How to build a new media operation matrix?

When the number of user groups of a public account becomes huge, it is very necessary to build a matrix. By building a matrix, the user groups can be further segmented, and corresponding operation strategies can be formulated to further promote user growth.

Background Purpose:

Suppose I am the operations manager of a public account. We already have a user base of hundreds of thousands (the operations population is similar to that of Guokr.com), and now we plan to start building a matrix to drive further growth in users. To do this, we need to first understand the operational strategy of the big name in the field - "Guokr". What are their different matrices? What different user needs are met respectively? What different activities are you doing?

Tools and methods:

1. Building Block Model
2. Matrix Plot

Specific steps:

1. Research the basic situation, user portraits, and content of the competitor "Guoker" official account
2. Analyze the feasibility of building a new media matrix for "Guokr"
3. Explore the internal and external matrices under the Guokr account and draw a matrix diagram
4. Analysis of the construction logic and operation strategy of the "Guoker" new media matrix
5. Propose new media matrix operation suggestions for this account

1. Research on the Guokr public account

1. Basic information of the official account

• Name: Fruit Shell
• WeChat ID: Guokr42
• Number of fans: 1.9 million
• Account owner: Beijing Guokr Interactive Technology Media Co., Ltd.
• Introduction: Science and technology are the languages ​​we use to communicate with the world.

Welcome words for new members:

Menu bar:

1. Content selection: Search within the account, Good articles in November, Shit posture (directed to Bilibili "Guoker Video"), Apply for reprint
2. Species Calendar: Purchase a calendar (directed to the "Guoker Store" applet)
3. New Year's Day gift: Purchase food and kitchenware (directed to the "Foodie Research Institute Store" applet)

The basic information and menu bar settings of the "Guokr" public account show a style that is unique, down-to-earth, lively and interesting.

2. User Profile

• Age: Users aged 18-29 account for nearly 60%, with the largest number of users aged 25-29;
• Gender: Male users account for 73%, much higher than female users;
• Crowd characteristics: "Homebodies" and "digital natives" are the most prominent groups;
• Region: Users mainly come from Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, all of which are economically developed provinces;
• School ranking: Users generally have received higher education and have a high level of education, many of whom are from key universities, indicating that users have a high level of knowledge;
• Occupational label: The user is mainly engaged in scientific research, communication and media work;
• Social status: Most users are directors, managers, authors, and founders, and have a certain social status;
• Interests and hobbies: Users are interested in topics such as funny jokes, social hot topics, charity, IT and digital, and legal issues.

3. Content Analysis

We selected the top 100 articles with the most likes among the recent 10w+ headlines on the Guokr public account, tagged them, and conducted analysis.

The topics of the articles mainly revolve around science, food, health, rumor debunking, species, teenagers, species, beauty, exploration, and the legal system; among them, the most popular topics are science, health, food, and rumor debunking.

It can be seen that the "Guokr" public account has subdivided content themes and classified users through content of different themes, which is conducive to the next step of laying out the matrix within WeChat.

2. Feasibility analysis of the new media matrix of "Guokr"

1. Do you want to make a matrix now?

This problem can be analyzed from the development stage of the official account:

The "Guokr" public account has been in operation for nearly 10 years, with 1.9 million followers (data source: Xigua Assistant). It is currently in a mature stage , and the account has basically taken shape, making it suitable for matrix.

2. Should we create a matrix within WeChat?

This problem is mainly analyzed from the perspective of internal and external resources and user group characteristics:

Internal and external resources:

(1) User volume: The total number of public accounts users is over 1.9 million, with a huge number of users and rich resources;

(2) Operational experience: Guokr was founded 10 years ago, and the operation team has rich practical experience and has been through many battles;

(3) Partners: We cooperate with the China Association for Science and Technology, Coursera and other institutions and have strong support.

User group characteristics:

(1) Gender ratio: Male users account for 73% (1.39 million), and female users account for 27% (510,000);

(2) Age division: The two age groups have the largest number of people, with college students aged 18 to 24 accounting for 25% (about 470,000) and young people aged 25 to 29 accounting for 32% (about 610,000);

(3) Distribution among different groups: The proportion of users among geeks, housewives, digital geeks, fashionable women, and sports enthusiasts is relatively even, with a wide range of groups and distribution.

3. Do you want to create an external matrix?

This problem needs to be analyzed from the perspective of traffic demand:

"Guokr" is currently in its mature stage, and its user growth has reached a bottleneck period. It needs to take advantage of the bonus period of new platforms to introduce more traffic. On the other hand, we need to focus on commercial monetization and find multiple ways to monetize. Therefore, it is necessary to expand external platforms and build an external matrix to achieve a new round of user growth and commercial monetization.

3. Explore the new media layout of "Guokr"

The internal matrix of WeChat includes subscription accounts, service accounts, and mini-programs. The external matrix can be divided into four types: official website, App, pictures and text, video, and audio.

1. WeChat internal matrix

(1) Shallow search: View the main account of the "Guokr.com" public account and search for its public accounts.

(2) Related search: Search for the account owner in Tianyancha and check "Business Status" - "WeChat Public Account".

(3) Related search: By searching for the certification entity in Xinbang, you can find "19 public accounts with the same entity".

2. External Matrix

(1) Search the keyword "Guoke" on Baidu and find the platforms where Guoke has/will be based on the search results and related PR news;

(2) Refer to the ciccorporate2018 social media infographic, the Xinbang ranking platform, and the 360 ​​interactive new media navigation network information, and search for the keyword "Guokr" on major mainstream platforms to find related products.

3. New media matrix layout

After sorting out, we get the "Guokr" new media matrix layout:

Note: Red indicates key operating accounts; yellow indicates suspended operating accounts.

4. Guokr New Media Matrix System

1. Platform account building block model

1. WeChat platform

Note: The orange background indicates that the account is suspended.

It can be seen from the new matrix layout of Guokr WeChat that Guokr has built a complete service and conversion path of the trinity of "subscription account" - "service account" - "mini program" , realizing a closed loop of users reading articles - enhancing trust - having purchasing intentions - entering the mini program to purchase .

There are a total of 28 accounts in the Guokr New Media WeChat matrix, including 18 subscription accounts, 5 service accounts, and 5 mini-programs.

The WeChat subscription account has a total of 4.6 million+ users. "Guokr" is the main account, and it also has various sub-brands. According to the New List Index, the top 5 are: Species Calendar, Foodie Research Institute, Beauty is also a Skill, I am a Scientist, and Guokr Boy.

Guokr has segmented its user groups into different types and opened public accounts with different positioning, such as "Guokr Youth" for teenagers and "Beauty is also a Skill" for female users.

Guokr has segmented its content and opened up different accounts, such as the "Species Calendar" for species themes, the "Healthy 9 to 5" for health themes, and the "Foodie Research Institute" for food themes.

Guokr has also segmented its functions and opened up different accounts, such as the "Guokr Event Generator" for event public relations and traffic acquisition, and the "Guokr News Agency" for communicating with the media/partners.

Judging from the account layout, e-commerce and courses are Guokr's main ways of monetization.

2. External Platforms

Note: The orange background indicates that the account is suspended.

Guokr has a total of 25 accounts on the Weibo platform: 2 on Douban, 1 on Zhihu, 5 on Toutiao, 3 on Yidian Zixun, 2 on Huxiu, 5 on Tencent Video, 1 on Bilibili, 1 on Douyin, 5 on Xigua Video, 8 on Miaopai, 1 on Himalaya FM, and 2 on Qingting FM. Among them, the largest platforms are Weibo, Miaopai, and Douyin; the accounts of蜻蜓FM and Toutiao have ceased operations.

Weibo is the platform with the most matrix accounts outside of Guokr. The total number of fans on Weibo accounts is over 16 million, and "Guokr" is the main account. The top five sub-accounts ranked by number of fans are: Guokr Video, Rumor Crusher, Guokr Q&A, Species Calendar, and Geek Low Laugh Point. The content of accounts on the Weibo platform is mostly original. Accounts will forward and interact with each other, increasing the exposure of each account and enabling large accounts to drive traffic from small accounts.

Several commercial monetization Weibo accounts, such as "Guokr Store", "Species Calendar", and "Beauty is also a Skill", will hold lucky draws from time to time to increase fans, activate fans, and improve fan stickiness.

Toutiao, Yidian Zixun, and Huxiu platforms are mainly responsible for following up on the WeChat public account "Guokr" for content distribution, with the aim of achieving multi-channel brand exposure.

Bilibili is the first launch platform for "Guokr" video content, and most videos are released earlier than the WeChat official account.

The content of Miaopai and Douyin is original based on the attributes and tone of the video platforms.

2. "Guokr" new media matrix system

3. The logic of building the new media matrix of Guokr

(1) Phase I 2010-2011

Guokr is positioned as a vertical science media that helps scientists or popular science writers build their personal brands.

(2) The second phase: 2012-2014

With the spread of high-quality content on Guokr.com, it gradually formed brand influence and gained a group of fans. Guokr began to create community products for science enthusiasts. A large number of science enthusiasts spontaneously formed groups to establish communities named after Guokr on Baidu Tieba and Douban. Accounts such as the Heart Identification Group and the Murder Scene Forensics are operated by group members. These accounts are not officially operated, and as old users leave, some accounts have also stopped updating.

(3) The third phase: 2014 to present

Guokr.com is committed to providing users with life-related vertical services. In early 2014, two sets of mechanisms were formed within Guokr. One set of traditional businesses is run in a departmental manner, and the other is an internal incubation mechanism, where employees submit product plans to incubate accounts such as MOOC Academy, Guokr Laboratory, Guokr Space, Graduate Student, and Healthy 9 to 5. These accounts are experimental in nature, so there is a possibility that they will stop updating.

4. New media matrix operation strategy

(1) New media matrix layout

From the new media matrix system, it can be seen that "Guokr" almost covers the current mainstream platforms, but the time of entry and operation strength of each platform are different. First, enter the mainstream social platforms (Weibo, Zhihu, Douban), then extend to vertical fields and content platforms (Huxiu, Toutiao), and finally expand to audio and video platforms (Himalaya, Xigua Video, Douyin) to introduce more traffic.

(2) Functions of each matrix

Matrix within WeChat: brand building, event information, user diversion, and mini-program monetization.

External matrix: brand building, media communication.

(3) Main operating platforms

At present, the main operating platforms include WeChat and Weibo for pictures and texts, and Miaopai, Douyin, and Bilibli for videos. Except for Douyin content, which is adapted according to the platform, the picture and text content of other platforms are mostly distributed from WeChat public accounts, and the video content is mostly distributed from Biliblli.

We have deployed our presence on many platforms earlier, but as some of the platforms are not very popular at present, accounts on many platforms have ceased operations. 16 out of 24 Weibo accounts have stopped updating, and Douban, Zhihu, Toutiao, and Bilibili have also stopped updating across the board. Too many suspended accounts and multiple similar accounts registered on one platform will cause certain identification difficulties for users, affect user experience and even cause user loss.

5. New Media Matrix Operation Suggestions

1. Determination of development stage

Based on known conditions, our official account currently has hundreds of thousands of users. We can judge that the official account is currently in the growth stage of its life cycle. The current focus of work is to achieve user growth and expand brand awareness. We can start to build a new media matrix.

2. Target group needs

Determine whether there are two or more groups of users with significant differences, or whether the sub-groups with obvious characteristics exceed 20% of the total users.

3. Operational Strategy

WeChat internal matrix

If there are segmented groups, you can try to target the segmented groups by setting up sub-columns in the public account menu bar or setting different topics for the public account tweets. If the click-through rate and reading volume are ideal, you can open a sub-account, build a matrix within WeChat, segment the population, and divert traffic from the main account.

After a fixed user structure is formed, certain attempts can be made in terms of commercial monetization, such as developing a WeChat mall mini program, associating the official account with the mini program, and appropriately launching related product soft articles to divert traffic to the mini program to stimulate user payment.

External Matrix

After completing the matrix layout within WeChat, you can start to settle in the community platform Zhihu and the mainstream social platform Weibo. Build your brand image by answering relevant questions on Zhihu, and then conduct media communication and user interaction through Weibo to accumulate users.

Then it extends to vertical fields and content platforms such as Toutiao and Huxiu, distributing the content of WeChat public accounts to maximize its dissemination. Then try to expand to Douyin, a video platform that is currently in its bonus period, to bring in more traffic.

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Author: Xiaohua

Source: Xiaohua