Why is it that your article is very good, but users have no desire to pay attention to it?

Recently, a reader who runs a public account asked me a question, which is briefly summarized anonymously as follows:

"Why is it that after my official account was redesigned and its content was repositioned, the number of reposts and readers increased significantly, but the number of fans gained from reading the articles decreased instead of increasing?"

Interestingly, a similar situation occurred with one of my tweets, "Most people are unemployed at the age of 25...": the number of readings was extremely impressive, about three times the usual amount. Normally, with such a high external reading volume, the number of new fans it brought in would also be extremely high, right?

The truth is always unexpected - the fan contribution rate of this tweet ranks second from the bottom among the nearly 12 articles! (The impact of new fans gained from reposting has been eliminated)

In fact, whether or not you can attract fans has little to do with the number of times your article is read. The scatter plot below ( data source: the author’s official account) does not show any positive correlation at all.

It may seem frustrating at first glance, but if you think about it the other way around, this just shows that for potential new users who are reading the article, the internal decision-making factors that trigger them to "follow" the public account are a high-value research object .

Imagine that for a public account with an external reading volume of 10,000 (that is, the reading volume in addition to its own fans), an additional 1% increase in the attention conversion rate means that each article can bring in about 100 new fans . It’s really exciting to think about it carefully - this is a huge gold mine that has yet to be mined.

So, for a reader who is reading an article, what internal decision-making factors trigger him to follow (or be too lazy to follow) a public account?

1. What determines whether a user follows a public account or not?

Currently, whether it is economics, marketing , or MBAs, research on decision-making behavior is almost entirely focused on the paid field. However, for free products, there are few serious research conclusions published on user decision-making behavior that is mainly based on time consumption .

However, as long as we observe from the "user perspective", we can still capture several "key decision paths" of users following a public account.

Let’s think about it first: when do readers usually “decide” whether to follow a public account?

"Nonsense, of course, after reading the full text."

Is it really so? This answer is only half correct.

We instinctively assume that readers consider whether to follow a public account after reading the entire article (left picture). But the reality is that readers may choose to "close" the article or "continue" reading at any stage of the article, or even follow it directly (right picture).

People do follow a public account after reading it, but the decision to follow it has already been made during the reading process .

We just need to think carefully. The last time we followed a new public account, did we really think about whether to follow it only after reading the article?

Obviously not. When we read, our subconscious mind makes us make decisions .

This is just like two people on a blind date. The moment they start talking, both sides know whether they are each other's type. Instead of waiting until the blind date is over to use a calculator to calculate: appearance 3 points, income 4 points, education 5 points, owning a house and a car 100 points, and then taking the weighted average.

At this point, we can briefly summarize that there are actually three major directions that can be improved to increase readers' attention rate when reading articles:

• Direction 1 Defense Strategy : Maximize Reading Completion Rate
• Direction 2: Integration strategy : transform temporary content needs into long-term
• Direction 3 Offensive Strategy : Creating a “Peak” Reading Experience

These improvements do not require you to have excellent writing skills or accumulated knowledge. Any general editor or novice writer can do it as long as they put in some effort .

2. Three major directions to improve readers’ attention rate when reading articles

Direction 1: Defensive strategies to reduce readers’ “reading interruptions”

We discussed earlier that although new readers who have finished reading an article may not necessarily "pay attention", readers who have not finished reading ( i.e. closed or jumped out midway ) will definitely not pay attention .

Therefore, if you want to increase the attention rate, you must first significantly increase the reading "completion rate". Therefore, we must first optimize the major " high-risk bounce areas " when reading articles.

So, which areas are high-risk areas?

As shown in the figure above, it is obvious that the beginning of the article , the transition area of ​​the main text , the reading fatigue area (high cognitive consumption), external interference sources , etc. are all areas that need to be focused on.
It is easy to lock the high-risk areas. Next, we only need to break the corresponding "jump out" high-risk areas one by one:

(1) Optimize the beginning of the article: Tell a story and set the tone for the entire article

When readers click on your article and start reading, are they all "highly focused"?

Most of the time, no. The user is likely to be absent-minded, thinking about what the boss thinks, what the customer thinks, or thinking about what gift to give to his girlfriend...

We must never make assumptions about our readers.

This is why we need to put more thought into the beginning of the article: let users put aside distractions, focus on the topic of the article, and stimulate their desire to read the whole article .

How to do it?

The most original and effective way is still storytelling . After all, humans are born to seek explanations, just like a cat wants to chase and play with a lively chicken. The suspense left by the story is the best motivation for readers to finish reading the article .

For example, even if it is a learning article, if the beginning is:

"Xu Ming passed CET6, just 5 points above the passing line. This is nothing for a Tsinghua student, but Xu Ming suffered from eye disease after entering university, and his study relied entirely on phonetics... So, how did he do it?"

Another version begins:

"Research has found that English listening is very helpful for students to improve their English scores, mainly reflected in one, two, and three... The following are introduced separately..."

Unsurprisingly, the second version will be turned down by most people.

Of course, the so-called storytelling does not just mean "writing novels". As long as we can point out the differences from common things , set up suspense related to readers , and conform to the thinking framework of "background-conflict-epiphany-resolution" , it is OK.

Li Shaojia has mentioned the specific method of "storytelling" several times in previous tweets, so this article will not go into details.

To master the skills of writing a story-telling introduction, you can also refer to the chapter on "preface" writing in " The Pyramid Principle " (by Barbara Minto).

(2) Optimize the content

Even a person who can run a marathon will get tired after running 10 kilometers. Moreover, we cannot expect every reader to be as endurance and focus as a marathon runner. When the reader gets tired of reading, he will click the "Back" button in the upper left corner to close the book .

So, what strategies can minimize the chances of users giving up reading?

Let's warm up and introduce a safe and harmless course that is also a compulsory course for any elementary school Chinese language class: abbreviated articles

There is an obvious negative correlation between article length and reading completion rate. If you don’t believe it, take a look at the correlation analysis chart of the length of the recent dozen tweets of "少加点班" and the number of people who read them (on the same day):

Needless to say, once the subject of the article is made clear, the author (or editor) must follow the ancient principle of Occam's razor : do not add unnecessary substance and do not add unnecessary content .

In other words, be brave to delete content that is irrelevant to the topic, or content that, although interesting, will divert the reader's attention and complicate the logic of the article.

Take this article for example. In the original version, I also mentioned "research on decision-making behavior for free products", "research on communication intensity", "uniqueness of language wording", "the impact of knowledge breadth and depth on user psychological perception" and other contents. However, because they are not strongly related to the topic, I had to give them up reluctantly.

That is why, the original length of the articles you have seen is about 20,000 words, which I ruthlessly cut by more than half. The process is painful, but in order to create an experience that makes readers exclaim "I love it!" , I still have to take action.

Shortening the length means shortening the total reading time for readers , which can greatly reduce the possibility of reading being interrupted due to external events .

For example, a sudden thunderstorm outside the window, a female colleague’s WeChat emoticon at the next table, a water drinking reminder from a smart water cup… any sound may affect people’s fragile concentration at the moment .

Of course, the length of the abbreviated article must be maintained while ensuring the completeness of the topic and logic . Otherwise you'd be putting the cart before the horse and end up making things worse. Even Albert Einstein once said, “ Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but not oversimplified .”

So, for more complex topics (such as this article), when it is impossible to shorten them any further, what other methods can be used to eliminate readers’ reading fatigue?

(3) Make good use of humor (surprises) to eliminate readers’ reading fatigue

Neuroscience research on parts of the brain has confirmed that a happy mood can effectively improve the efficiency of the part of our brain responsible for self-control (the anterior cingulate gyrus). Fortunately, "humor" is the most cost-effective killer weapon to make readers happy.

Of course, the humor in an article is not about randomly inserting humor into every opportunity, but should be about making the content of the topic humorous . Otherwise, it will appear artificial and it's not cool.

"You ask me how I write so humorously? That's a good question, well, I don't know either. 』

Yes, the above is a model of humor, the core of which is "unexpected but reasonable", "create conflicts and make appropriate self-deprecating remarks" (although Li Shaojia understands the principles of humor, he is not good at it. However, at least he can write a joke, right?).

Humor or a cheerful mood can recapture the reader's attention . It is not difficult for us to understand why students taught by humorous teachers in our school days were more successful, at least when it comes to pursuing girls.

Based on this consideration, we can try to arrange humorous content in the "high cognitive load" content area .

So far we have discussed how to maximize the number of readers reading the entire text, but reading it does not mean that users will pay attention . In fact, in the current context of information explosion, most readers who read the article will not follow this account. Therefore, Li Shaojia said that the above strategies are all defensive strategies .

So, in order to trigger users to follow a public account, what content improvement strategies are there to significantly increase readers' attention rate?

Direction 2: Transform temporary content needs into long-term needs

The reason why most readers read an article "from a public account that they do not follow" (that is, from a circle of friends , group, or recommendation and forwarding by friends and relatives) is usually because they read it on a "spur of the moment" or "a temporary need."

For example, if you have been staying up late to work overtime recently, then if you see someone in your circle of friends forwarding "Staying up late and running is the best way to move towards menopause", you might click to read it.

However, “health content” does not belong to the type of “long-term subscription” for this reader. Unless the article is written at the level of Mark Twain, readers will just read it and forget about it and are unlikely to pay attention to it.

People only pay attention to "the types of articles that they think they will need for a long time and read frequently"

Well, are these readers who "need something for a moment" destined to become passers-by in public toilets, coming and going in a hurry?

No, there are three strategies we can use to turn temporary needs into long-term needs:

(1) Content theme sublimation

I vaguely remember that in elementary school composition class, the Chinese teacher often emphasized, want to get high scores in composition? The ending must sublimate the theme, sublimate the theme, sublimate the theme...

It was not until I entered society that I realized that what I learned in Chinese class during those years were all very useful knowledge: whether it was summarizing the main idea, abbreviating the article, or sublimating the theme, they were all very practical.

For example, in the previous tweet, although Li Shaojia talked about " operation management", anyone who is interested will know that this management idea, which is centered on stimulating "maximizing the output results of senior knowledge workers", can be applied to human resource management in almost all industries .

For example, although most of my articles talk about scientific operations, the "operational thinking" is completely applicable to any position , whether it is entrepreneurs , traditional professional managers, or even human resources, product development, and all walks of life can be "transplanted and borrowed".

In fact, high-value innovations are usually almost all a combination of cross-border ideas or inspired by "outsiders". For example, Apple's design was inspired by Eastern Zen and ancient Greek aesthetics.

Note that most readers do not realize how unfamiliar fields can help them, so you must state this clearly (sublimation of the theme).

For example:

• Can public accounts related to design emphasize how design ideas can help our lives and artistic taste (show off)?
• Can public accounts on psychology emphasize the value of psychological research to marriage, love, the workplace, marketing operations , and bragging?
• Even public accounts related to English learning can emphasize the great value of English language patterns to brain thinking.

It is not difficult to elevate the theme. You just need to repeatedly ask about the essence behind the appearance.

For example, keep asking yourself, what else can this thing do? Then just reiterate and express its extended value and ideological connotation .

(1) Try to eliminate the reader’s uncertainty

If the above-mentioned "sublimation of the theme" leaves readers with a pleasant surprise of "it turns out there are such benefits", then we need to further eliminate the readers' uncertainty. What are they?

From a user's perspective, what should we expect first when we are about to follow a public account in an unfamiliar field?

Follow and get bonus? Well, this one is not bad. But more importantly, we don’t want to pay attention to a half-baked public account . Although it is not necessarily required to rank first in the field, it can at least prevent users from making low-level mistakes when bragging to outsiders.

Therefore, to eliminate readers’ uncertainty, the first priority is to “ eliminate users’ doubts about the authority of the content ” (except for entertainment accounts).

How can you make your article more authoritative? Only two aspects need to be optimized:

1. For key (knowledge) arguments, don’t just say “I think or I believe”, but try to verify the research conclusions (or reasonable deductions of the conclusions) of recognized authorities in the field. For example, when I talked about management topics in my previous tweet, some key arguments came from the research of management guru Drucker. This is also my responsibility to the readers. In addition, be sure to attach the source of the argument, which shows respect for other people's knowledge and respect for your own personality.
2. If possible, try to make the more professional content visual .

This can be considered a little trick, but for readers who make low-involvement decisions , the difference between having a picture and not having a picture is often a matter of attention or not.

(3) Eliminate readers’ concerns about content update cycles

Although humans like "unforeseen surprises", they hate "unforeseen waiting" even more.

This is why no mammal in the world can endure the uncertain "wait a moment" (except for men in love), followed by 5, 15 minutes, half an hour, or who knows how long it will take.

Needless to say, how to eliminate doubts about the content update cycle? It’s OK to put a sentence “Update daily (weekly, biweekly, monthly)” at the beginning or end of the official account or in the bottom label.

(4) Eliminate readers’ doubts about the attributes of public accounts

The names of many public accounts seem to be incomprehensible, such as "Work less overtime". People who don’t know might think it is used for prayer (praying not to work overtime)?

Well, in short, we can’t expect readers to understand the positioning of a public account through an article (and they may not read it carefully).

It is best for us to take the initiative to tell the other party who you are in just one sentence before the readers ask: "The article is good, but what account is this?" For example:

• Everyone is a product manager ——"Internet thinking, practical experience"
• 36Kr ——“Venture capital media, business reporting”
• Work less overtime - "Scientific operation, workplace evolution"

The strategies mentioned so far are, ideally, very effective.

But there is a problem of "ecological validity" : only when readers read word by word can they "perceive" the "intention" of the article's content. But the question is, at a time when the nation’s total concentration continues to decline, what percentage of users still read word by word?

Although it is frustrating, this proportion may not be high and is still decreasing. So, in order to deal with "skipping readers", we must use a killer weapon:

Direction 3: Make the best points of the article explicit

We talked about the "peak-end rule" in our previous tweets. Similarly, in the minds of readers, the "perceived" value of an article is also determined by the "peak-end experience."

Of course, some smart readers may ask, since it is a "peak-end experience", we only need to focus on improving the two points of "peak and end", then are all the strategies mentioned above necessary?

It is necessary.

Because when readers consider whether to follow a public account , it is not a "one-vote veto system". On the contrary, it is a "one-touch-and-pass system" . In other words, the more "unique highlights" the full text has, the higher the passing rate (of course, corresponding time resources must be spent for it).

Just like a roller coaster, if there weren't a few thrilling steep slopes, it would be better to just take the subway.

So, how do we define the so-called "best highlights of the entire article"?

Li Shaojia's understanding is that it is not the most "professional" part of the field (lay readers cannot appreciate professionalism), but the most "touching" part of the whole article . The touching here does not only refer to the emotional level, but also the kind of "wow" that makes readers say in their hearts (uniqueness, difficulty, creativity, seeing things that ordinary people cannot see, etc.)

What we need to do is to find this "reading peak point" in the article and then make it "explicit" in a visual form .

Of course, or you might ask, what if there is no such "best highlight" in the article?

In principle, an excellent article always has some highlights. As the saying goes, "Everyone has eyes that can discover beauty." It is recommended that we first "find" them and then "visualize" them. On the other hand, we cannot expect excellent articles to appear all the time.

What should I do in this situation?

I created it myself based on the content of the article .

Do you tremble when you hear the word "creation"? Don't be afraid, it's not difficult. Just look at the demonstration and you'll understand:

Li Shaojia calls the first method of creating a peak reading experience: going one step further .

For example, Chen Yuanfeng's comics (official account) recording his daughter's life always end with a photo of the day, which instantly enhances the sense of reality a hundred times and is full of warmth:

The screenshot is from Chen Yuanfeng’s personal public account

The second method of creating a peak reading experience is also the most universal method that everyone can learn and can be adopted for any type of article - " visual packaging of the core idea " of the entire text.

This means using a mix of exquisite graphics and text to make the highlights of the text clear at a glance.

Take this article for example. Even someone like me who has no talent for aesthetics can make the core content of the article look like the following picture:

This does not require too much "professionalism", just a little "dedication" and a little time. Look at this picture. Even if the reader just quickly scans it, the "overall perception" of the article will be improved, right?

PS: If you can coordinate the company’s internal art resources to optimize the original artwork, it can produce a more “eye-catching” effect. In order to create a peak reading experience, beautification is particularly important, especially when the content lacks explosive points. However, given limited resources, content must still be prioritized.

Other effective strategies to increase user attention include:

Due to space limitations, I will not introduce them one by one. The brief introduction is as follows:

(1) The ending leaves a sense of content

The long process of evolution of primitive productivity has led people to develop a preference for "possessing large amounts of (extra) resources." Therefore, at the end, whether it is leaving a directory index, keyword replies, or other clues that reflect the content, they can be "visualized".

(2) Cross-check the entire text to ensure cognitive fluency

It is said that good articles are revised. Li Shaojia roughly estimated that the time distribution of each of his articles is approximately:

Conception: writing: revision = 5:2:3.

Therefore, if conditions permit, several colleagues can cross-check with each other and examine from the user's perspective which content has a high cognitive density and optimize those that need to be optimized.

(3) There is a lot of room for improvement in the comment section

There is always a market for great replies, everyone understands it, so I won’t say more.

For example, I was not only touched by Hunziyue's various wonderful replies, but also recommended him to me.

Of course, many of my friends may be "editors" rather than "authors" themselves, and they may find it a bit strange to modify and optimize "reprinted articles".

Li Shaojia’s personal opinion is that a true editor should have the same “content ability” as the original author (see the biographical film “The Catcher in the Rye”).

It’s not surprising at all that editors optimize writers’ content.

Objective conditions also allow it. When applying for the whitelist for a reprinting account, you can modify some of the content and then just say hello to the original author after the modification.

Conversely, if the “ new media editor” also positions himself as a “text porter”, then what is the value of this position?

Seriously coming to the end

A reporter once asked a sculptor:

"How did you create such a perfect statue?"

The sculptor replied:

“The statue was already there, I just removed the unnecessary edges. 』

When I was young and inexperienced, I thought it was just a pretense of mystery or, in today's terms, a big liar.

But is it really so?

As my work experience accumulated, I suddenly realized how ignorant and shallow my lack of respect for knowledge was back then.

Because, no matter what work task you want to complete excellently, you must first see the " beauty after completion ", and once you see it , you can no longer turn a blind eye to it . The only thing left to do is " just remove the unnecessary edges and corners ."

The same is true when writing an article.

Whether you are a writer or (editor), if you just deal with the work, simply satisfy the readers' reptilian brain, and simply work for those broken numbers of KPI, it will not only go against "excellence"... In addition, the greater loss is that you may lose an experience forever:

"The process of carving words with great care is so wonderful."

Best wishes.