From 0 to 10 million fans, 98 suggestions for short video operations

What is the hottest trend in recent years? Of course it’s a short video. Especially now that even WeChat, which has huge traffic, has launched the "Video Account", this has brought many changes to the short video battlefield.

So what are the things to pay attention to when making short videos? What should you pay attention to when publishing videos on major platforms? How to create a popular account from 0 to 1?

This article will provide the answers to these questions.

My name is Xiaoxiao. I used to be an operator on Zhihu. Later, I left Zhihu and went to Kuaishou to make short videos. I became the host myself and started from scratch.

Let me first briefly talk about my current achievements in the field of short videos:

1. It took a year for the short video matrix on the entire network to grow from 0 to tens of millions of education fans. It currently ranks first in terms of the total number of fans in the English category of Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu. 2. There was a period of time when the number of followers of our single Kuaishou account increased by no less than 10,000 every day for nearly two consecutive months, and the highest number of followers gained by a single account in a single day was 80,000. There was more than one such account.

3. The video account has two large accounts, one with 200,000 followers and the other with 100,000 followers, both of which are in the top 100 in all categories.

Next, I will talk about 98 experiences in short video operations . Many of these experiences are lessons we have learned from spending time and money. I hope that students who read this can avoid some pitfalls and save some time.

1. Why do you want to make short videos/video accounts?

I will not elaborate on the importance of short videos and video accounts here. Just to say one thing:

This video account may be the last and most recent opportunity to get on board the WeChat ecosystem, and everyone can get on board.

Do you still remember the poster fission and study check-in in the circle of friends? "Qingke" gained nearly 10 million followers in 2016 using this method, and their founding team were just college students, but they have now received several rounds of financing.

Later you also realized that fission became more and more difficult and the cost became higher and higher, so that one day the rules changed - learning people could no longer fission by checking in on WeChat Moments.

So the earlier you get on board, the more chances you have to encounter an era where you can pick up fans everywhere.

Without further ado, here are 98 suggestions. What I wrote is rather dry and boring, and is more geared towards beginners, but this is the experience I summarized after shooting thousands of works and observing tens of thousands of competitor videos.

2. Choosing a good platform is important

1. It is important to choose a good platform. If you get on the wrong boat at the beginning, either the positive feedback will be too slow and cause you to give up early, or you will sink with the boat in the end.

2. I think the better ones at the moment are: ByteDance (mainly TikTok, Xigua, Toutiao), WeChat Video Account, Kuaishou, Bilibili (vertical version with light video), and Xiaohongshu.

3. Although all platforms can now be updated simultaneously, it is not recommended to synchronize all platforms right after the launch.

Because each synchronization will consume your energy and enthusiasm, and the rules and tone of each platform are different, which will affect your cover, title, avatar profile, traffic, monetization and other operations.

You should know that different platforms are very different in the monetization process alone, so just choose one or two platforms to specialize in at the beginning.

4. Choosing a platform is very important. You should find one that provides positive and negative feedback quickly. If you have shot 100 works, posted 100 works and still only have a few fans, no one would want to continue doing it.

This is why I suggest you focus on only one or two platforms at the beginning. As a creator, don’t waste too much of your creative enthusiasm.

5. Platforms with better positive feedback include WeChat Video Account, Tik Tok, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu.

I feel that the positive feedback from Xigua and Bilibili is very slow, but this may also be due to the fact that we rarely shoot horizontal screen works.

6. Keep posting videos and you’ll be fine during the difficult startup period.

When I first started making short videos last year, I gained less than 1,000 followers on Kuaishou in the first half of the month, and then it grew exponentially, with more than 1,000 followers added every day, and nearly 100,000 followers added in the second half of the month.

7. Update daily.

That month I updated 2-3 works a day, but I know that many people can't even persist in updating daily for 15 days.

3. Don’t dare to appear on camera? No experience?

8. It’s okay if you don’t dare to appear on camera, there are many alternative options.

For low-cost text videos with audio, pictures and text, you can just read from the paper, or wear a hood to cover your face. In addition, Apple’s memoji (Xiaomi mimoji) and the magic animations of Tik Tok and Kuaishou can all be used without showing faces.

9. If you are handsome/beautiful, you should appear on camera if possible, as it will make it easier for you to become popular.

Everyone likes beautiful things, but it should be noted that this is not a necessary condition for becoming popular and increasing followers.

10. What should I do if I have no experience and no sense of camera?

Just learn it, take 100 photos and compare them with benchmark cases, and you will develop the ability.

4. Positioning determines the ceiling

11. Pay attention to the user population. The content of the work can control the population.

Generally speaking, the more women over 24, the better, and the fewer children under 17, the better.

12. Choose content categories based on your expertise and previous experience, but try to choose popular categories.

If you are interested in niche vertical fields or personal hobbies, you must be prepared to not gain many followers or grow much.

13. Your attitude towards short videos must be determined: whether you want to make a lot of money or treat it as your hobby, you must make it clear from the beginning.

If you want to make it big, don’t always think about pursuing your hobbies and expecting them to become big. Usually, you give up halfway through doing your hobby and start to hate it.

14. If you want to grow big, you have to treat short videos as a job and a product, and think about how to make your audience happy, not just yourself.

15. You should learn from others how to do it, but it is not recommended to look for big anchors on the platform. For example, most people can’t play the way Li Jiaqi and Simba play.

16. But their live broadcasts have some value. For example, Li Jiaqi wears light-colored clothes most of the time, and occasionally says: If you like Jiaqi, please follow me.

To sum up: we can learn from the products and ideas of big companies, but we may not have enough resources to carry out their promotion and operation.

5. Equipment preparation, shooting and editing

17. In terms of frame selection, except for Video Account, Xigua and Bilibili, almost all others are vertical screen 9:16.

But if you use vertical screen to go to Xigua B station, there is no traffic. Similarly, if you use the horizontal screen on other platforms, the probability of it becoming a hit will be much lower.

18. Filming equipment: Individual players or small teams only need a mobile phone and a mobile phone stand.

If you are shooting at home and the lighting is good, you don’t even need a fill light. Because every additional equipment will consume your enthusiasm and make you not want to shoot.

19. It is recommended to use a mobile phone to shoot, which will make it convenient to edit on the phone later and publish the work. If real people appear on camera, the setting can be set to 1080P 60 frames.

20. If you are shooting outdoors or have sports scenes, you can use the TARO camera stabilizer.

It can track people automatically and also has a wireless noise-cancelling microphone, making it extremely cost-effective.

21. If you specialize in film and television editing, sitcoms, special effects, and food videos, then the requirements for image quality and post-processing will be relatively high, but other than that, most of the popular works on Douyin and Kuaishou can be shot and edited with a mobile phone.

22. We have tens of millions of fans, but we only need two video lights, AirPods for receiving sound (to save teachers effort), an Apple phone for live streaming, and a phone stand for live streaming when we are live streaming.

When shooting real people outdoors, you only need a photography light, a mobile phone stand and an Apple phone indoors.

23. For editing, you can use QuickShot and Jianying on your mobile phone. These are two apps for Kuaishou and Douyin that can meet basic needs. Jianying can directly export 60 frames.

24. We use iPhone for stability during live broadcast. If you only want to make short videos, you can use an Android phone worth a thousand yuan to shoot them, and Android is particularly convenient for exporting and importing videos.

25. Props will take up a lot of your time and energy.

For example, I spent most of the day looking for a pen that was comfortable and beautiful to write on the blackboard. Therefore, it is not recommended to pursue perfection right from the start, but to complete it first, release the video first, and then optimize it.

26. Good cameras, mobile phones, photographic lights, costumes, microphones, carefully arranged scenes, props, these are the icing on the cake and can be added later.

Instead of spending time on these things at the beginning, it is better to spend more time shooting a few works and sending them out, and spend time on creation and operation.

6. Account Decoration

27. It takes time to set up a new account because the avatar and nickname are not often changed.

It is not recommended to add too much marketing information to the nickname, avatar, introduction, avatar background photo, age, and region of a new account, such as diverting traffic to the WeChat account or leaving a mobile phone number, as this may easily lead to reports of violations, and new accounts will be fined.

28. What is more important at the beginning is the nickname.

It should be easy to remember and type, preferably a common word, and it should have no ambiguity in pronunciation so that it can be passed on by word of mouth. It is rare to change the name halfway through a job, especially when one has a large number of fans.

29. When naming a name, it is recommended to include what you do. For example, if you are in English education, it can basically be XX speaks English or XX teaches English.

30. The avatar is similar to the nickname. Once you choose it, you rarely change it. So you should choose an avatar that is memorable and can be seen at a glance in the list.

Remember, your profile picture should match your persona and be acceptable to your target audience.

Even though some accounts have accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers, you can tell at a glance that their names and avatars are determined based on their own preferences, and are very random.

31. You can add keywords in the introduction to facilitate user search (if the platform allows search).

If you are afraid of being discovered by your peers, then don’t add industry keywords to your profile and nickname, so that you will not be labeled by third-party data tools.

32. Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Bilibili, and Video Account can all leave WeChat/public account, vx, Wei (heart-shaped emoticon), etc. in the homepage introduction, and there will be no traffic restrictions if you leave it.

However, leaving a WeChat account has nothing to do with whether your work will become popular. It will only be a violation if it is reported by someone, so it is not recommended to leave a new account. Users generally won’t report it, but their peers may be happy to report it…

33. The main account has a golden medal of immunity, and many violations will be useless even if reported, but the sub-account does not have this privilege, so the newly created sub-account cannot learn everything from the main account.

34. There is no problem in changing other avatar backgrounds, age, and region, as long as it does not violate the rules.

35. Be careful with your initial Kuaishou and Douyin accounts, as they can only be changed once and cannot have the same name!

Therefore, it is recommended to wait until the account is mature and has more fans before making changes. You can also divert traffic here. For example, some of our Kuaishou accounts are vx123456789, followed by the QQ number bound to WeChat.

36. I learned this from a friend. You can buy an easy-to-remember 8-digit QQ number and bind it to WeChat. When your WeChat account is full, you can unbind it and switch to a new one, but your QQ number will remain unchanged, and all the previous traffic information will be there.

7. Creation and publication, cover title

37. When shooting with your face in view, the subject should look straight at the camera and try to choose a place with good lighting.

Try to finish works that are less than one minute in one take. This can greatly reduce the amount of post-editing work (and also help you save your creative enthusiasm).

38. In terms of sound reception, you can use a wireless microphone for outdoor shooting. If it is not too noisy indoors, you can just use your mobile phone.

39. Even if some wind noise or air-conditioning noise gets in, don’t worry too much. The mobile phone itself has noise reduction, and it can be processed in post-production using Editing and QuickShot, so it doesn’t matter much. If that doesn't work, just cover it up with background music.

40. If you have very high requirements on sound, you can use the RODE series radio microphone, which has a directivity of over 400 and is very easy to use without any noise. This is also recommended by @大黄哥.

41. At the end, you can add a paragraph to encourage comments, likes, and follows; it only takes a few seconds.

42. When publishing works on Kuaishou, you can edit them. There is a voting sticker function, which can also guide interaction. Explore more similar small features on other platforms.

43. Don’t be a perfectionist. At the beginning, 60 points is a passing work, so just publish it. You can still make a lot of improvements and optimizations later.

After releasing it, check the data and audience response, and then make targeted modifications.

44. As mentioned above, for editing, it is enough to use Jianying and Kuaishou on your mobile phone (picture-in-picture, Gaussian blur, transition, beauty and color adjustment, zooming in and out, stickers, subtitles).

You can use Pr on the computer. It is actually not difficult to learn. Just search for what you need and you can basically learn it in half a day.

45. When editing, choose a good cover (as the first frame), attractiveness is the key.

46. ​​Only when the cover title is well done can the opening rate be high and there will be subsequent conversions. Don’t work hard to shoot a video only to have it ruined by the cover title.

47. How to write titles and select content is actually similar to the official account. You can refer to Zhou Zuoluo’s writing tutorial. His video account is also very well done.

48. Tik Tok is a scrolling video, so the cover is not that important, as long as it is attractive in the first few seconds. Kuaishou has a dual-column mode, so the cover and title are very important.

The video account has up and down scrolling and a cover title, Xiaohongshu has a cover animated image and a cover title... So whether to optimize the cover and title depends on different platforms and users' video viewing habits.

49. Some topics and words cannot appear in the cover title, such as some sensitive words, inducing likes, inducing sharing, etc.

Each platform has corresponding rules, so pay more attention to them.

50. Don’t touch any sensitive issues, even if it will generate a lot of traffic. For example, the National Day military parade, images with national flags, discussions on the US epidemic, etc.

51. Because you don’t know what you did wrong to get eliminated. Limiting traffic and deleting videos are small matters, but if the account is blocked and downgraded, it will be a big trouble. Moreover, big accounts not only do not have a golden medal of immunity in this regard, but are subject to stricter review. More importantly, some things may be brought up again.

52. For example, we once wrote in the video description “How do you pronounce mathematical operation symbols in English?” This violated the rules because it contained sensitive words.

53. There is not much correlation between release time and popularity. It is usually from 9 am to 9 pm, as long as it is not sent late at night.

54. More people will read your works if you post them at 12 noon or 6 pm, but all creators are posting their works at that time, so they may not be able to compete with the big accounts with greater weight.

And as long as you create a hot hit, the system will give you quantity no matter what time period you are in, so don’t worry too much about the time to release the video.

55. Of course, you can fix the time for releasing your works so that your fans can look forward to it.

56. After publishing, you can save the video at every stage, which may be useful later. For example, the development of new platforms, synchronization of all platforms, or group operations in the future.

8. Video Data and Operational Diversion

57. Most of the popular works that increase followers are not achieved by purchasing promotion.

58. The main purpose of buying promotion is to see the data, to see whether your cover optimization is effective, and the fan conversion rate of your work.

59. Buying promotions can also help new accounts launch faster, allowing the platform to quickly tag your account, so that future works can be pushed to more accurate users (some promotions can set targeted groups and categories, or fans of similar accounts)

60. One of the benefits of using Kuaishou is that the price for promotion starts from 8 yuan.

Now new users can often buy a promotion for only 3 yuan, while Douyin starts at 100 yuan.

61. Buying promotion on Kuaishou may help boost sales. For example, 8 yuan can buy 1,000 exposures. If the quality of the work is good, it will be promoted and you will be given several thousand exposures. There is no upper limit. We have received tens of millions of free exposures at most, and it only cost 8 yuan.

62. But if you get too much promotion, you will start to think: In fact, the work itself has become a hit, and I just happened to buy an 8-yuan promotion.

63. The purchased promotion data mainly depends on the following indicators:

Open rate = play/exposure, depends on whether your cover title is good or not

Like and comment rate = Like and comment / Play, this depends on the quality of your work

Conversion rate = increase in followers / playback, see if your content can increase followers

64. The data on the number of views, opening rate, and conversion rate of works should preferably be compared with similar works.

There is no point in comparing with other accounts, or even works of different categories within the same account. Unless you are doing AB testing, the purpose is to find optimization points through comparison.

65. You can use third-party tools to analyze data, which is much faster than manual analysis and can also show the fundamentals of the market.

66. Third-party data tools can also monitor your own account, and then you will find that their monitoring is not 100% accurate, so you cannot only trust third-party data tools, you have to check it manually.

67. You can also view your own data in the official creator platform (i.e. Creator Center).

There are also a lot of operating tips there, it is recommended to read them all at the beginning. It doesn’t mean that you will become popular after reading it, but at least you will know which content is illegal.

68. Do not trust the shooting suggestions given by official operators, or the shooting suggestions given by the official.

They can only give basic creative suggestions, but in fact they may not necessarily become popular. Even if it is released, it may be due to official promotion.

69. For official activities, you can participate in them, but don’t expect to gain many fans through them. As I said before, when you have time, study your own work more and do more optimization.

9. Interactive Operation Diversion

70. For new accounts, the personality and positioning have not been recognized by the system, so it is normal for the data to be poor and to fluctuate frequently. Don’t worry about it.

71. Just like maintaining an account, in addition to posting works, a new account must also view more works of others on the platform. Otherwise, the system will think you are a robot.

At the beginning, you should post and watch videos like an ordinary creator, instead of trying to attract traffic like a marketing account. Even if your goal is to gain traffic, you should be careful at the beginning.

72. It is not recommended to share your work everywhere after it is published. You don’t need to send red envelopes in the group. You need to ask big Vs to like and follow each other. The effectiveness of this behavior is unknown. Anyway, we don’t do this, and my popular works that increase followers are not achieved in this way.

73. Asking others for likes and shares, or buying likes and shares, is likely to disrupt your user tags.

For example, if you are working on English, you ask the audience of Food and Entertainment to like your post. Then when you release your works later, they will be pushed to the audience of Food and Entertainment first, and it is very likely that your account will be invalidated.

74. Brushing likes and mutual likes will also disrupt normal data.

For example, if someone comes in, clicks "like" and leaves without even watching the video, then the completion rate and bounce rate will be very low. This will be recognized by the system, which will mistakenly think that your work is rubbish and you are trying to trick them into clicking "likes", or it will directly identify it as cheating and demote them.

75. And I really want to say: How many people can you find, and how much money can you spend, to get them to like and follow you? 100? 1000? 10,000? In fact, as long as you release a hot-selling product, you will have all of these.

76. Seeing that some anchors have paranoia, and their works have no views, they always think that they are restricted by the authorities, their accounts are no longer useful, the system is blind, etc.

Instead of thinking about and complaining about these things, it is better to spend more time researching and optimizing video works, keep creating and posting videos normally, and don't do anything illegal.

77. We have a Kuaishou account with 2 million followers. In the first half month, the number of followers didn’t even exceed 100, but it grew as we persisted in posting.

78. After publishing dozens of works, you can look at the horizontal comparison of the number of views and compare yourself with yourself. For works with high playback volume and high likes, shoot more similar works and make more optimizations.

79. In terms of fan interaction, you can reply to comments and interact, but remember not to curse or argue in the comment section.

If you don’t like the comments, just delete them and block them. Don’t waste your time or affect your mood on them.

80. As you have more and more fans, more and more people will scold you, but just get used to being scolded.

Please remember: your value is determined by those who support you. Those who insult you will not bring you any benefit, so don't be influenced by them.

81. If you haven’t mastered the monetization and traffic diversion stages, then you don’t need to spend too much time interacting with your fans.

82. If you want to monetize your content, do it in the comments section if you can.

Because if you direct traffic in the video and personal profile, once it is judged as a violation, the entire video will be ruined, but if you only violate the rules in the comment area, the most that will happen is that the comment will be deleted and not displayed.

83. You can even use a small account to leave messages in the comment section to divert traffic. This way, even if it violates the rules, it is the small account that will be punished.

84. In addition to the comments, your secondary account avatar and nickname are also information that you can divert traffic to.

85. Like the comments on your own small account so that your comments can be ranked at the front. Leave a message in the hot comments and you can also convey the information to attract traffic. You can learn this by observing the first few comments of popular accounts on each platform.

10. Violations and Response Strategies

86. As long as the words "WeChat" or "public account" are not directly written on the homepage, it will basically not be filtered out by the system and will not be directly violated. VX, public accounts, emoticons, etc. are all fine. Just look at what those who have left their contact information do.

87. The Xiaohongshu homepage cannot leave any contact information in any form except email address. And if you violate the rules once, you won’t be able to change your profile for 7 days.

88. Kuaishou works cannot be posted repeatedly. Even if you uploaded them yourself and hidden and deleted them, they cannot be posted repeatedly. The server will detect it, but it doesn’t matter for Douyin.

89. To check whether the work violates regulations, you can try buying a promotion on Kuaishou. If you cannot buy the promotion, it may be a violation of regulations (repeated posting, copying, banned words).

90. WeChat video account is quite strict. You cannot leave your WeChat in the introduction and homepage. Of course, it’s fine if you are not reported. But if you are reported, you will basically be punished.

91. There was no punishment when the video account was reported at the beginning. Just clear it and log in again. However, there should be a record in the background, and there should be corresponding punishment measures later, such as prohibiting modifications, banning the account for one day, etc.

92. Platforms generally prohibit off-site traffic diversion, so if you post keywords from other platforms, they may be blocked and cannot be seen. Even if you post them in the comments, you have to use a small account to test it.

93. Big accounts should try not to engage in any direct illegal traffic diversion, such as placing a QR code at the end of the work, adding WeChat, a brief introduction to the work, commenting on it with your own big account, etc.

Let the small account do all these, and the small account’s avatar and nickname can also be used to attract traffic.

94. Pay attention to the use of music. If you use some uncopyrighted music (or the platform has not purchased the copyright) without permission, your traffic will be restricted. We have encountered this on Douyin and Kuaishou.

95. To add clear background music, first go to the platform to search whether this music is used recently by other people. If someone is using it, then generally there will be no problem.

However, we have also encountered a situation where the product was usable a few months ago, but is no longer usable after being removed from the shelves recently.

96. Don’t send repetitive content to others in private messages on Kuaishou, as it will be eaten up and filtered out.

97. If you suddenly make a video with a lot of traffic and a lot of people come to add your WeChat account all of a sudden, after you accept the friendship, do not use a third-party tool to automatically reply, and do not send messages when the other party does not speak.

Because of the possibility of being reported by peers, the WeChat account was directly blocked. We have encountered this problem before, and the reason was malicious marketing.

98. Many times the rules are dynamic, and what was a violation before may not be a violation now, or vice versa, the rules may be stricter, so you should pay more attention to the official account, open a small account if you have the ability, make a plan B, or just use it purely for testing.

Finally, a few points

1. Reject perfectionism, especially at the beginning, don't spend too much time buying equipment and polishing details. It is better to submit your work every day and get 60 points in the exam than to hand in a blank paper. Only after handing in the paper will you know where your shortcomings are and can make revisions.

2. Act as early as possible. You can get on board as long as you have a mobile phone. The bonus period is fleeting. Those who can participate should participate, and those who can watch should watch. You should always act after you are well prepared. Otherwise, you will always be one step slower than others and may never catch up.

3. If you plan to do it for a long term of more than 2 months, then don’t take any crooked paths, such as buying likes or using black technology to violate regulations. Just keep posting step by step and you’ll be done.

4. The rules are dynamic. Reading the official guidelines (usually in the creator center and the official account) can help you avoid making big mistakes and taking detours.

The above is my experience in making short videos on major platforms. Finally, I hope everyone can catch up with the short video train and make money together.

Author: Xiaoxiao

Source:: Making Money (ID:shengcaiyoushu01)