Data interpretation: In the post-bonus era, new media’s trend changes and pain point solutions

In an era of rapid information change, mobile Internet is undergoing earth-shaking changes. In the huge and complex ecosystem of new media , how to seize the opportunities behind 100,000+?

Xigua Jun will analyze the market environment and opportunities of New Media 2.0 from a data perspective through Xigua Assistant’s big data and our long-term observation and analysis experience of the new media market.

Since its launch in August 2012, the WeChat public platform has been booming as a test of the development of self-media . By the end of 2015, the number of registrations reached more than 10 million in three years. That was the best gold-digging period for self-media people. News of public account financing emerged one after another, and content entrepreneurship was thriving.

But this momentum took a sharp turn for the worse in 2016. In 2016, the total number of public accounts is expected to exceed 20 million. With the intensification of market competition and the shift of user attention, the cost of acquiring customers continues to increase, the growth of fans is weak, and the average opening rate of articles has fallen below 5%...

• In terms of account positioning, local public accounts are the largest in number, emotional and inspirational public accounts are second, and funny public accounts are third.

• Judging from the number of tweets in a single time, 65% of the public accounts send at least 4 tweets each time, and about 16% of the public accounts send out only one picture or text at a time. Pushing multiple pictures and texts at a time becomes the first choice.

• In September 2016, Xigua Assistant detected accounts with more than 20,000 active followers, which posted a total of 9,004,926 posts. Among them, 56.4% are graphic content, 33.9% are videos, and pure text accounts for only 9.7%.

So, in the new media 2.0 era, what rules do the operations of public accounts show?

• Judging from the weekly posting habits of public accounts, the largest number of posts is posted on Tuesday and the least on weekends, but overall, there is not much difference in the number of posts on weekdays. Daily posting has become a habit for most public accounts.

• Judging from the hourly distribution of posting times on public accounts, 17:00, 18:00 and 20:00 are the peak times for posting, and there is also a small peak around 7:00 in the morning and 11:00 in the afternoon. These time points are when users just wake up, get off work, or take a break.

• Judging from the distribution of reading volume, Monday and Wednesday are small peaks in reading, while weekends continue to decline.

• Judging from the gender ratio and age distribution of public account fans, women are in the majority, accounting for 54.7%. Young users aged 25-39 are the main force of public accounts.

• Judging from the distribution of article readers, the proportions of each group are relatively close, with the proportion of users in the digital finance industry being slightly higher.

Even though they have a deep and clear understanding of the current situation of new media, the operational problems facing self-media people still bother them: content is stuck in a bottleneck, promotion channels cannot be found, and the appropriate way to realize revenue has not yet been found...

Users’ attention is seriously distracted. If the content output speed cannot be maintained at least once a day, it will be easily forgotten or even abandoned by users. High productivity is the basic requirement for new media editors.

But the problem is, even lovers can be speechless with each other. When facing the users on the other end of the network cable, how many topics are worth talking about, and how much content can be written?

If you are stuck in a content bottleneck, you can try these methods:

1. Topic interaction stimulates content creation

Let core users create valuable content and spread this content, this is what we call UGC. The topic collection that many public accounts like is a form of UGC.

For example, on the eve of Chinese Valentine's Day, a topic was launched: "Tell me why you have been single for so many years." During the National Day travel period, users were asked "What weird things did you and your travel companions encounter during your trip?"

It is impossible for you to experience all of life and see all of the scenery, but the users behind the public accounts are actually a hidden asset. Their insights, knowledge, and stories will open up new ideas for you.

2. Informants reveal information to keep track of industry trends

Given the operator's personal energy and vision, it is impossible to keep abreast of all the dynamics in the industry at all times. At this time, it is particularly important to set up a "disclosure mechanism" to further form a positive emotional interaction while using the power of fans to broaden the source of content.

As a local life portal platform, "Yiwu Shibaqiang" has set up a tip-off mechanism in its daily tweets, allowing fans to provide tips on local news and information. Once the content is adopted, the tipster will be given a bonus. This has led to more and more users participating, forming a situation of "national journalists."

The public accounts "Care for Gossip Growth Association", "New Oxygen", "Ya Jun's Useful Sharing", etc., also use the mechanism of "fan revelations" and "fan recommendations" as a supplement to content creation.

3. Let users participate in content creation

Not all public accounts such as "Tsinghua Nandu", "Actionist DreamList", "Uncle Buer", and "Ten Points Reading" are self-supplied, but this does not prevent them from growing into large accounts. Their content mainly relies on user submissions and reposts.

Because these public accounts are famous and have many fans, users can effectively attract fans to their own platforms by contributing to them.

Public accounts with a smaller scale can also make use of user submissions. For example, the public accounts "The Power of Cycling" and "Mermaid Line VS Vest Line" have specially opened columns about real people and real stories. The content is contributed by fans, who showcase their training results on the platform.

4. Alternative ways to output content

If the above methods cannot help you find inspiration for the topic, there is one last trick: send a picture, a voice clip, or a plain text message. Try not to waste the daily push opportunity, maintain interaction with users, and show your presence every day.

For example, "Serious Gossip" does not post on weekends, but it does not forget to post a picture. Yu Dian, the organizer of "Queenism", also often communicates with readers through voice. The voice form we are most familiar with is Mr. Luo, the "Logical Thinking" who insists on 60 seconds every day. These methods are all alternative ways of content output.

The battlefield of public accounts is already filled with smoke, with traffic polarization becoming increasingly serious. The big accounts are getting bigger and bigger. The number of fans of the public account "Youshu" soared to 7 million in 8 months, and the number of fans of the "Care for Gossip Growth Association" increased by 320,000 overnight after an article. Such explosive growth rate is unimaginable for the new generation of small accounts.

How to carve out a way to survive in the fierce battlefield? How to effectively gain user attention?

1. Guangdiantong paid promotion

(Guangdiantong advertising example)

"Guangdiantong" is a social advertising system launched by Tencent in March 2012, which charges fees based on the number of clicks. Under the premise of good optimization, the cost of GuangDianTong's precise users is generally 3 to 4 yuan per person.

2. Event promotion

If you want to increase your followers, interesting and fun event marketing is very important. Some public accounts themselves do not have particularly high attention, but through some online and offline activities, they have brought a large number of fans to their public accounts.

The experience activity "Southeast Asia International Volunteer Activity" of the public account "Hedgehog Internship" brought them more than 300,000 fans, and the "4-hour Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou" that went viral on the WeChat Moments of "New World" brought them more than 100,000 new fans.

3. Popular articles increase followers

High-quality content can effectively attract a group of precise users. Users follow the official account after being attracted by the articles, which means that they agree with the account's values. The retention rate is relatively high, and the match degree with the account's positioning will also be higher.

The article "Don't talk about spiritual practice at the age of hooking up" in the public account "The President Never Pretends" has been read more than 4 million times and has gained nearly 100,000 followers; the "Care for Gossip Growth Association" mentioned above launched an article during Wang Baoqiang's divorce case, "More than 100 hotel check-in records of Wang Baoqiang's former agent were exposed by his ex-wife! Wang Baoqiang only found out about Ma Rong’s cheating 2 days ago! ”, with 3.2 million readers and 320,000 new users.

However, it is quite difficult to increase followers by posting a hit article, as it not only tests the ability to create content, but is also limited by the speed of dissemination and involves a certain degree of randomness.

4. Submit your work to a large account

Accounts with original creative capabilities can try to submit content to large accounts with similar positioning, and use the large accounts’ brands and traffic to direct traffic to their own accounts.

In the early days of the public account "Li Xiaolang", it had only 10 basic fans. After contributing an article titled "You May Never Meet the Right Person in Your Life" to the public account "Alone", the number of fans increased to 4,000 on the same day.

5. Multi-platform distribution

Content entrepreneurship has entered the multi-platform era. In addition to the WeChat public platform , distribution platforms such as Toutiao , Penguin, Baijiahao, Yidian Zixun, UC, and Sohu have sprung up everywhere, with rapid momentum, and have gradually developed into sub-venues for content entrepreneurship.

Content entrepreneurs with originality, professionalism and verticality can still obtain enough users through multimedia platforms, even if they are in a niche field, rely on the long-tail effect to obtain rich profits, build individual brands, and direct traffic to the WeChat public platform.

The possibility of commercial monetization is the original driving force for the continued operation of official accounts. So, what are the monetization models of official accounts?

1. Traffic master

Monetizing traffic is the most common way for marketing accounts to make money. According to official WeChat regulations, original accounts with more than 10,000 followers and non-original public accounts with more than 20,000 followers can open traffic masters.

Although some accounts are eligible to activate traffic master, they have not activated it. This is because: on the one hand, these accounts have other ways to make money, and the income from those ways far exceeds the income from traffic masters; on the other hand, traffic master ads may affect user experience, so you must consider carefully when opening a traffic master.

2. Native Advertising

Native advertising is also a common way to monetize. The advertising fees for Mimi Meng ’s official account headlines have been rising steadily, from 200,000 to 500,000 per headline. In the foreseeable future, this price will only go up, not down.

Remember, reject the five black categories of ads (the five black categories of ads include medicines, medical devices, breast augmentation, weight loss, height increase, etc.). WeChat is increasingly strict in suppressing the five black categories of ads. Once they are launched, they will be deleted immediately and will seriously damage the image of the official account. Where possible, give priority to cooperating with big-brand advertisers. Economic benefits are one aspect, and on the other hand, big-brand advertising can also effectively enhance the brand image of the official account.

3. Book publishing

Content is the best commodity for original accounts. Whether it is earning royalties from writing articles or getting royalties from publishing books, both are relatively decent ways to monetize.

"Mimeng" published a new book "I Like This Utilitarian World", "Hey, Thirty Years Old" by "Master Ai in the Jianghu", and "How Tomorrow Will Be Depends on What You Do Today" by "The Third Young Master's Life Recorder" are all typical examples.

The threshold for book publishing is being lowered. As long as you have good writing or comic creation skills and a group of loyal readers and fans, publishing houses will come to you.

4. Paid communities

Paid communities are also a concept that everyone is familiar with. Through paid communities, high-quality fan users are screened to become members, and these high-quality users are given priority in serving them.

"Luoji Siwei" used to be a membership community in its early years. It sold 5,500 memberships in the first period and easily earned 1.6 million yuan. The public account "Binbin Youli" also makes profits through paid communities, with platinum members paying 539 yuan per year and diamond members paying 1,599 yuan per year.

Simply put, the key to the success of a paid community is that the services you provide in the community are valuable to users and allow them to improve themselves or achieve certain goals.

5. Paid courses

For public accounts with strong professionalism, offering paid courses is a good choice.

For example, the online course offered by the public account "Queenism" was 99 yuan per person in the first session, and 1,500 people paid; the second session was 68 yuan per person, and more than 2,300 people participated. Public accounts such as " Xinbang " and "Chazuo Academy" have also offered offline paid courses.

6. E-commerce

After the official account has gained influence, some people have tried to sell e-commerce derivatives on their own official accounts. For example, "Luoji Siwei" sells books on its official account. In 2014, it created the myth that "8,000 sets of book gift packages with a unit price of 499 yuan were sold out within 90 minutes", and the revenue was close to 4 million in one and a half hours.

Selling goods through e-commerce tests the operator's personal charm to a great extent. Simply put, users pay attention to you and buy your things because they want to live the kind of life you live, or the kind of life you describe. The brand image of your official account is the trust endorsement of these products.

In the decentralized Internet era, the ways of monetization of self-media are by no means limited to the six mentioned in this article. But if you look closely at all business models, you will find that they all follow this pattern: first you need to form your own brand value, then create value for users, and finally realize the realization of value.

We have reviewed the current situation and pain point responses in the new media 2.0 era, and explored the path of content entrepreneurship from transformation to monetization. So what trends will new media show in the future, and where will the traffic go?

The term “content e-commerce” appears more and more frequently, but do you really understand content e-commerce?

The traffic of content e-commerce comes from the content itself, which often stems from the identification of core values. It attracts traffic through content and then converts it into sales.

What is the difference between content e-commerce and traditional e-commerce?

Traditional e-commerce meets users’ shopping needs. The user’s shopping process is “I want to buy XXXX - where to buy - compare similar products in the market - select the desired product and place an order.” They solve issues such as product type, logistics, and price.

Content e-commerce creates user demand and solves the problem of "What is a good lifestyle? What can I buy to improve the quality of life?" It provides consumption advice and guides user consumption. Therefore, the ultimate goal of content e-commerce lies in content. There is no e-commerce without content.

In the future, content e-commerce will become the mainstream way for new media to achieve sustainable profitability, and it has broad business prospects, but it also means that it places higher demands on "content" and poses higher challenges to "operation."

At the beginning of 2016, short video apps exploded in popularity. In March, the news that " Papi Jiang " received a huge amount of financing of 12 million once again set off a craze for short videos, and the industry also predicted that short videos will become the next outlet for content entrepreneurship.

In the field of self-media where graphic and text content is severely homogenized, videos can convey information to users in a more three-dimensional and intuitive way, and gain a considerable number of users. Short videos are also becoming the content consumption habit of more and more people.

But in fact, it is not easy to gather traffic and realize commercial monetization through short videos. On the one hand, there is a certain technical threshold for video creation and editing. Everyone can write, but not everyone can shoot. On the other hand, the number of video self-media accounts that are eligible to undertake advertising is less than 5,000, and the time window has been shortened from 1 year to 1-2 months, making the channel to the top even narrower.

Is short video entrepreneurship a “real trend” or just a “rehashing of old ideas”? This is a matter of opinion.

Huajiao, Yizhibo, Yingke , Xiaokaxiu , Panda, Miaopai ... Since 2015, major Internet companies have invested strategic resources in the layout of video live streaming , and have rapidly developed and launched them at the speed of escaping.

In the fierce competition among major giants, we can also smell a clue: online live streaming, as an emerging social method, is triggering a new round of media revolution.

The advent of new media has brought audiences into a fragmented information age. From the emergence of clickbait titles to the 140-character limit on Weibo, fast-food culture has become prevalent.

With the migration of user behavior habits, online video live streaming has accelerated the transformation of information from pure text, graphics, audio and video to more advanced real-time image forms, allowing users to participate in the information creation process. At the same time, it also lowers the threshold for personal IP and accelerates content monetization.

From a 14-year-old Korean boy who earns tens of thousands of yuan a month by live-streaming his meals, to a female anchor who live-streamed herself sleeping and received a 70,000 yuan red envelope from Wang Sicong, the nation's husband, these incredible live-streaming contents and the economic value they create are reminding us that everything can create unpredictable value through live-streaming on the Internet.

This is an era where "everyone has the opportunity to become famous for 15 minutes". New media has changed the production methods and business models of traditional content in a devastating way, giving birth to one grassroots legend of "tens of millions" after another.

We will witness more legends, and we all have the potential to become legends.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media information flow

This article was compiled and published by @何十三由(APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!