Why is social media the best way out for self-media?

As we all know, there are two biggest obstacles that restrict the development of self-media :

• One is the issue of content sustainability. How to continuously produce popular and high-quality content should be a common problem faced by all self-media people.
• The second is the issue of traffic monetization. Self-media people work hard to produce high-quality content and attract a group of fans, but they do not have an effective way to monetize their efforts.

Regarding the issue of content sustainability, many people worked overtime and racked their brains, and finally came up with a new content style and indulged themselves in it. But the cruel thing is that fans don't buy it and are likely to scold you for messing around; as for the problem of traffic monetization, the most common practice nowadays is to sell advertisements, but no matter how you advertise, the income is not proportional to the effort, which seems to be far from the great ideal of marrying a beautiful, rich and beautiful woman and reaching the pinnacle of life.

These two major problems naturally exist in self-media, so if we continue to follow the old path of self-media, these will be unsolvable problems.

Nowadays, communities and community economy have been widely recognized, and self-media with their own fan halo are naturally endowed with the advantage of community. Therefore, I believe that self-media people should take the initiative to seize opportunities, upgrade self-media to social media, and obtain continuous content production and monetization capabilities. This is the best way out.

We know that, unlike the simple "write → read" of self-media, the operation mode of social media is more three-dimensional and organic. It attracts and screens users (fans) through content. After users settle down, they form a community. After the community is successfully operated, group members will continuously produce high-quality content together to continue to attract users. Once a community is formed, there can be a variety of commercial monetization models surrounding it.

Next, we will analyze in detail why self-media should take the path of social media from the four aspects of content production, content dissemination, user accumulation, and commercial monetization.

1. Content Production

1. Social media solves the problem of who to produce for

We know that the first thing to be clear about content production is who it is produced for, and this is precisely the weak point of self-media. Self-media often has a center that produces content, while fans consume the content in a one-way manner, that is, one writes and the other reads, and there is a lack of interaction and feedback between the two.

In other words, the target users of self-media are actually unclear, which in turn directly affects their content production. Just think about it, how many of our big self-media accounts produce content based on their feelings and temperament? This direction today, that direction tomorrow. After finally finding a direction that users like, after maintaining it for a while, it is criticized for being unoriginal and aesthetically fatigued. Helplessly, I started a new round of relying on my feelings, experience, and luck...

Social media is different. Since fans are accumulated in the community, they naturally have high stickiness and high interactivity, which makes the target users of social media very clear. Therefore, there is a clear direction in content production. Group members will give efficient and direct feedback on whether they like or dislike the content. Even before and during content production, group members can participate and provide feedback. Therefore, the content produced by social media is highly accurate.

2. Social media solves the problem of how to produce

As mentioned before, the biggest problem for self-media is how to ensure the continuity of content production. As long as it is a self-media, it will face the problem of content depletion. Because the content of self-media is mainly produced by the center, it follows the PGC route. No matter how talented or productive a center is, there will always be a moment when it runs out of steam. Therefore, the model of self-media relying solely on central content production is unsustainable.

Social media is different, it follows the "PGC+UGC" route: the content is jointly created by community members, and the generated content is processed and organized before being presented in the form of high-quality PGC content. Compared with self-media, social media, a way of producing content by group members, solves two problems:

1. The issue of sustainability of content production. The wisdom of the group is infinite. Since the content is produced by group members together, there is no need to worry about content exhaustion.
2. The problem of aesthetic fatigue in content consumption. There is a basic psychological law that when a person has actively participated in something, he is less likely to become aesthetically fatigued by the results produced.

Obviously, the content produced by social media has its own wisdom and sweat. Will you still get tired of it? As the saying goes, have loved, have tried, even if it is a pile of shit, it is the result of your hard work and careful defecation.

For example, in the Li Xiaolai community, he and group members summarized and learned together, and then co-authored the book "Seven Years Is a Lifetime". Will group members actively share such content? Another example is the Ganhuobang community, where content comes from the sharing of guests each time, which naturally solves the problem of unsustainability.

2. Content dissemination

We know that the operating model of self-media is simple, with only the processes of production (such as writing) and dissemination (such as watching). This leads to its single dissemination channel, and it can only rely on certain platforms to maintain a certain amount of dissemination. Once it leaves a platform or the platform's activity decreases, the high-quality content it produces cannot be effectively disseminated.

In addition, since self-media do not have a community to retain users and lack an effective monetization model, they often attach great importance to content copyright. They are generally only willing to allow content to be disseminated on their own platforms and do not welcome sharing through other channels. For example, many self-media people prohibit other organizations and media from reprinting their content, because this will inevitably disperse the traffic of the self-media itself. For self-media people who rely on traffic to sell advertisements to make money, this is tantamount to stealing their jobs.

From the above two points we can see that self-media is limited in content dissemination, and is unable to form full-network dissemination. Let’s look at social media.

The content of social media is the entrance to traffic, and the community is the sediment of traffic. What's the meaning? That is, the content produced by social media can be effectively disseminated among group members without having to rely solely on other media platforms.

Why? We return to the operating model of social media, where the production of content is completed by group members together, and the dissemination of content is also completed among group members. The group members of social media are fans, that is, users. Therefore, compared with self-media, social media has more diverse communication channels and is very efficient and accurate.

What is even more valuable is that social media can spread content across the entire network, unlike self-media which must stick to content in order to monetize. Because once a community is formed, there are many different monetization models for social media. Social media is not concerned with copyright but copyleft. It does not monetize through the content itself. The content is mainly for creating influence and building communities. Therefore, as long as the source is indicated, the content on social media is very welcome to be spread by others, so it can easily be spread throughout the entire network.

For example, the super community Luoji Siwei, because Youku prevented it from adding advertisements, it turned to accumulating users to form a community. Nowadays, as long as Luoji Siwei produces content, it can be disseminated efficiently and in large quantities within its community. Even when selling things, members of its community are vying for it. This is the charm of social media in content dissemination.

3. User Sedimentation

Compared with self-media, social media has adopted a more sustainable and effective approach in content production and dissemination. However, the most essential difference between social media and self-media is not this, but user sedimentation. This is the core of social media.

As we all know, self-media only has the process of accumulating fans, but not the process of settling users. User retention depends on communities, and communities are an organizational form unique to social media.

In self-media, content is the core of everything. It is the purpose of self-media and the basis of its value. Self-media needs to rely on content to realize its value. Therefore, since self-media has no concept of community, they naturally don’t care about user retention.

In social media, content is just a means. It is a tool to attract users and build communities. The community is the core value. Unlike self-media that try every possible way to increase followers, social media often sets its own rules and thresholds for users attracted through content. Only those who meet the rules can settle into the community for joint creation, while those who do not meet the rules will be rejected. In other words, social media attracts users through content and then filters users through rules.

Why do we set up self-imposed barriers to hinder the growth of group members? The reason is simple. Users screened out through a set of rules are often our own users and high-quality users. This is the basic premise and guarantee for the future production of community content and commercial monetization around the community.

For many paid communities that operate well, charging fees is a threshold. For example, the membership fee of Li Xiaolai's "Growing Together" community has reached 7,000 yuan. Another example is ScalersTalk's common learning community, where each person has to pay 1,000 yuan to join the group, and then stick to and learn one thing together and grow together. There is also the well-known entrepreneur community Zhenghe Island, and its rules for joining the group are far more than just paying money:

1. Possess healthy, positive and responsible values;
2. The founder, chairman or president of the company;
3. The company is an independent legal entity, established for more than three years, and its operating income in the previous year must be more than RMB 100 million;
4. The company you work for is engaged in an industry or business that is beneficial to society;
5. The company has no major illegal or irregular records in the three years before landing on the island;
6. Pursue growth, love learning, and be willing to share.

Precisely because social media has a user sedimentation process and the existence of communities, compared to self-media that has no way to monetize, social media does not have to stick to content and will have unlimited possibilities in commercial monetization.

4. Commercial Monetization

The single operating model of self-media not only limits the dissemination of its content, but also leads to a single monetization model (selling advertisements). However, since social media has broken away from its dependence on content monetization, its business model is often ecological and diverse.

Because it has grasped the core value of "community", social media can handle everything, whether it is collecting membership fees, community e-commerce, or community advertising. This is also a common practice for many communities to monetize.

For example, collecting membership fees is both a threshold and a monetization channel. It is one of the basic monetization methods for many well-run communities.

Another example is e-commerce. Luoji Siwei has always advocated that communities should take the path of e-commerce, and they are also practicing it, selling books and New Year's goods.

Social media advertising has even new ways of playing. Many people spend $300,000 on advertising in traditional media, but with little success. But if you spend the 300,000 directly on your own community, the effect will be much better. For example, if MINI Cooper wants to advertise, it can provide the right to use two MINI Coopers and organize a lucky draw in a community. The winner will get the right to use the MINI Cooper for one year. This will definitely inspire group members and then they will spontaneously help promote the brand. The cost may be less than 300,000 yuan, but will this make users recognize your brand better than extensive advertising?

However, e-commerce, advertising, membership fees, etc. are just some of the specific ways of monetizing social media. The real greatness of the social media business model lies in the fact that when group members are organized together, they can jointly create infinite value.

Yes, we should fundamentally change our mindset. We should not always think about collecting money from group members, and we should not simply treat community members as targets to be exploited: collecting fees today and selling goods tomorrow. Group members should not be pigs to be slaughtered, but hens that lay eggs.

When our mindset changes, the infinite possibilities of social media in terms of business models become apparent:

First of all, community members should be the seeds of the community. Group members are the first batch of seed users of community content and products. They watch and try out the products, give feedback, and even directly participate in the creation. They then conduct word-of-mouth publicity to the outside world and spread the community brand. And this will be invaluable for brand development.

Secondly, community members can jointly create content and products and “charge external fees”. Whether it is e-commerce, advertising, or membership fees, they are essentially "internal charges", that is, charging fees to group members. Since the content of social media is jointly produced by group members, we can naturally think of another monetization model - "charging external fees", that is, the community owner and group members jointly create content and products, and monetize them outside the community.

For example, the community formed by Internet copywriting expert Li Jiaoshou has leveraged the infinite possibilities of social media to create value and has transformed the traditional consulting industry. Li Jiaoshou uses the collective wisdom of group members through homework and exercises to provide marketing services to many businesses that come for consultation. As the saying goes, many hands make light work. The group members are experts in their respective fields. The marketing plans made in this way are of course both sophisticated and practical, and the merchants who come to consult will naturally be satisfied.

In general, social media adopts the "PGC+UGC" model in content production. In terms of content dissemination, it involves both group member dissemination and network-wide dissemination. It also pays more attention to user sedimentation, and has unlimited possibilities for commercial monetization. Therefore, we can see that social media will be the best way out for self-media.

It is conceivable that in the future there will be countless communities with a variety of ecosystems, and everyone can join multiple communities. Moreover, people will feel superior because they have joined certain specific communities. This is just like when self-media first emerged, some people would feel proud because they followed some high-profile self-media accounts, and consciously distinguish themselves from the people around them. Unfortunately, self-media has passed its golden age, and social media will be a new direction to create a sense of superiority for users. This will bring huge opportunities to self-media people. When people flock to social media, that’s when the traffic dividend explodes.

In fact, on the road to the future, the scary thing is not that you don’t work hard enough, but that you are working in the wrong direction. Those who are foresighted are already taking action, and those who are late to the party are already trying hard to catch up. You are definitely not the one who is unaware.

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