From a product perspective, look at the secrets of creating 100,000+ hit articles!

Usually, when analyzing a product from a product perspective, the product will be separated into related factors from a system-wide thinking method. We try to regard the article as a product and separate the factors: Article product components: title + text; Display form: list display; Sorting method: reverse chronological order; Existence carrier: WeChat; Secondary dissemination carrier: Moments; as shown below:

Next, analyze the key behavior paths of the product , which requires analysis based on the user's scenario behaviors in the product. We can conclude that the key behavioral path for article dissemination is: public accounts push articles - arouse resonance among fans - secondary dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding...) - resonance among fans' friends - dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding)... and so on, and so on.

1. About the title

Returning to the actual user scenario, the user enters WeChat and browses the article product. Combined with the above-mentioned article product factor breakdown, the user's first contact with the article product is the article title, as shown in the figure:

From the above picture, we can see that whether it is on WeChat, in a subscription account or in Moments, the first thing users see when reading an article is the title . Today is an era of information explosion. Each person receives at least a dozen and at most hundreds of messages pushed by public accounts every day, plus shared and forwarded messages in the circle of friends. Therefore, whether the title is eye-catching (attracting users to click and browse) has become one of the necessary conditions for a hot article. Freud said that everything we do is motivated by two motives: sexual desire and the desire to be great. In fact, to put it in a biased way, it is driven by physiological (physiological and emotional aspects) and social (value and identity aspects) . Therefore, the eye-catching titles are nothing more than the following routines:

1. Physiological induction

Shocked, college students compete in sex skills on campus (housekeeping)

The couple regretted not knowing these sex tips (decoration)

…

2. Target induction

Ten shortcuts to becoming a product director

How to negotiate a raise with your boss

…

3. Curiosity Induction

The business secrets behind the game anchor's worth of tens of millions

Big reveal: Seven types of people who can achieve financial freedom

…

4. Data induction

I have 10 career experiences worth 1 million, but they are free today.

10 secrets that 99% of people don’t know, come and have a look

…

5. Emotional induction

After reading this article, almost no one will not forward it.

You will regret it for 500 years if you don't watch it

…

6. Exaggerated panic

It's terrible. All the young people around me have this strange disease.

shock! A eating habit that makes your teeth prone to cavities

…

7. Authoritative Induction

Jack Ma and Pan Shiyi both became rich after meeting him. Today, let’s take a look at him.

Tencent people's 36 PPTs vividly explain the overall development of China's Internet technology in the past 20 years

…

And so on, but emotional resonance is the key! The quality of an article title depends on whether it resonates with certain emotions among users.

2. About the text

Next, let’s look at the second component of the article product: the text. Now the user has been successfully attracted by the title and entered the main body of the article, which is half the success. But our ultimate goal is to spread information, so we cannot use clickbait titles and must have high-quality content. Articles are content consumption products, and their core value lies in whether they can arouse certain emotional resonance among users. Once resonance is formed, it will naturally lead to users sharing and spreading it. The first condition for users to resonate is that they can patiently read the article and then systematically break down the content of the article:

1. Length and layout

As can be seen from the above picture, the first thing users see after entering the article is the length and layout. According to the primacy effect, the length and layout determine whether the user can officially enter immersive reading. We know that in the era of mobile Internet, mobile phone reading is fragmented and shallow. It is difficult to spend a long time reading a very long article without typeset. According to the statistical analysis of popular articles, the forwarding rate of simple and beautiful graphic layout is 64.9%.

2. Article Beginning

From the perspective of system breakdown, after users decide to stop and read an article, the first thing they come into contact with is the beginning. Therefore, the quality of the beginning affects the user's motivation to continue reading. To be frank, it means being attractive enough, which is actually similar to the selection of the title. Bai Juyi said in "Preface to New Yuefu": "The first sentence states the title, and the last sentence shows the intention." The general meaning is that you have to get to the point at the beginning and get straight to the point. Common good beginnings include:

a. Start with a straightforward value statement

As mentioned earlier, mobile phone reading is fragmented and shallow. Time is precious. Whether this article is worth reading or not can be seen from the beginning. For example: How to cultivate your temperament through living habits?

b. Conflict development

By highlighting the contradictions and conflicts in the entire article, you can attract users' attention and arouse their interest, so that they will think about the solutions to the conflicts at the beginning. For example, in China, 500,000 people die prematurely every year due to air pollution. Some children, most of whom are only two months old and have never been out of the house, have already contracted pneumonia and are receiving nebulizer treatment.

c. Bring in a scene-based opening

Describe the reader’s current situation to resonate with the user: Hey, this is the situation I’m facing now. Encourage users to continue reading in depth. For example: As a project manager, you always work overtime. Is it because you don’t have enough time or your efficiency is low?

d. Authoritative and introductory opening

Everyone has a desire to worship authority, so quoting the words of an authoritative person or organization at the beginning can attract users to continue reading. For example: Jack Ma said: In the next 30 years, you will not be able to find a job if you don’t learn art.

…

And so on. Of course, there are many other methods, but due to my limited level, I will not list them all. The core purpose is to stimulate users' interest, attract their attention, and give them motivation to continue reading.

3. Article Body

We have mentioned before the characteristics of fragmented time. Time periods and the lack of thinking are the characteristics of reading on mobile devices. Therefore, the readability and interest of the text become crucial factors. Readability: pictures are better than tables, tables are better than text; Interestingness: combination of pictures and text, typesetting... These can be used to summarize the presentation methods of popular articles. But one point is that "no thinking" is particularly important. Users do not think deeply in their fragmented time, and it is difficult for them to deeply appreciate the value behind the article, so it is naturally difficult to resonate with it. Therefore, things that are simple to understand and summarize are easier to spread. For example: list-style articles such as "10 work habits to double your efficiency", graphic and data presentation articles...

3. About Display

Returning to the user scenario method, the behavioral path of article dissemination analyzed is: public account pushes article - arouses resonance among fans - secondary dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding...) - resonance among fans' friends - dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding)... Now that the article is prepared according to the above techniques, it is time to push it. When should it be pushed? Before thinking of a solution, it is better to analyze it in combination with the real scenario:

As can be seen from the figure, articles in WeChat products are displayed in lists and are sorted in reverse chronological order. The previous article also pointed out that this is an era of information explosion, and everyone receives an influx of push messages every day. The more your article is exposed in the front, the more likely it is to be seen by users, so it is particularly important to know when to push it. Here we need to rely more on simple data analysis methods. First of all, you have to clearly know the user profile of your fan base. For example, for office workers, their peak times for opening WeChat are probably 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m.; for students, the peak times may be even more irregular. Then analyze the distribution of your article browsing time periods, and set the push time reasonably according to your user groups and browsing time periods.

Of course, you can also use the WeChat platform data to see what kind of article content users like and other data, providing you with a better basis for writing popular articles.

IV. About Communication

The key behavior path of article dissemination is: public account pushes articles - arouses resonance among fans - secondary dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding...) - resonance among fans' friends - dissemination among fans (circle of friends, sharing, forwarding)..., and so on.

Continue along the user scenario behavior path. Now the article is ready and the push time has been confirmed. Now all that’s left is dissemination. We have also roughly talked about the three ways of communication before: sharing in Moments, sending to friends, and distributing in WeChat groups. To reach a wider audience, it would be even better if KOLs share it (it has become one of the common marketing methods nowadays). In fact, user communication is based on two psychological factors: value identification (making users feel it is helpful) and identity identification (you and I are the same kind of people, also known as kidnapped sharing, because WeChat is a social network among acquaintances and I hope my friends and I are the same kind of people). If you prepare your articles with these two kinds of mentality, it will be easier for them to go viral.

summary

This article only takes a rough look at some of the necessary conditions for a hit article from a product perspective. Among them, the more common correlation factor decomposition method is used in product analysis, and the user scenario analysis method is used to analyze the plan. But in reality, in order to write a hit article, in addition to the theoretical methods mentioned above, you must first have a clear understanding of the positioning of your official account, the user portrait of your fan base, the maintenance of your fan base, and the preferences for article content.

The number of fans is the cornerstone of dissemination. Only when the value of your article is recognized by the number of fans can you open the key path to becoming a hit article. Looking at the whole article, except for the title, the rest of my article was not written in accordance with the above conditions, so it is also an unqualified article product.

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Author: Sunset Path

Source: Sunset Path