How to easily operate content-based products? Just learn these 5 tricks

Currently, most of the products with high user activity in the mobile Internet market are content-based products. For example, Toutiao , iQiyi , Kugou Music, etc., these are all called pure content products.

There are also some products that we call content + products, such as Weibo and WeChat , which are social + content, App Store , which is application download + content, and UC Browser , which is tool + content.

From the perspective of top applications, basically all top application products are related to content, except for maps. Content+ has become a strategy for mobile Internet products to capture users.

If we define a content-based product, it would be a product whose main business revolves around providing users with content services such as text, comics, audio, and video.

Let’s take a look at the classification of content products. There are actually many categories of content products on the market, which can be divided into six major categories.

The first category is video, which includes popular short videos and long videos. Short video products include Kuaishou , Xigua, Miaopai , Douyin , etc.; long video products include Tencent Video , iQiyi, etc.

The second category is also related to video, that is, live broadcast products. Like Huya , Douyu , YY and so on.

The third category is music products, such as Kugou Music, QQ Music, etc.

The fourth category of products is audio products, such as Himalaya .

The fifth category is information products that people use more frequently in their daily lives, such as Toutiao, Yidian Zixun , etc.

The sixth category is reading products, such as iread. There are also comic products, which we also classify into this category.

Regardless of the type of content product, you must clearly understand that its core is content. Without excellent content, no matter how excellent the product experience is, it will not be able to maintain long-term operations.

So how do we operate content-based products well? Here I summarize five points.

The first point is called finding highlights. There are six keywords, namely hot spots, discovery, and mining, which are basically related to the source of content.

Every company that produces content products will have a department specifically responsible for content procurement, and formal copyright procurement is unavoidable.

Therefore, content operation practitioners must work closely with copyright holders and pay close attention to hot content in the market. When they find demand for hot content, they must raise the demand as soon as possible.

For example, there is a video content product, and there is a popular movie "Legend of the Demon Cat" recently. As an operator, you should ask the copyright department whether it is possible to obtain its online broadcasting rights, or other works by the director of this movie, or movies of the same type set in the Tang Dynasty.

If the content is scarce, you can only create a gimmick yourself. For example, find some similar web dramas and make them into sister films.

In short, you should explore all content related to hot topics.

Another very important thing is excavation. Many times, copyright departments purchase in bulk, but among these bulk-purchased works there are bound to be some better content that is rarely seen.

At this time, content operations colleagues are needed to discover the highlights through daily understanding and accumulation and present them to users.

The second point is what to do after finding the content. You need to package the content, so the key word in the second point is pain point.

This process is actually a process of continuous optimization of content. At this time, the operations staff is more like the editor of the original publishing house, connecting users and authors together.

It tells authors how to polish their works so as to hit users' pain points and make users like reading more.

This also applies to other content-based products.

For example, each major live streaming platform now has its own top anchor, who has more or less some connection with the platform, and he may be an official contracted anchor.

Or they may be anchors signed by guilds that work closely with the official. It is rare to see unsigned anchors achieving good results on the live streaming platform.

The signing here actually means that the anchor gets more opportunities for packaging and promotion.

Reasonable content packaging is very important. From titles to pictures to specific content, and then to all scenes and elements related to the content, such as comments, community user feedback, etc., all need to be packaged.

These are all necessary tasks for an operator to do.

The third point is content recommendation. Basically, all content products will have their own recommended standards, which basically revolve around the three points of time, place, and people.

Let’s use an information content product to break down this point.

The factor of time is relatively simple. Basically, users of all content products are active during the three traffic peak periods of morning, noon and evening.

If you are an information product, then during the working hours from 7 to 9 in the morning, it may be more appropriate to push to users easy-to-read content with some information, such as current affairs, hot topics, or professional consulting content.

The lunch break from 12 noon to 1 pm is not long, so the content pushed to users should be short, concise and interesting.

The evening is more suitable for recommending some entertainment information. From 10 pm to 12 am, many users will browse some relatively long and more informative articles before going to bed.

So at this time, if you recommend some special topics, videos, or even short stories or comics, these would be more suitable.

What I just said was based on time and location. It will not appear in all products. It will only appear in some regional products.

Now you will find that every information product has a local section, which is a recommendation based on location, because locals are more sensitive to local news and information.

Let’s look at the people-based ones. The method of doing things based on people's recommendations has become very mature in major personalized recommendation information clients.

For example, Toutiao uses algorithms to determine what content users may be interested in based on their browsing behavior and browsing data, and recommends corresponding content to users.

Some products may not have a complete algorithm, so the most basic method is to divide users according to their gender, occupation, age, and interests.

Label the user and the content on the product, and only make recommendations to the user when the user attribute and content attribute labels overlap.

Currently, many e-commerce products have the function of making recommendations based on user attributes, and then use algorithms to calculate which category users who have purchased this category are more likely to repurchase. These are all recommendations based on human factors.

Personalized recommendations are definitely a good thing. They can improve the user's product experience to a certain extent, but don't blindly believe in them.

If all content is personalized recommendation, then some users may not be able to see some good content.

The end user may fall into an endless loop, always seeing only the content he likes.

The fourth point is the mode of operation. First, let’s look at activities, which is a common method for various products.

If you are providing paid content, you can use some hot spots as gimmicks, and then give users some discounts to give users a reason to buy or pay.

If you provide free content, you may generally want users to discuss and vote on it or share it through participation to activate the activity of the content among users.

In fact, the method of special topics and albums is now widely used. There were many special topics in the earliest Internet operations . After careful consideration, content operators compiled some highly related content and recommended them to users.

Now more and more products have the concept of albums, and in many cases these albums are generated by users' own UGC .

Users integrate the content they think is good into the product in a certain theme and share it, such as playlists and book lists in certain products.

Next, let’s talk about content integration.

Simply put, integration means that there will be overlap between various forms of content presentation. For example, many text-based products now contain video and audio content.

Many video and audio products also contain a lot of text, because different ways of expressing content have different advantages and disadvantages.

Therefore, this cross-integration of content is also a good way of expression nowadays.

Finally, everyone is familiar with mechanisms like monthly subscription.

Many video websites or audio software have a monthly subscription model. The monthly subscription either allows users to watch something that they couldn’t watch for free before, or removes advertisements.

The monthly subscription model is now increasingly being adopted and recognized by various products, so it is a better value-added operation method.

In addition, there are various operating methods, such as tasks, comments, barrage, content rewards, etc. in live broadcasts. These can all be used when we operate content-based products .

The fifth point is to establish connections, and the key word is user interaction sentiment.

Basically, we hope to establish connections between users, between users and content, and between users and products.

All content products actually provide information to users.

To meet certain needs of users, whether it is the need to consume time or the need to obtain valuable information, in short, it is all for the purpose of gaining recognition from others.

Therefore, when operating content-based products, you often have to work on the user’s psychological needs.

When it comes to connecting users with content, the two products we have to mention are Zhihu and Douban . Both of these products initially hoped to connect users through content.

Then some other products appeared, such as NetEase News , which hopes that users will express their attitudes and opinions in the products and pay attention to the content you like. What it wants to do is to create more connections between users and content.

Summarize

As an operator of a content-based product, all work is carried out around the user's recognition of the product content.

The five points of content operation mentioned earlier were briefly introduced from the production and packaging of content, recommendation format to the post-production of the product.

All operational work needs to be based on data. Each product has its own differences. Operators must be bold in their attempts and carefully collect evidence to make the operations as perfect as possible.

The author of this article @管理智慧 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services Advertising platform Longyou Century