“Zhangyue” short video operation skills!

In this article, the author will explore the operation of iReader's Douyin and Kuaishou short video accounts; how to standardize video content; iReader's short video marketing and exploration, talk about the secret of iReader's short video operation, and finally share his own thoughts. In the process of operating short video matrix accounts, you must have heard about the operation case of Fan Deng Reading Club's batch account creation.

A matrix similar to the Fan Deng Reading Club series of accounts is the iReader matrix circle that cannot be ignored. Some accounts in the Fan Deng matrix were banned by the platform because they madly grabbed the platform's traffic. In contrast, iReader is still creating a short video ecosystem recognized by the platform and fans with an elegant style with a literary and artistic atmosphere.

I sorted out the accounts on iReader with over 10,000 followers on the Kuaishou platform, see the table below (there is a gap between the sorting date and the posting date, the table data is counted on May 13, for reference)

(An account on Tik Tok with over 10,000 followers)

(Zhangyue account with over 10,000 followers on Kuaishou)

Excluding low-follow accounts that are still in incubation, as of the time of writing, Zhangyue has 23 accounts with more than 10,000 fans on Douyin, with a total of 13 million fans; there are 17 accounts with more than 10,000 fans on Kuaishou, with a total of 6 million fans.

Since iReader started planning its short video account in March 2019, it has become an enviable leader in the general knowledge field and publishing industry.

Next, I will talk about the secrets of iReader’s short video operations from three aspects, and finally share my own thoughts.

1. The exploration of the operation of iReader, Douyin and Kuaishou

1. Confused Exploration Period

The success of iReader did not happen overnight. iReader started planning short videos in March 2019, and the account reached a small scale in May. iReader's short video exploration journey took at least half a year.

Du Liang, the person in charge of the matrix account, recalled the "bitter" experience during the initial operation in a public sharing. When Douyin was first operated, the team had only two people and was very confused about the direction of the account. They would imitate whatever content was popular.

During this period, iReader tried filming the company's daily life, tried dance performances, and tried exquisite graphic and text PPT formats. During Christmas, it also tried to follow the trend and arranged books in the shape of a Christmas tree. Unfortunately, the final data from these directions had little response.

"Finally, I thought, since we are a content company and books are an inexhaustible resource, I should shamelessly ask my boss for a budget and plan to use books to create an account."

2. Collaborate with professional anchors

After the team's previous "playful" attempts, iReader set its sights on professional celebrity anchors and began contacting professional anchors to appear on the show.

First of all, the data showed that a theme planned based on the popular TV series "All Is Well" had over 10,000 likes. This made the short video team of iReader gradually clear about the future direction.

The initial cooperation model with the anchor was basically to settle accounts with the anchor based on the number of videos shot. In the middle, we also faced the problem of the anchor asking for a higher price to renew the contract after the cooperation expired.

Afterwards, iReader simultaneously started two parallel approaches: incubating internal employees and cooperating with external anchors. As the number of account followers has steadily increased, iReader has gained more initiative and its cooperation model with anchors has changed from a single volume-based settlement at the beginning to a profit-sharing model after monetization.

On May 20, Duliang Reading, an account incubated by iReader’s internal employees, launched its first hit video, “The Selfish Gene.”

This video sparked widespread discussion among users about "is human nature good or evil?". The quote in the video, "I will go against my nature, defy my instinct, and love you forever," touched the hearts of many users and caused them to forward it. In the end, the video was played over 12 million times, received over 350,000 likes, and the number of followers increased by nearly 200,000.

(User comments under the hit video "The Selfish Gene")

2. How to standardize the video content of iReader?

1. Standardization of team production process

1) Director-Editor Responsibility System

The content production process of iReader adopts the director-editor responsibility system. Each account has a corresponding director who is responsible for the copywriting, and one director can manage 2-3 accounts. As the underlying support for the entire short video team, the shooting team will arrange a unified time for concentrated shooting.

In the operation of Douyin, iReader focuses on the text of the video, followed by the speaker's expression, and finally the picture, picture quality, tone and sound quality .

Topic selection and planning are held every Tuesday, and the copywriting is determined on Friday, with the director-editor responsibility system ensuring the consistency of the account's style and direction.

Standardizing the team's production process as much as possible is an inevitable measure for the matrixization of short videos, and it also helps companies reduce costs. In addition, iReader will also use incentive mechanisms to improve the initiative of directors.

For example, after the account exceeds one million, the director will be given a certain reward.

2) Anchor elimination system

There are four ways to select the anchors for Zhangyue:

• One is to incubate internal employees, such as Du Liang;
• The second is to cooperate with Internet celebrities on short video platforms. In the early days, the anchors that Zhangyue found were Internet celebrities with a little fame on Weibo.
• The third is to cooperate with professional hosts. The hosts have professional camera skills and the video quality they produce is usually higher. The fourth is to cooperate with students majoring in broadcasting and hosting in colleges and universities.

iReader will select different anchors based on different content and eliminate anchors based on the broadcast effect. The test cycle will not be too long. Generally, it will take one week to understand which face in front of the camera users prefer based on data feedback. Accounts with mediocre performance will be eliminated or changed direction and restarted. This operating mechanism can better control costs.

(Some of the anchors who have appeared on the iReader Matrix account)

2. Standardization of content and video format

1) Content format can be copied in batches

The dozens of accounts on iReader have a very unified overall style. Most of them are in the form of intellectual and beautiful young ladies who accompany you to read about life and appreciate good books. This form may seem simple, but it is stylish and elegant.

"Content reproducibility is the key to reducing costs and is also a criterion that companies need to consider when investing. When we find that a content format is likely to become popular, we must copy it quickly."

iReader’s replication is a continuation of the direction that has been successfully explored. This kind of replication can easily give users a strong sense of brand tone. A hot-selling screen-sweeping product may not be enough to make users remember me, so I will use batches of videos and content to make you remember me.

2) Popular topics make the content timeless

When we were students and writing essays, our Chinese teacher would summarize the major themes for us and tell us that all seemingly unfamiliar essay topics actually have corresponding major themes. If we can find a way to align the purpose of our writing with the major themes, we can respond to ever-changing situations with the same approach. What is the big theme? These are universal topics, such as patriotism, maternal love, friendship, life and so on.

By breaking these major themes down into smaller parts, we can find the topics that most touch the hearts of the general public.

Taking love as an example, the key words include first love, secret love, breakup, depression, single, etc. The key words in the workplace include: salary, overtime, promotion, job hopping, etc.

Topics on iReader mostly focus on delicate emotional states, with the core words being "love, self, and life." In particular, there is a large amount of content designed for the module on the emotional interactions between men and women. A topic is discussed over and over again, but the dimension is different each time.

(Statistics of some video topics on the Palm Reading Book account)

3) The power of “golden sentences” cannot be ignored

I think half of the success of iReader short videos is attributed to its copywriting. You can find touching points in every video. These points come from universal topics, the host’s views and attitudes, and the “golden sentences” designed into it.

After watching a video on iReader, users may not remember what was said, but they will remember one or two sentences that popped up at some point in the video and touched their heart.

The power of a quote is like a "command" that has been building up momentum for a long time and suddenly rises at a certain moment, making you ponder or exclaim "Yes! That's it!"

Eye-catching emotional articles on WeChat must contain golden sentences that express your inner thoughts, and the same is true for videos.

Many people regard golden sentences as "chicken soup", but to some people, golden sentences are precisely a way to express people's most delicate inner emotions, just like the sentence "The world is so big, I want to go see it."

4) Not only should we follow the hot events, but we should also follow them in time

Hot topics can be divided into festivals and current affairs. There is no shortage of tracking of these hot topics in iReader’s video content. If you search for iReader+ corresponding festivals on Douyin, you can find many videos produced under the iReader matrix.

(Mother's Day: Different accounts follow different hot topics)

(Follow the popularity of hot topics in TV series and movies)

In addition, many "stories" are designed into the content of iReader's matrix account. The first article starts with a story, which attracts users to continue reading.

Humans have almost no resistance to stories . If a story can make most people identify with it and gain some new insights from it, it would be difficult for them not to forward it.

No one will pursue the authenticity of these stories, so almost every day news, fables, and emotional essays can become part of the iReader video stories.

3. iReader’s short video marketing and exploration

The main functions of the iReader Matrix account are brand exposure and e-commerce monetization.

In iReader's matrix account, the iReader brand icon appears in almost every video of iReader Books, iReader Parent-Child, and iReader Book Club. The account's profile section repeatedly repeats "iReader, a reading brand used by 20 million+ young people every day" and "Read more good books on the iReader App", which is also deepening users' brand awareness of iReader.

In addition, iReader's short video matrix has also achieved remarkable results in its attempts to monetize marketing.

A video exploded the "Huawei Work Method"

In June 2019, a video promoting the book "Huawei Work Method" was posted on the iReader Workplace Douyin account. According to publisher feedback, it "led to an increase of 6,000 copies of paper book sales on the same day."

Du Liang, senior brand manager of iReader and head of the iReader Douyin matrix, publicly stated: "For new books like Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, using one account to promote it will probably bring sales of several hundred copies. If the entire matrix promotes it, it can basically drive sales of more than 2,000 copies."

(Best-selling book video "Huawei Work Method")

According to the information collected, iReader's current revenue sources in the short video field mainly include: cooperating with publishers and e-commerce platforms to share commissions, collecting part of the production costs, advertising, and other forms.

As of now, iReader's live streaming on Douyin and Kuaishou has not been rolled out on a large scale. As many corporate giants have tried live streaming to sell goods and have achieved considerable results, it is only a matter of time before iReader gets involved in live streaming to sell books.

Stanford Mom and Xibao Dad, two parenting book recommendation experts on Douyin, also began to increase their time investment in live broadcasts to promote books this year. With millions of fans, the number of people online in their live broadcast rooms can reach about 400 at a stable level, and the atmosphere of user inquiries is quite active. iReader’s 20 million matrix live broadcast is particularly worth looking forward to.

Join hands with Dangdang to promote "The Art of Love"

On March 28, 2020, iReader Short Video Matrix and Dangdang cooperated for the first time to promote "The Art of Loving", a psychological work written by social psychologist Erich Fromm. "Seven video contents were produced and promoted simultaneously on more than 50 accounts across the entire network. The total network playback volume reached 5.48 million, driving Dangdang's sales of the book to nearly 2,000 copies."

The blessing of short videos to the publishing industry has given more room for imagination in the road to best-selling paper books.

iReader’s New Exploration of Short Video Marketing

1) Transformation into a sitcom

iReader is also trying to create a sitcom-type account. For example, the Douyin account Zhangyue Workplace previously continued Zhangyue's usual video style of speakers conveying their opinions and theories. Since December 2019, the entire video format has gradually shifted to sitcoms. Although there are several sitcom videos with a relatively high number of likes, the gap in the transition can still be clearly perceived from the data.

Despite this, it is still necessary for iReader to try to explore more types of videos, because diversified video styles can bring iReader more marketing monetization possibilities.

If you observe carefully, you will find that the video style of the host of iReader has won the love of many fans.

But for iReader, more benefits actually come from brand exposure. The tone and content of the entire video determine that the video tends to be literary and intellectual. At most, some golden sentences from books will be displayed. It is basically impossible to make too much introduction to the books that want to be promoted, which is not conducive to the in-depth marketing conversion of books.

In addition, the styles of speakers like iReader make it difficult to distinguish the people who use one account from another, so some accounts have become similar in content and video format.

For example: between accounts such as Zhangyue Books, Zhangyue Radio, and Zhangyue Love Letters, except for the differences in the people appearing on the accounts and the account names, I can hardly distinguish the characteristics of each account. Even the contents of these accounts seem to be published in conjunction with each other without any sense of incongruity.

That’s why iReader has to abandon its “comfort zone” and try something new.

2) Enter the vlog field and build personal IP

In addition to its attempts at plot-based career accounts, iReader has also tried lifestyle Vlogs, creating a purely personal Vlog account - Amber Duliang. Currently, the account has more than 1 million followers on Douyin, and has also obtained official V certification on Kuaishou, gaining 580,000 followers.

"We want to build this account into a big IP. In the future, we can promote some cultural and creative products through Vlog, and also promote high-quality brands." - Fan Binbin, Brand Manager of iReader Technology Co., Ltd.

Judging from the current number of fans, this is clearly another short video marketing path that iReader has successfully pursued.

3) Multi-platform exploration: Video account + Xiaohongshu has achieved results

iReader has been a member of Xiaohongshu since March 2020, and currently has 400,000 followers, making it a leader in the reading field of the platform.

(Zhangyue Xiaohongshu matrix account)

In addition, it is understood that iReader has also internally tested two WeChat video accounts: Duliang Amber and Duliang Reading.

From a series of operational actions, we can find that iReader actually attaches great importance to new media marketing channels, and its response and entry speed are relatively fast. Coupled with the careful polishing of content, all of this makes iReader's success no accident.

4. Thoughts on the operation of iReader short video matrix

There are certainly things we can learn from the success of the iReader short video matrix, but it is difficult to replicate this level of success because each short video account has different resources, matching products, and monetization methods during operation. Finding the short video operation direction that suits you best may be more effective than blindly imitating. The second is to find the right platform to exert efforts.

Zhangyue has opened accounts on CCTV Video, Xigua Video and Weishi. The data performance after synchronizing the content was not satisfactory. Subsequently, Zhangyue basically stopped updating content on these platforms and is currently focusing on the operations of Douyin and Kuaishou platforms.

Investing limited energy in the most productive areas is probably the reason why many short video operators are not considering developing short video platforms other than Kuaishou and Douyin.

(Left: CCTV Video, Right: Weishi)

Is it difficult to successfully operate a matrix account for short videos?

Different people have different opinions. To some extent, I think the success of the iReader Matrix account is inevitable. If it wasn’t iReader, it would probably be Shidian Reading, which has a similar style.

All forms of content creation are actually familiar to us. They have been pursued by a wide range of users in the form of pictures, texts, and audios. In a new field, when the rules are re-established, whoever finds the familiar content flag first can plant it on the top of a mountain with infinite scenery.

In the short video industry, there is never a shortage of moments that will surprise you.

Note: Some of the interviews quoted in this article are from public information on the Internet

Author: Tian Xin

Source: Operator Notes (ID: Operator-notes)