If you want high dissemination, you need to pay attention to these 6 details of short video topic selection

Before writing today’s content, let’s briefly review the basic topic selection principles we mentioned earlier.

We have talked about topic selection before. The first thing to pay attention to is that the content of the topic should not be divorced from the audience and fans. If you want to break through the constraints of playback volume, you must first get close to users in terms of content. Often the content that is closest to users is the most likely to be recognized by them, and this is the guarantee of high playback volume! The second point to note is that we should try to choose valuable and informative content. Integral content will make users want to spread it, thus stimulating our playback volume. The third point is that the content is perpendicular to the direction of our positioning. The fans attracted by such high playback volume are what we need, and such fans will be more valuable!

Points to note when choosing a topic

Now that we have finished our review, Xiaoyu will discuss with you some aspects that we should pay attention to when selecting topics for short videos due to recent changes in channels .

1. User experience is becoming more and more important in topic selection

There are more and more short video content accounts, and the audience's requirements for short videos are also getting higher and higher. In fact, we have shared an idea with you before, which is to value our fans and not just regard them as a data of playback volume. As short videos have developed to this stage, this idea is still very important and is becoming more and more important. Sometimes if you pay attention to your fans, the views will come naturally.

To give a simple example, since our team’s program focused on the digital direction some time ago, we paid more attention to digital accounts. At this time, we discovered that the entire digital environment is developing in these directions. Be aware of novel content , such as the unboxing and review of the latest mobile phone. New things will certainly attract attention and bring their own traffic , but new mobile phones are not released every day, and the cost of shooting such content is also very high.

Another direction is that more and more digital content is moving towards simplification. For example, some mobile phones have hidden functions. Take the iPhone for example. Although we use it every day, we may not notice some of the details that Apple has designed on the phone! For example, the clock in the iPhone icon actually moves. Have you noticed? With this kind of content, users can learn something from the video and put it into practice easily, and the user experience is also better.

We compare video to a product. Getting what we want from the video or from using the product is a good user experience. However, some content introductions have been made into instruction manuals for something, which means that the content topics are too simple and are things that everyone knows. We can clearly see this from user reviews. People are actually quite disgusted with this content.

Of course, such a topic with poor user experience does not necessarily have no views. On the contrary, if it is paired with a good title and posted on a recommended channel, it can easily reach tens of thousands of views. However, for a content team that wants to develop into a top company, such content has no positive impact on the team and the user experience is very poor. Therefore, when we choose topics, we should first think about what our content brings to users. This is very important! Especially for recommendation channels, we must face up to this double-edged sword. The recommendation channel has its benefits, and its recommendations are based on users' tags. Every time a recommendation is made, a large number of new users may be attracted by the title in such channels. However, these users are not sticky enough to the program, and it is impossible to break through the playback volume without the accumulation of fans. So don't be fooled by the data from referral channels.

2. If you want to be a big account, try to choose topics with fresh and creative content

In fact, with the development of short videos to this point, I think we can roughly classify short videos according to the intentions of the creators. One type is that we make short videos just to find vertical fans. One is to promote another resource of your own through the fan base; the other is to create a top IP through short videos. This is the point we want to emphasize, and it is also aimed at teams that want to create top IPs. This way of selecting topics involves certain risks.

First, let’s take a look at the big IPs that are currently doing well on the platform, such as Papi Jiang, Yitiao , Ergeng , and the new big office Xiaoye. Their success all has one thing in common: novelty. Both the form and the content are good. As long as it is novel and creative, there is a chance of becoming a hit. But the risk is that the audience doesn’t buy into the creative ideas we find. Therefore, it is very likely that the number of views will be very low, which requires us to constantly test new and novel points to attract fans, but the time cost and trial and error cost are a big problem. This type of breakthrough is not recommended for teams that want to accumulate fans or emerging teams. For this type of team, as I just said, if we want to move forward, we need to accumulate fans. Therefore, steady and cautious progress is the focus for these teams.

However, for teams that have accumulated a certain amount of fans and want to seek breakthroughs in playback volume, including teams that have transformed from traditional media, this point is actually something that should be taken very seriously. Just like Yitiao and Ergeng, they are also documentaries with humanistic feelings, and they are also recently transformed from traditional video teams. Why they can succeed. Some other teams that have transformed from traditional media cannot reach their level. On the one hand, there are already some big accounts in this category: Yitiao and Ergeng. In fact, a very important point is that they win because of the novelty of their topics. As can be seen from the picture below, each issue has a unique topic selection angle, which is difficult for ordinary teams to grasp.

It's easy if you want to take steady steps. We can find some popular pictures and texts to remake . Popular pictures and texts have been verified by the audience, so the number of views will naturally not be too bad. We should use this method to accumulate our fans in the early stage. However, if you want to make a breakthrough, the fastest way is to produce novel and creative content , and it is actually not that difficult to be creative. It is impossible for each of us to have great ideas every day, but we can collect some creative ideas for association. For example, one trick is to make your own portable washing machine. So can we extend this idea based on the pain points in life and make our own fruit washing machine? Homemade dishwasher?

For traditional transformation teams, I can share with you the simplest method. We can create content with regional characteristics. Regional characteristics often have their own characteristics and can gain a solid local fan base.

3. Combined with release operations

In fact, we have always emphasized this point. At a time when excellent content is constantly emerging, the most direct way for us to stand out and win at the starting line is to do so. However, this is what those who have switched from traditional media are least good at. When a video is released, the pictures are beautiful and the content is excellent, but there are no clicks . This was a huge blow to the team, and his reason might have been just because of a title.

Here we can provide you with an idea of ​​the video production process. We can try not to leave the title to the end of the publication. In fact, we can think of the title when we are selecting the topic . At least we should have an idea of ​​choosing a title. In this way, on the one hand, we will have a key guide for our work after determining the topic. For example, if the title is close to the hot topics, then we can stick to the hot topics in our subsequent work, and this can also avoid the suspicion of being a title party !

Through this method, we can quickly re-determine the topic. Sometimes when we choose a topic, we may find it very interesting at the time, but after the video is shot, we get stuck when it comes to publishing, because it seems that the video can’t find the attractive point that we imagined at the time! In fact, if we put the title after shooting, we can correct the direction of topic selection in time. If we can't find any highlights, it means there must be something wrong with the video topic, which means we should change the topic!

4. Many hot spots cannot be used

This is also something we should pay attention to when selecting topics at this stage. I believe everyone knows that a number of big entertainment accounts have been blocked recently. Everyone must pay attention in this situation. If you know there is a tiger in the mountain, don't go there. After all, we are not Wu Song.

At present, everyone should pay attention to entertainment videos, as they are quite sensitive on various platforms. Then there are the contents related to politics and current affairs. This type of content has always been a sensitive topic, not just during this period, so avoid it if possible. Including the extraction of keywords that we will talk about later, we will see that some keywords involve politics, such as THAAD . The popularity of these words is very high, but high popularity also means high sensitivity.

5. Stay away from sensitive words

Each platform has restrictions on some sensitive words. The word "sexy" may be popular on this platform, but it is a restricted word on another platform. The best way to solve this problem is to pay more attention to the platform's dynamics, read more official notifications released by the platform, and pay more attention to the content on the platform. When we search for these sensitive words on a platform, if the content with these words has very low playback volume or no playback at all, then we should pay attention!

In fact, there are many hot words, and we don’t necessarily have to be restricted by those sensitive words. For example, if we use the keyword search "奇葩" on Toutiao, we can find that its volume is extremely high. And the most ingenious thing is that it is basically not limited, does not contain bad language, does not involve pornography, gambling or drugs, and can be applied to a variety of content. So this kind of words should be our target vocabulary!

Speaking of this, let me say a few more words to you all. When recommending titles, the channel will find keywords from our titles and then recommend the keywords to people with corresponding tags. We can use the hot word analysis function in the headline data statistics to come up with titles. This function can show the popularity of the title keywords. We can use the popularity of these keywords to ensure our playback volume as much as possible.

6. Choose topics that are interactive and engaging

The most taboo thing about short videos is talking about yourself. As long as I do a good job, there will be audiences to watch. This mentality must be overturned. The key to short videos is not their shortness or the video itself, but the audience! Videos should be structured around the audience, and an important point about structuring videos around the audience is interactivity. In particular, the impact of interactivity on the number of recommendations is still very obvious.

How should we increase the interactivity of videos? Here are a few methods to share with you:

• We can choose topics that are highly interactive. For example, in the food category, we can choose to make quick dishes; in the fitness category, can we consider teaching people how to exercise without equipment, or how to exercise in the office? For example, in the fashion category, can we introduce some clothing styles that we all have? For example, how do you turn a pair of jeans bought on Taobao into a trendy brand?
• Another direction is to insert guidance into the program. For example, if we release a video about making homemade ice cream, we can add an interactive sentence to the program. Like, what's the best flavor of ice cream you've ever had? Everyone is welcome to leave a message and interact below the program!
• Some jokes were inserted into the show, which attracted everyone's complaints. Or insert some bloopers to arouse discussion. It should be noted here that bloopers are a very low-level mistake in the traditional video industry. But in short videos, if the bloopers are used well, they can be the highlight of a film. This is actually a process of giving the audience something to complain about, and where there are complaints there will naturally be comments!
• When making friends with the audience, don't put yourself too highly. This is actually what Xiao Pianpian brought up during the communication with everyone in the offline activities of the Beijing group. I think it makes a lot of sense, so I'd like to share it with you all. First of all, I agree with this point of view, especially on fan channels such as Bilibili and Meipai . When a program, especially this program, belongs to UGC . We must distinguish internet celebrities from stars. Internet celebrities accumulate their own fans, but no matter what time, internet celebrities are serving their fans. Fans think you are interesting so they come to see you. Therefore, operating an IP is largely about the relationship with fans. Fans think you are good. With their support, our program can continue to improve and the purpose behind our short videos can be better achieved.

Well, that’s basically it for today. Xiaoyu mainly shared with you some details that need to be paid attention to when planning short video topics at this stage. It mainly discusses six aspects: user experience of topic selection, creativity of topic selection, combination of topic selection and publication, reasonable selection of hot spots, staying away from sensitive words, and choosing topics with strong interactivity. The short video industry is constantly developing. We must not be too rigid in choosing topics. When planning content, we must draw more effective information from operations!