How to distinguish and understand advertising, content marketing and social media marketing?

The underlying logic of advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing is different, and different marketing methods require targeted countermeasures. This article introduces how to distinguish and understand advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing, and I hope it will be inspiring to you.

It originated from a member's question. What he meant was that his company's thinking and methods were still stuck in advertising thinking, and they used the logic of advertising marketing to do social media and create content. He had differences with the company and asked me how he should communicate... After all, I'm not from his company, so I can only give some popular science on how to correctly understand them.

01

First of all, we must realize that the underlying logic of advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing is different.

If we call text, video, voice and other information carriers content, and then call marketing using these carriers content marketing, then there is actually no point in discussing it. Of course, are those content? Yes. Are the Voice of China, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl content? They are also content. But if we call flat video ads, or posting to WeChat Moments, Weibo, or Xiaohongshu, or even writing press releases, etc., content marketing, then it is too inappropriate.

Content marketing is first of all a change in thinking, and what matches it is the changing role of content as society develops. Advertising is of course content, and how to make advertising, distribute advertising, and monitor advertising can certainly be considered part of content marketing. However, times have changed, and so have roles.

In the early days, TV was video and newspapers were stores. Later, with the advent of the Internet, we began to move to portal websites and online videos. Later, with the mobile Internet, everyone was divided into apps... IMC integrated marketing communications has been discussed many times. In the past, so-called integration was actually the integration of media, and all media only delivered one voice - to achieve this effect, you can only rely on content. If you want to achieve a certain effect just by tying media together, it is impossible.

Now, we are actually in an era of pan-socialization. How can we retain people without content? It is also an era of algorithm addition. The biggest feature is that it has changed from finding consumers to consumers finding you. In the past, most people who did advertising were subjectively pursuing to make the advertisement itself "good", and then doing crowd targeting, regional targeting, etc., without considering whether the content itself had any impact.

Now, as long as you produce content that your target consumers are interested in, the algorithm will help you match them with your target consumers. The more “right” content you produce, the more content will be pushed to your target consumers.

In the past, people pursued making advertisements into works of art. It was a tacit consensus in the traditional advertising industry that advertisements should be well-made and creative. Why is it emphasized so much? Because only in this way can creative agencies sell at a high price. Of course, this does not mean that content does not need creativity, but it means that if we regard the need for advertisements to be well-made and creative as a framework for content production, and regard social media as a platform for advertising, it is inappropriate.

The current situation is that advertisements have a shorter lifespan or are fleeting. The average lifespan of an advertisement is less than 3 days. Consumers only need 0.4 seconds on average to determine whether it is an advertisement or content. We see more and more advertisements because the lifespan of advertisements is getting shorter and shorter. In the past, only one advertisement was needed per month, but now it takes 10. Wouldn’t the advertising cost increase significantly? On the contrary, if companies can produce and distribute content themselves, the cost will be much lower.

02

Social media marketing is part of content marketing, and content marketing is a means of digital marketing. Understanding content marketing is actually equivalent to understanding social media marketing. At least we must clearly realize that social media marketing is not advertising, and using advertising ideas cannot accurately guide social media marketing.

The underlying logic of advertising is based on the bullet theory in mass communication. The standpoint is that of the communicator. Consumers/audiences are usually treated as undifferentiated people and saturated communication is carried out. It emphasizes unique selling points (USP), simple and clear content, high frequency, and repeated contact. The mechanism of operation is to establish brand awareness, occupy the minds of consumers, and contribute to sales through the funnel model.

Delivery is the brand proposition, which aims to let consumers know the content with unified and constant value. Although we also emphasize the digitization of advertising and precise advertising, and although the advertising content will be personalized based on the target users, the overall information delivered is still the same.

The underlying logic of social media marketing: It is based on interpersonal interactive communication, takes the audience as the basis, and is centered on social circles and KOLs.

Social media marketing is a tool for interactive growth. It is necessary to create diversified content in various scenarios and forms with KOLs, integrate into the circle, increase interaction with users (reposting, commenting, liking, and collection, etc.), improve user favorability, and stimulate purchase conversion. Moreover, social media is a public opinion field where everyone can speak out, so marketing content cannot be stereotyped. If two KOLs post exactly the same content, you will also be disgusted...

Such an environment is more suitable for content-based marketing rather than advertising from a corporate perspective. Even advertising must be native and require consumers to participate in content co-creation, otherwise everyone will be very disgusted.

So far, I think Huanong Brothers is the best at making people happy when watching ads. If we follow the traditional advertising thinking, then Huanong Brothers, who are so unfashionable, should be chopped into pieces. When doing content marketing and social media marketing, we cannot completely follow the traditional advertising theory. If we do so, we will only fall into a vicious circle: value/public service advertising > creative advertising > product display advertising (sponsored placement > KOL recommendation > live streaming > hard advertising).

This kind of inertia of thinking will cause the brand to always be in a state of being pretentious in the minds of itself and consumers. This will lead to not trusting KOLs, worrying that the brand proposition will be diluted, not publishing ugly content, and putting a lot of resources into value-added advertising and creative advertising. The result is probably: content becomes advertising and people don’t read it; the content is small, you can’t see it even if you want to, and you can’t find it if you want to interact with it...

03

In content marketing, the content we usually talk about is divided into BGC produced by the brand itself, and PGC and UGC produced in cooperation with platforms, KOLs and KOCs. But in fact, UGC is the ultimate goal of every brand. Whether there is UGC is actually a symbol of whether the relationship between the brand and consumers is close enough. After all, if consumers are indifferent to you, will they be willing to produce UGC for you?

The content of social media marketing should follow a pyramid model from top to bottom. The content can be simply divided into value/creative content at the top, product marketing content in the middle, and live streaming and KOC recommendation at the bottom. According to this thinking, the closer to the top, the higher the content value.

In addition, the division of BGC, PGC, and UGC is only based on the identity of the producer. It does not mean that the content itself needs to be divided into any certain categories. Therefore, we need to abandon subjective emotional judgments and only make value judgments on whether the content is suitable or not.

This is because the content needs to be integrated with the circle, and the circle has no particular color.

This is what the big data of Cadillac drivers shows. They often go to KTV and foot massage parlors... Should Cadillac be discontinued?

Social media is audience-based, and circles are often composed of audiences with similar interests. Different circles have different expressions. Therefore, the content needs to be based on the characteristics of the platform and circle, integrated with KOL content, cater to their preferences, and establish a three-dimensional and full brand image.

The middle-class white-collar workers on Xiaohongshu and the old friends on Kuaishou are different. The content styles they like are very different. If brands want to enter these two platforms, they will inevitably need different content. Is the content of Xiaohongshu more advanced than that of Kuaishou?

Another example is Bilibili. Even on the same platform, UP hosts are very different. If you are a food brand and want to cooperate with different UP hosts, such as Huanong Brothers, Sheep Cooking, and other game UP hosts, can you use the same content? Does Huanong Brothers have worse content than Sheep Cooking? Does their unboxing of food have worse content than the brand's own ads?

Obviously, your answer is no.

For example, if you spend millions to make a video and have the planner and designer spend several nights bald to make the advertisement, will it definitely be better than the grass-planting videos on Xiaohongshu? It may even be worse than the toothpaste recommended by your neighbor when chatting with you...

There is another problem. Many people think that content marketing and social media marketing are just like Durex... In fact, this is complete nonsense. Just like the so-called new media marketing, it is just hiring a editor to write for a public account every day, and hoping to use this as leverage.

If you want to do content marketing well, you must first have the right content marketing mindset. In addition to what I mentioned at the beginning, is your product content? Is your product packaging content? Is the experience and evaluation of your product after use content?

I can tell you with certainty that this is also content, because the boundaries of content’s influence have long spread beyond advertising.

For example, channels are becoming more and more fragmented. For example, offline, there are convenience stores, supermarkets, community group buying, unmanned retail, and other new retail forms. For example, online, there used to be only Taobao and JD.com, but now there are various self-media e-commerce, social e-commerce, and more and more media e-commerce such as Douyin, Kuaishou... Even Li Jiaqi, how do you define him, is he an anchor or a channel?

Another thing is that the channels themselves are also changing. Tmall and JD.com have various marketing IPs. The essence of marketing IPs is to use content to drive users and increase traffic. Each of their IP activities requires waves of content production, rather than just paying the brand money. Brands also need to create content that fits the IP. You can especially look at Xiaohongshu...

For example, even if it is the same product, do you think people have the same preference for the product when it is placed in an office building and in a university? Do men and women have the same preference for the same product? Then can you transform your product like you carry out different promotional activities for different groups? I think it is feasible. For example, you can do some good-looking joint brands for women, at least change the product packaging, and transform it into content...

Going deeper and talking about the bigger picture, what is your corporate strategy? What is your brand and marketing strategy? What about your content marketing strategy? And how do you plan your content marketing?

To create your own brand content, first of all, of course, you have to do a good job of BGC. From the fundamental understanding of content, BGC is the brand's official website and social media. Larger ones also include your products, product packaging, brand expression, content matrix, and even the founder's words and deeds... In short, it is nothing more than understanding what kind of information consumers will need, and brands must act as experts to put this information out so that consumers can see it.

The purpose of PGC is not exactly the same as that of BGC. PGC is also high-quality content that can attract consumers' active attention. Its main function is to expand brand awareness and obtain traffic... Those big Vs, KOLs, etc. are actually in PGC. In theory, those variety shows, TV series, activities, etc., which often engage in naming and sponsorship, are also a form of PGC cooperation. Of course, the ultimate goal is to produce UGC.