E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 208: Episode 208: A Successful Weibo Marketing Event

Chapter 208: Episode 208: A Successful Weibo Marketing Event

Wei Jingzhu’s words suddenly made Zhou Xueyin see the light.

Since she was a Weibo operator, what did she have to fear? Contract first, money first, what else to use for start-up capital to expand? What about paying salaries and bonuses at the end of the year?

"I just love you so much!" Zhou Xueyin pulled Wei Jingzhu’s face over and kissed him hard, "I’ll sign the contract with Barbour tomorrow!"

The contract signing process went very smoothly. Chen Yue didn’t have many demands, only hoping that the content of the official account could be of high quality, with just the images needing to be beautified.

Even the most troublesome certification issue wasn’t their responsibility.

"Xiaozhou, I’m not going to lie to you, personally, I wasn’t keen on opening this social media account," Chen Yue said with reluctance, "but the headquarters insisted we should have one. I was out of options, they said having this account would aid in brand promotion. So, I’m counting on you to help us operate it."

"No problem, leave it to us. Actually, Weibo promotion is more effective than traditional websites. Let me give you an example..." Zhou Xueyin explained in detail the emotional topic campaign they designed the last time to Chen Yue.

"Can it really have such a powerful reach?" Chen Yue looked at her, surprised.

"This is really nothing. The trending comments list changes every day. All sorts of content make it up there. As long as content is popular and recognized, it has a chance of making it onto the trending comments list!" Zhou Xueyin confidently stated.

"No wonder... no wonder our competitors also opened a Weibo account. Xiaozhou, you have to manage it well for me! This year’s KPI even includes a part for social media outreach... it’s getting harder and harder," Chen Yue said with a headache.

"It’s not too late to enter the game now! Don’t worry, we will definitely manage the account well for Barbour!" Of course, she didn’t say the latter half out loud, "as long as the funds are in place."

Chen Yue was too set in her ways, not willing to try anything new. If it hadn’t been for Philip’s strong recommendation, she wouldn’t even have thought about online media promotion. Now, it was only due to the pressure from the head office that she considered opening an official Weibo account.

Additionally, she didn’t want to incur more costs by training her own operation team, which turned out to be an easy money-making opportunity for Zhou Xueyin and her team.

However, as operations continued, Zhou Xueyin realized she had been far too simplistic in her thinking.

Although Barbour had a certain customer base, those people didn’t use Weibo, or rather, they looked down on browsing Weibo for information.

Yet those who wanted to buy but were temporarily unable to afford it also didn’t have the time to pay attention to Weibo.

The people wandering on Weibo were really just the truly bored ones with nothing better to do.

So, after a week of the Weibo account being set up, the number of followers hadn’t even reached a thousand... The number of shares for each post was also in the single digits.

Zhou Xueyin was getting anxious. If this continued, Chen Yue would definitely not be satisfied with the results.

So she collaborated with Li Hua and Wang Simo to plan a marketing promotion.

They pretended to be reporters, randomly asking people carrying Barbour bags why they bought them, and the responses were all words of praise: "Good-looking, durable, a bit expensive, but of good quality and can last a long time!"

Of course, those passersby were also company staff in disguise. After all, they had received a batch of samples from Barbour before, and this time they borrowed some more.

Once the video was edited, Zhou Xueyin released it during a high-traffic time slot in the week.

Then she had several accounts share it, and once the shares reached a certain number, they used newly registered accounts to make negative comments about the video, saying "The interviewees are all using high-quality knock-offs because they don’t look classy!"

After that, they used a batch of mature personal accounts to counter those who spoke ill, "What do you know, this is the essence of Barbour, low-profile luxury with depth!"

More and more onlookers who weren’t in the know joined the fray, with some supporting the brand bashers and some defending the brand.

A few days later, when the incident had fermented to a certain state, Zhou Xueyin used Barbour’s official account to repost the video, "After receiving this video, our company conducted serious research, and these people are all using our genuine products..."

And directly in the copy, she disclosed the product lines and models of these bags, and of course, the relatively affordable prices that came with them.

Seeing the official account speaking out, netizens swarmed to follow Barbour’s official Weibo.

Although the marketing plan had a longer timeline, the payoff was still there. And the netizens didn’t realize that it was a premeditated branding campaign, and all followed suit by following the official V. They also engaged in reposting activities for the content published by the account.

Luckily, Chen Yue didn’t pay much attention to Weibo. Otherwise, she would have definitely called off the plan the moment she saw someone claiming they were knock-offs.

Though Zhou Xueyin had already thought of what to do if Chen Yue called off the plan, thankfully, it wasn’t necessary, which was a stroke of good luck.

Of course, the same marketing tactic couldn’t be used a second time, this was a rule Zhou Xueyin firmly imposed on herself.

After all, there’s that saying, fooling netizens once is more than enough, do it again, and they will not be so naïvely deceived.

"Yinyin, check out the news!" Liu He exclaimed excitedly, as if he had discovered a new continent, calling Zhou Xueyin over.

"What is this?" Zhou Xueyin opened the content Liu He had sent her—it was an advertisement for adult products.

"This copywriting is just awesome!" Liu He marveled.

"You never know when you’ll need it..." Zhou Xueyin murmured the copy softly, "Damn good..."

"Right? Check out their other content on the account, it’s incredibly well done!" Liu He urged, "Everyone, take a look..."

Liu He sent the Weibo link to the group chat, and with that, the whole room began to whisper amongst themselves.

Everyone was surprised that such a commonplace adult product could produce copywriting so fitting and realistic, and felt embarrassed by the comparison.

"I’ve always thought my copywriting was awesome, but compared to this, it’s just trash!" Bai Ying, who managed the general accounts, demeaned her own work.

After the two became acquainted, Li Jigniang entrusted the entire account to Bai Ying and no longer interfered.

Bai Ying crafted and presented the copy every day based on the private messages she received, some of which were truly incisive, and others quite witty and humorous. But her best work paled in comparison to the Weibo copy of this adult product, which was truly noteworthy.

"No, no, Yingying, your copy is already very strong! No one else could write those pieces you’ve done! Believe in your own ability!" Li Hua consoled Bai Ying.

"Yinyin, actually, this isn’t very relevant for us..." Li Jigniang hesitated, "They actually, well..."

"Just spit it out if you’ve got something to say!" Zhou Xueyin urged.

"Hey, I’ve mentioned it to you before, remember?" Li Jigniang gave her a look.