As an account operator, I pray for the birth of a hit product every day and wait for the 99+ notification in the message center, but I often fall into this feeling:

(1) Before releasing a video, one is unsure about the data and has no confidence;

(2) Imitating a popular product, but the other product became popular while I could not;

(3) They believe that the Douyin recommendation algorithm is a mystery and blame the algorithm when they cannot find a reason for the bad data;

(4) When you wake up, your video goes viral for no apparent reason;

The essence behind these problems is: you have not yet mastered the core secret of popular videos.

Hot products are unpredictable, but there are underlying rules to follow.

Creators cannot guarantee a hit, but by using the underlying rules as a reference and managing each piece of content with the intention of pursuing a hit, they can at least increase the probability of success, stabilize the frequency of hit output, and greatly save the time period for account growth. Over time, this ability can be internalized.

The prerequisite for making a hit product is to study it first. For a starting account, borrowing from popular high-quality content and reprocessing it can help you find the feel of content creation more quickly. After constant exploration, I gradually formed my own personal style in topic selection.

Therefore, I sorted out 100 educational short videos released by Douyin since 2020 with more than 50,000 likes. Combined with my own practical experience in running a short video account, I summarized some characteristics of explosive products and formed a formula for producing explosive content. I hope to provide you with some help.

Selection criteria:

(1) There is no industry standard definition for a hit. For educational products, it usually means more than 10,000 likes or more than 1 million views.

(2) The videos are limited to authors in the field of education, and are mainly in the form of simple and operable oral broadcasts;

It is both a formula and a self-check list. Before you start shooting a video, you can check each item one by one to see where you can optimize.

To borrow a phrase often said in the circle, it is unpredictable whether a hit will come out. The only thing we can control is to manage every piece of content with the heart of pursuing a hit.

1. Topic Selection

The topic selection can determine more than 70% of the success or failure of a video. Because topic selection is the starting point of creation. If the topic selection fails, the subsequent script, shooting, and post-production will be out of the question. To put it more seriously, it is a waste of time.

In particular, Tik Tok videos usually start with Siri voice, which occupies the golden 3 seconds at the beginning. Whether the topic is interesting directly determines whether users will continue to watch.

Topic selection formula:

Good topic = wide audience + value

Hot topic selection = wide audience + leverage + value + emotion

(1) Wide audience

This means that the topic should reach as many people as possible and should not be particularly niche;

(2) Leverage

Such as celebrities and hot topics; don’t underestimate the power of hot topics.

In addition to traditional festivals, social hot spots (college entrance examination, summer vacation), and popular film and television variety shows, you can also pay attention to popular BGM, topics or activities on the Douyin platform and use these contents to bring traffic to your account.

For example, @北大姐王宇 posted a message on July 9th, when the college entrance examination was over, when universities were chosen and applications were filled out, titled [How difficult is it to get into Tsinghua University or Peking University from Henan? 】's video received more than 800,000 likes, far exceeding the usual video data, and the number of fans increased from more than 100,000 to more than 700,000.

But remember to avoid major network-wide hot topics such as national mourning days, major political events, and celebrity cheating when posting videos. At such times, the platform's recommendation mechanism is often highly centralized, and the number of video recommendations unrelated to the hot topics will decrease.

(3) Value is “about me”

As for educational or knowledge-based videos, they are generally either necessary and useful, or can increase knowledge and add topics for conversation (even if the knowledge is weird);

When planning a topic, you should ask yourself: If I were the target user, why would I watch this video? (It is not ruled out that the anchor has a strong personal charm and the fans come simply to watch the anchor)

(4) Emotions are a further level of resonance

While being "related to me", it can also stimulate certain underlying emotions, such as curiosity, counterintuitiveness (new knowledge), nostalgia, feelings, etc. Such videos are often prone to comments and reposts, and comments and reposts are the two core data indicators in Douyin's recommendation algorithm, and their weight is even greater than that of likes.

As shown in the example:

Examples of emotional resonance points

Of course, in addition to the above four factors, the most important thing for a hot topic is what the target users like to watch. Consumers of educational videos have seven preferred content directions, which I have sorted out in another article.

When it comes to different fields and positioning in the education track, there are great differences in user portraits and content preferences, and we need to work hard to study the popular topics in our field.

The classics of the graphic era are all worthy of being remade in the form of short videos (not plagiarism, but respecting the originality and copyright).

Script

After the topic is finalized, it is time to enter the critical script phase. The same topic that is expected to be a hit may have very different effects in the hands of different copywriters or directors. Moreover, the post-editing effect usually depends on the level of the script, so the importance of the script is self-evident.

Script creation formula:

Good script = concise + human language + rhythm + visual matching

Popular script = concise + interesting language + rhythm + visual impact

(1) Streamlining

The shorter the video script, the better, without any nonsense. If there is a second less in duration, it will be a second less; if there is a word less in the script, it will be a word less; if there is a frame less in post-production, it will be a frame less.

Therefore, if the speaking speed is 300 words per minute, the number of words in a spoken script of less than 1 minute should be controlled within 300 words at most. In the later editing, fast-forwarding should be done based on individual speaking speed differences.

(2) Interesting

The most feared thing about practical educational videos is that they are filled with professional terms that are difficult to understand or too boring, so they must be spoken in plain language; short videos, as an entertainment platform, place more emphasis on the attributes of being fun and relaxing, so the script content must be both entertaining and educational (useful and interesting, both).

(3) Rhythm

The video has a brisk pace, and the first 3 seconds must be exciting and eye-catching; the rhythm in the middle must also be well controlled, with a hook (highlight, reason) every 5 seconds to ensure that the audience can watch it, mainly to increase the completion rate of the video. Generally speaking, a completion rate of ＞20% is acceptable, and a completion rate of ＞30% is good;

(4) Vision

Visual mainly refers to the presentation of the script, including the performance of the actors, the shooting scenes, and post-production editing.

A good script needs to find the most matching visual presentation form. The same script, presented by different actors, will have completely different effects, so here are some suggestions:

First, we need to select teachers with good visual image and expressiveness in the early stage, and tailor the topics and scripts for the teachers who will appear on camera, taking full account of the teachers' operability;

The second is to set up the shooting scene .

For example: classrooms, blackboards, whiteboards, and offices are suitable for teachers; campuses, playgrounds, basketball courts, and libraries are suitable for senior students; study rooms, bookshelves, and study rooms are suitable for learning bloggers; if there is no real background, you can use background hanging cloth or wallpaper instead; for light dramas, you must find a real scene environment that matches the topic;

Third, you should be familiar with the common forms of expression of educational short videos and find the best form for the script (split screen, special effects, animation, color tone, transition, emoticons, BGM, sound effects, voice-over, material mixing, etc.). You can communicate and discuss more with post-production to let the editing add icing on the cake to the content.

Summary of common forms

Finally, let’s summarize the content production formula for popular educational short videos:

Hot-selling video = hot-selling topic (wide audience + leveraging trend + value + emotion) + hot-selling script (concise + interesting human language + rhythm + visual impact)

At the same time, there are some things to note, such as: keeping the content vertical to make the recommendation portrait more accurate; when publishing videos, it is recommended to find the peak time when fans are online. Because Kuaishou uses a double-column waterfall flow, you should also pay attention to the cover design.

The formula for hot-selling products summarized above is of reference value as an abstract distillation of universal underlying laws.

At the same time, we have to admit that these standards may ensure that your video reaches a passing score, but they cannot guarantee that it will become a hit. After all, a hit has a certain element of luck involved.

Affected by the recommendation mechanism, it is unpredictable to create a hit. A hit is born in agony. What we can do is to manage every piece of content with the heart of pursuing a hit, adjust the direction and continue to release.

Fortunately, once a hit product emerges, it can be copied continuously until you can no longer produce videos.

At the same time, the current content of short video platforms is severely homogenized, and users' aesthetic tastes are constantly changing. If you want to create a big hit, you must find original and differentiated entry points in content or visual form to break through aesthetic fatigue and make the audience's eyes shine.

Author: Gao Lele

Source: Gao Lele (liaoliaociyuan)