Core strategies for new media operations

Many students working in new media often have these troubles: It feels like they have to update n platforms every day, but which one is the focus? When should we build a matrix and what should we pay attention to? What are the assessment criteria for new media among different departments?

With more and more new media platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin, a concept has begun to be frequently mentioned - the new media matrix. But I found that many students are troubled by the matrix every day, mainly due to the following reasons:

It feels like I have to update n platforms every day, but I don’t know which one is the focus;

I don’t know when to build the matrix and what to pay attention to;

What are the assessment criteria for new media between different departments?

This article attempts to answer the above questions and explore the new media matrix and operation methods.

1. What is the New Media Matrix?

To build a new media matrix, we must first understand what the matrix is. "Matrix" was originally a mathematical concept, referring to a set of complex numbers and real numbers arranged in a rectangular array. There is currently no unified definition of the new media matrix in the industry. I tend to define it as a combination of multiple new media channels that can reach the target group.

There are two types of matrices: horizontal matrix and vertical matrix.

1. Horizontal matrix

The horizontal matrix refers to the company's layout on the omni-media platform, including its own apps, websites and various new media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, Yidian Zixun, Penguin, etc. It can also be called the external matrix. Zhihu users have organized and classified some commonly used media platforms (as shown in Figure 4-2).

Figure 4-2 New Media Matrix (not a complete example)

2. Vertical Matrix

The vertical matrix mainly refers to the ecological layout of an enterprise on a certain media platform. It is the in-depth layout of its various product lines and can also be called the internal matrix. These platforms are generally large platforms, such as WeChat. On the WeChat platform, you can deploy subscription accounts, service accounts, communities, personal accounts and mini-programs. Table 4-2 lists some of the vertical matrices of WeChat, Toutiao and Weibo.

Table 4-2 Partial vertical matrix of WeChat, Toutiao and Weibo

2. The role of building a new media matrix for enterprises

The role of building a new media matrix is ​​mainly reflected in achieving content diversification, dispersing risks, and synergistically amplifying publicity effects.

1. Diversified content

Each platform has a unique content style. For example, official accounts are mainly text and pictures, Weibo is mainly short status messages of less than 140 words plus photos, and Tik Tok is mainly videos of 15 seconds to 1 minute. By establishing accounts on multiple platforms, companies can diversify their content formats and attract different audiences. For example, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China has settled in Bilibili, where post-00s gather, and released original videos to attract the attention of these young users. Users can post barrages and make comments.

2. Diversify your risk

If an enterprise operates on a certain platform and unfortunately a "black swan event" occurs, such as being blocked, all previous efforts will be wasted. In June 2017, major accounts including "Poisonous Tongue Movie" and "Care for Gossip Growth Association" were permanently banned. Prior to this, "Poisonous Tongue Movie" had made a related app to guide fans to the new platform in a timely manner, thus reducing the impact of the ban. Building a matrix is ​​also a reliable solution mentioned by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book "Antifragile" when encountering volatility and uncertainty.

3. Collaboratively amplify the publicity effect

After establishing the matrix, the products and tones of different platforms can complement each other. For example, for event marketing, you can first build momentum on Weibo, then conduct conversions on WeChat, and finally distribute brand PR releases on media sites such as Toutiao to achieve a synergistic and amplified marketing effect - users may see brand promotion on Weibo and have an impression of the product, and later see the brand promotion on WeChat, which will make them more likely to consume.

3. How to build a new media matrix?

After the above discussion, I believe everyone has a clear understanding of the concept of matrix and the significance of making a matrix. So how do we make a good new media matrix? There are six steps to making a matrix.

The first step is the sorting stage

The first step is to sort out the development stages of corporate new media. The new media matrix does not have to be built from the beginning, and the focus is different at different stages.

For example, for new media that are more media-oriented, building an external matrix during the startup period is mainly based on trial and error, and trying new platforms with dividends; building a matrix within WeChat requires first establishing an account to find the core focus.

Taking "Meilishuo" as an example, the construction of the matrix began in 2012. The external matrix was Weibo and QQ Space. Relying on the bonus period of QQ Space at that time, it quickly attracted more than 20 million users. At the end of 2012, "Meilishuo" also opened a WeChat subscription account.

By the growth stage, the external matrix has been formed, and WeChat’s internal matrix has been initially formed due to the initial differentiation of functions or populations. For example, in terms of the external matrix, "Meilisuo" developed Baidu Tieba, and in the WeChat internal matrix, it added a service account.

By the mature stage, the external matrix will mainly develop emerging traffic platforms, while the internal matrix of WeChat will be further subdivided. For example, "Meilishuo" entered the WeChat wallet's nine-square grid in 2015.

Step 2: Segment the population and their needs

After the company decides to build a matrix within WeChat, it needs to segment the target users.

The first step is to segment similar groups. Some companies operate for a certain group of people. For example, the reading account "Youshu" has mainly users who love reading, mostly women, and their ages range from 20 to 50 years old. During the growth period, as the number of users of "Youshu" increased, it differentiated into a group of mothers who were more interested in parent-child reading; and a group of working people who had a stronger need to learn spoken English. So "Youshu" built a matrix account within WeChat, as shown in the table.

Table 4-3 Incomplete examples of matrix accounts in “Youshu”

The second is the segmentation of different groups. The groups of people that some enterprises operate are not of the same type, so they need to subdivide the matrix to achieve classified operations. For example, both "Xue Ba Jun" and "Qian Liao" operate three types of groups (the operating targets of "Xue Ba Jun" are students + teachers + parents, and the operating targets of "Qian Liao" are listeners + lecturers + distribution agencies), and three accounts need to be created separately.

Step 3: Choose a platform

After determining the goals and operating objects of the new media, select the corresponding platform for matrix layout. The platform here mainly refers to the media or e-commerce platform that can be settled in. The selection of the platform is divided into three steps: preliminary selection, re-screening and confirmation.

(1) Primary election

First, you need to understand some common general content platforms. Some platform examples are shown in Figure 4-3. You should develop the habit of reading press releases so that you can be the first to know if any new media platforms appear.

Figure 4-3 Common new media external platforms

Next, preliminarily select a platform based on the company's vertical business. For example, photography companies can choose websites such as Fengniao.com, ZCOOL, and Pinterest; food companies can choose Douguo.com, Dianping.com, etc. You can refer to various App segmentation lists or vertical website lists to find these platforms.

(2) Rescreening

After the initial selection of the platform, the next step is to proceed to re-screening, which is to further screen the initially selected platform.

Suppose we operate a public account for photo social networking for young people. Based on the above principles, we have initially selected Weibo, WeChat, Yidian Zixun, BiliBili, Maimai, and Lofter as platforms. The next step is to conduct a re-screening to find the core operating platform. So how to conduct rescreening? It is necessary to conduct multi-dimensional assessment of these platforms. Here are some of my experiences.

First, evaluate the platform. The scoring criteria mainly depend on the platform type, its ranking among similar platforms, scale and maturity. The maturity is related to the length of time the platform has been established, user activity and commercial monetization. We can comprehensively consider various aspects to rate the platform and obtain Table 4-4 (1-5 points, the higher the score, the better).

Table 4-4 Platform Rating Table

Secondly, evaluate the enterprise. The enterprise here refers to the enterprise to which the platform belongs. There are three dimensions to consider:

• First, the status of the platform in the enterprise. For example, Lofter is not a key project in the entire NetEase system, so it was only given 1 point.
• Second, the platform’s potential for the company’s future. For example, Maimai did not receive much support from companies, so it was given 3 points.
• Third, the company’s current strength and future potential. The assessment of strength mainly examines financing or capital. If the company is not strong enough, the platform products it creates may only be short-lived.

For example, early Footprint and Faceu; the potential mainly depends on the project and the team, which can be preliminarily judged through some interviews with the founders and the company's investment and financing documents.

The average scores of these three dimensions are shown in Table 4-5:

Table 4-5 Rating table of the companies affiliated with the platform

Finally, at the operational level, the evaluation criteria include the purity of users, the degree of operational freedom, the value of fans, and the level of support the platform provides to operators. Combining the scores of these four dimensions, the results are shown in Table 4-6.

The purity of users refers to the proportion of your target user age or user portrait among the users on this platform. For example, we gave WeChat a score of 1 because WeChat has the widest audience, with young people accounting for only 30%; we gave Lofter a score of 3 because there are relatively more young people on Lofter.

The degree of operational freedom refers to how much room the operator has to play on the platform. For example, on WeChat, you can open a public account, operate a community or a personal account, and the degree of freedom is the highest, so WeChat is rated 5 points; on Yidian Zixun, you can only post articles, so the flexibility is relatively low, so it is only rated 1 point; on Maimai, you can post personal status and column articles, so the flexibility is acceptable, so it is rated 2 points.

The value of fans refers to how much impact the fans of this platform have on subsequent conversions. For example, fans on WeChat can not only help spread information, but may also directly participate in consumption later, so we give WeChat a score of 5; users on Maimai are all professionals, and they can discuss business cooperation later, so we give Maimai a score of 3.

As for the support provided by the platform to the operators, WeChat, for example, provides a high degree of protection for original authors and does not take a commission from the appreciation received by the authors, but is also very cautious, so it gets 3 points; Yidian Zixun gives authors creative income, so it gets 2 points.

The final comprehensive average scores are shown in the table.

Table 4-6 Platform scoring table at the operational level

After analyzing from three major levels, a comprehensive evaluation is conducted, and the scores of the three items are weighted or directly taken as an average to obtain the following table.

Table 4-7 Comprehensive rating of the platform

As can be seen from Table 4-7, the scores were finally divided into three levels: above 4 points, around 3.5 points, and around 3 points (within the deviation of ±0.2). The highest-rated apps were WeChat and Weibo, with 4.5 and 4.25 points respectively; followed by Yidian Zixun and BiliBili, with 3.5 and 3.68 points respectively; and finally Maimai and Lofter, with around 3 points.

Therefore, the result of the re-screening is to use the two platforms of WeChat and Weibo to build the external matrix of young people’s picture social public accounts mentioned above.

(3) Final confirmation

After preliminary and re-screening, we selected several platforms for trial operation. It should be noted that the above ratings are subjective opinions and the results can only be used as a reference and cannot be regarded as a definitive conclusion. The analysis methods can be used for reference to allocate manpower and resources based on the actual evaluation results. Ultimately, it will take a period of trial operation to draw conclusions. The following are two matrix construction cases for your reference.

The first case is the new media matrix built by "Meilisuo" in 2015. The target population is mainly between 18 and 30 years old, so "Meilishuo" selected WeChat, QQ, APP, Weibo, and Tieba through preliminary and re-screening to build a horizontal matrix, especially using WeChat as the core of the internal matrix to operate.

The internal matrix of "Meilishuo" in WeChat is mainly a media matrix, which includes the "Meilishuo" subscription account, service account, "Meilishuo" HIGO subscription account (now the HIGO business is independent) and WeChat wallet entrance. These accounts have different focuses. For example, the "Meilishuo" subscription account is for media purposes; the WeChat wallet entrance and the "Meilishuo" service center are for sales purposes; the "Meilishuo" blackboard newspaper is for the purpose of building an employer brand and is used to publish corporate news.

In the external matrix, the pictures and texts of QQ shopping accounts and Meilishuo App are mainly aimed at selling products; while the main purpose of Baidu Tieba and "Meilishuo" Weibo is media communication. It can be seen from this that Meilishuo’s matrix construction focuses on media public relations as a whole, followed by selling products. As shown in Figure 4-8.

Figure 4-8 Meilishuo’s new media matrix in 2015 divided by platform

The second case is the new media matrix of "Xue Ba Jun" in 2017. "Xue Ba Jun" is a primary and secondary education company that started out by taking photos to search for questions. It currently mainly provides online one-on-one services to customers. Different from the type of people that "Meilisuo" focuses on, "Xuebajun" mainly serves three types of people: students, parents and teachers. We will analyze its media matrix for three groups of people.

First, the horizontal matrix takes WeChat, Weibo, QQ, Toutiao, and Yidian Zixun as the main platforms, with particular emphasis on WeChat. The matrix within WeChat is further subdivided into official accounts, communities, personal accounts and mini-programs. Official accounts are further divided into brand accounts and self-media accounts, corresponding to different groups of people. In the external matrix, QQ is further divided into QQ public accounts, QQ spaces and QQ tribes, and the main target group is students, as shown in Figure 4-9.

Figure 4-9 “Xuebajun” new media matrix

It is important to note here that the new media matrix is ​​changing dynamically, and will deepen or weaken vertically or horizontally as the business changes. For example, in 2017, Xuebajun New Media weakened its support for the QQ system, and strengthened the construction of mini-programs in the second half of the year.

The fourth step is to build personality

After selecting the platform and determining the structure of the matrix, it is necessary to carry out personalized construction for the operating platform account. The specific content of personality construction will be discussed later. Here we emphasize that the personality displayed by the enterprise on different platforms needs to follow the 1+N model.

The "1" here refers to the "gene" of the enterprise. For example, the gene of Meilishuo is fashion, so all the personality construction will revolve around the tone of fashion; and the gene of Xueba Jun is learning, so the character identity of Xueba Jun must be related to learning. Let’s make an interesting assumption. As a fan of the game Honor of Kings, Xueba Jun may play the role of a top student rather than a host who teaches everyone how to play the game every day, because this would deviate from the company’s genes.

"N" means that the characters that need to be built on different platforms must be different and modified according to the style attributes of each platform. For example, Xueba Jun invited a good-looking senior student from Peking University to do a live broadcast. She represented Xueba Jun’s image and provided output related to learning methods.

Step 5: Build a team

Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi once said that the three most important things in running a business are building a team, setting strategy, and leading the team. So how do we build a matrix operations team? There are two staffing configuration methods: configuration by business module and configuration by platform.

(1) Staffing by business module

Enterprise new media can be a combination of different business modules. New media work is generally divided into four types: content operation, event operation, user operation and delivery operation. The four business modules can be further subdivided. Therefore, the operation team can be set up by configuring personnel according to these business modules.

For example, we assign a group of people to be responsible for content operations. Since content operations can be divided into copywriting, comics, and video production in form, we divide them into copywriting group, comics group, and video group. Each group prepares the corresponding content and then distributes it on major platforms such as official accounts, Weibo, and Toutiao. The people responsible for content operations are responsible for the content of each platform. The same applies to user operations, delivery operations, and event operations. For example, the person in charge of event operations will coordinate activities on various platforms. The structure built by the team is shown in the figure.

Graph modular new media architecture

(2) Staffing by platform

The platform logic is to allocate personnel and build teams according to different platforms. For example, the company's new media personnel are divided into three major teams: WeChat operations, Weibo operations, and Tik Tok. Although the WeChat operations team can be further divided into copywriting, community, and delivery groups, at this time, the copywriting group only needs to be responsible for content output on the WeChat platform and does not need to be responsible for content on the Weibo platform. Specific team construction reference diagram.

Image platform new media architecture

There is no better or worse between the two classification methods. It mainly depends on which one is more suitable. Generally speaking, the first type is more flexible, and the second type is more suitable for very large enterprises on a certain platform. For example, an enterprise with 20 accounts on the Douyin platform can configure a dedicated operation team for the Douyin platform, and then make adjustments based on the specific situation.

Step 6: Set goals

Operations need strong goal support so that they can go faster and further. For a team, a good goal can make people tired and happy. Regarding the specific method of setting goals, there will be a section later that will specifically talk about KPI. Here it is explained that the goals need to be matched with the department type.

Generally, corporate new media will be located in the following three types of departments.

(1) Marketing Channel Department

In this department, the main task of new media is marketing-oriented. It is responsible for attracting new customers and mainly connects with sales, products, design and other departments, as shown in the figure.

Figure Marketing Channel Department

The KPI assessment of the marketing channel department focuses on single registration cost, market share, etc. The marketing team is generally divided into offline activity group, channel delivery group, business cooperation group, etc., as shown in the figure.

Figure 1. Structure of the Marketing Channel Department

New media plays a connecting role among various teams, which is specifically reflected in the following typical scenarios.

• XXX, we are going to Wangjing for promotion next week. Please give us a QR code and a script, and we will help you gain followers.
• We won the Best Application Award on Taobao. Can you help us promote it on Weibo?
• We are going to have a big promotion soon, so let’s write an article and find a few channels to distribute the soft article.

These are the "requests" that you often hear when you interact with other groups in your daily work, so if the company's new media is set up in the marketing channel department, the goal orientation is mainly to attract new customers or marketing.

(2) Brand Public Relations Department

Some companies will also subdivide the brand public relations department into brand department or public relations department. This department is oriented towards external communication, and its core goal is to enhance brand awareness and the company's reputation. In this department, new media mainly connects with the CEO, marketing, heads of various business units, and external media KOLs.

Brand Public Relations Department

The KPI assessment of the brand public relations department focuses more on the amount of communication, the population covered by the event, the level of the KOLs invited, as well as the Baidu Index and WeChat Index. The internal teams of this department may include brand group, public relations group, project group, etc.

Figure 1. Brand PR internal team structure

New media plays a connecting role among various teams, which is specifically reflected in the following typical scenarios.

Our company has started to raise funds, so we need to write a financing article and then find two industry KOLs to publish it.

We have cooperated with XX brand and can promote it on Weibo.

XXX movie is released and we have our spokesperson. Let’s publish an article to promote it and give users some movie tickets.

It can be seen that in the brand public relations department, the goal orientation of new media is mainly focused on external brand communication.

(3) Operations Department

The reason we put "new media" in brackets is that it may be a large department in operation or exist independently as a new media operation department. Unlike the first two departments which are mainly external, this department is mainly internal. It is responsible for user operations within the system and may connect with internal departments such as products and technology, as shown in the figure.

Graphics (New Media) Operations Department

The (new media) operation department’s KPI assessment focuses more on business data such as user activity rate, retention, and average order value. This department mainly includes APP operation, data operation, channel and other teams, as shown in the figure.

Figure: Internal structure of the operations department

New media plays a connecting role among various teams, which is specifically reflected in the following typical scenarios.

• In order to increase the activity of fans, how about we hold a small lucky draw event internally?
• There aren't that many fans anymore, so let's direct some traffic from the App.
• Selling courses is very popular recently, so let’s follow the trend and sell some courses.

It can be seen that in the (new media) operations department, the goal orientation of new media is mainly based on user maintenance and conversion.

How to understand the relationship between these three departments? Usually the marketing channel department is responsible for attracting users, the brand public relations department makes everyone familiar with the brand, and the (new media) operations department finally makes the conversion. No matter which department the new media is located in, it is necessary to cooperate and collaborate with colleagues in the same department or other departments to achieve the overall goal.

4. Three core capabilities of the operations matrix

Finally, let’s discuss the three core capabilities of the operations matrix: understanding of the platform, cross-platform integration, and platform data-driven capabilities. These abilities are very important for those who want to stand out in the new media field!

1. Understanding of the platform

Why is platform understanding so important? Because only by having a deep understanding of the operating platform can you better utilize its advantages to complete your own business activities. The understanding of the platform is reflected in the following four aspects.

The first thing is to understand the operating mechanism of the platform. For example, as an ordinary individual, in 2014 would you choose to join Toutiao or a blog? Toutiao's model is based on algorithmic distribution, which can cater to the interests of more users and is mainly based on mobile terminals; while blogs are more subscription-based and mainly based on PC terminals. From the product perspective, Toutiao may have more room.

The second is the study of the platform population. Does the platform population completely match the target population? How close is the match? This has been explained in the previous article. What is emphasized here is the need to learn to conduct dynamic research during the operation process. For example, Meipian is an app for creating and sharing pictures. It was not very popular at the beginning, but later in the operation process it was found that the elderly prefer to publish their own photographic works with a combination of pictures and texts, so the app was revised to attract more niche groups in this age group.

The second is the research on the platform's strength, mainly focusing on financing, team, etc. For example, the potential of platforms such as Wukong Q&A and Douyin is very large. According to the data analysis of the statistical platform QuestMobile (as shown in Figure 4-19), Toutiao's apps have the longest independent usage time besides Tencent, and their usage time share in 2018 has increased significantly compared to 2017.

Figure 3. Total usage time of independent apps of mobile Internet giants

Finally, it is necessary to understand the development trend of the platform and see what the latest support policies are. This requires continuous follow-up of platform updates, and it would be best if you could enter the internal testing group for priority experience. For example, in 2017, Weibo’s MCN plan provided strong support to creators.

2. Cross-platform integration

The matrix can bring about a synergistic effect, so if the operator has the ability to integrate across platforms, he can use the characteristics of each platform to achieve the effect of 1+1>2. Cross-platform integration is divided into the following two aspects.

The first is to link internal resources. For example, after a new product is released, the news must be released simultaneously on all media platforms within the matrix to maximize the use of own resources. This may lead to a situation where some platform accounts are not within their own departments - for example, corporate culture accounts may be in the administrative department, and certain regional accounts operate in the corresponding regions. At this time, it is necessary to initiate a linkage and integrate resources together.

The second is to link up with external resources, such as holding a press conference and asking external KOLs to write articles and recommendations. Pay attention to accumulating connections and resources in normal times so that you can integrate them at critical moments.

3. Platform data driving force

The dividends of new media will always recede, and refined operations will be the key in the future. In addition to simply applying the operating experience of one platform to another, multi-platform operations also require data-driven operations. Through data analysis, we can not only present results and help summarize the analysis, but also help optimize previous experience, make accurate predictions, etc., which will be of great benefit to content, users and event operations.

For example, how can we better utilize data-driven approaches when operating live classes? Gravity Factory organized an online class by Mr. Wu Songqian, the brand director of Ele.me. So how to optimize the course opening process? At that time, I captured all the data from everyone's comments on the Lizhi Micro Class and analyzed them, as shown in the figure. Judging from the nouns in the comment area, students' comments are concentrated on the four keywords: teacher, brand, data, and team. It can be seen that the content of this class focuses on brand, data, and team. Judging from the adjectives, students' evaluation of her is mainly sufficient, interesting, and hard work. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that Teacher Wu Songjian has made sufficient preparations for this class, and his teaching style is interesting and is loved by students.

Further studying the students' speaking time, we can find that most comments appear in the three intervals of 19:50~20:00, 20:00~20:10 and 21:00~21:10, which respectively correspond to the 10-minute warm-up check-in before class, the 10-minute feedback during class, and the question-and-answer feedback after class. There were fewer comments during the class, which should be the result of guidance. It can be seen that the overall time control is relatively good, but the number of comments in the last 10 minutes is less than that before the course starts, so we have summarized the experience and can improve the completion rate by hiding some easter eggs in the future.

Through data analysis, we discovered many interesting phenomena, such as what the teacher is good at, what the teacher's teaching style is, what the students are concerned about, whether the course content is rich, and whether the class arrangement is appropriate. This was very helpful for us in finding lecturers, adjusting course content and optimizing the course experience later. Therefore, no matter which platform you operate on, you need to learn to use data analysis.

Finally, the operating matrix is ​​a dynamic process. Maybe two years ago the focus of the matrix was still on WeChat, Weibo, and Tieba, but this year the focus may be “WeChat, Weibo and Douyin”, so we need to update and iterate at any time.

Author: Operations Research Office

Source: Operations Research Office