The secret of Toutiao article recommendation mechanism: how to get massive recommendations?

Whether for the sake of money or the platform's huge traffic , it seems that opening a Toutiao account on Toutiao , a platform with massive traffic, has become standard for everyone.

However, some people’s articles on Toutiao have hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of views, while some only have dozens or hundreds of views. The key difference between Toutiao and WeChat public accounts lies in its algorithm recommendation mechanism.

On WeChat , fans read an article mainly from two places: one is in the official account , due to their own active attention; the other is in the circle of friends , due to recommendations from friends. But on Toutiao, the articles users read basically come from the platform’s intelligent recommendations. The difference in reading sources on the two platforms results in huge differences in reading performance.

The number of readers of public accounts is highly correlated with the number of fans. Almost every article of a million-dollar account has over 100,000 readers, while it is rare for a small account to have over 10,000 readers. But for Toutiao, it is normal to produce millions of popular articles even if there is no foundation.

Therefore, when WeChat traffic is mainly controlled by large accounts and it is becoming increasingly difficult for small accounts to stand out, Toutiao's recommendation mechanism appears to be more advantageous for newcomers in content production. If the content is high-quality, the small account can also get considerable exposure . Through recommendations, the account can continuously reach new users, gain wider exposure, and build popularity.

So what is the mechanism for Toutiao’s massive article recommendations? Why do some articles have millions of views , while others only have dozens or hundreds? What can we do about the article recommendation mechanism?

For a long time, the outside world has known very little about Toutiao’s algorithm recommendation mechanism. Not long ago, a leader of the Toutiao team revealed the recommendation algorithm for the first time.

The secrets of Toutiao's article recommendation mechanism

Machine algorithms do not have the ability to judge the quality of an article. As can be seen from the above figure, the recommendation mechanism is to make an initial positioning recommendation, then accept feedback and adjust, and then make a second recommendation. The algorithm is neither dead nor fixed, but is in dynamic adjustment. The factors that influence the recommendation can be divided into two parts.

The first is the long-term factor, which is the following indicators in the above picture: positioning, interaction, and posting frequency.

Every Toutiao account is a brand , and past subjective efforts and historical achievements will become important factors affecting the algorithm. For accounts that have always been popular, the algorithm will definitely give them higher weight when recommending.

Another factor is short-term factors, that is, the quality of a single article, among which click-through rate , completion rate, off-site popularity, classification, etc. are very important. If the initial recommendation is completely determined by an algorithmic mechanism, then the popularity of the article’s topic, positioning, click-through rate, and completion rate will basically depend on the author’s creative skills.

Six secrets to mastering Toutiao

1. Toutiao loves stories, WeChat loves chicken soup

Regarding the difference in user preferences between WeChat and Toutiao, the operator of Toutiao’s account “Brain Hole Historical View” summarized it as follows: Toutiao loves stories, and WeChat loves chicken soup. The content on WeChat relies on sharing to spread, and people’s sharing behavior is driven by emotions, so chicken soup is more likely to become popular.

But Toutiao accounts are different. They have clear meanings, and content containing identifiable information is more easily recognized and recommended by algorithms, such as celebrities, occupations, place names, etc.

2. More pictures, less words, and shorter content

On social media , changes in reading scenarios have made fragmented content popular, and high-definition, uncensored large images + a small amount of text have become an invincible weapon. In fact, looking at the well-known accounts on the list, most of the content is of this style.

3. Hot spots are king

On social media, people's attention is highly fragmented, and hot spots, as a common concern among strangers, naturally have the magnetism to attract attention. Whether it is to ride on hot topics or chase after hot topics, using hot topics as topics is a compulsory course for new media people. Moreover, there is an endless supply of hot topics, which is also the topic you should work on.

4. Focus and professionalism

Focus means having a clear positioning, targeting certain people, and focusing on certain areas. The operator must have a clear idea in his mind. Professionalism is a requirement for the rapid development of new media. If you cannot do better than your competitors, you will be eliminated even in the new media industry, which is full of opportunities.

5. Pay attention to comments and interact more

Although Toutiao accounts do not emphasize operations as much as official accounts, understanding users’ psychological attitudes by checking comments and even actively participating in comment replies can help creators write more popular articles.

6. Have an attitude and a point of view

Whether you admit it or not, everyone has their own stance, and there is no one point of view that everyone agrees with. Therefore, the article can only start from your stance and strive to gain high recognition from some people, even if it offends other people. Only with attitude and opinions can there be communication.

The author of this article @木木老贼 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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