A guide to creating a short video matrix for “Reading Books in Your Palm”!

I believe everyone is familiar with ZhanDuShu , which is a long-established e-reading platform. At the same time, it started to expand its territory on the short video platform in 2019 and has achieved remarkable results today. If you are a book lover, you must have seen their videos on Douyin or Kuaishou.

The Zhangyue short video matrix began to be created in April 2019 and was officially launched in May. It now has a total number of fans on the entire network of more than 20 million. It has multiple top accounts and special accounts on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Weishi, CCTV Video, and Xigua Video, including Zhangyue Book Laboratory, Zhangyue Books, Zhangyue Workplace, Zhangyue Bookstore, Zhangyue Parent-Child, Zhangyue-Zhou Qun Reading Club, Zhangyue Emotions, Zhangyue Night Reading, Amber's Life Fragments, etc. It has become the top matrix with the largest number of fans and the fastest growing number of fans in this field.

Figure | iReader short video matrix: Douyin (left), Kuaishou (right)

The content and form are relatively uniform. The host, who is dressed intellectually and has a gentle temperament, sits elegantly on the sofa, accompanied by a healing and soothing piece of pure music, and emotionally reads out a passage of essence excerpted from a book, or a carefully written interpretation text. Under each video, there are many discussions and insights about books. The account accurately targets the group of people who love reading in short videos, and completes the product promotion and effective conversion in a comfortable and natural way.

In more than five months since its launch, the Zhangyue short video matrix has attracted 11 million fans, and the number of fans of a single top account has exceeded 5 million... As of now, it has attracted 20 million fans across the entire network in just one year. How did Zhangyue achieve such results step by step?

I collected some public sharing from internal staff on the Internet, which found many inspiring points, so I organized them a bit for you to share. Because a lot of the content comes from press releases, it may have a PR flavor, so please forgive me.

1. The iterative history of the short video of Zhangdu Book

When operating Douyin, the first thing to do is to clarify the positioning goal of the account - dissemination, sales or knowledge accumulation? The first five videos of a new account often determine its label and positioning, and are relatively easier to go viral, so account planning is necessary after deciding on the strategy.

1) The confused trial and error period

Du Liang, the person in charge of the short video matrix of Douyin, recalled the early stages, "Faced with the 300,000 KPI target set by the boss, I was very confused. I could only look for various directions and do whatever content was popular." I have filmed the daily life of iReader and also tried to perform a dance, but all my responses fell on deaf ears and I was greatly disappointed. I tried twice to promote online articles using popular text and image combinations like PPT, but both attempts failed.

2) Sign a contract with a professional anchor to give a real-life lecture

So the team invited professional artistes to host the show and set up a luxurious background, thinking that this time it would be a sure thing, but the result was still not satisfactory. However, in this process, I also understood the importance of the host's "online sense".

"Based on user feedback, I then found a younger anchor who was a little famous on Weibo and planned an episode about the popular TV series All Is Well. The next morning, this short video had received tens of thousands of likes. I was in a very good mood at the time, as if I had found a direction."

3) Rapid adjustment when anchors are lost

Just when the account operation was gaining some success, the contract with the Weibo celebrity expired, and his value rose to the level that it was difficult for the company to carry out long-term cooperation with him.

Figure | Du Liang, senior brand manager of iReader and head of short video matrix at Douyin

Therefore, Du Liang, who studied broadcasting and hosting at Communication University of China, took the lead as an employee and personally selected books and planned topics. Fortunately, a big hit was soon produced. The loss of anchors can cause great harm to the account. In order to avoid such accidents, it is recommended to find anchors with high cost-effectiveness and sign multi-year contracts as much as possible.

4) Initial results achieved, independent team established

After seeing the results and returns, iReader made timely personnel adjustments and formed an independent team to speed up the construction of the short video matrix. Within the team, iReader has determined its own short video planning process and dissemination rhythm. With increasing success in short videos, this team is expected to become self-sufficient and even provide support to iReader.

2. Short video production process

Short video production process: director is responsible - anchor team - refined operation. Du Liang shared, "For Douyin, the most important things include the copywriting and the host's expression, followed by the picture, picture quality, timbre and sound quality. From the topic selection meeting on Tuesday to the copywriting on Friday, someone needs to stick to the basic style and direction of the account. Thus, we have the director-editor responsibility system."

Figure | iReader’s short video production process

1) Topic selection meeting planning

Every Tuesday before making a short video, the iReader team will organize a book selection meeting according to the corresponding standards and strictly screen the books.

The criteria for selecting books is first to match the tone of each account, or to combine with current hot topics. At the same time, we will also refer to the bestseller rankings of books (market feedback), and give priority to new books with depth. Short video content will be updated four times a week.

2) "Dead-line" content

High-quality content is the basis of content production and promotion, and accurate interpretation and control of content is the key. In the opinion of Fan Binbin, brand manager of iReader, the biggest difficulty in promoting book reading and promotion through short videos lies in content production and anchors.

After confirming the book, the iReader team will dig deeper into the book content, disassemble and reorganize the entire book, in order to present the most complete and high-quality content to short video viewers within a limited time. “Each video may seem to be only a few hundred words long, but it takes a long time to think about it. The team must have a very high level of literary literacy, and the team must do in-depth interpretation of each book.”

Figure | Data related to the short video "The Selfish Gene"

The first hit short video on iReader was a promotional video on the book The Selfish Gene, which was released on May 20 by the account "Imprint Book Lab". The video had over 10 million views and over 350,000 likes, bringing nearly 200,000 fans to this Douyin account.

"The Selfish Gene" is a popular science book written by British evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins. The Chinese version is published by CITIC Press. This is a classic masterpiece, but it is less known to readers. The host of iReader made this book popular again with his simple language and vivid and appropriate examples. Such eye-catching data has greatly encouraged the iReader team and also proved that serious publications also have a market and audience on Douyin.

Picture | The "Little Joy" short video on the Zhangdu Reading account has more than 1.28 million likes

In the summer of 2019, when the hit TV series "Little Joy" was hotly discussed, the short video content produced by the "Zhang Du Shu" account around "Little Joy" also became a hit of the day, with more than 30 million views and an increase of more than 1 million fans a day, ranking TOP8 on the Douyin hot list. The phenomenal hit also gave iReader more confidence and experience in its future development.

3) Anchor screening and collaboration

The anchor determines the style of the account and the creation of the IP personality that increases the rate of fan growth. iReader has many short video accounts, each of which is managed by a different anchor and has a different tone to meet the needs of readers at different levels.

In terms of anchor selection, "the challenge for anchors of short videos is to have expressiveness, internet sense and sensitivity to content." "Here we need to pay attention to the anchor's "internet sense" - that is, the sense of communication between the anchor and the user, as well as appearance and temperament, so as to determine the appropriate field and give full play to the anchor's characteristics.

Du Liang, one of the short video hosts of iReader Douyin, said that hosts need to know how to make serious text content more popular. Their job is not to read the copy, but to add their own understanding of the content and even integrate it into the content production process.

4) Refined operations

The first is the operational goal (indicator). iReader internally advocates that the number of clicks and likes for subsequently released videos must reach the baseline. In an era where content is king, this has a great impact on conversion rates.

Secondly, continuously accumulate and analyze data to determine the appropriate time to release the content. Geng Yanli, head of the Kuaishou matrix at iReader, shared her experience, "When the account has fewer than 10,000 followers, it is best to choose a fixed time to release new content. When the account has more than 10,000 followers, you should choose a flexible time to release. The golden time for posting is from 11:30 to 12:30 noon and from 5 to 7 pm. This is often the time for people to relax and have fun when they are tired from work."

Regarding how to use a video on multiple platforms, Geng Yanli suggested that "in the face of differences in users on different platforms, we also need to appropriately differentiate the content. Generally, we will do simple secondary editing, change background music, optimize the cover and account real-name authentication, etc."

At the same time, within 2-3 months, accounts with little user response and mediocre performance will be eliminated and cancelled. This is also a mechanism for iReader to control costs and allocate resources internally.

5) Form innovation

In addition to host book recommendations, iReader is also exploring the format of micro-interviews. On December 17, 2019, iReader Technology’s first pan-cultural micro-interview program with contemporary figures, “iReader Far Mountains”, launched an exclusive interview video with Kevin Tsai. Fan Binbin, brand director of iReader Technology, said in an interview, “We hope to build this column into a traffic platform for authors and publishers to promote their books and a promotional platform for the first release of key books. While completing the promotion of books, it can also bring considerable sales.”

The first issue of the revised version of "Zhanyue Yuanshan" interviewed the writer Feng Tang. The number of views on the entire network reached 20 million times in just 4 days. On that day, the Douyin channel alone drove the sales of paper books to exceed 1,500 copies.

3. Matrix operation to break through the bottleneck of increasing fans

After experiencing several hot spots and explosive hits, iReader has already figured out standard specifications and experience in the processes of short video content, shooting, production and distribution. The accumulation of fans in the short video matrix has also entered a period of steady growth. iReader has replicated its successful experience and formed a Douyin matrix with multiple accounts.

Following the Zhangyue Book Lab, Zhangyue opened multiple accounts including Zhangyue Book and Zhangyue Bookstore, using a unified mode of real people telling stories, ushering in a period of "rapid replication + growth + breakthrough".

At the same time, on this basis, according to the various segments of the book market, iReader has also opened accounts for exploring vertical fields such as iReader Workplace and iReader Parent-Child.

Currently, iReader is exploring a model whereby companies and anchors jointly build reading accounts. It is currently collaborating with host Zhou Qun on the iReader-Zhou Qun Reading Club. The book club is presented in the form of a talk show, delivering the little happiness in life in a humorous way and showing the twists and turns of life's journey. The iReader-Zhou Qun Reading Club will be released on multiple channels including the iReader App and iReader short video platform. (But, I didn’t find the short video account…)

Fan Binbin, head of the iReader brand, believes that creating a matrix can, on the one hand, achieve differentiation between the brands of each account. Every Douyin account under the matrix strives to build a clear positioning and target audience; on the other hand, it establishes connections between different accounts and achieves the mutual transfer of core users.

iReader will utilize the short video matrix to create social hot spots. When "Little Joy" was popular, the two accounts of Zhangyue Parent-Child and Zhangyue Reading published different short video contents respectively, and both received high attention.

4. Short video book marketing

"At present, iReader is also seeking cooperation models with publishing institutions and online bookstores, exploring some forms of monetization, and has the ability to increase investment in content production and produce more high-quality content." Fan Binbin said, "Our current cooperation with publishers and e-commerce platforms includes commission sharing, charging part of the production costs, advertising and other forms. The income obtained will still be fed back to the production of short video content, and ultimately it is to better promote reading."

We worked with publishing houses and online bookstores to promote books, and one video led to a sales increase of 6,000 paper books.

At present, short video marketing is becoming a new way to “promote books”. There is a short video about "Huawei's Work Method" on iReader Workplace, which received more than 500,000 likes and led to an increase in sales of 6,000 paper books on the same day.

Figure | The short video "Huawei's Work Method" on the iReader workplace account has received more than 500,000 likes

Last October, the Korean drama "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982" became a hit. iReader produced a short video of the novel of the same name and jointly pushed it on the Douyin platform through the iReader Book Lab and iReader Book accounts. The iReader Book List account received 61,000 likes.

"The reason we chose these two accounts is that we first consider the matching degree between the book and the account, and secondly we will also evaluate the literary value of the book." Du Liang said, "For a new book like "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982", using one account to promote it will probably bring sales of several hundred copies. If the entire matrix is ​​used to promote it, it can basically drive sales of more than 2,000 copies."

On March 28 this year, iReader Short Video Matrix cooperated with Dangdang for the first time to promote the psychology work "The Art of Loving" written by social psychologist Erich Fromm.

The team read the book thoroughly in a short period of time, familiarized themselves with the content, extracted viewpoints from different user perspectives, cited extensive references, interpreted the book in an easy-to-understand way, and carefully produced 7 video contents, which were simultaneously promoted on 50+ accounts across the entire network, with a total playback volume of 5.48 million. It also drove the sales of the book to nearly 2,000 copies, becoming another example of short video book promotion in the publishing industry.

In the future, iReader also hopes to explore more forms of traffic monetization, such as live streaming, such as Taobao Live, which can display various products more intuitively. The book industry should seize this opportunity to reduce user search needs through live streaming, improve book selection efficiency, and better serve writers, publishers and readers. iReader estimates that one live broadcast can drive sales of thousands of books, which can also better serve writers, publishing houses and readers.

100 million is iReader’s goal for the total number of fans of iReader’s short video matrix in the next 1-2 years.

In addition to book recommendation programs, iReader is also trying to make sitcoms and lifestyle Vlogs. "Amber's Life Fragments" is currently being jointly built by Duliang and iReader. It focuses on the host's personal image, is close to life, and is precisely positioned in lifestyle presentation. This life-related video, which is separate from books, has also gained support from a large number of viewers. In the future, the iReader team wants to build it into a large IP, which can promote some cultural and creative products through Vlogs, and also promote high-quality brands.

Author: Liao Liao Dimension

Source: Liao Liao Dimension