Founder-led marketing and executive visibility for companies
MVP (Mega Volume Production, 十方众声) builds founder-led marketing for companies: it plans and runs the official brand accounts, the founder’s and executives’ accounts and employee accounts as one system, so customers recognize and trust the company. MVP delivers the audit, the strategy and account-network plan, the account structure and long-term operations, with the core work done by its own team, and prices each project by its needs and deliverables.
What does MVP do for a company, and how is it paid?
MVP plans, sets up and runs a company’s official accounts, the founder’s and executives’ accounts and employee accounts as one system, and delivers four things in order. Each project is priced by its needs and deliverables.
What is delivered, in order
One: an audit report on the company’s existing accounts, content, brand perception and risk points; this is the diagnosis, done before signing and free of charge. Two: a strategy and account-network plan with content rules, which set the brand’s personality, what each account is for and how results are measured. An account network is a company’s set of accounts (official, founder and executive, and employee accounts), each with its own job. Three: the account network and its workflows, with accounts registered and verified in the company’s name and run day to day by the team. Four: an evaluation report against the measures agreed in advance, and adjustments.
How MVP is paid
Applying and the diagnosis are free. Company work is priced by the project: by its specific needs and what is to be delivered. The figures are in the proposal and are shown to you item by item before you sign. How each kind of client is charged: how MVP charges.
What stays the company’s
Accounts are registered and verified in the company’s name and are never moved to MVP. Who owns an employee’s account, and how it is handed over when someone leaves, is written into the plan. When the work ends, all operating access goes back to the company.
Who it suits, and how to start
It suits a company that wants to build the brand’s, the founder’s and employees’ accounts as one system. MVP looks at the company’s size and standing in its industry, not at follower count alone; if you are not sure you qualify, ask. A brand, marketing or communications lead can contact us. Every application gets a reply, including those that are not a fit for now.
What is founder-led marketing?
Founder-led marketing, in the broad sense MVP works in, means turning a company’s brand, founders and employees into public voices on social media with a steady personality, regular content and earned trust. Chinese marketers call the result a “corporate IP” (企业 IP), where “IP” means a lasting public identity, and describe the work as giving a brand a personality. The general meaning is in the glossary under Brand IP.
It is easily confused with three things. One is mascot or character design: that is a visual asset, which can be part of a company’s presence but cannot replace ongoing content. The second is brand marketing, which usually runs campaign by campaign, while this work rests on long-term content and its results build year on year; ads, press releases and creator campaigns for a company entering another market are MVP’s other line, brand marketing. The third is a social media agency that runs accounts for a fee: it delivers posts account by account, while MVP delivers the overall plan, the account structure, content rules and long-term operations (see the FAQ below).
What does a founder-led marketing program include?
Three kinds of account, which together make one account network: the brand’s official accounts, the founder’s and executives’ own accounts, and employee and expert accounts, which the Chinese industry calls KOS.
Official brand accounts (brand persona)
A steady personality, tone and set of values for the brand, so the official account reads like someone you can talk to rather than a noticeboard. The official account’s personality sets the tone for every other account.
Founder and executive accounts
Founders and executives speak for the company in their own names, which builds trust more easily and also carries more risk; an executive visibility program sets who speaks, on what and how often. For how it is done, see personal branding for founders and executives.
Employee and expert accounts (KOS)
KOS, or “key opinion sales”, means employees who post content and serve customers on social platforms in their professional capacity, such as sales advisers, store staff and product experts; Western companies call something close to this employee advocacy. Employee accounts put the brand in front of more people, but three things have to be settled first: whose name the accounts are registered in, what content rules apply, and how an account is handed over when someone leaves.
How does a founder-led marketing program run?
After signing, the work runs in three stages, each with a defined output that can go straight into an internal proposal. The five steps from applying to signing (apply, first review and reply, a meeting after an NDA is signed, diagnosis and proposal, signing) are on the approach page. The diagnosis is free: it reviews the company’s existing accounts, content, brand perception and risk points and produces an audit report.
Strategy and network design
MVP sets the brand’s personality, what each account is for, which measures will be used, and how the founder’s own account and the brand’s accounts are kept apart so that trouble on one side does not spread to the other. Output: a strategy and account-network plan, plus content rules.
Build and operate
MVP registers and verifies accounts in the company’s name, sets up topic, review and posting workflows, and runs daily operations. Output: the account network and its workflows.
Evaluate and adjust
MVP reviews brand awareness, sales leads, hiring response and the other agreed measures, and adjusts the network and content. Output: an evaluation report.
What does MVP do for companies?
For companies, MVP mainly uses three services: strategy, which sets the direction and what each account is for; operations, which builds and runs the accounts; and protection, which keeps the founder’s and the brand’s risks apart and deals with bad press. The same structure can run across markets for Chinese brands going global and Western companies entering China.
Brand strategy
Defines your positioning, content direction and commercial limits
Talent development
Turns a growing account into a long-term career
Channel operations
Runs your accounts, content and fan communities across platforms
Partnerships & opportunities
Finds brand deals that fit you, and negotiates fees and contracts
Reputation & risk
Monitors risk, responds to crises and repairs reputations
What makes founder-led marketing hard for companies?
Companies commonly run into four problems: returns that are hard to measure, a founder’s risk spilling onto the company, accounts that leave with employees, and content and compliance slipping across many accounts.
Returns are hard to measure
The return shows up in brand awareness, hiring and sales leads rather than in the reach of one post. Unless it is agreed in advance which measures count and what the starting level is, a program is easily dropped halfway because “nothing is happening”.
A founder’s risk spills onto the company
The better known a founder becomes, the more their words affect the company. A company needs a clear line between what the official accounts say and what the founder’s account says, and a plan so that trouble on one side does not spread to the other; for the founder’s own brand, see founders and executives.
Accounts leave with employees
Employee and executive accounts registered in personal names can leave, with their audience, when people do.
Content and compliance slip across many accounts
The more accounts, the higher the risk of mixed messages, non-compliant claims and leaks. Finance and healthcare face extra rules on what can be published, and listed companies must also follow disclosure rules (in China, the CSRC’s Measures for the Administration of Information Disclosure by Listed Companies1), so the accounts need shared content rules and one review process.
Notes
- 《上市公司信息披露管理办法》 (Measures for the Administration of Information Disclosure by Listed Companies)
How many accounts can a company run on one platform in China?
Under the current rule on how many accounts may be registered, known as “one account per person, two per company”, a company may register at most two accounts and an individual one.2 Each platform applies the rule when an account is registered, so the platform’s own requirements at registration are what count.
Running several accounts as a network is not itself against the rules; what is banned is using a group of accounts to publish and spread illegal and harmful information. So whose name store and employee accounts are opened in, and how they are handed over when someone leaves, should be settled at the planning stage (see the FAQ below). KOS is explained in the glossary under KOL, the forms a company’s presence can take under Brand IP, and each platform’s official back end and agency rules are on platform rules.
Notes
- 《关于加强“自媒体”管理的通知》 (Notice on Strengthening the Administration of “Self-Media” Accounts)
Frequently asked questions
How long does founder-led marketing take to show results?
It is long-term work, planned by the year: after the diagnosis and the strategy, the account network is run and evaluated on an annual plan. Brand awareness and trust build gradually, so MVP does not promise follower numbers or reach within a short period. What it commits to is the stated output of each stage and an evaluation against the agreed measures.
How is MVP different from a social media agency or a mascot design studio?
The deliverables differ. A social media agency delivers posts account by account, and a mascot or character studio delivers visual assets. MVP delivers the company’s strategy, the structure of the account network, content rules and long-term operations, and it keeps the founder’s and the brand’s risks apart, which neither of the others covers. MVP does no cultural IP licensing, cartoon character or mascot design.
How do you measure founder-led marketing?
Against measures agreed in advance. The common ones are how often the brand is searched for and mentioned, the quality of engagement with content, sales leads, hiring response and changes in reputation risk. During the strategy stage MVP agrees with the company which measures count and what the starting level (the baseline) is, and reviews results against them from then on. Which sources brand-search and other data should come from: where assessment data should come from.
What happens to an employee’s account when they leave?
Employee accounts should be opened in the company’s name, or their ownership agreed at hiring, and handed over through a set process when someone leaves. MVP writes account ownership and handover rules into the network design, and no account is transferred to MVP.
Start with a diagnosis of your company.
A brand, marketing or communications lead can apply on the company’s behalf. MVP first reviews the company’s existing accounts, content, brand perception and risk points and delivers an audit report, then proposes a strategy and account-network plan built on it.