The “unspoken rules” of short video operation and creation!

With the development of the economy, people's pursuit of material things is gradually satisfied, and people pay more and more attention to entertainment.

Short videos are one of the ways people entertain themselves. How short videos provide entertainment to people and what kind of short videos will be more popular among people are the main topics of discussion in this article.

The main logic of this article is as follows:

1. The logic behind entertainment selection

With the development of the economy, people are paying more and more attention to entertainment while their material needs are being met. Choosing one of the many forms of entertainment is a selection process. When it comes to choices, people consider utility and cost, and these two factors are what influence the choice.

Most people understand the concept of cost, while utility refers to the ability to satisfy consumers' desires. When making choices, people generally choose the option that provides the greatest utility within the cost of their budget.

Analyzing various entertainment activities, in addition to the opportunity cost of other entertainments, for offline activities, the costs include time and amount; for online activities, the costs are only time and traffic.

Users have already decided to entertain themselves, so time must be spent. Compared with offline activities, online activities are still cheaper because there is basically no need for other consumption except traffic.

As a form of online entertainment, short videos have low costs. If consumers can obtain higher utility from short videos than from other online activities, the number of users who choose short videos as a form of entertainment will increase. Therefore, if short videos want to attract more users, they must make consumers feel the "great effectiveness of short videos" from the bottom of their hearts.

The model of short videos is UGC (User Generated Content) [1], where content producers create works and content consumers watch them.

Both gain utility through short videos. Content consumers watch short videos and gain utility through the information conveyed by the short videos. They will judge whether they like the work based on the amount of utility they gain, and this degree of liking is the utility gained by the content creator. Therefore, content creators will try their best to allow consumers to obtain greater benefits, which results in some attributes that high-quality short videos possess.

2. The “unspoken rules” of high-quality short videos

1. Segmentation will be required for different demands

The reason why consumers use short video software is because short videos can meet certain needs of consumers. This is the same reason why consumers consume traditional goods.

In the consumption process of traditional commodities, different users have different demands. When making commodity selection decisions, consumers will make commodity selections based on their own needs. Users who choose the same commodity may have different demands. If a product has an obvious feature that happens to meet the needs of users, then the probability of users choosing this product will greatly increase. On the contrary, a product that is good in every aspect but lacks key features will not be as popular.

This situation is very common around us. For example, shampoo manufacturers and toothpaste manufacturers will launch products to meet different needs. The same is true in the field of short videos. A work that is good in all aspects is not as popular as a work that has obvious characteristics but is average in other aspects.

Therefore, after content creators determine the theme of their work, they must ensure that the theme covers a small scope, the content is of high quality, and that it is close to the demands of consumers. The idea behind this is to give up the idea of ​​capturing all users and only capture users within the target range.

2. Strive to fit the perception of most consumers

If we disassemble a short video, it can be divided into the following forms:

The essence of short videos is still information transmission. After clicking on a video, the eyes, ears and brain need to work together to process the information. When consumers browse content, their eyes and ears receive information and transmit it to the brain, which processes the information. After the brain receives information, it will process it based on the consumer's life experience, behavior and cognition from childhood to adulthood.

Since everyone's growth environment is different, the conclusions drawn are also different. Therefore, when content creators create short videos, since the delivery media are lines, BGM and pictures, these three points should try to fit the common cognition of most consumers, so that as many consumers as possible can receive what the content creator wants to express. This is the basis of a video content.

3. Pay attention to consumers’ sensory experience

Short videos should not only pay attention to consumers' cognition, but also pay attention to consumers' sensory experience.

The cover and title are the first things consumers see. Taking the Kuaishou APP page as an example, Kuaishou uses a two-column format to display videos. Users can initially screen videos based on the cover and title and choose the content they want to watch. Therefore, it is most appropriate to choose the cover and title that are closest to the theme of the video and the pictures and words that are most appropriate.

Of course, when we watch short videos in our daily lives, we will also encounter some "title parties" or "cover parties", which are also examples of successfully grasping the cover and title. However, the "title/cover party" routine will make consumers feel "deceived" and the viewing effect is not good.

Good lines should be clear, fluent, without any noise, spoken naturally, with emotion in the lines and attention paid to the intonation. The main purpose of BGM is to create an atmosphere and allow consumers to further feel the theme that the content producer wants to express. In the auditory information conveyed by short videos, the lines and BGM coordinate and complement each other, giving users a good auditory experience.

The picture needs to pay attention to the beauty of the picture, the characters' movements, the information conveyed by their expressions, the environment, and the coordination between the characters and the plot. Visual and auditory content are selected by content creators based on the theme of the video, but the selection principle is that it needs to be consistent with the cognition of most consumers.

Some grassroots content creators do not realize the need to establish a connection between video content and public perception, so the platform will also assist content creators and provide suggestions for their works. For example, the platform will set up a group to help content creators improve their creative abilities, guide low-level content creators on how to create better, and have operations give suggestions to content creators to help them pay attention to small points such as consumer cognition and sensory experience.

4. Pay attention to group influence

Humans are group animals, and their behavior will be influenced by the group. Consumers will also be influenced by the group when consuming short videos.

For example, the short video "Human High-Quality Male" that went viral some time ago. Analyzing the reasons behind the phenomenon, it was initially popular because people born in the 90s faced difficulties in blind dating and finding a partner. Not only were they urged by their relatives at home, but they were also hindered by realistic conditions, betrothal gifts and other difficulties. At the same time, users in this age group are also the main force of Internet surfing. They face difficulties and have a lot of grievances in their hearts that they want to vent. At this time, the "Human High Quality Male" video appeared, providing an outlet for all emotions.

It became popular later on because this meme suddenly became popular, attracting more people to pay attention to related content, comment, like, etc., which also added fuel to the fire for this topic to become a hot spot. Because of the sudden emergence of the meme, I have something to talk about when others talk about it. I don’t want to be called an “outman” by others, so I will pay attention to it. This is the influence of the group.

What can be affected by the group is not only the creation of new memes, but also social hot issues, celebrity gossip, etc. Because there are many people paying attention, it will attract more people to pay attention. Therefore, when content creators create videos, there will be an operation of "riding on the hot spot".

5. Network Externalities

The definition of network externalities is that the value of connecting to a network depends on the number of other people who are already connected to that network [2]. That is, the utility each user obtains from using a product is positively correlated to the total number of users. When a content creator’s number of fans reaches a certain scale, he will also have network externalities.

For example, when a content creator with a large number of fans produces a work, it will receive more likes and comments, and fans will interact more with the work, which will also drive interaction between fans. During the interaction process, consumers may generate new emotional value because of similar viewpoints and interesting ideas. In this way, the utility consumers get from this product is much higher than other works, which will attract more consumers to watch.

Conclusion

Consumers use short video software because they believe that short videos can bring higher utility. The quality of a short video lies in whether it can deliver higher utility.

If you want to create an excellent short video, you must first determine the theme. When determining the theme, you can also combine group effects and life tone. You must determine a detailed theme based on a certain need. Next, you should try to fit in with people’s common cognition, so that consumers can get the information you want to convey from the short video, while providing consumers with a good sensory experience, maximizing the utility of the delivery, and also bringing benefits to content creators.

These details are the "unspoken rules" of excellent short videos.

Author:Levii

Source: Levii