Super-Efficient Marketing Seminar Part 2: Leveraging Third-Party Influence

In the previous lesson, we discussed how dominating online discussions is a form of market share, which we can call ” brand voice share . ” Digital PR firms consider factors such as the client’s brand nature, the issues they want to raise, and the objectives of the marketing campaign to help them plan and allocate different channels for their brand voice and how to manage the content of their promotional messages ; thus, they aim to establish a foothold in the vast online world and expand their brand voice share.

Besides accumulating brand awareness and building relationships between the brand and its users, manipulating brand voice has another key use: it allows us to observe understand consumers’ opinions on the brand/product, the reasons for their reservations, and other deeper needs. By addressing these pain points, we can then build trust with consumers.

5 ways to accumulate brand awareness and market share

The five items above represent five channels for accumulating brand awareness. Among them, the awareness accumulated through “news media” and “advertising” can be controlled by the brand owner through the frequency and volume of releases. For example, spending money on advertising, issuing press releases, inviting media interviews, and shooting videos. However, if a brand only outputs promotional information unilaterally from its own side, even if the exposure is maximized, it will all feel like self-promotion to the recipients (consumers), failing to generate trust .

Want to strengthen trust? Word-of-mouth marketing: Leveraging the influence of third parties.

“Building trust” is another key public relations skill that the Digital PR team uses to serve brands. Here, Aileen will teach you the importance of “social media engagement,” “search results,” and “forum exposure” out of the five key elements. For products, consumers who haven’t actually used them tend to trust reviews and experiences from third parties more.

Utilizing these three channels to amplify brand awareness is far more effective than brands constantly boasting about their own merits. While these trusted third parties are often randomly selected from the general online community, excellent public relations strategies can effectively manage their presence .

• Community interaction

  

Every company has its own social media editors, but social media engagement isn’t simply a matter of “hiring a marketing editor to post articles”! Our goal is to build brand loyalty through social media . A skilled PR person not only analyzes what content to post, when and where to post, and what tags to use, but also leverages comments and replies to encourage interaction on Facebook, subtly hinting at product advantages or event information . They also know how to pose questions and respond to discussions, enhancing brand favorability. If an editor diligently posts every day but receives no response, it’s equivalent to failing to build brand awareness.

• Search results

  

Google Search Console, which everyone uses most often, seems like an invisible hand. When we “turn to Google whenever we need something,” have we ever noticed that we always pick articles from the first one or two pages of search results that match the information we want to know? How to get these articles to rise from the massive amount of information to the first page of search results and be found by consumers when they randomly search for keywords is the science of SEO in marketing.

So why do brands write articles? What does it mean for an article to be seen and for me to sell products? Let’s take brand X, which sells “cleaning products,” as an example. My product is, of course, a cleaning product, not words. But people always Google before buying anything. If they see several user reviews saying that brand X’s kitchen cleaner is effective at removing mold and has no odor; and then discover that brand X has received certifications and awards because of some exclusive technology, isn’t that more attractive to people than advertising? Good product quality is certainly a fundamental requirement for brand X, and the purpose of public relations and SEO is to help consumers know that brand X has “received technical certifications and that its products are effective and odorless.”

• Forum exposed

The techniques for forum operation and community interaction are similar; however, the difference is that the battleground for influence is not your own official website but a third-party platform , and the people on the other side of the screen are not your own liking accounts but strangers from the general public; it’s even harder to distinguish who is reading the information, comparing products, or just watching the spectacle. PR professionals need to be more cautious when raising issues, replying to comments, and guiding the direction of the topic; they also need to use creativity, using trending topics or questions unrelated to the product, manipulating the content of the replies, and ultimately guiding the comments to positive aspects of the product, all without giving off a sponsored feel .

Shift your communication perspective and become a mind reader for your consumers.

The above three word-of-mouth marketing communication methods are likely to be implemented by skilled marketing partners within a company. But how can one become a more advanced and professional public relations communication expert? Teacher Aileen shares her experience in “role transformation”.

For example, on the topic of “promoting the importance of cervical smear tests” in the Women and BabyMother sections of PTT, a PR person could write about their experience of going to the hospital for the test, providing detailed reminders about hospital procedures in the comments, giving readers on these sections something to consider when comparing options. Aileen shared her perspective, emphasizing that comments aren’t just for the questioner; they’re also meant to attract other lurking readers . PR professionals need to be familiar with consumer psychology and consider what other messages the target audience wants to see in their comments.

However, when the same topic of Pap smear testing is raised on other forums, the poster may need to be a different person. For example, if it is posted in the Dcar forum’s mood section and the target audience is college students, the way the topic is started can be different; for example, sharing the experience of accompanying one’s mother to a health checkup because of a family history of related medical conditions, etc., the tone of the post and replies will be slightly younger, and information such as which schools have mobile testing stations that cooperate with hospitals can be shared.

An outstanding marketing and public relations professional is equivalent to a voice channel analyst, brand growth planner, consumer psychology researcher, and communication master all in one. The Digital PR division brings together multiple professional marketing and public relations personnel to provide businesses with powerful, immediate public relations capabilities, allowing them to directly access an entire public relations think tank and open the door to effective communication.

Further Reading: Super-Efficient Marketing Seminar Part 1: Focusing on Brand Planning STP

Digit Spark, part of the Zhenhao Internet Media Group, integrates its six sub-brands offering data application services to provide enterprises with comprehensive and precise optimization services across five key areas: “Industry Customer Targeting,” “Performance Optimization Strategies,” “Digital Tool Integration,” “Online Voice Cultivation,” and “Brand Value Promotion.” It drives brand success through data technology.