How to select hot topics for new media!

It is probably not easy for a new media person to operate if he has never lost his hair over topic selection.

Every month, there are always a few days when I feel so depressed about choosing topics that I just can't bear the thought of life. Even worse, I spend every day of the month trying to choose topics.

The truth is, the boss often comes over and says:

Others can easily have 100,000+, I believe you can do it too, come up with some popular topics, and popular articles are the king, do you know?

You see, choosing a topic is already difficult, and choosing a hot-selling topic is really scary.

Everyone wants to have a secret method for selecting topics, so that they can easily get a bunch of 100,000+ topics.

Secret method, maybe there is!

But every time I write to you, it’s all methods! It is definitely useful, but I dare not call it a secret method.

Regarding the selection of hot topics, many people have actually shared good ideas. I have also written some, and you can find them by searching, for example:

01. Hot items and hot topics are good friends. If you tap into hot topics in time, it is easier to become a hot item.

02. The topic has high attention, covers a wide target population, can penetrate into multiple circles, and form multi-circle dissemination;

03. Find those strong emotional convergence points to stimulate high arousal emotions;

04. Don’t have mediocre opinions, have sharp and tricky opinions, and strong opinions are explosive points;

05. Subvert the existing common sense, say things that others have not said, and say things that are different from the public's perception;

06. Find an angle of approach from the controversial point or the opposite side of the incident;

07. Satisfy strong curiosity and arouse unexpected satisfaction and desire to share;

08. Help readers express their thoughts and say what they want to say but have been suppressing deep in their hearts;

09. Be valuable, have profound insights, and be able to provide social topics for others;

10. It can help the target group to shape and consolidate their image, and even show a sense of superiority;

These are all very reliable topics for hot-selling articles. It is certain that countless people have created a large number of hot-selling articles based on these angles.

However, as you can see, there are countless people who use these methods but don’t often create hits.

This is also where many keyboard warriors like to complain: "Why do these methods you shared say that they can create hits, but I haven't been able to write one? You are really a liar."

Are these methods wrong?

no!

The method is the method, the result is the result. It is effective but not a shortcut.

A topic is a topic, and a popular article is a popular article. They are related but not equal.

In this era where everyone can express their opinions, I have always believed that everyone has the potential to write their own explosive article.

But a good topic selection never means a hit article. Your vertical field, content positioning, account tone, user insights, title, article framework, expression skills, push timing, etc., each of them will determine whether an article can become a hit.

The method is only part of it, and the topic is only part of it.

I understand!

This should be very clear, please read on.

The topic selection method that I most recommend is the methodology that Mimi Meng’s team uses to continuously create hit products.

Some people like Mimi Meng, some people hate Mimi Meng, this old thief doesn’t care much! The Internet has always been a world of love and hate.

Reality has already blatantly "banned" Mimi Meng's poor performance, and the good performances cannot be confused with her. Adults should have correct values, be able to distinguish between good and bad, and treat each thing separately.

So what is the “secret” of Mimi Meng’s team to create hit products?

01. First, brainstorm 50 topics

Mimi Meng’s team starts brainstorming every morning and has to come up with 50 topics from hot topics before 12 o’clock.

Of course, these 50 topics are just alternatives, in order to finally choose the relatively reliable one. After intense discussions and based on past data, they will finally confirm one topic to focus on.

What is the basis?

When they shared their secrets at the conference, they mentioned:

New ideas are not that magical. The process of discovering new ideas is nothing more than a process of abandoning old ideas one by one. You must not write the first opinion that comes to your mind, because everyone can think of it.

The same goes for the Late Night Post team. Usually the editor-in-chief will ask everyone to submit a list of topics one day in advance. Each person may propose dozens or even hundreds of topics.

Then we held a topic selection meeting the next morning and looked at the topic list together. Everyone picked out the topics they liked and disliked and explained the reasons.

Focus on the topic that most people like, and it will most likely become the next hot article. As for the topics that none of you like, let’s study together why you don’t like them. What do they have in common? Summarize experience.

When creating content, you should follow eight words: unexpected, but reasonable.

02. Level 4 Interview

After they have a topic they want to work on, they will do the level 4 interviews required by the team.

First there was a group interview with a core fan group of 5,000 people, then there were interviews with more than three small groups, 50 individual interviews, and finally interviews with the expert advisory group.

This kind of close interview with users is obviously of great significance in any field of content creation. Creating content is indeed a form of self-expression for creators, but if you want to make content that everyone likes, you definitely cannot just be self-satisfied and talk to yourself.

You need to care about user needs and find the intersection between user needs and self-expression.

During the interview, you can hear the real voice of the target users and understand what they already know and what they want to know. This is a prerequisite for you to know "what to write".

The sophistication of Mimi Meng's team lies in the fact that they not only conducted group interviews, but also conducted more precise segmented group interviews : they made appointments with a group of people for longer case interviews, and they even have an expert advisory group of more than 70 experts from around the world. For specific topics, they can get more specific and professional advice from the experts. Often, the interviews with experts have content materials of 5,000 to 10,000 words.

Let me ask you, under such a model, with such details, how bad can the topics and content materials be? Even if I just edit these interviews casually, I believe they will be very good.

The devil is in the details, no problem!

What's even more perverted is that I heard that after finishing the CET-4 interview, they will get tens of thousands of words of interview materials, which they have to organize carefully before they can write the manuscript.

If that's the case, I'm really convinced.

03. Take 100 titles and 5,000 people vote

Mimi Meng’s team has to write 100 titles for each article. You and I both know the importance of the title, which is the most direct factor that determines the data trend after the article is pushed.

You should often hear that a good title should be chosen 100 times.

But it’s too difficult to do. Anyway, I’m lazy and can’t do it at all. Being able to do that is itself a great asset.

Moreover, after selecting 100 titles, they will send them to a core fan group of 5,000 people for voting. Instead of relying on their own guesswork, they always leave the "insight" to the users themselves.

04. 10,000-word data report

What's even more attentive is that they will make a 10,000-word data analysis report for an article. Of course, it's not just a single article, but also includes overall data analysis of their own account, information analysis of user feedback, analysis of popular articles by peers, and so on.

Summarize experience in real time and immediately turn all right, wrong, good and bad things into specific actions that can improve the results next time.

This is not about running a public account, it is clearly a systematic product operation thinking.

They are so detailed that they can tell how many people like the title of each article, how many people think the beginning is good, how many people are moved by a certain sentence, how many people hate a certain paragraph, how many people feel in the end, etc.

If you have a clear understanding of the data and every bit of user feedback, and you gradually understand them better than users themselves, will you still lack insights, resonance, difficult pain points and tear points?

Mimi Meng said: "I can basically know what kind of drinks they like, what time they get up and go to bed every day, and I know what they like and don't like..."

If you can achieve this, you are truly invincible, unless you kill yourself!

In general, the key points of creating a hit article by the Mi Meng team are:

Choose one topic from 50, conduct a level 4 interview, digest tens of thousands of words of interview content before starting to write, then pick 100 titles, get them to vote in a core group of 5,000 people, and finally make 10,000-word data analysis reports for the article to improve in actual practice.

Of course, for various reasons, not all individuals or teams can achieve the "abnormal" and sophisticated operation of Mimi Meng's team.

However, this kind of product thinking of creating hit products is completely worthy of learning and reference for every new media person to improve upon and develop methods that suit them.

You will find that there is a method, but the ceiling is always determined by you. The key is to lay a solid foundation, pay attention to details, do every touch point well, polish it again and again, and practice deliberately...

That's the difference, and it never ends.

Fight yourself to the death! Crazy seriousness! As paranoid as a fool!

Author: Mumu Old Thief

Source: Mumu Laozei