How to create content that goes viral on WeChat Moments? Be logical!

You are interested in content operation , you can express your feelings fluently and your writing is full of imagination. Do you want to do content operation ?

Excuse me. To do content management, you also need some logic.

What is logic? Logic is the key to understanding the world and guides our cognition and understanding.

There are four points in the logic of content operation: the logic of topic selection, the logic of material collection, the logic of copywriting , and the logic of display.

1. The logic of topic selection

Whether it is App operation , community operation or public account operation, PGC or UGC , no matter what the content is, we must first derive from the five structures to determine the final output.

1. Strategic level.

From a user experience perspective, the strategic layer is your roots. Why produce this content? Who to see? What is the theme? It all has to be clear at the beginning. The most taboo in content operation is divergence. Once divergence occurs, it will be like a snowball, and it will be unstoppable and eventually go astray.

1. Scope layer.

After the strategic layer is determined, it is necessary to determine the scope of the materials and then make choices from them. If you don't make choices about the materials, it will lead to chaos and you will be faced with a mess and not know how to put it together.

1. Structural layer.

How should the materials be placed and how should the content be composed? What is the beginning, how do you plan to set the stage, how do you plan to turn things around and end? This is the structural layer of the content.

1. Framework layer.

Taking public account articles as an example, many articles now have similar beginning and ending styles, and there are also requirements for text format. Each section and paragraph has some styles. Therefore, the format and spatial position of these text materials must be unified before creation. The framework layer determines what action the user takes when they see something. For example, the location of the QR code and follow button.

1. Presentation layer.

The presentation layer refers to the final presentation of the content, such as text.

If it is the content operation of an App product, then the first thing to do is to understand what the goal of the product is and what the purpose of users using the product is? You must have a very good understanding of the user's tone and content atmosphere before considering content selection.

For example, if you create a forum for car owners, the content of the discussion should be related to cars. If irrelevant social hot topics appear one day, most users will be furious: "You want us to discuss this topic? What does this have to do with cars?"

Before you start content operations, you need to understand what kind of seeds you want to plant in users’ minds and what kind of views you want users to have about your product.

Next, start creating content. Why write this article? Who is it written for? What is the theme? The same goes for columns. Why do we set up this column? Is it for commercial needs? Or do we need to solve the lack of a certain type of content on the content platform? Or is it to guide users to post articles like this?

To answer these questions, you have to understand your user base. In this matter, we must be specific, specific, and specific again. For example, a woman around 30 years old in a first- or second-tier city. This definition alone is not vivid enough. You must think of users as people around you, such as a friend, a 30-40 year old male civil servant working in a third- or fourth-tier city. Try to think of a specific person who fits this persona . It is important to understand that this article is written for this user portrait.

Once you have a concrete image, many choices will become clearer. We will feel like we are in the situation: he will definitely feel disgusted when he hears these words; or she is not suitable for watching this kind of thing. We make judgments more quickly, and thus have clearer themes and purposes.

What kind of articles are contagious? People prefer to listen to stories rather than concepts. Nowadays, when creating content, people like to set up a character, and then describe what happens, what problems they encounter, and how they solve them. From the perspective of communication, if one wants to spread and judge values, vivid individual stories are much easier to spread than simple output of values.

Vivid individual stories, combined with a subtle appeal to user psychology, can make an article a hit. What psychology does “Wolf Warrior 2” appeal to among users? Everyone thinks that the country is strong, but people generally don’t talk about it. And the story needs to express: our country has become strong. "Wolf Warrior 2" is a match that ignited the fire in users' hearts, so it exploded. Every story is just a match. Once it coincides with the user's psychology and the user feels that you are telling their story, they will help you spread it.

2. The logic of collecting materials

What kind of story is a good story? Encountered difficulties, overcame them, and achieved results. Just like playing games , the pleasure of devoting yourself to overcoming difficulties is far greater than the pleasure of winning the game.

Readers need good content and real stories, and these stories often come from the accumulation of daily life. A good story must be true, not made up, otherwise it will lack credibility and strength.

I really like Dong Jing, a contestant in "The Debaters" . Thanks to her background as a social investigation reporter, she has many stories about Mr. Wang next door and Mr. Wang as a citizen. The materials of these stories must have been processed or something, but their sources are real. So when she tells these stories, the audience will feel that the logic and details are not fabricated out of thin air and are more convincing.

So if you want to tell a story, you should collect various stories as material for dissemination.

Before collecting materials, you need to know who the protagonist of this article is? What does he want? What are the plots? Find the materials from every place and form a range of materials.

When creating content, you need to develop the awareness of collecting materials. You often feel that other people’s articles are well written, but mine are not well written. Other people have many little stories, especially stories about neighbors and friends. Many of these stories are collected from life rather than fabricated.

Secondly, for the same story, the materials are limited but the combinations are infinite. Just like cooking, the ingredients are limited, but a good chef can create many new dishes. After developing the awareness of collecting materials, you should develop the habit of accumulating materials at any time and write down each one you come across. You must have a material library and develop the habit of organizing materials regularly and labeling them for easy searching.

Materials are divided into passive materials and active materials. The former are provided by others, and you need to absorb and organize them. Passive materials can be obtained through the following channels : Baidu, WeChat (WeChat search), Weibo and Zhihu. If you need more professional materials, you can search the paper library. In addition, there are media and books. I hope that all my colleagues who are engaged in content operations will develop the habit of reading.

Active materials refer to materials obtained through personal efforts, such as chatting with others or interviewing others. For example, if our car owner community needs car owner materials related to Wuling Hongguang, we can take the initiative to visit Wuling Hongguang owners and conduct research. The degree of preparation of materials has a great impact on the quality of the article.

In terms of allocating writing time, the two steps of determining the topic and collecting materials should account for at least 50%, and writing an outline suggestion should account for 20%. Remember: Do not just roughly decide on a topic and start writing. Write as much as you can and stop writing as you have finished. This will easily cause the entire article to be left unfinished and abandoned halfway. You must develop the habit of determining the topic, collecting materials and having a good idea before you start writing.

3. The logic of writing copy

1. Plan the writing structure.

Writing structure refers to the logical context of the article, and users will understand the article based on the structure. Many articles are difficult to read because of their confusing logic.

What is a good structure? A good structure is one that can be understood and read by readers. Once you have structured your paper, show it to others to see if they can understand what you are trying to say. For example, when we watch dramas, we may feel that some actors do not perform well because we think their logic is very superficial and inconsistent with our logic: they think crying and laughing should be like this, but when the audience watches and understands them, they feel out of place.

2. Decide the placement of materials based on logic.

3. Flexibly build structures based on different themes.

Like an instruction manual, there is no manual that first gives the user the finished product and then explains how to install it step by step. The logic of the instruction manual is step-by-step. But if it is a mystery novel, it is often the other way around, with the result coming first: someone dies. The reader may be confused, but he is attracted and continues to read with interest. This is the logic of detective fiction. Different subjects should adopt different structures. We know what users are like and what kind of story we want to tell them, and then build the structure based on different subjects and themes.

When we cook, there are two ways. The first one is to go to the market first, buy the vegetables you want, and then decide what to cook based on what you bought. This method requires a certain level of cooking skills. As a novice, you often look at the recipe first to decide what to make, and then buy what you need. A recipe serves as the structure of an article.

4. Display Logic

1. Intimacy

Put together the content that you think is related and turn it into a visual unit to suit the readers' reading and thinking habits. When you are reading or typesetting, you should consciously pay attention to how your eyes move. Where does it start and where does it end? Where will you look next?

Intimacy allows information and text to be automatically organized and structured. Its fundamental purpose is to better demonstrate logical organization, making the content easier to read and remember, and helping readers understand. In addition, intimacy also creates white space, which is more visually beautiful.

2. Alignment

Alignment makes elements of the same function and level look unified and reflect their connection with each other. These titles belong to this column, and those words have that function. Readers automatically understand words of the same format as a group. For example, in each paragraph, there is one space between the first argument and two spaces between the sub-arguments. By placing them in the appropriate positions, readers can understand the hierarchical relationship. And it can make the page more organized.

3. Repetition

Use repetition to emphasize the repeated content, enhance the visual effect, and highlight the importance.

4. Contrast

If two things are to be contrasted, they should be completely different, totally, utterly different. When I first started doing content operations, I was relatively gentle and thought that it was enough to do it roughly and there was no need to be too thorough. Later I found that I must break this psychological barrier: if two things are to be compared, they must be completely different. This will bring more impactful display and layout effects.

Finally, I would like to emphasize again that logic is the key to understanding the world. In the process of creation, whether it is content, operation, or layout, we must convey a clear logic to readers.