How should a company operate a popular Douyin account?

There is no need to say much about the popularity of Douyin . As the leading short video APP, Douyin has taken away a lot of users' time from WeChat and become a new "time black hole". Now, when it comes to new media operations or brand promotion , “WeChat, Weibo and Douyin” are the platforms that need to be considered first.

There are actually quite a few companies trying to operate Douyin, but apart from the new media content companies (such as Lying Duck and accounts under Onion Video), which are doing very well, we rarely see the emergence of top blue Vs. This is not because Douyin is "immune" to companies, but that many companies have not found the right methods and routines to operate Douyin.

Let me first state the conclusion: when ordinary companies operate short videos like Douyin, they should make more skill-based and knowledge-based videos, which are also content that every company can produce.

Let me explain it slowly below.

1. What is the purpose of making TikTok?

The first thing we need to think about is, what is the purpose of an enterprise operating Douyin? The answer is obvious. It is nothing more than brand marketing and expanding brand influence, but this is just a general summary. The deeper purpose is to accumulate the brand's own traffic pool in the short video field, and try to interconnect and divert traffic with traffic pools of other platforms.

Then the question arises. The development trend of short video platforms is very obvious, which is the algorithm recommendation mechanism. Users are more motivated to like a video than to follow an account. This is not a good thing for brands. What brands need more is users to follow accounts for subsequent reach and conversion .

2. Two types of Douyin accounts

If you have experienced Douyin in depth, you will find that the accounts recommended to you on Douyin can be divided into two categories: "Die after having enough fun" and "Experts in making second-rate hits".

1. Die after having enough

Most TikTok accounts are of the "just for fun, then die" type. The obvious feature of this type of account is that they will recommend you popular videos, which may get hundreds of thousands to millions of likes. But when we open their homepages, we will find that this type of account has actually shot quite a few short videos, but most of the videos are not very popular and do not get too many likes, and the video you see is just one of their few popular videos.

It's probably similar to the following account:

The popular videos of this type of accounts are mostly accidental. They happen to shoot some interesting scenes in life, or take some selfies of dancing, and one or several videos become popular by chance. However, most content attempts are not very successful, so they can only "satisfy their desire" and it is difficult to continuously produce high-quality content. Users will not have the urge to pay attention after seeing this situation.

This type of "die-after-a-satisfaction" account is the current situation of most amateurs and companies (of course, there are even more and worse accounts that have never produced any hits). Roughly estimated, the total likes and attention ratio of this type of account is mostly below 10:1. If it is a new account with few videos, or has an advantage in appearance, or a well-known brand, the attention-to-conversion ratio may be higher, reaching around 5:1.

But in general, this type of account should not be what companies are pursuing when operating Douyin. Users' evaluation of video content is too unstable and depends on luck to a certain extent. In addition, the low attention rate leads to low operational efficiency.

2. Second best seller expert

The main feature of this type of account is that the number of likes for most videos is not particularly high, probably ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. There may occasionally be videos with millions of likes, but not many. However, one characteristic of this type of account is that the number of likes is relatively uniform, and there will not be a situation where there are only a few hundred likes. The videos from this type of account can gain a certain amount of dissemination and likes, but it is difficult for them to reach the level of hit videos on the entire Tik Tok platform. I call them “second-rate hit experts.”

It's probably similar to the following account:

This type of account is more the result of systematic team operations, and many of them are related accounts operated by new media content companies. Unlike the previous account, the product quality of "sub-explosive experts" is relatively stable, and the target audience may be more concentrated and precise. When a user is recommended a video like this, he or she will want to swipe left to see if the account has any similar videos. If the user sees the video list and finds that the content is not bad, the user is likely to follow the account.

This type of "sub-expert" not only has stable video quality, likes and playback volume, but can also convert visitors into its own traffic pool so as to further tap into user value in the future. According to rough estimates, the ratio of likes to followers of such accounts is usually above 10:1. If the content is precise and vertical enough, or more interesting, this ratio can even reach above 2:1.

In general, this stable, high-quality, high-conversion "sub-explosive expert" is the goal of companies operating Douyin accounts.

Why do these two types of accounts appear?

Of course, there are many miscellaneous small accounts and a large number of unknown accounts, but the two types of accounts above can be clearly distinguished. Why are these two types of accounts gradually emerging?

This has to start with Douyin's video recommendation mechanism. Douyin adopts a " traffic horse racing mechanism ". Simply put, it is: give a little traffic to the new video first, and then compare various indicators with similar videos (such as like rate, completion rate, etc.), and then gradually give more traffic after the data wins the PK with similar videos. In this way, as long as the various indicators of the video are good enough, it can continue to obtain new traffic. If it is defeated in a certain PK link, the platform will no longer give larger amounts of traffic. This "traffic horse racing mechanism" is actually similar to the rules of various competitions, talent shows and PKs.

But precisely because of this traffic racing mechanism, those accounts of "second-tier hit experts" can only achieve second-tier hits, because the target groups of such accounts are often relatively precise and not so general. When the system provides traffic that matches its target population, its video content will spread quickly, but when the traffic provided exceeds its target population, the data may not look good, and it will ultimately fail to win the PK and gain more traffic. This is also the "information cocoon" effect.

For example, if you are making a video on how to use an Apple phone, then if the video quality is good, your video can spread quickly among Apple users, but if you are given the traffic of Android users, then the various indicators of the video will be pulled down, and the system will not give you more Android traffic.

Of course, some popular entertainment accounts will be much better, such as comedy accounts, which target a wide enough audience, but it is impossible for every company to post jokes on a Douyin account. On the other hand, those accounts that "die after having enough fun" may become popular because of a video that hits the psychological needs of the public, but it is difficult for the operators to replicate it.

3. What content should be created when operating Douyin?

Content is the top priority of communication. No matter how many methodologies you know, they will ultimately be reflected in the dissemination of content. This part will talk about content.

1. What are people watching on TikTok?

There are actually many articles that have explained in detail what people watch on Douyin and what content on Douyin will go viral. I won’t go into details here, but simply list the common content:

1) Wonders: mainly scenic spots, local customs and practices;

2) Cute pets: Cute and silly videos of cats, dogs and other pets;

3) Expert category: various videos with high difficulty and high technical content;

4) Appearance: handsome, talented and unique young men and women;

5) Comedy: street pick-up, situation comedy, funny jokes;

6) Novelty: novel things around you, such as food, restaurants, street performers, etc.

7) Performance: singing, dancing and other performance content;

8) Skills: mainly various skills, knowledge and simple tutorials;

It doesn’t mean that you can become popular just by making the above 8 types of content. Videos that can become popular must hit the public psychology and have their own unique value. There were so many beautiful young ladies dancing, but Daigula K conquered everyone with her smile.

These eight categories cover the vast majority of the mainstream content on Douyin. Companies that operate Douyin generally choose one or several of these categories to try, but most of the content is not suitable for general corporate brand promotion , but is more suitable for operations by new media content agencies, MCNs and other content companies.

2. What is suitable for enterprises to do on Douyin?

The reason why most of the eight categories of videos mentioned above are not suitable for enterprises is that it is difficult for ordinary enterprises to become "sub-explosive experts" in the first seven categories through the operation of their own resources, and only the eighth category of videos (skill videos) have a greater chance of success.

Here are two key points that companies need to consider when doing content planning: the relevance and sustainability of the content.

1) Relevance of content

The relevance of content means that the content must have a certain relevance to the brand, and the brand or product must be in a relatively important position. However, the first seven types of video content are not highly relevant to most brands.

If you are a brand of mountaineering equipment, you would certainly consider taking some mountaineering scenery and natural wonders, but for most other product brands, it is actually difficult to find a point of content integration, and ultimately you can only present it in the form of embedded advertising, which is easy for users to ignore.

Of course, you can also make some comedy videos, cleverly embedding the product as a key prop through the setting of the plot, but the production capacity of such scripts is actually quite difficult, and it is very difficult to generate them continuously, which is the content sustainability mentioned below.

2) Sustainability of content

It is extremely difficult to continuously generate surprising content. I believe that friends who have created content can feel this. The reason why the first seven types of video content are difficult to operate and can only be used as content embellishments is because they are difficult to produce industrially.

No matter how beautiful a girl is, you will get tired of her if you see her too much. No matter how spectacular the scenery is, you can't see it every day. No matter how funny the script is, you can't always come up with it. Performances such as singing and dancing are not suitable for most brand promotions and can only be used as corporate culture output at best. Therefore, most of these contents are operated in a team by new media content organizations.

But the eighth type of skills is different. Behind every product there are a lot of skills, technologies, and knowledge that can be told. With the technological iterations of products and the launch of new products, ordinary companies can actually continue to produce such skill and knowledge content.

3) Useful content can bring high conversion

Another reason why skill-based and knowledge-based content is suitable for business operations is that this type of content is of high value to users, making users more willing to follow your account rather than just liking ordinary entertainment content. Users can flow into your Douyin traffic pool more effectively.

This is actually a weakness of human nature. Tik Tok is an entertainment product, but people always hope to learn something while being entertained, whether it is a cooking tutorial, Excel tutorial, magic tutorial, mobile phone tips or various little-known facts. This kind of content always attracts users to follow the account, thinking "follow and collect it first, maybe it will be useful." Just like many people browse Zhihu to create the illusion that they are "learning in a relaxed manner"...

Let’s take an example: if you are in the sports equipment business, your entry point could be a review of sports history, major sports events, explanations from sports celebrities, or tutorials on sports skills and sports competitions. It could also be sports-related diet, injury repair, and physical conditioning.

In fact, every brand has many "dry goods" entry points, and skill and knowledge content is very easy to systematize and standardize, forming a distinct brand recognition. Of course, if you find a beautiful boy or girl to appear in the camera, it may be easier to become popular, and it is not necessary to shoot short videos to operate Douyin.

Of course, the premise is that it must be relatively popular and in line with the platform's tone. If it is a tutorial on how to operate an excavator, do electrical work, or carpentry, then you should actually do it on Kuaishou . Kuaishou actually has a lot of this kind of content with good data.

To sum up in one sentence, enterprises are suitable for producing product-related skill and knowledge content.

Conclusion

Forget funny jokes, forget singing and dancing, forget delicious food and cute pets. These highly entertaining contents are only suitable as embellishments and MCN agencies , and are not suitable for Douyin operations of most brands.

Tik Tok now has more than 500 million monthly active users worldwide, which is already a large enough and diversified enough pie. Don’t think that skill-based and knowledge-based content is too niche. In fact, capturing precise users is enough for brands to digest. Besides, “pretending to learn” is a weakness of human nature.