, which products and services in your store are the top three in sales this week or this month? What are the top ten?
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Reasons for ranking changes: -Are you affected by the general trend (requiring lower prices and better ingredients)? - Are there any changes in regional preferences (what are the differences in the taste of coffee that people in South Hong Kong and North Hong Kong like to drink)? - Are you inspired by new fashion trends, such as popular TV series or movies, or political figures?
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My own observations on consumer scenarios and preferences: -Example: Do you see why people who come to my store like to drink coffee with a sour taste and without added sugar or creamer? -Example: It is recommended that on a rainy afternoon, you should order Blue Mountain coffee at a coffee shop near the Department of Internal Medicine, and then listen to some jazz music to talk about insurance, which will help relax your mind and focus on the discussion.
Whether it is taking advantage of the trend or creating momentum, it is a small trend that you and I can achieve by spending some time and energy. It is not like the big trend that can be seen and grasped. Let’s start digging out together and become a real content hacker!
References:
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Full text of Luo Zhenyu’s “Friends of Time” New Year’s Eve speech in 2018
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“Micro Trends”, author Mark J. Penn
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