Today I want to share with you: How to operate Zhihu efficiently, bring in accurate and massive users, and increase performance several times?

Why operate Zhihu?

We all know that the three steps of precise drainage are: finding fish ponds, making baits, and setting hooks.

Zhihu is a big fish pond. On August 12, it received US$450 million in Series F financing from Baidu and Kuaishou, which is the largest financing so far. Another piece of data is that the number of registered users on Zhihu has exceeded 220 million, and the number of users is still increasing. Its traffic is very large , so we must pay attention to this platform.

Before I start, I would like to ask everyone if you have encountered the following problems when operating Zhihu:

• If you don’t know how to write highly praised answers, it will be difficult to get recommendations from the platform ;

• The answered questions were deleted and folded, and the account was banned or even blocked ;

• After the article was answered, it brought almost no accurate traffic or users ;

• After Zhihu brings in some traffic, they don’t know how to convert it, wasting traffic ;

If you encounter any one of them, then the article shared today is worth reading. I will share how to build Zhihu's highly praised answers and precise traffic from 0 to 1. The content is a bit long, with 7,600+ words, and a lot of the content is hard to see on the market. Who knows, you might be the next one to create a highly-praised and precise traffic-generating case on Zhihu.

Without further ado, I will share this in three parts:

• Why should we attract traffic on Zhihu?

• How to start from scratch, become a traffic giant, and effectively direct traffic? (2 ways to attract traffic, 9 ways to attract traffic, and 4 practical steps to create high likes and attract traffic)

• How to use Zhihu to bring about effective transactions?

Okay, let’s officially start sharing!

1. Why should we attract traffic on Zhihu?

As you all know, Zhihu has received US$450 million in financing and has over 220 million registered users , making it a rare traffic source.

However, the main reasons for choosing Zhihu to attract traffic are the following four reasons.

First of all, I would like to ask everyone, if you want to find something on the Internet, what would you do?

You will most likely open your computer and search on Baidu.

Yes, it is Baidu search, which is a very important traffic entrance.

1. Zhihu has a high weight on Baidu

You may ask, what is Baidu weight value? What's the use?

The simple understanding is that high-quality content on a website will be included in Baidu first and displayed on the front end of the web page.

When you search for a question on Baidu, you will see many Zhihu answer links in the first few pages of Baidu, which is equivalent to Baidu bringing a lot of traffic to this answer.

For example: if you search the name of a public account or promote each other among public accounts on Baidu, the page that comes out will have Zhihu content, and the top answers on Zhihu are our content.

On third-party websites such as Webmaster Home and Aizhan.com, weight values ​​are defined from 1 to 9. The larger the value, the greater the weight, and the more likely it is to appear on the homepage of Baidu search.

Image source: Webmaster's Home

As we can see from the picture below, Zhihu’s weight value on Baidu’s web and mobile terminals has reached 8, which means it can obtain greater traffic.

Image source: Webmaster's Home

Of course, most of the products that can reach a Baidu weight value of 9 are Baidu’s own products, such as: Baijiahao, Baidu Knows, Baidu Tieba, Baidu Wenku, etc.

2. Accurate user groups

Next, let’s talk about the second reason why Zhihu is a platform: its precise users.

You said, if you spend a lot of money but the users you attract are not the target users, isn’t that a big loss?

For example, if your product is to provide medical certificate training, but it attracts people who are not from the medical profession and are not going to take the certification exam, do you think they will buy it?

Not really.

Therefore, accurate users are very important.

Generally, we go to Zhihu with a purpose, with the need to solve a certain problem , so it is very targeted.

In addition, Zhihu's unique screening mechanism can present high-quality content, thus attracting the attention of many users with similar needs.

Think about it, what does this mean?

This means that almost all the users who pay attention to this topic are accurate users, and we don’t need to spend too much energy to screen users. At the same time, precisely because they are accurate users, the conversion effect will be better.

3. Zhihu’s traffic diversion is relatively relaxed

The most painful thing for us who are doing traffic diversion is that the platform prohibits traffic diversion or limits traffic.

However, Zhihu is slightly different from other platforms, as other platforms have stricter restrictions on traffic diversion.

For example: when the words "WeChat, official account" or external links appear, other platforms will limit the flow or not push.

However, Zhihu platform has a more relaxed attitude towards copywriting-based traffic diversion, and Zhihu itself does not explicitly prohibit traffic diversion.

Therefore, if you have high-quality content on Zhihu and the form of traffic does not affect the overall situation, then the effect of traffic diversion will be very good.

4. Zhihu answers have a long tail effect

We know that Zhihu is a question-and-answer community, and one of the great characteristics of the community is that it has a long-tail effect .

What is the long tail effect?

When answering on Zhihu, I would say:

The content we published on Zhihu three years ago is still read by many people today, and they pay attention to us because of it.

If there is a high-quality answer with many likes, it can gain persistent search attention . Most of the people searching for this question are high-quality users. In addition, more and more users will continue to pay attention to this question, so this question and answer can continue to be seen by more people and gain greater exposure.

In other words, as long as you leave a high-quality answer on Zhihu, your answer is likely to be seen by many people for a long time.

Okay, after talking about the benefits of Zhihu traffic diversion, let’s move on to the most important and core part: how to actually divert traffic to Zhihu?

Below I will share with you: 2 ways of thinking, 9 methods of attracting traffic, and 4 practical steps!

2. How to start from 0

Become a Zhihu traffic giant and attract traffic accurately and effectively?

Before I share the practical application of traffic generation, I would like to talk about the "Tao" first instead of the "technique".

Only when you have learned to think, no matter how the platform rules change, your thinking will be the same, and you will always be able to respond to changes with the same approach. This is the core.

1.2 types of traffic diversion thinking

I would like to ask everyone a question, are all industries suitable for Zhihu traffic diversion?

The answer is of course no.

So how should we consider it? Then read on:

• Traffic diversion thinking 1: Does the platform have target users?

When we do things to attract traffic, of course we do effective things, right!

Therefore, when conducting traffic diversion, there needs to be a preliminary investigation, that is, whether the platform has enough target users.

So how do you determine whether Zhihu is the target user?

In the early stage, we can search for some questions on Zhihu to see the number of followers, views, and topics to understand whether the target users are on this platform.

If there are few or almost no target users of yours on Zhihu, then the Zhihu platform is not very suitable for traffic generation.

Of course, if your purpose is exposure, that’s another story.

• Traffic-driving thinking 2: Users follow accounts because of their value

This is easy for everyone to understand. Think about it, why do we follow an account?

Of course it’s because this account can provide valuable things and is helpful to me.

Therefore, producing valuable content, whether for traffic generation or branding, is very important on any platform.

Therefore, for those questions that are not related to your own products and are clever questions, try to answer less or not answer them at all, and provide more content that is helpful to users.

Okay, now we are going to enter the important practical part!

2. Preliminary preparation

We need to make some advance preparations to avoid the situation where the account is identified as a marketing account and then banned or blocked as soon as we start to attract traffic.

• Step 1: Raise an account

After we register a regular account, don't rush to attract traffic. First simulate normal account operations, such as:

It takes at least a week to maintain your account by browsing topics, liking, collecting, following, etc. on a daily basis. The purpose of this is to increase the account weight value.

At the same time, it is easy for us to overlook one point. Because we don’t know the rules of Zhihu, if we accidentally touch the sensitive points of Zhihu, it is easy for the post to be deleted.

Therefore, we need to read Zhihu's rules carefully and always keep them in mind to see which behaviors are prohibited and which behaviors cannot be done.

Here are 3 Zhihu rules. I strongly recommend you to read and take notes:

https://www.zhihu.com/terms2 (Zhihu Community Management Regulations (Trial))

https://www.zhihu.com/terms (Zhihu Agreement (Draft))

https://www.zhihu.com/question/19581624 (Zhihu official guide)

• Step 2: Increase account weight

What we need to know is that the weight value of each account is different, and the proportion of likes from different accounts is also different.

Although the official has not yet given a clear account weight content, but through practical experience, we found that it is likely related to the following factors:

• Number of likes
• Number of Favorites
• Number of thanks
• Followers
• Salt value
• Is this an excellent respondent?
• Are you a paid member?

In particular, the salt value is an important reference factor for the weight of Zhihu accounts. The rights and interests of the salt value are as follows:

• 260-300 is the base score;

• A score of 600 or above will give you priority processing;

• You can edit the question at 620;

• You can edit the topic when you reach 640;

• When you reach 650, you can add a reason for your objection when you object;

• If you score 700 points, Zhihu will give priority to your report;

• 850 points can achieve a high weight for both likes and dislikes;

• If you reach 950 points, your objection + reason may directly collapse the other party's answer.

So how do we increase the salt level?

• Complete personal information to obtain basic credit points, such as: personal authentication;

• Earn content creation points by asking questions, answering questions, writing columns, posting ideas, etc.

• By making friendly comments under different answers, communicating with other comments, following each other, agreeing with each other, and thanking each other, we can improve our friendly interaction score;

• By reporting some unfriendly comments, you can increase community points;

• Try to answer questions with the highest quality, avoid touching on sensitive topics, and do not violate any rules, so that you can accumulate points for complying with the convention.

Next, let’s highlight the key points and share 9 ways to attract traffic on Zhihu.

3. 9 ways to attract traffic from Zhihu

Based on current experience, we have summarized 9 Zhihu traffic-driving methods .

Special note: The following method is suitable for operation after the Zhihu account is maintained. Otherwise, it is easy to be banned or blocked. So you have to remember this. Maintaining an account is a prerequisite for the next step. After all, slow is faster.

• Zhihu background image diversion

Upload a background image on your personal Zhihu homepage, and put traffic-generating content in the background image.

For example, the following figure:

But we need to note that the effect of viewing the homepage on a mobile phone and on a computer is different. If we put a WeChat QR code on the homepage, it will easily be reported by users (peers).

It is especially not recommended to put a WeChat QR code in the background image, but you can try to keep the guidance text.

In this way, you can write about the benefits of your account and attract users to get to know you better.

• Home page one sentence introduction to attract traffic

In Zhihu's one-sentence introduction, the allowed number of words is within 36 , which will be displayed directly on the homepage. If it is within 14 words, it will be displayed directly at the top of the answer.

You can write:

Personal title (to increase trust) + public account name. Of course, the best way to attract traffic is to use the official account: XXX, and give you XXX.

But it is important to note that:

It is best not to include your WeChat ID in a one-sentence introduction, as it is easy to be reported by users (peers) and the information may be reset.

• Homepage Profile

Another way to attract traffic is that you can put relevant traffic introduction in your personal profile. The best format is: account attributes + traffic method .

for example:

• Home Page Career Experience Drainage

This is a traffic channel that is easily overlooked. In fact, you can put a public account here to divert traffic, and some people even directly put their WeChat account (I don’t recommend you to put your WeChat account, because it is easy to be reported by users (same) as (bank)).

The common format is: Public account: [xxx] · Manager

• Zhihu answers the middle diversion

This means that you insert relevant pictures in the middle of the article in your answer, and the pictures contain text that can attract traffic, or the article directly contains the text and methods that can attract traffic.

Common text content is: Add xxx WeChat or follow xxx public account to obtain xxx information.

• Zhihu answers bottom drainage

This is quite common. Generally, after the high-quality answers, there will be similar traffic-generating content after the article. Follow the xxx public account to receive xxx resources.

As long as the article is of high quality, this is basically a reliable way to attract traffic.

It should be noted that it is best if the resources and benefits received at the end of the article are consistent with the content of the article.

• Zhihu comment area traffic diversion

If your Zhihu answer has a certain number of likes or comments, you can attract traffic in the comment section of the article.

for example:

• If you need to obtain xxx information, you can get it from the xxx public account;
• If you need xxx information, you can chat with me privately.
• Zhihu column traffic diversion

Zhihu columns are also a traffic exposure point , which is easy to be overlooked.

After answering on Zhihu, you can organize it again and publish it in a column to further increase exposure. You can put traffic-generating information in the column article. The most reliable way is to direct traffic to the official account.

• Zhihu idea diversion

The idea of ​​Zhihu is similar to WeChat's Moments . If you have a lot of followers on Zhihu, you can post some texts to guide user interaction.

Okay, next, it’s time to take the 4 key steps to create highly-rated answers!

4. Master these 4 steps and become a Zhihu top traffic star

In fact, there are methods and techniques to answer on Zhihu. If you can refer to these 4 steps, you will have a greater chance of becoming a highly praised answerer on Zhihu and gain more traffic.

• Zhihu topic selection

When you decide to operate Zhihu, what is the first step?

Choosing which questions can be answered is called selecting topics.

What does topic selection mean?

What this means is that we need to identify which issues are of most concern to our target users and which topics they attach the most importance to.

It should be noted that the selected topic needs to be the same as the account attributes, and it is best to only answer questions in vertical fields.

So how to tap into the issues that are of greatest user demand?

There are 3 tools that can help achieve this.

Method 1: Baidu frame association

Search for a product name or service in the Baidu search bar, and the questions that automatically appear in the box are the questions that users have searched most recently.

For example.

For example, if you search for new media in Baidu, the following will appear: new media operation, what is new media, new media training classes, what is new media operation work, etc., indicating that these questions are the issues that users have searched recently.

Then, you can search on Zhihu and summarize these questions in a table.

The second method: Baidu related search.

The method is that after we search for relevant questions on Baidu, related questions will appear under Baidu. These questions are also questions that users frequently search for, and they are topics that users are very concerned about for at least a week. Therefore, these questions can also be searched on Zhihu.

Method 3: Baidu Index

After entering relevant keywords in the Baidu Index, you can click on the Baidu Map to see the recently popular keywords, and then search for related questions on Zhihu based on these keywords.

• Screening Questions

After we select the questions that can be answered, it is impossible to answer all of them. Instead, we need to give focused answers. So how do we choose the questions to answer?

Below we will share 3 dimensions, 2 screening principles, and 1 practical method.

3 Dimensions

Screening questions have dimensions, and the three most reliable ones are:

• Many followers
• Many visitors
• Few people voted for the answer

The first two dimensions are easy to understand. A large number of followers and views indicate that the topic has a sufficient user base. A small number of highly-rated answers means a greater chance of getting high likes.

2 screening principles

The first principle: Classify problems into strong needs and weak needs.

What is strong demand? The demand for this question must be changed, so this question can be answered first.

For example, how to layout the official account is something that must be done, and this is a strong demand.

Principle 2: Use the user awareness ladder to get more relevant questions

If there are relatively few issues directly related to our products or services, we can filter them based on the user awareness ladder.

What is the User Awareness Ladder?

• Step 0: No awareness of need

• Ladder 1: Aware of the need (but not aware of the solution)

• Step 2: Find some solution (but not yours)

• Ladder 3: Aware of a clear solution (but not yet aware of the benefits of the solution)

• Step 4: Aware of the benefits (but not convinced)

• Step 5: Believe and be ready to buy

For example.

For example: If your product is a short-term rental app and there are relatively few issues related to renting, then you can think about when users will have the need to rent a house.

Without this awareness, relevant content will be generated to stimulate this demand.

For example: When traveling, you need to rent a house, so you can answer travel-related questions. For example, what are the things to pay attention to when traveling, travel guides, etc., and then indirectly "introduce" the product.

1 practical method

You will find that some Zhihu topics may become unpopular because the answer time is too long, even though there are many viewers.

So how do we do it specifically?

Specific practical method: You can use Excel to track the number of followers and browsing status of this topic every few hours, and then determine whether this topic still needs to be answered. (Of course, if the purpose is brand exposure and you have extra energy, you can answer any question.)

For example: Although this question has a large number of views, the difference in the view values ​​is not large and there is no upward trend. The question is not very popular and will easily become unpopular after being answered.

Okay, now let’s get to the point!

• answer the questions

Please note that this is the core part of Zhihu. Whether it gets high likes and whether it effectively attracts traffic are all here.

Articles on Zhihu and official accounts are different. Official accounts have titles, but Zhihu does not, so the answer at the beginning is particularly important.

It can be said that if Zhihu has a good start, the answer is half successful.

So how do you start your article on Zhihu to attract users to click and read?

By analyzing the top answers and combining them with practical experience, we have summarized 4 very effective opening techniques.

4 very effective opening techniques

• The information package is attractive: for example, it introduces the inventory resources in a logical and conscientious manner, saving users time in screening. As shown in the following figure:

• The summary introduction attracts attention: directly tells the solution to the problem. As shown in the following figure:

• Strong connection attraction: Express the relevance of your answer to the question to increase trust. As shown in the following figure:

• Start with a story scene: People naturally like to read stories, and starting with a story can attract users' attention.

3 Article Type Structures

Next, let’s share how to write articles. Common types of articles are:

• Inventory articles
• Story Articles
• Structural articles

Inventory articles are written by integrating related answers and answering them according to the inventory materials.

For example: Answers about taking inventory of books. The characteristic of this type of answer is that it requires more! I want more! I want more! Important things should be said three times.

Story articles are about writing stories about yourself or others, aiming to resonate with users through similar experiences. A very common method is to add more pictures of your own experiences when answering, to increase trust and intimacy.

Structural articles are about analyzing and breaking down problems, and gaining readers' trust and identification through the rigor of the article. The key point is to have cases and logical support.

Doing this at the end of the article is more likely to get likes

After answering the Zhihu questions, users need to be further guided to like, collect and follow. If users are not reminded to like, collect, or follow, they are likely to leave after reading the answer.

Common lines of dialogue include: If you find it helpful, please give it a like~ or just put a paragraph of dialogue to encourage people to give likes.

for example:

In addition, you can put the previously answered questions at the end of the article to create an answer matrix and make it a closed loop. Perhaps a popular answer can lead to answers to another topic.

• After answering the questions

When we answer the questions, it does not mean the end, further action is needed.

At this time, you need to understand Zhihu's recommendation mechanism in advance.

Zhihu Cold Start

The recommendation mechanism used by Zhihu is the Wilson algorithm . What is the Wilson algorithm? The following figure is the algorithm formula and interval algorithm model diagram:

Don’t you understand? Feeling complicated? It doesn’t matter. The principle is a little more complicated. Let me briefly talk about the recommendation mechanism. There are two recommendation processes:

The first one:

After answering the question on Zhihu → the system randomly recommends a small number of testers based on the data → if the recommended testers continue to like this topic → Zhihu will recommend more people until the recommendation ends.

Second type:

After answering the questions on Zhihu → the system randomly recommends a small number of testers based on the data → if the recommended testers do not like → the Zhihu recommendation ends.

So here comes a question:

If the high-quality answers we write are recommended by the system to a small number of testers, if these testers happen to be busy. for example:

If you don't open Zhihu in time when you are working or studying, and don't click on the answer you like, then Zhihu will think that the quality of your answer is not high and will not continue to recommend it. Don't you think that this is a big loss?

Therefore, after answering on Zhihu, a manual "cold start" is required.

Specific practical method: Within 2 hours after answering, get about 20 likes through mutual likes, and let Zhihu recommend it to more people.

However, we need to be careful not to like each other too quickly. It is best to like each other after reading each article, with an interval of about 30 seconds in between.

Interact in the comment section

In addition, if a user comments on an answer on Zhihu, you should respond promptly. This can also increase the weight of the answer, making it easier to be exposed and recommended.

Content recommendation

There is another method. If your Zhihu rights level reaches V4 or above, you can also use the "content self-recommendation" function in Zhihu to expand the exposure value of your answer. There are 3 opportunities per month to “recommend your own content” on Zhihu.

Finally, no matter how the mechanism of Zhihu changes, there is one core that remains unchanged:

Zhihu’s goal has always been to screen high-quality answers, and high-quality content is always the foundation of everything!

3. How to bring in transactions through Zhihu?

Speaking of this, we have come to a step that everyone is particularly concerned about, which is how to complete a transaction through Zhihu?

There are two common transaction methods on Zhihu:

• The first one is to directly put a link promotion in the content answer, and the user completes the transaction after clicking the link.

What needs to be noted about this method is that you should generally place multiple links, give a brief introduction to the multiple links, and analyze their pros and cons to avoid making users think that you are just advertising.

Of course, if your product is in a Taobao store, there is another way, which is to put a Taobao password.

Of course, the most important point is that the content you share must really feel good for users and be of high quality.

• The second, which is also the majority approach: Zhihu is responsible for traffic generation, and transactions are completed within the WeChat system.

This method, especially for products with a relatively high average order value, is more about using Zhihu to carry traffic to WeChat public accounts, service accounts, WeChat personal accounts, etc., and converting transactions on the WeChat system.

Why choose WeChat as a transaction tool?

We all know that WeChat is a social platform that allows us to repeatedly reach users. When users trust your product, it will affect their behavior and decisions.

The essence of a transaction is trust. Only by resolving the trust issue can a transaction be completed.

After users move from Zhihu to WeChat, they can complete transactions in the following ways: through friend circles, community groups, official accounts, service accounts, 1-on-1 private chats, repeat purchases, referrals, etc.

Then the question arises again!

How to gain user trust? What are the methods and techniques?

Here is a trust formula: Trust = (professionalism x reliability x intimacy) / self

So how do you understand this formula? Due to limited space (if I continue writing, it will be tens of thousands of words), I have shared it in an article before. You can go back and take a look. Of course, you can also communicate with me directly.

Of course, each transaction method has different methods and techniques. Due to limited space, I will share the specific transaction methods and techniques in subsequent articles.

Well, to summarize the above content:

There are 4 reasons why we choose Zhihu to attract traffic:

• Zhihu has great power in Baidu;
• Zhihu has a precise user base;
• Drainage is relatively loose;
• Zhihu answers have a long-tail effect.

How to accurately attract traffic? How to get highly praised answers?

• 2 types of drainage thinking;

• 9 drainage methods;

• Preparation before answering: mainly to maintain an account and familiarize yourself with Zhihu rules;

• 4 steps to get a highly praised answer: select a topic, screen questions, answer questions, and then finish answering.

The most core method is still: providing high-quality content.

How to complete transactions on Zhihu?

There are two forms:

• Insert relevant web links in the answer, and users click the links to complete the transaction.

• After directing traffic to the WeChat system, we build trust and complete transactions through WeChat tools such as official accounts, service accounts, Moments, and communities.

Have you learned all the above methods?

Zhihu is a platform that deserves refined operation. It is not complicated to get high likes and accurately attract traffic. If you master these methods and techniques, you can also play Zhihu.

Author: Teacher Kunlong

Source: Teacher Kunlong