2021 will still be a year of rapid development for short videos, and the Xiaohongshu platform has also provided huge traffic support for short video notes. In order to help brands and influencers create high-quality popular notes, Qiangua Data compiled a 4,000-word list of key points for video note creation based on comparative analysis of big data and notes.

According to Qiangua data statistics, the average number of likes for the highest-rated video notes and the top ten most popular notes in the past 7 days, 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year are higher than those for picture and text notes. As time goes by, the popularity of video notes is growing faster, and the popularity gap with picture and text notes is gradually widening.

It can also be seen from the figure that the rapid growth period of picture and text notes is 1 month, while the rapid growth period of video notes is within half a year. Video notes have the advantage of long-term exposure.

With the development and growth of the short video industry, Xiaohongshu has also increased its support for video notes traffic, and video notes have become the preferred choice for brand commercial cooperation. By analyzing and comparing video notes, we organize the key points of video note creation and provide suggestions and references for brands and influencers to create high-exposure video notes.

01 Screening of advertising experts

In terms of promotion selection, brands should choose to cooperate based on the influencer’s account attributes and fan attributes, so that the brand traffic obtained is more accurate.

1. Expert content area

For example, the note that ranks first among the popular commercial video notes in the past month is "Medical Students Teach You How to Use Acid Peeling? The Joy of Turning Oily Skin into Dry Skin". The expert @Ms. Mao, from her own "medical student" perspective, recommends the "LEAF SIMPLE" three-dimensional salicylic acid cotton pads to fans. She first talks about the common types and methods of acid peeling, and compares the ingredients, and then elaborates on the advantages of the product in a demonstration of use, which is very convincing.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

From Qiangua Data-Expert Analysis, it can be seen that the main note categories of expert @Ms. Mao are skin care and beauty, accounting for 41.18% and 17.65% respectively. Secondly, there are some notes on medical health, accounting for 5.88%. In general, the note types are concentrated and the account attributes are obvious.

Among the note types in the past 180 days, there are 69 video notes, accounting for 82%, which shows that the expert is mainly good at creating notes based on videos. When brands choose video influencers to target, they can judge whether the influencer has the experience and ability to create video notes based on the type of notes they take.

2. Brands with experts

From the brands that the influencer has cooperated with in the past 30 days, it can be seen that the influencer is an absolute "ingredient party". Retinol, antioxidant, anti-aging, and acid removal are the keywords in the influencer's notes. Therefore, brands can use the brands that influencers have promoted in the past as a reference for cooperation and make precise placements.

3. Analysis of experts’ fans

At the same time, fan analysis shows that fans are interested in brands such as Kiehl's, Lancome, and Obiotherm that focus on ingredients, and the proportion of fans who prefer "skin care" is greater than "beauty". The influencers' accounts are vertical and high-quality.

02 Video Content

1. Video title and opening

The title of the note should be bold and intuitive, hit the user's pain points, or use attractive quantifiers, such as "The girl practiced the same ballet move for 8 years!" ”; or create a scene, such as “I picked up a blue cat next to the trash can.” And try to focus the tone on the first half of the title, which will be more impactful, such as "Saving the Clumsy! "Private Collection of Bangs Management Guide".

There are generally two forms of the beginning of a video. First, an opening remark that is very personal. An interesting or funny opening remark or personal introduction will also become a label and a memorable point for the expert. For example, the video of waist expert "Ru Mei Can't Earn Enough" opens with a sweet "Fat Bao" and a funny expression, making fans feel friendly and cute: "I like you calling me Fat Bao!", "Wow, I just want to hear you call me Fat Baoer".

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

The second is to get directly into the topic and start the video content. This is the form of most video notes on the Xiaohongshu platform, and it is simpler than the first one.

2. Content topics

Content topics are the key to attracting readers. To create hot content, you must first understand the hot topics. Qiangua Data's hot search word rankings provide users with weekly and monthly hot search word ranking references, and brands can use recent hot topics as the direction of their content delivery. For example, the hot search terms on Xiaohongshu from May 3 to May 9 were all related to "Mother's Day". As Mother's Day approaches, creating a note related to mother will attract more traffic.

By searching for hot search terms, brands can also understand the popularity trends of hot search terms and other related hot search terms, helping influencers insert more keywords in their note creation and attract more popularity.

3. Content Expression

Content cover and theme attract traffic, and content expression attracts fans. The content of short videos should not only be concise, but also express the content vividly and vividly in a short period of time. Whether it is an instructional video, a popular science video, a funny video or simply sharing life, it is necessary to create a sense of communication with the users in front of the screen. Compared with "this is the case", expressions such as "I'll teach you", "share with you" and "make you laugh" can better establish a relationship between experts and fans with users.

On this basis, some interesting verbal habits can also become the characteristic labels of influencers, such as the recently popular "giegie" (brother) and the "juemei" (sister) that the well-known top influencer Hu Chuliang likes to say, which has caused a trend-following craze on the Internet.

At the end of the video, the expert can add a small interactive session to guide fans to participate in the interaction, add notes, collections, comments and likes.

4. Editing rhythm

In addition to some costume and makeup-changing gameplay, the videos are often interspersed with special effects and exaggerated funny clips: a look, a complaint or an action to make the video more vivid and fun.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

In addition, some experts like to edit the entire video with one or a few sentences as the beat. The advantage is that it is not easy to cause auditory fatigue. The disadvantage is that the narration is not coherent with one or a few sentences as the beat. It is more suitable for sharing and complaining videos, but not suitable for plot narrative videos.

5. Business Notes

In addition to the above video note content creation points, there are other creation considerations for business notes.

① Sincere and thoughtful note content

With the development of the Internet, fans have become accustomed to the behavior of influencers "making money", but they also have higher and higher requirements for the content to be promoted. In order to "make money" openly and make fans happy to share and promote their content, influencers should treat business notes sincerely and attentively.

Sharing real usage is the basis. For example, influencer @DANA Jinbuzhong cooperated with the brand "AngelEyes" to promote concealer. The influencer used her own real unfiltered skin as the basis for use, allowing fans to see the obvious difference before and after using the product. In the video, the influencer also elaborated on the advantages and usage experience of the product based on her own experience. This note has been read 43,700 times and received 2,478 likes, far exceeding the average level of the expert.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

② Creative and interesting forms of expression

It is important not only to share authentic user experiences, but also to share in a fun and interesting way.

For example, this business cooperation note between expert @养乐多多多 and the brand "Taodouwanguo" titled "Who would have thought that my cat and I would hurt each other in this way" starts with the daily troubles of pet keepers and introduces Taodouwanguo pet deodorant spray through the interesting topic of "revenge on cats", allowing users to recommend the product while finding it interesting.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

This business note has been read 1.5553 million times, received 148,100 likes, 27,400 collections, and 11,100 shares, with an excellent promotion effect.

03 Video Cover

The notebook attracts attention from the cover. Xiaohongshu has always attracted users with its exquisite note content, and video notes are no exception, with the cover being the first track. As the Xiaohongshu community grows and develops, more and more content is added, and the covers are expressed in various forms.

1. Video size

According to the publishing rules of Xiaohongshu video notes, the cover is selected in the video. Bloggers usually insert the cover image in the first second of the video. It is easy to select and does not affect the video content.

There are three video sizes on the Xiaohongshu homepage: vertical 3:4, square 1:1, and horizontal 4:3. Other rectangular sizes will be automatically cropped or filled to 3:4 or 4:3 see-through, for example, 9:16 will be filled to 3:4 see-through, and 16:9 will be automatically cropped to 4:3 see-through.

Judging from the screen ratio of the horizontal and vertical versions, a 3:4 size ratio is recommended, which can both retain the complete cover content and occupy the largest screen page.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu Discovery Home Page

If you shoot a horizontal video and want to occupy a larger vertical space, you can use Xiaohongshu's built-in fill canvas function, select the desired color to fill it into the vertical size, and add a large title in the blank canvas area, you can still achieve the effect of vertical screen.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu Discovery Home Page

2. Cover content

In the Qiangua Data popular note search rankings, we can see that the main video covers have the following forms:

① Close-up or close-up photography

The close-up character cover has a strong visual sense and can intuitively express the content of the video notes.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

② Pure headline

Using a pure large title is visually monotonous, but if the title is vivid and interesting, it can be as attractive as the content cover.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

③ Comparison chart

The comparison picture cover has the strongest visual impact. It can not only intuitively express the content of the video notes, but also arouse the user's sense of immersion and curiosity. This is also the video cover most used by beauty and skin care bloggers.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

④ Color wins

This type of cover is mainly seen in home furnishings, food and beverages, and wedding notes. The key words are: warm colors, high saturation, and healing.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

Using not only one of the above forms, or using contrast pictures + large titles, or using close-up images + contrast pictures, etc., can help achieve multiple eye-catching effects.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

04 Video Time

Qiangua Data has compiled statistics on the [top 100 most popular video notes in the past 7 days], and the average duration is 1:66. The longest video note is an article titled "It's so rare for a Chinese-language film to have such a scale! 》, which is 14:59 long; the shortest video note is a 6-second video posted by Zhao Lusi.

Although Xiaohongshu launched the video account function in 2020 and supports the release of videos up to 15 minutes long, in the era of fragmented information, video notes need to quickly attract attention within users' fragmented time. According to Wistia's research and statistics on video big data, a 2-minute video can generate excellent engagement. It is generally recommended to control the length of videos to within 2 minutes.

Image: Wistia

Even for teaching and popular science videos, it is recommended to control the length within 5 minutes. This type of video can easily make people feel tired, so it is recommended to split it into small clips and release it to form a series, which can attract fans' continued attention. For example, the “Hard Candy Video” that ignited the topic of gender knowledge on Xiaohongshu in April had the longest note at 5:46 and an average note length of 3:47.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu popular notes

So what types of video content are suitable for retention time? Qiangua Data conducted a comparative analysis of long videos in popular video notes and found that the common point of popular long videos is: sense of story.

For example, the dog training video "Wrong Education Makes Big Bear Mentally Disordered" ranked first in the real-time note list in the past 6 hours, and its related comment word cloud includes: chasing drama, preview of the next episode, pitiful, distressed, come on, etc. Through the fan portrait analysis of the notes, it can also be seen that the labels of the fan group are not related to pets. Fans are moved by the story of the dog and its owner, and are attracted by the comparison between the dog before and after training. This type of video is suitable for long duration.

Therefore, 2 minutes is the best choice for general videos, but you still need to choose the most suitable video length based on the content, target audience and scenario.

05 Video Release

1. Release time

According to Qiangua data, the active time of Xiaohongshu users is mainly concentrated in the lunch break from 11:00 to 14:00 and the rest time from 18:00 to 22:00. Experts can give priority to these time periods for posting notes, especially junior experts and amateurs.

The publishing time of the note is also related to the account attributes, note type, and fan group. Outfit notes are suitable for posting at night, as users can decide what to wear for the next day by checking outfit notes; travel check-in notes are suitable for posting on Thursdays and Fridays, as users can search travel notes to explore stores when holidays are approaching; food notes are suitable for posting before meals to stimulate users' appetite.

The following is an analysis and comparison of the top fans of the four major industries of cosmetics, skin care, food, and maternal and child care in the past month:

Based on data reference, you can get exposure bonus by constantly testing the best drainage time that matches your note attributes.

2. Topics and Tags

When posting notes, including topics for participation can help junior experts and amateurs gain initial traffic; relevant tags of note positioning, brand, film, television, and books can make note push more accurate; these are traffic pools that cannot be ignored.

06 Conclusion

Video creation is not a simple reference. To create a content style that is unique to you, you still have to return to exploring the content of the influencer himself.