How to operate a content topic and confirm the promotion channels?

A small content topic basically has the following steps.

1. Determine the theme and expression method

1. Confirm the topic

Prepare:

Understand what content you have, what its characteristics are, and what thematic topics it can be grouped into. In other words, what topics do you want to create and what kind of content support them?

example:

Taking the short video function that our company opened in a single city as an example, the number of experts and the number and total categories of high-quality videos were relatively small. If we pick them all together, the only ones that could be made into a small special topic (more than 4 videos) were singing and musical instruments, and the quality was not as good as that of existing short video giants.

The situation is like this at the video level, and the situation at the expert level is not good either. The only common feature that can be extracted is their appearance. Therefore, with this configuration, it is impossible to create any theme.

Now that it is fully open, the number of videos has increased, and various "abilities" have been gradually introduced, such as cut flowers, divination, B-Box, spray painting, and even equestrianism, tennis, etc. After good classification and labeling, there will be no worries about basic resources when producing the same topic content in the future.

Set the theme:

Generally, you can identify multiple alternatives for a topic, either for your supervisor to finalize or to keep for next use.

2. Confirm the display method

Prepare:

What channels /resources do you have to present such topics? What are the characteristics of such channels/resources and what kind of assistance do they need?

example:

In fact, the entrances/resources that can be used are generally divided into internal/external.

Taking our short video/expert section as an example, it had its own entrance in the early stage, but there was no special recommendation page. If we want to add a new special recommendation page, we need to mobilize various departments such as product, R&D, and design. In this way, not to mention whether there are resources, the process will be very long. Therefore, we chose external undertaking and internal entrance, that is, the form of third-party H5+ platform advertising space . If the later data is formally presented in the form of a special topic and helps to obtain high-quality videos or increase KPIs such as retention , it will not be too late to move on to product development.

Since you have chosen a third-party H5 platform, you need to understand the functions and features of such a platform, which ones meet your needs and which ones do not.

For example, I hope that users will like the video after watching it in the content topic, so that we can understand the user’s preference for the video through the user’s likes. However, the like function of the third-party H5 platform has poor designability, and the undesigned appearance does not conform to the style of the platform, so this idea was gradually abandoned.

For another example, I hope to make a bottom floating layer in H5 (a panel that always appears at the bottom and is not affected by sliding the screen) to guide users to click and jump. However, after testing, I found that although the H5 platform used can make a bottom floating layer, it cannot adapt to the screen size. As a result, the floating layer displayed on some mobile phones is not close to the bottom. The effect is very ugly, so I gave up this idea.

Therefore, with such limited resources, you either have to find a third-party service that meets your requirements, or you have to give up some ideas and constantly adapt your ideas to existing tools .

Confirmation method:

It adopts the form of external H5+ platform advertising exposure.

2. Confirm the promotion channels and production materials

Note: Some of the following steps are performed alternately or simultaneously. The arrangement of 1, 2, 3 is not the working order.

1. Create an activity prototype

Making activity prototypes is, on the one hand, for the purpose of helping designers better understand what operations require, and on the other hand, it is also a good way to sort out activities and clarify what materials you need.

I usually use Axure to do it and simply draw a prototype.

As shown below:

However, if you want to submit it to the design department, you must fill in the copywriting for all places (of course, you can also let the designer do the pattern and color design first, and then fill in the copywriting later, which depends on the cooperation between departments of the company), and it is best to provide relevant design references.

2. Confirm the materials that content producers need to provide and contact them to obtain them

After confirming the materials that content producers need to provide, clear requirements and composition guidance for the materials should be output and handed over to relevant persons in charge as soon as possible and supervised for implementation.

Still taking the short video/expert topic as an example, when I was making the prototype above, I found that the activity required an expert’s video, and a photo of the expert as the cover of the video, and perhaps a self-introduction of the expert. At this time, it is necessary to sort out the needs clearly as soon as possible and give them to the relevant person in charge.

What if the requirements are not clear?

If the video you found was shot vertically, but the cover photo was shot horizontally, you will need to communicate back and forth to get the vertical photo.

For example, if you need an expert to introduce himself, should it be a sentence or a paragraph? Is there a word limit? What content needs to be reflected?

These questions will be the questions that the relevant person in charge will ask the recipient, so in order to avoid wasting time on back and forth communication, it is necessary to write clear and specific requirements and composition guidelines.

In addition, it is necessary to let the relevant person in charge to obtain materials as early as possible. This is because the influencers are not employees of the company and the time they take to provide materials varies. Therefore, relevant requirements must be put forward to the influencers as early as possible to avoid delays in the project due to their procrastination.

3. Confirm the promotion channels, promotion time and required materials

Confirm which channels can be promoted, when and for how long, what specifications of materials are required, what procedures are required, and are there any restrictions?

Why do we need to confirm the promotion channels?

• First of all, if a special topic is created but there is no exposure, no one will read it, and it will be a waste of time.
• Then, different promotion channels will bring different exposures . Naturally, more people will apply to use channels with large exposures, so scheduling may be required.
• In addition, different promotion channels may have different requirements for materials. For example, the banner on the homepage may be 3:4, and the banner at the bottom may be 3:1 (the data is randomly made up). In addition to the different sizes, the requirements for copywriting may also be different, depending on the specific channel. For example, a text message can contain 60 characters, while a push message can only contain 17 characters.
• At the same time, it is also necessary to consider that different channels have different restrictions. For example, some channels can be targeted at certain cities and users, while other channels cannot. If the promoted content is not available in some cities but is pushed on all channels, big problems will arise.
• Different channels may have different procedures, and different procedures will involve different personnel and different application times, all of which need to be understood clearly.

4. Submit design application for all materials that need to be designed

Submit design applications for materials required for launch (H5, banner and other channel advertising placements), and supervise and follow up on the completion of the design.

Likewise, there are some points to note:

• Is there a current design schedule? If so, can my design requirements be delivered on time?
• Provide design style references based on content and topic requirements to designers.
• Communicate face to face in real time to avoid designers misunderstanding prototype requirements.

Confirming the design schedule is as important as confirming the channel schedule, which directly affects the time of the project's launch. Of course, if it is an urgent project and it is attracting much attention, you can coordinate with multiple parties to jump the queue, but in general, the schedule should prevail.

It is also very important to provide the designer with a reference for the design style of the content topic, because the prototype is just a cold line drawing. At the same time, the designer may not be clear about the overall style you need, or the style expressed by the design in the copy you wrote is inconsistent with your understanding, which will produce different design presentations. Design is an important factor that affects whether a picture can be noticed by users and generate the desire to click, so you must pay more attention to it. Directly giving the designer your style requirements is the easiest way (of course, it also depends on whether the designer can create that style).

Communicate more with the designer and look at the interim design results more often to avoid having to use the final product which is not satisfactory due to lack of time. When dealing with designers, the more you both work together, the more likely they are to understand what your prototype is trying to convey.

3. Going Online

1. Material integration and testing

The characteristic of H5 is that elements can be superimposed. So after getting the design draft from the designer, you still need to integrate the different elements.

Take the short video/expert content topic as an example. I need to integrate the jump button, video, related pop-up window (if any), etc. into an H5, and adjust the button display (size, text, border, color, etc.) to make it consistent with the design of the H5.

For example, if there is a form in H5 (a function where users fill in information and submit it), I need to set the prompt language of the form (such as the gray text in the box for filling in the mobile phone number reminding "Please fill in your mobile phone number") and the prompt language after submission (such as "Thank you for your participation", etc.).

After completion, you can test it on WeChat or other ports that can open H5 to check if there are any text or jump errors.

2. Notify relevant departments to launch and test

If the promotion channels are in the hands of other departments, give the materials to the relevant departments in a timely manner and remind them to go online. It would be best if you can test the effect before going online. If not, you must check and test more after going online to see if there are any problems.

The reason for testing is that the channel environment such as WeChat may be different from the app environment, and different environments may have certain bugs and/or limitations. For example, I once encountered a situation where the video in H5 could not be opened in the iOS version of the app. I have also tried adding links but they do not work within the site (i.e. in the app).

3. Testing and Adjustment

This step is actually between the above two steps. Just test and adjust quickly through multiple channels as much as possible before and after going online.

4. Data Tracking and Review

Just say a few words.

Data:

• The data funnel that allows you to observe the process by which users come into contact with a topic.
• You can view the data of different channels ( click-through rate, click volume , etc.).
• You can observe the key points of the data based on the goals set in advance. If my goal is to increase the influencer's followers, then I will look at the changes in the influencer's followers before and after the launch and the number of button clicks from the topic page to the influencer's homepage.

Review:

• What goals were originally set to be achieved, and have they been achieved? Why? What made it happen/not happen?
• What problem did you encounter? Why does this problem occur? Has it been resolved? How to avoid it next time?

at last

The above steps are based only on my experience and may not be applicable to companies with different activity scales, company sizes, and resource scales, so please treat them with caution.

My advice is that when starting a project from scratch, reserve as much time as possible, think about the next step as much as possible, and test as early as possible, so that you have time to fill in the pitfalls you have encountered.

Then I will introduce my first article to you, which should be a slightly advanced version of this one "Regarding the content topic, here is an operation plan from 0 to 1". I will also talk about Gantt charts, some definitions of terms, commonly used tools, etc. You are welcome to come and give guidance.

I am currently working on product operations , so I will produce articles related to product operations later. I also plan to write about the practice of planning a small event , as well as the ins and outs of planning a UGC event that lasts for 7 months and costs tens of thousands of yuan per month. In order to present the following articles more clearly to everyone, I hope everyone can comment below for suggestions on the structure and content of my articles~~~~