When operating short videos, don’t fall into these pitfalls!

People often say "avoiding pitfalls is progress" and "avoiding repeated pitfalls is big progress". I have summarized some previous practical experience and feelings about the operational precautions of different short video platforms. Before you officially step into the ocean of short videos, it may help you to take a holistic view of the major pitfalls along the way, avoid risks in advance and reduce necessary losses.

1. When choosing a platform, you need to look at the general trend and cast a wide net before focusing.

When faced with different short video platforms, how to choose is very important. If you make the right choice, you can quickly rise to the top in the industry by leveraging the platform's "east wind". If you make the wrong choice, you will not only lose money but also miss out on the bonus trend in the rapidly changing Internet era.

Especially for many self-media and small and medium-sized institutional players, a strategic choice will often inadvertently determine the "life or death" of individuals and companies, because they do not have the strong financial and material resources of large enterprises and institutions, and can not invest a lot of time and energy costs like large enterprises and institutions to conduct extensive trials and multi-line operations.

If you are unsure of the tone and direction of your content in the early stages of your account, and you have enough time and energy to invest in short video operations , you can "cast a wide net" first. Find short video platforms on the market that have sufficient resources, strong publicity, and good reputation, and enter them to conduct initial content adaptation attempts.

This type of short video platform generally comes from Internet giants, has strong traffic and financial support from its parent company, and is relatively safe and reliable.

The advantage of casting a wide net in the early stages is that you can quickly understand the operating strategies, available resources, and video content tonality of different short video platforms in a short period of time, helping you to establish a preliminary understanding of the current short video landscape. It is also convenient to verify which soil your own content is more suitable for based on preliminary user interaction data, and then "refocus" to focus on breaking through the short video platform that is most likely to create your own influence.

If you happen to catch the platform's initial strong subsidies and support, during the wide-net verification phase, you can use the platform's official resource allocation to achieve faster growth and development, and even directly profit from it.

A typical case is that during the growth stage of short videos, when Internet giants were competing for the short video platforms, each platform invested heavily in launching a series of short video talent recruitment plans and creator support plans in order to grab creator resources.

For example, Nani Short Video launched by Baidu (nani short video: a short video product incubated by Baidu Tieba in December 2017, aiming to take the fashion route of Douyin and Weishi, with the slogan "Record a different youth life", and was renamed "Huo Pai Short Video" in August 2018) was also expected to receive strategic support from Baidu in the early stage, and started high-subsidy activities in mid-May 2018.

The subsidy activity at that time claimed to recruit 5,000 top short video talents, with a monthly salary starting from 10,000, with no upper limit; at the same time, there was no limit on the recruitment of potential short video authors, with a monthly salary starting from 3,000, and they would receive high traffic support from Baidu.

For example, the specific signing policy of nani short videos is divided into S-level, A-level, and B-level, and the video adoption requirements and basic salary corresponding to different levels are also different.

• S level: basic salary 10,000 yuan; more than 6 featured videos per month;
• Level A: Basic salary 3,000 yuan; must have more than 4 featured videos per month;
• Level B: Basic salary of 1,000 yuan; must have more than 2 featured videos per month.

For ordinary people with no experience, as long as they upload 3 short videos and pass the review, they can get a guaranteed monthly salary of 1,000 yuan. If 6 videos per month are selected and evaluated by the official operation, they can get a basic salary of 10,000 yuan. In addition, the nani short video platform has set up a cash reward policy of 1 million selected subsidies every month to reward the top 100 popular influencers (popularity is related to playback, comments, and likes).

In addition, for some creators with excellent content performance, Baidu also promised to open up resources within the Baidu system such as Sohu feed recommendations, search celebrity cards, Tieba homepage recommendations, and Tieba master certification for them.

Normally, these resources would charge high advertising fees, but now that the official traffic authorities are "spending a huge amount of money", influencers or organizations no longer have to worry about marketing and promotion, and only need to focus on creating high-quality content. With the help of the authorities, good content is more easily discovered, amplified, and spread.

Nani short video product page

Also participating in the short video war is Weishi (Weishi: a short video creation and sharing platform under Tencent, which restarted operations in March 2018). Backed by Tencent's 3 billion investment, it also uses high subsidies to attract creators.

In order to attract as many creators as possible, some short video platforms do not even require the first release and exclusivity of videos. As long as the content is synchronized to the platform, the platform's traffic subsidies and cash rewards can be enjoyed.

Whether it is monetary rewards or the inclination of traffic from giant platforms, in a sense, for content creators, they are rare opportunities and benefits that "the wind will help me soar to the sky."

At that time, many smart short video creators not only settled in nani short video, but also settled in Weishi and other short video platforms to enjoy the video subsidies. They shot a video and distributed it to different platforms, and got double or even more rewards.

In essence, they are fleecing the platform. Although the period of short video melee will not last long, the "wide net casting" in the past few months is enough for creators with weak foundations to quickly verify content, clarify creative direction, and even obtain start-up funds for continued creation.

Of course, if you are only satisfied with the tiny gains in the "casting a wide net" stage, then you have definitely fallen into a big pit. Remember the key points mentioned above - when choosing a platform, you should look at the general trend, cast a wide net first and then focus.

The development of short videos is a dynamic process. Creators who have entered the market must have a desire to go further. So after quickly verifying and finding the right creative direction in the wide-net stage, they should not be attached to small profits and concentrate resources on the platforms with the greatest long-term benefits to output high-quality content. It is very necessary to always focus on the big development trends in the dynamic process.

It is not wrong to pursue short-term interests and take advantage of the platform, but there is a pitfall that most people will fall into: behind the seemingly simple bait is the sunk cost of your attention.

Once you have joined a platform, the content is simply synchronized. If fans interact with you, will you reply or not?

The platform is promoting a hot event, and you can get more rewards by participating. So do you still want to put in extra effort to participate?

The account seems to have accumulated tens of thousands of fans unintentionally, but if the platform gradually declines, will you still want these fans?

If you want to retain this wave of fans, how can you divert them to another platform so that they are willing to continue following you?

In the same three months, the gains from working on a short video platform in its growth stage and on a short video platform with a small voice will be completely different. The former may harvest a forest, while the latter may only harvest a small tree.

Don't waste time on platforms that have no sustainable growth potential. Focus your limited energy on the platform that is most suitable for growth, and then run fast. When you look back, you will find that those who were drowned by the waves may be those who were busy picking up shells and did not have time to get on the boat.

2. Don’t rush to join, first understand the platform’s cold start support plan and resources

Many creative people or organizations often overlook the initial entry methods.

The common practice is to quietly register an account, work hard to think of content and shoot videos, and then join the ranks of thousands of creators working hard for a "breakthrough".

If you are lucky, you may be able to achieve a breakthrough in the growth of fans within one or two months after joining the platform with your real creative strength. On the contrary, if the cold start is too difficult, you may become discouraged and isolated from the gorgeous stage of display. Whatever the situation, there is something to be regretted.

Just imagine, if you contacted the official platform or an MCN agency that could get official traffic support at the very beginning, would each of your videos have more opportunities to be exposed and the content could be verified more efficiently?

When many people mention platforms, their first reaction is often to think that the platforms are "high and mighty", and they tend to overlook the fact that platforms also need "high-quality content creation support." The relationship between individuals and platforms is not a one-way giving, but a mutually beneficial cooperation.

Based on this, if you happen to be a creative expert who has been verified by the market in some aspect, or the company you work for is prepared to invest enough resources to allow you to make short videos, before you officially start producing short video content, you might as well try to contact the platform's operations to communicate about cold-start support resources in the initial stage of entry.

If you are already an influencer on other platforms with hundreds of thousands or even millions of fans, you can definitely receive official incentives by joining Douyin. For example, Douyin officially welcomes influencers from Weibo and Bilibili to join the platform. Not only will they be given corresponding functional permissions and Dou+ coupons as incentives, but they will also receive rewards for diligent updates after joining the platform. If influencers can remain active on the platform for a long time, they can also receive additional rewards.

(Dou Growth Support Program Phase 7)

If you don’t have a large fan base and are still in the early stages of accumulating fans, can you still get official resource support? sure!

Taking Douyin as an example, Douyin officials continue to hold the "Dou Growth Plan" event, which is mainly open to MCN agencies that have successfully settled in (agencies that have not successfully settled in must complete the settlement first). The purpose is to encourage MCN agencies to attract new potential creative talents.

When an organization invites experts to join, both the expert account and the organization can receive resource rewards from the platform. If you don’t have strong resources to support you, joining a reliable MCN agency can help you obtain initial resource support.

My previous experience mainly belongs to the third type: helping corporate companies operate short video matrix accounts. I used to work for an education company. Before starting my account, I contacted Douyin’s education vertical operations department. After communicating with the official operations department about the creative direction and sample videos, the first video of a single short video account could get a guaranteed official exposure of 50,000 to 100,000 exposures every day.

For some medium and large enterprises that are willing to invest resources to deeply cultivate the Douyin platform, Douyin will have dedicated operations to provide point-to-point support. Taking a certain education company as an example, every month Douyin will assess the dou+ quota to be given to the account for the next month based on the account’s performance data in the previous month. The resource levels are divided into S, A, and B, and the rights and interests correspond to the requirements. The rewards obtained after the account meets the standards will be directly added by the official operation in the form of traffic to a single video released by the account.

(Douyin’s cold start support policy for new accounts)

Kuaishou’s education vertical operation has slightly different support rules for new accounts. The account must first go through an observation period, that is, the 5 video works released within 7 days must have more than 200 natural views. If the playback volume does not meet the target in the current 7-day cycle, you can continue to sprint for the next 7-day cycle.

When it comes to supporting the cold start of new accounts, Kuaishou's "observation period" operation method appears to be more refined. The system is left to make a preliminary judgment on whether the content is high quality. At the same time, it also gives creators an initial small goal - to explore positioning and optimize video content. Once the observation period goals are completed, they can receive immediate rewards and enter the first week of the standard support period.

(Kuaishou’s cold start support policy for new accounts)

Take the field of education as an example.

Kuaishou launched the "Education Ecosystem Partner Program" in 2019. This partner program is a targeted support for the cold start of new accounts aimed at attracting outstanding short video knowledge producers to join the platform. Accounts with more than 100,000 followers are not covered by this program. This plan has relatively loose requirements for accounts. As long as the account is directed towards knowledge creation and is guaranteed to be 100% original, you can apply.

Kuaishou Education supports knowledge-based creators in three main ways.

1. Partner Program (targeted support): 8 weeks of traffic support (including weekly support, follow-up investment, and rewards) and operational follow-up for teachers with multiple accounts.
2. Direct promotion from Kuaishou Education official account (automatic promotion): Accounts participating in the partner program and education accounts that have settled in Kuaishou, once they have more than 2,000 fans, will have the opportunity to trigger direct promotion from the "Kuaishou Education" official account as long as their works are excellent, which is valid for a long time.
3. Educational activities (rewards for participation in activities): Kuaishou Education will regularly publish rankings, topics or live broadcasts on official accounts and activity groups. All activities are equipped with rewards (traffic, Kuaishou coins, IP exposure, physical objects, dissemination, resource positions, etc.).

Unlike Douyin's "black box" support method, Kuaishou's cold start support resources are supported on a weekly basis, and the weekly support amount is not fixed. The official operation will determine the support amount for the next week based on the overall cover click-through rate and fan growth cost of the account you applied for in the previous week. The specific support amount will be directly distributed to the applied account in the form of traffic coupons. It is up to you to decide how to use the traffic vouchers and how much to use for each video. The amount of support you can get in a week ranges from 100,000 to 500,000.

Although Kuaishou's partner program is aimed at the education field, it is conceivable that other vertical categories of Kuaishou will inevitably have the need for experts to join. There must be many other support methods similar to the "Education Ecosystem Partner Program". After fully understanding the platform's support plans and resources for novice accounts, the goals will be clearer when taking action. Be patient enough to gain a detailed understanding, and you will be able to move faster than others by avoiding pitfalls.

There are several hidden benefits of making good use of official resources from the initial entry:

1. By strengthening the connection with the official platform, we can quickly obtain first-hand activity information from the platform. For some daily official activities that they want to promote vigorously, they will notify outstanding creators in advance to prepare for the activities. Advance pre-embedding means strong exposure and high burst in the first place, and it is also a shortcut to create a hit product with a lot of money.
2. The account growth rate is not slow, but accelerated. Verifying your own content direction and making timely adjustments at an accelerated pace can greatly shorten the cost investment and iteration cycle of the entire account operation.
3. Save a lot of advertising costs. Normally, any official resources require real money to purchase, and many small and medium-sized enterprises may not have the budget to operate short video accounts. The cost of placing ads on Dou+ alone is at least a few thousand a month. If you fully understand the information, you may save a lot of marketing costs.

3. Create differentiated content based on platform user attributes

This is actually difficult for small teams to create because of limited resources and they may not be able to take into account differentiated operations on multiple platforms. But from the perspective of the platform, the platform definitely hopes that you can adapt your creations to the needs of the platform's own users.

Now everyone knows that the shorter videos on the Tik Tok platform have a medium to high completion rate, making it easier to become famous through the short, flat and fast platform gameplay. But if this gameplay is copied to Bilibili, where long videos are prevalent, the data will be almost bleak.

Many times, people know what is right, but they often don’t actually take action to do the obviously right thing. In fact, the reason behind this is efficiency considerations.

For short video teams, the cost of simultaneously moving the same content to multiple platforms is much lower than the cost of customizing content for each platform individually. Therefore, even if some efficiency in increasing fans is sacrificed, it is acceptable. Once an organization decides to focus on a certain type of platform, it will often begin to seriously consider the content direction that the platform's users really like.

In the process of short video operation, I found that the higher the quality of the content, the easier it is to be popular on all platforms.

What is quality? Quality means scarcity. For example, accounts such as "This is not scientific", "Crayon and Xiaoxun", "Wonderful Museum", and "Fang Qi Kiki" can become the platform's top evaluation standards from video production to content core. The difficulty and cost of creating such accounts are not small, but the content of such accounts has a strong life cycle and is less likely to encounter the problem of "not adapting to the local environment" after the content is placed on the new platform.

If you have confidence in creating high-quality content, then you might as well do the difficult but right thing.

Author: Tian Xin

Source: Operator's Notes