Analysis of techniques for creating popular short videos on TikTok

In the year when short videos exploded, the average usage time of users has increased from half an hour in the early days to 75 minutes later.

And unlike what many people speculate, users do not watch short videos entirely in fragmented time. Instead, many users watch them in the entire time after dinner and before going to bed.

Therefore, for a short video creator, the way to calculate competitors or set your own goals is to stand out during the entire time that users browse, so that more users can like and recommend it, thereby obtaining greater recommendations from the platform.

What kind of competition situation is this? Simple calculation: 75 minutes x 60 seconds/15 seconds per video = 300 videos.

So for the poster, the goal becomes clear, which is to try to be remembered among the 300 videos posted every day.

So the next question is, how can we make the short videos we shoot more likely to be liked?

Director Tian Fang summarized 7 key principles - VICTORY principle

They are Values, Insights, Context, Opportunity character, Youthful action, Tale, and Rhythm.

Since it is a principle, it means that it is a way of looking at the world.

In the future, we need to try to use these 7 principles to analyze the short videos we see, so as to see the logic behind the popularity of these videos.

At the same time, in this set of mini-lessons, Director Tian also introduced some effective working methods in her work. Let’s take a quick look.

1. The director’s algorithm is based on values

Here, we are mainly talking about the trend-based impact of social development on the overall content.

The government hopes that each platform will display more content that is in line with the construction of socialist spiritual civilization.

This kind of "hope" is not only compulsory, but also an inevitable aesthetic upgrade brought about by social and economic development and consumption upgrading.

Therefore, when short video creators are creating, they should try to pay more attention to national development, the wonderful changes brought about by economic development, and the little happiness in people's lives. Such content will be more easily recommended by the platform.

For example, drone photography that shows the magnificent scenery of our motherland, when Chinese people go abroad for exchanges and studies, they discover changes in the attitudes and behaviors of people around the world towards China, and in Japan, they discover people wearing Hanfu when traveling, etc. All of these are saying that our country is stronger than before, and this increase in national pride is also worth showing. For example, in the lives of ordinary people, when young people grow up, they take their elderly parents or even grandparents out for a trip. The harmony and joy of the family also expresses the spiritual theme of "small happiness".

Why is it better for short video creators to shoot more positive content of this kind? From a personal perspective, it is also because values ​​themselves bring about an increase in commercial value.

Vulgar and depressing content will not help you win the favor of business partners.

Therefore, controlling values ​​is not only a trend of social development and platform recommendations, but also an inevitable choice for short video creators to gain commercial value.

2. How to use insights to create a hit product

The reason why popular content can become so popular is definitely because the content itself conforms to certain rules and satisfies the users' subconscious needs.

Therefore, it is best for creators to develop certain work habits and processes in their work to make the creative process more efficient.

The first method is "brainstorming".

1) During the brainstorming process, you need to make “delayed judgments” – when participants are speaking, do not comment or deny immediately on the spot. This will greatly dampen everyone's enthusiasm.

2) Process the ideas and “secondary innovation” is better - don’t stop the meeting immediately when you hear a good idea. Generate more ideas and try to combine these high-quality ideas. Maybe better ideas will emerge.

The second is the method "user testing".

Refer to the way Mimi Meng writes articles every time, especially the polishing of topics and titles.

"When discovering an insight, we first write a 10,000-word investigation report, conduct multiple rounds of interviews and interactive collaboration with users, select one out of 50 topics, and generate 100 titles through voting within the group."

A person's insights are often biased. To create content that users like, you need to communicate more with users and do user testing. Perhaps the content will be more popular with everyone.

Finally, to create highly disseminated content, we must pay attention to the “seven deadly sins” of human nature.

But the seven deadly sins are not applied directly, but given a new interpretation.

As shown in the picture, Director Tian re-combined and matched the highly circulated content on Douyin with the seven deadly sins. This produces content materials that are more suitable for dissemination on the platform.

3. Empower the scene with emotion

The director's job is to use space and time to stimulate the protagonist's behavior and mobilize the audience's emotions and feelings.

Therefore, in the process of shooting short videos with high dissemination volume, the key point is to think clearly about what kind of emotion our video expresses. What kind of empathetic reaction do you hope the audience will have?

The specific creative method is to try to use the 5W method when looking for materials and writing scripts, so that the materials you see and the stories you want to write can increase their sense of story and emotion.

5W means who/what/where/why/how.

For example, if you add a more story-like plot to a piece of content that already has a good spread, or add the reason why the protagonist does this thing, the spread of the video may be further improved.

For example, it is not uncommon to go to Xi'an to drink bowl-breaking wine. What is rare is that two girls drank a lot, and the reason they drank was because they had finished the college entrance examination? Graduated? Broken heart?

Adding a reason adds motivation to the protagonist's behavior. That is to say, "empowering the scene with emotions", and the core is of course to empower the attractiveness of the content.

4. Personality is a continuous product management

Here we simply list the 7 elements of a personality, so that you can see it at a glance. Character design or character setting.

1) Image and personality - characteristics and memorable points - appearance and quirks

2) Background - Prehistory (the projection of the past into the present)

3) Behavioral arc - growth line - the works created should have coherence and growth

4) Inner Demons and Conflicts: Inner Fear and External Pressure

5) Worldview: What is faith, what do you believe in and what do you insist on?

6) Goal - What kind of person do you want to be - Motivation

7) Be sustainable

5. Install an engine for the action

Lessons 4 and 5 are in the same vein. The key to creating a story is to think clearly about what the protagonist should do, why he should do it, and how to do it.

The fifth lesson emphasizes that behavior can be divided into active and passive.

Take Judy from the movie Zootopia as an example.

1) What is the rabbit going to do? On the surface, the actions that can be seen are to work with the fox Nick to solve cases, to become a qualified policeman, and to make the animals in Zootopia live in harmony. ,

2) Deep down, why do we do this? The "backstory" involved with the rabbit was that she was bullied by a fox when she was a child, and she vowed to become a police officer.

The origin of the story comes from the development of the times and the rise of women.

3) How she intends to do it - that is, sustainable and effective actions to achieve her goals - she overcomes a series of difficulties in the story, traps from enemies and contempt from colleagues, etc., and finally becomes an excellent police officer.

In order to achieve the goal, the protagonist needs to perform a series of active and passive actions to achieve the result. Passive actions, on the other hand, often attract more attention and are more popular.

In the daily process of creating short videos, one thing you need to pay attention to is that if your video is story-telling. So in storytelling, especially in the setting of plots and difficulties, it is best to set up some situations that allow the protagonist to show "passive actions".

For example, let’s take a video of an athlete actively practicing hard. This video is very common. The athlete’s goal is to achieve high achievements, so of course he has to work hard for this.

But if the camera turns to the back, it turns out that during practice, the coach found several vicious dogs to chase the athletes. Then this behavior becomes a passive action and is much more interesting.

6. A good story is about making things happen

The core point is that most good stories are driven out by "conflict".

Good content is about "the extraordinary things of ordinary people, and the ordinary things of extraordinary people."

When telling a story, add confrontation, surprises, reversals, suspense... The clearer the conflict, the more sharp and rapid the story will develop.

Over the past nearly 100 years, Hollywood has simplified 36 story models into 9 story templates based on the dramatic creations of its predecessors.

After Director Tian adapted the content to the short video content, the following table was produced. Friends are welcome to try and create more on this basis.

1) Love

Routine explanation: Love, but it requires sacrifice and choice (long-distance relationship, misunderstanding, test)

2) Rapid success

Routine: Don’t show off your wealth, because behind the wealth are the efforts and hardships that you cannot see (behind the scenes of various industries)

3) Cinderella

Routine explanation: The counterattack of losers may not be wealth, but spiritual

4) Love triangle

Routine explanation: Don’t catch an adulterer, love is helpless

Recommended to avoid

5) Return

Routine explanation: Things have changed, and the accumulated emotions burst out

6) Revenge

Routine explanation: small misunderstanding, smart solution

7) Transformation

Routine explanation: the contrast between before and after, and the activeness in the transformation process (makeup change)

8) Sacrifice

Routine explanation: Pay, active and passive choice (hard work, put meat in the child's bowl to see the child's reaction)

9) Family

Routine explanation: Different age perceptions, resulting in behavioral dislocation, and harmonious solution (the love between grandparents)

7. Rhythm determines success or failure

The content here is relatively simple, and can be summarized in the following sentences:

1) Rhythm is not just about music, storytelling also requires rhythm, beginning, development, turning point and ending.

2) The rhythm of excellent storytelling combined with the music of short videos can more easily drive the audience's emotions, such as a series of short videos with twists and turns

3) Choosing the right music is half the battle for your video

4) Beginners should learn to use fast and slow lenses and match them with music to create videos

5) When choosing content, it is best to have a "sense of aftertaste" or "sweetness" - for example, an Easter egg or suspense at the end

Author: Xia Fox Marketing Disassembly Class

Source: Xia Fox Marketing Disassembly Class