9 methods for selecting topics for short video operations, super comprehensive!

In short video creation, topic selection means the direction of creation, represents the views and positions conveyed to the outside world, and also represents what value and output can be brought to users. The content topics we choose represent the character and content positioning we can shape.

Before creating a topic, we need to understand the user group we serve, understand their content needs through the user portrait and growth path of this group, and truly choose the creative direction based on user needs.

From the perspective of content creation, we can usually find topics from daily accumulation, reference to popular products, keeping up with peers, and catching hot spots.

However, for novices, it is not an easy task to find a topic that suits them by accurately learning from popular products, keeping up with peers and catching up with hot topics. This requires gradual learning and training to truly find the creative direction, otherwise we may become the "cannon fodder" of hot topic creations. After all, for the activities promoted by relevant platforms and hot topics of public concern, there are many participants. The platform will only selectively select works that are self-assessed as having high quality and are loved by users. No matter the number of fans or the number of views, novices can naturally be compared with masters.

The essence of short videos is to establish connections between people through content. Behind the connections are trust, dependence, and companionship. Therefore, our original intention in creating content is to build trust and a sense of involvement with users. Only in this way can creation achieve deep connection and trust between creators and users.

From the perspective of establishing trust and a sense of involvement with users, we can divide topic selection methods into nine types. By positioning ourselves based on our own content and reinterpreting existing topic materials from a different perspective, we will find that finding a suitable topic is also very easy.

Whether we stand from the user's perspective, or learn from popular products and pay attention to peers to gain experience and inspiration, using storytelling as a way to select topics can convey the opinions and values ​​we want to express to users. Storytelling means looking at the world and communicating with the world with story thinking. It is an important thinking ability that helps us win the future.

After we obtain creative direction and inspiration through various channels, we can apply this question: Can we express it in the form of storytelling? Can users accept and recognize it better? When we use storytelling thinking to tell a topic, it will bring a different presentation effect.

There is a creator of educational videos who shares knowledge about children's education and growth, and each time he provides solutions to the problems children encounter in their growth. The initial presentation method was for real people to appear on camera to interpret the questions and then give answers, but it has always been lukewarm. Afterwards, he changed his creative ideas: he used storytelling as the entry point for topic selection every time. Not only did the number of views soar, but the number of likes and shares also increased day by day. Therefore, every time the creator chooses a topic, in addition to referring to conventional hot spots, needs and other dimensions, the most important selection criterion is story thinking.

When we use story thinking as a topic selection method, we should pay attention to the following two points.

First, the story topic needs to use specific characters and scenes. When we use story thinking as the entry point for topic selection, we cannot just tell stories that are vague, without basis and source, but should have specific scenes, events, and characters, and increase the persuasiveness of the views through detailed and real stories.

Second, the story selection adheres to the principle of one near and one far, and has a cognitive basis. One is the near one, which is to use the stories of our family, friends, colleagues, etc. around us as the entry point; the other is the far one, which is to use historical events that have happened, celebrity anecdotes, etc. as the entry point. Both of these points must follow the principle that users have a certain cognitive basis, that is, the general public knows them, and they are not unrelated, otherwise the introduction of the story would be meaningless.

The essence of the question-setting method of selecting topics is that when we encounter a topic, we use reverse thinking to see the value of the other side of the topic. When we use questions as a way to enter the topic selection, it will easily allow users to enter the thinking path we set, arouse their attention and thinking, and users are also willing to follow us with an exploratory mentality to find solutions behind the problems. So, when you have some topics prepared but don’t know what to do, you can think about the other side of the problem by asking questions, and then use the questioning method as a way to tell the content.

For example, creators of emotional videos usually focus on how men and women get along with each other and how to resolve emotional confusions, and usually provide solutions to problems in specific scenarios. However, using the question-setting method will give ordinary topics different answers. The creator chose the topic "What's the use of a girlfriend?", which immediately gave the question a mind-blowing, open-ended answer, and made the work a popular short video.

When we use questions as the starting point for topic selection, we should ask more whys in normal topic selection, use reverse thinking to expand with questions, and let users follow the path of the questions step by step to find the answers.

Feelings refer to a person's state of mind or emotions. External influences or internal psychological activities will have an impact on our emotions. Simply put, sentiment is the expression of emotion. When we choose a topic, we can ask ourselves in advance: What kind of emotional atmosphere can this topic help users create? Is it possible to make users resonate with the content by creating emotions? By talking about emotions as a starting point, we can find the power to touch users deep in their hearts and build trust with them through content.

A music video creator often publishes his works in the form of "music + real people". Although the subject matter each time is currently popular or well-known music, the overall effect is not very good.

When he used talking about feelings as the entry point for the topic, changed the music to classic hits that were once widely circulated, and matched it with the video style of the old era, it awakened many people's memories of the past and won everyone's love.

Talking about feelings means thinking about our topics from a different perspective, to see if they can be substituted in an emotional way and become the main direction of creation.

Creating suspense means that after we find a topic, we tell the story by setting up suspense, rather than giving the answer directly in a straightforward manner. This method of topic selection is to ask yourself in advance when facing a topic: Can it be told to users in a suspenseful way? Is it possible to use flashback method to reveal the secret layer by layer?

There is a creator who shoots Vlogs to record daily life. He usually prepares some topics about daily life in advance. He often records them in the first person, or executes them around a goal. Relatives and friends may also appear in the middle. Afterwards, he adopted the method of creating suspense. Every time he would ask himself in advance whether this topic could create suspense first and then attract users to watch.

For example, the theme of one episode was to record one's first experience as a tutor. The content first showed a shot of several parents surrounding oneself, without telling the truth. The real person then came on camera and said that his first experience as a tutor brought him a lot of insights. As the content of the video unfolded layer by layer, the truth was finally revealed. It turned out that the children particularly liked his teaching method, and the children's families wanted him to continue to be a tutor, but the creator had other arrangements, and the other party thought there were other problems, so the scene at the beginning with a group of people surrounding him appeared, which made people think a lot.

Authoritative interpretation means using one's own solid knowledge background, professional level or work experience as the main content, and giving answers in one's own style around specific issues.

When we choose authoritative interpretation as the topic, we can filter out a lot of content that seems popular and hot but is actually irrelevant to ourselves, and instead concentrate on working in our own field, so as to win the trust of users. For example, creators of health videos often have more health topics to choose from, but if some of the topics do not match their own knowledge background and experience level, then using this topic will not only not add points to their account, but will also gradually reduce users' trust in them.

The essence behind authoritative interpretation is trust, which requires us to delve vertically into familiar fields when choosing topics and to provide solutions in our own style in a professional manner, so that we can gain recognition from more and more users.

Different from the inherent advantages of authoritative interpretations, anti-"authoritative" interpretations are about changing one's way of thinking to find solutions to problems. This approach can serve to differentiate one's own positioning. For example, creators of life-related videos will mostly choose life skills as their topic selection. One creator used an anti-"authoritative" interpretation method as the topic selection standard and created the content "I've been using mosquito coil holders for 30 years, and it turns out I was using them wrongly". He questioned the traditional method of using mosquito coil holders and adopted an alternative method. The number of likes soared to one million in a short period of time.

The anti-"authoritative" explanation is to look at the topic from a different perspective and put forward different viewpoints, opinions and insights. Under the premise that the same content is saturated, there will not be the embarrassment of no one paying attention to the content, and it will also gain the favor of users because of the unique and novel interpretation.

Speaking with details means that when we are faced with some topics, we should not only approach them from a macro and intuitive perspective, but also start from specific details and discover different angles of the topic. For example, the news of a celebrity’s wedding becomes a hot topic for a while. Video creators in the emotional field often start from traditional topics such as the standards for getting married and when is the right time to get married. However, a creator in the emotional field discovered from a hot event that on the day of the celebrity's wedding, his ex-girlfriend also showed up at the wedding. Based on this detail, she created the content "How to get along after we break up". She not only put forward her own views, but also taught men and women how to say goodbye to the past and welcome the future in a relationship, which instantly won the love of many users.

When we create topics in a way that "speaks with details", we should not just stay on the surface of the topic, but dig deep into the hidden details to find the unknown side, help ourselves develop new ideas, and bring differentiated interpretations and answers.

Based on "speaking with details" as the basis for topic selection, we must dig deep into the details that are related to the event, indispensable, resonant and thought-provoking, and then create content in a way of seeing the big picture from the small.

The topic selection method of data argumentation is that we use the logical method of data argumentation to prove the opinions and insights we express, allowing users to re-recognize the world or obtain new value through rational thinking. For example, the creator of a knowledge video uses data to demonstrate the content of "If there were only 100 people on Earth", and uses numerical distinctions to let you see the diversity of the world: 5 in North America, 9 in Latin America, 10 in Europe, 16 in Africa, 59 in Asia, and only 1 in Australia; 12 speak Chinese, 6 speak Spanish, 5 speak English, and the remaining sixty or seventy speak more than 7,000 other languages... Based on the assumption that there are only 100 people on Earth and different dimensions as the premise, these 100 people are distinguished, which opens our eyes and allows us to see the diversity of the world.

Using data-based reasoning to select topics can, on the one hand, use clear and intuitive logic to explain a complex idea or problem, and on the other hand, allow users to easily understand the value conveyed by the creator.

People who frequently shop online will be tempted to place an order because of a perfect seller’s show, and will often quickly buy a product after seeing the seller personally demonstrate the benefits of a product in some live broadcast rooms. In fact, these can all be understood as demonstration effects. This is also an important method for us to choose topics.

The method of using demonstration effect as a topic selection is to combine one's own positioning with personal experience, tests, demonstrations, etc. to convey valuable information to users, narrow the distance between each other, and increase trust.

Please note that the demonstration effect topic selection method can present the content to users in a visual way, which can help users make better decisions in terms of viewing experience.

When we use the demonstration effect topic selection method, the results may not necessarily be unexpected, but they must be well-summarized and valuable information. For example, creators of clothing and beauty products use demonstration effects to prove their excellent technology or high-quality products. The timing of topic selection should be convenient for visual language presentation, and the content should be the most concerned and most needed by most users. The creators of unboxing and review videos may not necessarily present excellent products in the end, but the results must be objective and fair, and they should strive to provide users with a certain reference through their professional level.

In fact, there are many ways to select topics for short videos. The most effective method is to learn and apply it flexibly and find topics that suit you in different forms.

These nine topic selection methods not only change in form, but also allow us to not simply borrow from popular products or ride on hot topics, but to establish trust and a sense of immersion with users through content from our own perspective. Behind this is the accurate control of topic selection. They help us find the source of the topic and grasp it accurately, which is very important.

Author: Hot short video

Source: Hot short video