A guide to operating short videos on food “restaurant exploration”!

Open the current short video platforms, in addition to plot accounts, editing accounts, and popular science accounts, they are increasingly filled with food exploration accounts.

In the first month that Douyin is about to enter the food industry, we think it is necessary to explain it to everyone in the category of Douyin store exploration accounts.

In this article, the cases we are going to share will include but are not limited to food and lifestyle store visits, and we will fully explain the logic of account creation, production, and monetization.

1. How to choose the type that suits you

First of all, the first question for everyone is how to choose the account type that suits you, whether to do food exploration or mystery exploration.

The food store exploration category, as the name suggests, mainly focuses on the "store" level; while the secret exploration category, on the other hand, focuses on privately hidden foods, treasured foods, street corner snacks and other dimensions, and will be more niche.

In this primary choice, the first reference is still your own interests, that is, choose the dimension that interests you more.

The second reference point is how much you are willing to accept being on camera. If you only focus on integrated accounts and want to avoid being on camera as much as possible, then try to choose types other than store visits, that is, the exploration type mentioned earlier, or leave the food field and create a life and entertainment account.

Because if you are more inclined to create an account that explores food restaurants, the probability of you needing to appear on camera will be higher.

The third reference point is which aspect your own resources are more inclined towards. If there are more food-related business resources, then it is definitely more advantageous to choose a food exploration account.

If your advantage is that you are familiar with the entire city or a certain area, you can do food exploration.

We have introduced several major reference points when making a choice. Next, we will introduce the types of store exploration accounts.

1. Pictures + Music

This is the simplest way to make a short video. It only requires some pictures of the business and a few simple words. Even additional dubbing is not needed. Just add music to complete the output of the work.

However, this type of video is actually difficult to bring about conversions, so for short video bloggers, there is no point in making it; for businesses, it will not produce any conversion effects.

So we don’t recommend you to choose this method.

2. Video + Dubbing

This is a relatively common form of store exploration video.

This kind of short video is usually shot from a personal perspective, and the content includes the store environment, service status, and the variety and quality of services and dishes.

Then in post-production, these materials will be fine-edited, usually into a length of 30 seconds or 1 minute, and then added with magical dubbing and catchy music or melody.

3. Video recording of people appearing in the video

This is the most effective form of store exploration short video, which can bring the greatest sense of reality and immersion to the audience.

Because the criteria for judging whether a food is delicious or attractive are nothing more than two dimensions, namely taste and vision.

In terms of taste, since the real food is separated from the audience by the screen, the audience can only judge based on vision.

A good food exploration video must be composed of the visual form of the dishes and the real feelings of the short video blogger.

And from the perspective of trust, videos shot by real people during travel are definitely more convincing than any other form of short videos.

2. How to create an account

1. Account nickname introduction

The nickname of a food exploration account is actually the first step in attracting traffic to the account.

As shown in the picture, taking Zhengzhou as an example, as long as you type words related to "Zhengzhou food, drink and fun" in the Douyin search box, you can search out a large number of food exploration accounts.

It can be observed that these accounts all have one characteristic when naming, that is, "place name + action".

On this page, "Zhengzhou Foodie King" has the highest number of fans, even reaching over 1 million.

So in this small point, the technique we want to summarize for everyone is that we should learn to make good use of the naming method of "place name + action".

In addition, if you want to mainly attract a specific type of people, you can try the naming method of the last account in the picture above: "place name + type/group of people + action".

For example, the nickname could be named "Hangzhou Youth Food Gathering Place", "Zhengzhou University Students' Treasure Food", etc.

2. Account personality and positioning

The significance of establishing a personality and positioning is whether to attract a specific group of people as fans of the account.

When the character is established as a lively and sharing person, the copywriting and video style should be closer to the tone of young people; when the character is a wise food and health person, the copywriting and video style need to have some depth.

In the specific shooting or topic selection process, if it is a popular store, or a store where young people are the main consumer group, then it is necessary to show more lively and cheerful characteristics in the character setting.

For example, when using Internet slang or speaking tone, you can adopt more styles that young people like. Such as "yyds, it’s so delicious, crazy recommendation" and so on.

If it is a high-end store, then under the wise, calm and cool personality, it is necessary to provide professional explanations, such as explaining the ingredients and components clearly.

3. Content positioning

Content positioning mainly refers to what aspects of the content that is usually filmed. For example, should it focus more on new stores or more on high-end restaurants.

Different content positioning is not only about different shooting subjects, but also about the difference in the number of viewers and fans attracted.

Here we would like to share a little tip with everyone. With the current audience of short video platforms, it will be faster to increase your followers if you shoot universal and popular content.

4. Execution

a. Equipment selection

In terms of equipment selection, you can choose a mobile phone or a mirrorless camera, a stabilizer, and a fill light if possible.

b. Account maintenance

If possible, use the account normally for a few days before starting to publish works. But even if you don’t use it in advance, it’s actually harmless to publish the content directly. After all, the quality of content is the primary criterion for judging a work.

c. How to communicate

When looking for merchants to cooperate with, you should let the merchants know in advance the benefits they can obtain in your sales pitch.

For example, "Hello, we are an account for exploring restaurants and food. We would like to help you promote your store for free to increase your popularity and customer flow. However, we need your cooperation in providing dishes or benefits. For example, you can give a certain discount to my fans when they go to eat."

Generally speaking, merchants who communicate in this way or have some knowledge of shooting store exploration videos will be willing to cooperate with the shooting.

However, you may also encounter merchants who are unwilling to provide dishes, and then the short video blogger needs to make his own judgment.

If photographing this store can bring better fans to your own account, you can do paid photography.

d. How to shoot

Before shooting, you must first confirm with your boss the promotional points or fixed lines that need to be embedded in the video.

For example, discount information, address information, package information, etc.

After communicating all the above, try to develop a process outline before shooting, such as what needs to be introduced when walking to a certain location in the store.

After these processes are determined, when shooting specific food, it all depends on the professionalism of the people involved. For example, how to describe the food and service of a store.

e. How to edit

Generally speaking, Jianying is enough for editing Tik Tok works. Moreover, this kind of store exploration video does not require the use of special effects. So using Jianying is actually enough.

Regarding the specific use of Jianying, there are a large number of professional tutorials that you can search and learn.

f. Preparation of copywriting

I would like to give you two suggestions regarding copywriting.

Try to watch how other types of bloggers write video copy.

For example, the account in the picture above mentioned in the video copy that "the 108 yuan set meal was so expensive that two people couldn't finish it..."

Generally speaking, this kind of copywriting will be liked by viewers who watch short videos, and it is also liked by merchants.

In addition, the copywriting information about such interest points or selling points must be placed at the beginning of the video so that the audience can know the information about the discount as quickly as possible.

Be good at adding topics to the text content of the video.

Taking the above picture as an example, the author added four titles in the content copy.

Among them are #FoodiePlayers, #Tik Tok Heart-beating Restaurant, #Hangzhou Food, and #Tea Restaurant.

Corresponding considerations and optimizations have been made from the perspective of official activities and in order to closely follow users' active keyword searches.

e. About delivery

In addition to attracting audiences with the quality of content, every short video, if released appropriately and reasonably, can also help all data to reach a higher level.

You can place the ads yourself or ask a merchant to place the ads.

If you want to release it yourself, you can choose some videos that have the potential to become a big hit, and release them in batches with small amounts. In terms of geographical location, you can choose to deliver it within 5 kilometers or 10 kilometers.

If the merchant places an order, you can communicate with the merchant directly. You can explain the potential of the video to merchants, so that they understand that choosing to put the video on the shelves will make more people aware of the store and bring in more objective customers.

Generally speaking, faced with such considerable profits, most businesses will still choose to invest.

3. How to realize

In fact, accounts that promote local food restaurants can be monetized very quickly. As long as they have initial fans and playback volume, businesses will actively approach them for cooperation.

1. Single cooperation reward

This is one of the common ways to monetize. The specific method is that after reaching a cooperation agreement with the merchant, the merchant pays a certain amount of remuneration to the short video blogger.

The specific amount depends on the geographical location and the size of the merchant. For example, in first-tier cities or new first-tier cities, the remuneration may be higher.

2. Rewards

This method is to agree on a verbal code with the merchant when reaching a cooperation. The most common one is the name of the short video blogger.

When consumers visit the store to consume, the merchant will give them surprise dishes or discounts.

All such orders will be given as commissions to short video bloggers in a certain percentage.

3. Fixed amount + commission

This mode is a combination of the above two methods, so I will not go into details.

IV. Conclusion

While Douyin’s local business is still booming, it may be a good choice to create a store exploration account.

Although there are already many store exploration accounts in first-tier cities, there are still many opportunities in some second- and third-tier cities.

Although the remuneration for a single cooperation may not be as high as that in first-tier cities, small cities can negotiate multiple cooperations, or operate two accounts at a time and take on as many cooperations as possible.

Author: Wanghong Toutiao Founder: Dawei

Source: WeChat Official Account: Internet Celebrity Headlines