How to do UGC operation? Sort out these 3 points!

UGC has been recognized as a way to improve product user stickiness and activity, but UGC is not enough to just put a publish button, because users may not know where to start. At this time, auxiliary operation tools are needed, such as topics.

A topic is a discussion based on a certain subject initiated by official operators or users, and it can be said that it has become the standard of UGC. Its purpose is to lay out the necessary scenarios for user UGC, reduce the user's thinking cost, and allow the user to have something to say. At the same time, it also makes UGC more focused and more in line with the product content positioning.

From a positioning perspective, topic operation is a means to promote UGC. For example, the "Evening Prayer Moment" at the end of Xin Shi Xiang's tweets, Weibo's "Super Topic", 36Kr 's "Laokrer", Douban 's "Topic Square", Douyin 's topic challenges, etc., all accumulate short and fast content, but a topic is also a small content product. Behind each topic is a complete content supply chain operation .

Topic Content Supply Chain

For a topic operation, if we systematically view the topic in the supply chain of content operation , we usually need to think about the following three questions:

1. From the perspective of content production: How to plan topics? Is it better for topics to be initiated by operators or by users? Why are users willing to participate in topics? How to stabilize the participation conversion rate of topics?
2. From the perspective of content distribution : How to expose high-quality topic content? Can it only be seen on the topic page? How to extend the life cycle of topics instead of making them disposable?
3. From the perspective of content dissemination: Is it possible for the topic to go beyond the product’s existing users and further expand the dissemination effect? How does topic marketing work? Can it be done as event marketing ?

If an operator wants to make the topic the best it can be, he must first fully think about and understand the above three questions. A successful topic must be the result of the combined effects of all links and details, not just for the sake of creating a topic.

Next, we will start from the above three questions and discuss topic operation in detail based on real-life practical cases.

1. Topic Production

1. How to create a topic?

Setting topics is actually a great test of content operation skills. Xin Shixiang has summarized a topic selection model, including: the coverage of the population must be large enough; the entry point must be precise enough; sufficient value must be provided, such as resonance and incremental information; it must have the attributes of a declaration so that others can use it as a tool for their own statements; the timing must be right, etc.

My practice method is three principles, two techniques, and one feature.

Topic selection model

• Hotspot : Golden 8 hours, make full use of hotspot traffic ;
• Low threshold : easy to use, reducing the cost of user cognition and understanding;
• Controversy : Divergent opinions can lead to emotional alignment, so a voting plug-in can be introduced at the right time (if any);
• Questioning : This can trigger the user's desire to teach others, such as Zhihu's "What do you think?" and "What is your experience?"
• Concrete : Combine scenarios with precise entry points and have substance. Take Maimai's topic "What is it like to work in a celebrity company?" as an example. The topic is about celebrity companies, which is a relatively detailed topic for company scenarios. It received 260 high-quality answers and 39,905 likes.
• Product features : the part that best matches the product and user positioning; for example, 36Kr is suitable for posting topics related to entrepreneurship and business; Maimai often posts topics related to the workplace and job hunting.

Nowadays, all products are creating topics, resulting in a high degree of topic repetition. If you want to differentiate yourself from others, operations must think one step further and consider how to create momentum, topics, and pace in addition to leveraging momentum.

"Thermos cup + wolfberry for young health-conscious people", "Buddhist youth" in Xin Shi Xiang, "Post-95s change jobs every 7 months on average" in LinkedIn, " Wu Xiaobo went to Japan to buy a toilet seat", "Middle-aged greasy man" by Feng Tang...

These topics, due to their innovative approach, fully triggered people's emotional weaknesses and aroused widespread resonance. In addition, the linkage of traffic from Weibo and WeChat caused a national climax at one time and triggered a phenomenal level of heated discussion on the topics.

2. Who will produce the topics?

User-generated topics will expand the threshold for topic selection, improve topic production efficiency, and be more interactive, thereby increasing participation in the topic.

A typical example is the topic host on Sina Weibo . Users can become a topic host by posting first or applying. Accordingly, the host has the authority to edit, pin, add to hot topics, block, add applications (voting, lucky draw, activities), etc. The official operation of Weibo will also organize incentive activities from time to time. Super topic hosts can also apply for Orange V certification.

Therefore, allowing users to create their own topics requires relatively complex system product planning and operational intervention. Whether or not to create UGC topics should be considered comprehensively based on the size of resources and the input-output ratio.

Weibo topic host

When users initiate topics, it is easy to confuse them with the dynamic function, so more products directly use "post dynamics" instead of "initiate a topic". Currently, the topic production of most products is mainly based on PGC and operational operations, which is also the focus of discussion in this article.

3. How to improve or stabilize the participation conversion rate of topics?

The first is operational guidance, including guiding copywriting and post pre-embedding; topic copywriting should constitute incremental information for the topic itself, and appropriately combined with the scene, it can enable people to have a further desire to express themselves on the topic; (vest) posts are pre-embedded, and high-quality posts are used as demonstrations.

The second is motivation, which includes four types of motivation: feedback, traffic, honor, and material. Motivation generally involves both spiritual and material use.

In terms of spirit, there will be an instant feedback mechanism for participating users, including likes, comments, collections, selections, and pinning at the product level. The richer the better, and the friendliness of the interactive design will be continuously improved. For users who produce high-quality content, the weight will be increased in the product sorting mechanism, giving high-quality content greater traffic exposure and encouraging user interaction. Honor incentives include virtual titles and celebrity titles; material incentives include prizes and points.

After topic selection, copywriting and operational guidance, a topic is launched online. As soon as the topic goes online, the diligent operation girl or boy will use recommended positions and other means to get initial traffic to the topic, and then users will gradually participate in producing content.

However, if the user's UGC only stays on the topic page, the number of users that can be reached will be limited by the exposure traffic of the topic. All the interactive feedback we expect, such as likes and comments, will be reduced, which is not conducive to motivating content producers. How to integrate topic content with product content instead of leaving it alone on the topic page involves the distribution of topics.

2. Topic Distribution

As a tool to promote UGC, topics usually should have a core content scenario in addition to UGC, such as an information flow (either on the home page or non-home page). If there is such a content scenario, high-quality topic UGC will get an ideal distribution pool. If not, the operation can only reach interested users through targeted push, but it also lacks a richer distribution method for topics. It is necessary to push the product to improve the core scenario.

Content distribution mechanism of topics

1. Topic content becomes the basic content unit of the product

The content generated by a topic should not only be deposited on the topic page, but also need to be connected with the core scenarios of the product, so that the high-quality content generated by users in topic interactions can become the basic content unit in the product. This is not only an incentive for content producers, but also meets the content needs of the product, realizes the sedimentation of high-quality UGC content, and lays the foundation for the atmosphere.

For example, the content of a Weibo topic page can also be displayed in the information flow, and can be seen in searches and personal homepages, forming a complete closed loop.

Of course, it is not just topics that "transfuse blood" to basic content units. If you want to leverage the traffic of core content units to further increase the participation in the topic, you can also advance the content production path of the topic. For example, when publishing a dynamic, you can add a related topic (theme)

You can choose to add topics when publishing content

In addition to the topic content itself, many products are also increasing the display priority of topic content comments, such as displaying some comments (immediately "hot comments" and Pipixia "god comments") on the recommended information flow content page, which becomes an incentive for user interaction.

2. Topics become content recommendation mechanisms, extending the life cycle of topics

The nature of many hot topics is similar to short-term activities. When the activity starts, the number of product content will increase, and will fall back once the activity ends. If it is a hot topic, there is no problem, but if all topics are disposable, it will not be conducive to the normal stability of product content data, and it will also be a waste of operational manpower.

Topics should pay attention to the reusability of content, cultivate user consumption, and complete a content sedimentation and recommendation mechanism to ensure continuous consumption and participation in the topic. There are several common practices for using topics as a content recommendation mechanism in products:

• Personalized recommendation : Establish a topic attention mechanism and realize the distribution of new content based on the topic of attention;
• Hot recommendations : Machine recommendations are made through topic popularity rankings , etc.
• Related recommendations : mutual recommendations between history-related topics;

Three different recommendation methods

After a topic has gone through the key processes of production and distribution, its mission of promoting UGC is generally almost accomplished. However, as a diligent operation lady or brother, they are also keen on self-abuse thinking: In addition to driving data within the site, can the topic further expand the dissemination effect and generate residual heat value (such as attracting new users and registrations)?

3. Topic Marketing

The hot searches and super topics on Weibo are being refreshed every day. In addition to natural fermentation, of course, there are "behind-the-scenes promoters". Topics have become a regular component of marketing campaigns , with the aim of leveraging the activity of social media to attract user attention and spread the word.

Operations can also try to do some off-site topic marketing on the premise that they have done a good job of increasing the data within the product and have enough energy, but they should avoid the value calculation of "only looking at the volume, not asking about conversion". Instead, they should make the off-site data look good and feed back to the product itself.

1. Integrated output of high-quality UGC

User UGC is the best content marketing . High-quality UGC, especially those with unique ideas, is a treasure trove for community operations. In addition to the product-level recommendation mechanism, operations can also manually complete content integration and secondary distribution (Weibo, Douyin, and Zhihu) to precipitate high-quality content brands , such as NetEase News ' series of "reply planning" and Zhihu's "Zhihu Daily".

2. Event marketing: innovative ideas and emotional appeal

Event marketing is to package a topic into an event to maximize the influence of the topic. A hotly debated topic among the public before was "Chinese Koi".

Alipay 's Chinese Koi was an extremely successful marketing campaign. From a data perspective, a single Weibo post from Alipay was forwarded over 1 million times in 6 hours, with a total of over 200 million views and over 2 million forwards . It is said to have broken the Weibo forwarding volume and forwarding speed records. So, how did this Alipay campaign become so popular?

Alipay Koi Weibo

• Topic : "Chinese Koi" is a highly contagious topic, and Yang Chaoyue's popularity has been a big factor.
• Prizes : A breathtaking list of luxurious gifts and long pictures of prizes, which are themselves a topic of conversation;
• Momentum-building point : The extremely low probability of winning is 1 in 3 million, which can whet users' appetite;
• How to play : In addition to the Weibo lucky draw, we also designed a random free order from overseas. Posting your order can increase your chances of winning.
• Mutual traffic : WeChat (14 million followers), Weibo (100,000+ views), 200+ Blue V linkage;
• Secondary dissemination: Xin Xiaodai exposed the interview, Li Xian reposted it, big Vs reposted it together, and brands followed suit;

WeChat, Weibo and Blue V work together to ensure the start of traffic. Topics, prizes and probabilities create momentum to stimulate users to forward. Posting orders in Moments occupies WeChat private domain traffic. After the results are announced, there is interaction with Xin Xiaodai’s Weibo. The participation of big Vs maximizes users’ curiosity and worship of koi, stimulates user discussion, and one thing leads to another, all working together to create a national topic, creating momentum for Alipay’s “overseas payment”. The koi event will also become Alipay’s annual IP event like “Collecting Five Blessings”.

Event marketing requires that topic operators have a certain level of insight and sensitivity into the social hot spots and the evolution of public sentiment around them, and be good at capturing signs and developing associations, in order to have a chance to create a hot topic.

3. Cross-border marketing: brand linkage, precise matching

The topic of Alipay is itself a cross-border marketing, but everyone's attention is mainly on Alipay and the "lucky fish" Xin Xiaodai, and because there are too many merchants, not many of them are remembered.

The essence of cross-border marketing is actually the exchange of resources and complementary advantages between brands with similar user portraits .

Most Internet brands are purely online products, so it is inevitable that they will be metaphysical when doing marketing. At this time, they can use their own traffic advantages to cooperate with traditional brands with physical attributes (fast-moving consumer goods, fitness, beauty, bars, etc.) to do marketing, which will be more concrete, down-to-earth and more effective.

For example, Moji Weather has cooperated with Sprite and McDonald's to hold the "35℃ Plan" event for four consecutive years. The way to play is that during the two hot months in summer, users can receive a redemption code through the Moji Weather App and redeem a bottle of Sprite for free at an offline McDonald's store.

According to public data, the #35℃计划# Weibo topic once ranked fourth on the Weibo overall list and first on the social list, with a total reading volume of over 100 million. During the Moji Weather event, 34% of the new users came from offline activities .

In cross-border marketing like this, the topic becomes a booster for the effectiveness of the event, which not only has the effect of market promotion, but also achieves the desired conversion of the operation, and the cost is controllable. It is indeed a model.

at last

The essence of a topic is UGC, and its product value is to increase the quantity, quality, and interaction of UGC, thereby driving user stickiness and retention . Generally, it is already very good for operators to achieve this step. Distribution is more of a product-level matter, but if we can try to combine topic marketing to bring new customers and registration conversions to the product, is it also an actionable direction?

Going back to what I said at the beginning, topic operations can be big or small, simple or complex, and different operation methods will bring different degrees of effects and value.

Source: Gao Lele