Talk about 5 distribution mechanisms of video content

What position does content distribution occupy in our lives? It's very important, just like your eyes, they determine what you can see. Everything you can see on the Internet is deliberately arranged by humans.

There are many things in the world that do not exist, but are not seen by you. For example, it’s a bit like when you go to a supermarket and see the merchandise on the shelves, and what merchandise is placed where. As for whether the goods you want to buy can appear on the supermarket shelves, it depends on the upstream distribution and procurement strategy.

The general process of content production and consumption is as follows:

The core logic is that products must be matched with corresponding markets and profits must be maximized through placement and display.

Taking supermarkets as an example, supermarkets will arrange (distribute) goods according to promotional attributes, and arrange them according to regular goods, promotional goods, inventory goods, etc., such as on shelves, piles, warehouses, etc. Arrange products by category, such as fresh food, grains and oils, daily necessities, snacks and other different areas.

Content products can be roughly divided into graphic content, audio content and video content according to their attributes. This article mainly discusses the distribution of video content.

We can think of "video content" as "goods" waiting to be put on the shelves. According to different attribute classifications, it can be divided into those that require human distribution (editor recommendations) and those that are automatically distributed (machine algorithms, social).

1. Human Distribution

Currently, most manual distribution methods are for editors to screen and label the original content, and then configure it in different resource locations, such as banner ads on common content platforms, channel recommendations, and content-related recommendations.

For manual distribution, the workload mainly lies in the input and output of content resources. The input is mainly reflected in the review of content, and the output is reflected in the display strategy.

In terms of position, it is divided into regular position and special position:

Regular positions are fixed display locations, such as content platforms, which are usually what editors want you to see (screenshots). These are regular positions. If there is nothing wrong, normal regular content will appear here.

Special locations need to be purchased or specially applied for, such as advertising spaces in prime locations during different time periods, search rankings, content navigation bars, etc. These are eye-catching and usually high-quality content that relies on operational strategies and belongs to the marketing position.

2. Automatic Distribution

Automatic distribution mainly relies on machine or algorithm recommendations. The so-called "one thousand faces for one thousand people" and "information cocoon" are caused by machine recommendations. Common distribution methods are as follows:

1. Distribution based on user and product attributes

This distribution method mainly relies on the attributes of the user. For example, a content platform may push different content based on the gender of men and women. For example, Taobao displays different products based on the user's shopping preferences. Another example is a food delivery platform that recommends nearby restaurants based on your geographic location.

2. Distribution based on user behavior

This mainly relies on the positive and negative feedback of user behavior to make corrections to content recommendations. For example, if you like or comment on content, more of this content will be displayed later. This is why many video platforms require you to like, pay attention to and comment. The more positive feedback, the more traffic exposure it will get.

3. Distribution based on user social relationships

Another way is to distribute based on social relationships. This method is often used in WeChat Video Accounts. For example, if your work is liked by a friend, it will be seen by his friends. If his friends like it again, it will be seen by more friends. If your content is good enough, it can become popular all over the Internet after being spread several times. In this case, it is the user feedback that determines the amount of content distribution.

4. Distribution based on recommendation algorithm

This is also a common type of distribution. Your video will be displayed first to a small range of users. If it receives more positive and negative feedback, it will gradually be placed in a larger pool for further exposure. More positive and negative feedback will further expand the exposure.

The main assessment indicators include: completion rate, number of likes, number of comments, number of reposts, etc. Depending on different strategies, the distribution priority of these factors is also different. Similarly, if there is negative feedback, the content will be downgraded accordingly, and in serious cases, there will even be warnings, deletions, or account bans.

This is also a common traffic distribution method used by short video platforms. This distribution method causes the top content to receive more exposure, the content becomes more and more "centralized", and polarization becomes increasingly obvious. Therefore, there will be many big Vs in Douyin, but if it is a new user without much content, its growth will be slower.

5. Recommended distribution based on the product itself

At the product level, different platforms have different recommendation logics. For example, when Douyin is opened, it plays by default and pushes the main content, but Kuaishou gives users more choices. This is determined by the different product positioning.

The centralized and decentralized display methods also make Kuaishou and Douyin have many differences in content types.

Because TikTok has a lot of popular content and encourages similar creations, it looks more "homogeneous" overall, like a big stage, and sometimes it is easy to get aesthetically fatigued. But the biggest difference of Kuaishou is that it can show a lot of content about ordinary people, and life here is "down to earth". You will see all kinds of human life on Kuaishou, and different ways of life can be recommended, seen, and respected.

3. Summary

The above are several common content distribution forms of short videos. Most of them will not be used alone. In order to deliver content to users more efficiently, they are usually used in combination. If you have any new discoveries, please leave a message to communicate with me~

Author: charming

Source: charming