The birth of short videos is a more intuitive and direct form of expression that has emerged after the era of text, images, voice, animation, and long videos, due to the development of basic equipment and network technology. It lacks a gradual process and requires something that directly stimulates the desires of the largest and most basic audience in order to gain dissemination and maximum traffic. The purpose of playing short videos is to quickly gain a huge amount of exposure. Conversion is determined based on the product's usage scenario, which we won't consider for now. What we are considering is how to achieve precise exposure. This is also the theme of this article: how to create "high-quality content" that conforms to the underlying logic of short video dissemination through understanding the underlying logic of short video dissemination, and ultimately gain a huge amount of exposure.
The underlying logic of platform algorithms#
From the perspective of Douyin, it has 600 million daily active users, which means it needs to allocate at least half of these 600 million exposures for official activities to achieve operational goals. A portion is allocated to major events and hot topics of the day, and another portion is allocated to the promotion of large official institutional accounts (such as advertising and selling traffic). Of course, this is my personal speculation, and the specific allocation method is definitely a secret of Douyin. The remaining approximately 100 million traffic is divided among 60 million creators. This is the current situation of traffic, and each person doesn't receive much. This requires an algorithm mechanism to allocate it.
- From the user's perspective, you are a consumer of Douyin. Douyin will judge your preferences and behavior comprehensively, establish your personal profile model, and make a comprehensive judgment on what content to push to you in order to increase your activity and trigger purchasing behavior.
- From the creator's perspective, your daily behavior of browsing Douyin and your creation traffic are completely unrelated. Douyin will make a basic judgment on your account based on your daily behavior to determine if it is a normal account. The rest is based on content quality and domain weight.
Domain weight is a prerequisite#
- Douyin establishes a creator model for you based on your work data, looking at what kind of audience your account's continuous creation of content attracts.
- So your domain is determined by this group of people. Douyin will continue to push your content to similar groups of people, not based on fixed tags, but based on the domain determined by the audience profile model. For example, if a creator of a painting account receives likes from people who like painting every time, Douyin will determine that this group of people likes their content and will push it to similar groups of people next time.
- Even if they don't post about painting anymore, as long as this group of people who like painting still likes and comments on their content, they can still generate a lot of traffic. The popularity and content are not directly related, but rather related to the audience data generated by the content.
How is content quality judged?#
- The algorithm will initially judge whether the content is normal, first by checking if it is original, clear, and related to previous content (30 images per second are randomly checked for comparison). It also checks if the content has participated in any activities, if the music used is popular, and if it is related to hot topics, etc. If the algorithm and machine consider the content quality to be good at this step, it will determine an initial distribution of traffic for you, and whether you can participate in the competition with the other 60 million creators.
- The remaining step is how the specific group of people judges your content. If they have high interaction with your content, Douyin will consider that this group of people with similar tags likes your content and will recommend it to more similar groups of people. This is like a horse race, where from the perspective of this group of similar users, they will be recommended a lot of content that they might like. Those who give feedback will stay, and this is the horse race.
- When the content receives over 100,000 likes, it will trigger manual review (because the level of dissemination is terrifying, and stricter considerations need to be taken into account for platform influence). The manual review will judge whether your content aligns with values and whether it violates any rules. If there are no issues, the content will continue to be pushed until it becomes a million-hit hot topic and a phenomenon.
This is the entire path of content dissemination.
What is a short video from the user's perspective?#
(1) Action 1: Seeing#
There are two possibilities in this step. One is the recommendation page, where you can't see the cover, and the other is the homepage where you see the cover and title first.
When browsing the recommendation page
You only have 1-3 seconds to evaluate the value of the content. If it doesn't catch your attention, you'll swipe away.
Actively viewing the homepage
Evaluate whether to click and watch based on the cover content, text title, and likes from others.
(2) Action 2: Evaluation#
Because it is a short video, this evaluation only takes 1-2 seconds, not enough time for thinking, and is completed subconsciously.
Form a simple expectation through comprehensive evaluation, whether the video is expected to be (useful, interesting).
Under what circumstances would there be an expectation of "this video is useful to me"?#
Identification of identity group: This video is relevant to me and may be useful.
Identification of regional identity: This video is relevant to me and may be useful.
Direct question at the beginning: I also have this question, it may be useful.
Under what circumstances would there be an expectation of "this video might be interesting/funny/sad"?#
Funny music rendering: This video might be funny.
Emotional music rendering: This video might be touching.
Curious scene: This video is different, it might be interesting.
Beautiful women appearing: This video might be hot.
Music for costume changes: This video might have a twist.
This expectation is formed by the combination of the cover, text, topic tags, music, and scene.
(3) Action 3: Motivation for Interaction#
Forms of interaction include likes, comments, shares, follows, etc., and each behavior has different motivations.
Motivation for liking:#
Emotional value: Feeling happy, joyful, evoking memories, sadness (such as teaching, pets, inspirational, love songs).
Self-commitment: Hoping to shape a better self, an ideal state (good lifestyle, goals, etc.).
Value of collection: Book lists, playlists, unfinished movies, content to be revisited (skills, lists, appearance, stories).
Surprising effect: Unseen gameplay, unseen world, unexpected twists (satisfying curiosity).
Motivation for commenting:#
Information density: Discovering details that others haven't noticed, so commenting (intentional flaws, small details).
Strong resonance: For example, ethnic pride, moral judgment, for example, "only fairies can see this video" or "you're amazing for finding this video".
Social interaction: Hoping friends will also see it, usually being guided, for example, "isn't this your friend?"
Revealing mysteries: For example, questions raised in the video, some people will look for answers in the comments, and naturally, some people will provide answers.
Controversial topics: Some viewpoints are easy to debate, such as the importance of education, gender topics, etc.
Motivation for sharing:#
Vanity: Establishing an advantageous position in social interactions, such as strategy tips, news, gossip.
Identity symbol: Expressing one's own opinions that fit their identity image, such as looking down on others, showing off.
Emotional resonance: Driven by emotions such as self-motivation, memories, pride, anger, people are more likely to share.
Instant feedback: After sharing, you can immediately get XX.
Motivation for following:#
Long-term interest: High appearance value, good plot, satisfying curiosity, desire for expression, desire to peek.
Long-term usefulness: Continuously sharing practical knowledge, demonstrating specific skills, satisfying the desire for knowledge, gaining a sense of achievement.
Common characteristics: Series with numbered covers and titles.