To WeChat Official Accounts: Algorithms are not the savior of graphics and text

WeChat official accounts are one of the most popular self-media platforms. Why do some operators want to withdraw from official accounts? The author analyzes this situation. Let's take a look.

Is it still necessary to operate WeChat public accounts?

You can see more and more similar questions on platforms such as Baidu, Zhihu, and Xiaohongshu. The public account, which was once synonymous with "self-media", is facing an unprecedented crisis.

Many accounts are discussing a question: Is the trend of "evacuating official accounts" reasonable?

The question itself is interesting – people don’t even ask if this trend exists!

You know, the official account is still a behemoth with more than 1 billion active users per month, and it is still the ceiling of self-media.

Sina Weibo, known as the "Cyber ​​House", has 580 million users; Xiaohongshu, a new graphic and text platform, is heading towards 300 million; Zhihu, which "just got off a plane in the United States", has less than 100 million monthly active users... But few people think that Weibo and Xiaohongshu are about to collapse.

On the contrary, the recent frequent changes to the official accounts have sent a very clear message: WeChat internally believes that the time has come for the official account system to be reformed .

There have been many related complaints, but this article wants to focus on: the real issues that the public account platform should think about behind the frequent revisions.

Official accounts should provide creators with "stability". But in the past two years, this feeling has been too scarce.

1. When big Vs start to complain about the “messing around” of public accounts

Tencent’s sense of crisis is actually understandable. The monthly active data is real and fake, and the actual ecosystems of each company are also very different.

Baidu Baike has 650 million monthly active users, and its traffic ecosystem is also closed-loop, but its influence as a graphic and text self-media is obviously not matched by its monthly active users.

Everyone knows that the traffic of Baijiahao is the result of Baidu's "flooding", and a large part of it comes from search engines and Baidu apps. In other words, Baijiahao is not a "content-driven" model, and its traffic needs to be discounted before comparison.

Similarly, the rise and development of WeChat public accounts relies heavily on the social monopoly attributes of WeChat, the national APP.

Although it is generally recognized that the content quality of WeChat official accounts is much better than that of Baijiahao, it is difficult to quantify how much better. In fact, official accounts have always been in the state of " WeChat and I together have 1 billion monthly active users ". As the ceiling of self-media, the real traffic and value cannot be fully measured by the recorded traffic.

Therefore, the official account team has always been anxious, worrying that if they take advantage of WeChat for too long, they will be overtaken by other content platforms and lose their advantages in content and traffic models.

This concern itself is certainly reasonable, but constantly making changes to the traffic distribution and interface of the official account cannot solve the fundamental problems of the official account system. Instead, it is rapidly reducing creators' confidence in the platform. Everyone is worried about whether the official account has "withdrawn from the environment", which to a large extent reflects the "improper tactics" of the official account.

What’s interesting is that the Tencent empire behind the official account is not an authoritative endorsement, but rather a “negative asset” in terms of confidence.

Recently, many well-known self-media, including the top V "魔都少女", have complained about the same thing: their accounts were blocked for posting "mutual selection advertisements" matched by the official WeChat.

Self-media people said that it was quite strange that the officially recommended and officially reviewed mutual selection advertisements were actually judged to be in violation of regulations, and it was extremely difficult to appeal. Does WeChat really want to do business?

In fact, if we really analyze it, this is a normal problem of large enterprises. Don’t the advertising department and the review department have the same KPI?

Weibo big Vs encounter such situations on a daily basis. Various business plans promoted by the official are blocked, deleted, or even banned after they are released because "this Weibo post contains commercial promotion content." This is the basic operation of big-eyed people - the essence of the world is a makeshift team, and big Vs are knowledgeable and should be very clear about it.

But the top public accounts don’t think so. Tencent is a real giant in China’s Internet industry. After the sharp drop, the Penguin Empire’s market value is still over 500 billion US dollars. How can it be compared with Weibo with a market value of only 3.75 billion US dollars?

So they feel that "this kind of low-level mistake means that the official account is really doomed"...

Big factories? Big factories always make small mistakes, which is fatal.

This is one of the reasons why many self-media would rather offend the platform and sound the "drum of news" at Penguin: WeChat, open the door, if you have the ability to mess around, you have the ability to open the door!

2. 100,000+? Algorithms are not the savior of pictures and texts

Anxiety can be transmitted, and the platform’s concerns will definitely affect content creators and make them less determined.

WeChat official accounts certainly understand this principle, but under pressure from multiple factors such as KPI pressure and the impact of the video era, they are forced to take some actions, such as changing the way traffic is distributed.

Just two years ago, changing the interface of WeChat public accounts was a big deal for self-media operators. It is worth analyzing what Tencent’s intention is and how the operating methods should change in the future?

But now... the interface and the way tweets are refreshed are frequently changed. Who is still willing to analyze the deeper meaning of WeChat? We don’t even know what the algorithm will be like tomorrow.

This is obviously problematic. If the platform wants content creators to engage in long-term research, it needs to provide stability .

Previously, the official account had done an outstanding job in this regard, proposing a series of "slow to beat fast" concepts. The early slogan " No matter how small the individual is, he or she has his or her own brand " was a promotion that was full of emotion and strategic determination.

Even when Douyin live-streaming e-commerce was gaining momentum, the official account/video account system did not completely follow the "war of attrition" mode of its main rivals Taobao and Douyin. Although it lagged far behind in live-streaming e-commerce GMV, it still maintained the stability of the official account system's creation model.

In the eyes of many people, WeChat’s urgency this time is understandable, but “changing the algorithm” itself does not make sense. Douyin has indeed made a name for itself with its short video algorithm, but it is difficult for pictures and texts to break through with algorithms alone.

Toutiao, which has 340 million monthly active users, is also facing the dilemma of shrinking traffic and declining revenue-making ability. In the 2021 annual report, Toutiao's advertising revenue was 45 billion, only one-third of Douyin.

What’s worse is that key indicators of Toutiao, such as user stickiness and usage time, have declined to varying degrees. It is obvious that algorithms are not the salvation.

So why do public accounts think that they can revive their traffic by learning from Toutiao (although the official will not agree with this statement)?

Instead of tinkering with algorithms over and over again, it is better to study content generation together with MCN and individual creators.

Recently, many public account creators have reported that they have received "over 100,000 followers out of nowhere". The related readings created by the platform through channels such as "Take a Look" have left the creators confused. This "anti-experience" way of distributing traffic is not necessarily a bad thing, but a consensus needs to be reached between the creators and the platform to determine the overall direction and style of the content and arrange the form of updates.

More importantly, high-quality creators often need more certain feedback, and this kind of "metaphysical traffic" is not what they really like.

The official account should be clear about this and make appropriate adjustments as soon as possible.

3. Are vertical fields and creation thresholds still the moat of public accounts?

When talking about the advantages of official accounts, what do people think of?

The built-in advantages of WeChat ecosystem, the accumulation of a large number of high-quality vertical field creators in the early stage, the path dependence of people in obtaining information, and the main position of official information disclosure of major blue Vs...

Some of these are unique advantages of the WeChat ecosystem and are difficult to shake. However, the two advantages of vertical field creators and reading habits are obviously being challenged.

The "subscription" model of public accounts itself tends to produce high-quality content .

Xiaohongshu and Weibo can publish pictures and texts unlimited times a day, Toutiao can publish 5 articles a day, but most public subscription accounts can only push once a day, and ordinary service accounts have only 4 push opportunities per month.

It can be said that the official account is the only content platform on the entire network that strictly limits the number of updates . Many early top accounts can maintain very good reading and revenue by updating their content 2 to 3 times a week.

The entire "subscription-push" system has thresholds in many small details: for example, the waterfall browsing method is prepared for "long pictures and texts", and the star, follow, and fan accumulation system requires long-term operation to establish a strong connection between creators and fans, and then to obtain income...

These details are telling creators that quality is more important than quantity. It is this system that has nurtured the highest-quality vertical category creators on the entire network .

However, since 2018, WeChat official accounts have repeatedly modified their traffic distribution methods in order to "save themselves". Coupled with uncontrollable factors such as the mass entry of MCNs, vertical category creation has become increasingly difficult.

In the public account system, the importance of update frequency is increasing. In many operation guides, the mechanized operation of "traffic guide" repeatedly erodes the profit space of vertical category creators.

At the same time, the connection between fans and creators has also been weakened by the system. As we all know, public accounts used to distribute content based on a list of follower accounts.

Now, public accounts distribute content in a way that... who knows how!

But one thing is very clear: when the platform regards the "traffic pool" as its biggest bargaining chip, the connection between creators and fans is actually severed.

UP hosts on Bilibili and Xiaohongshu have complained about similar problems. When the platform determines the user's homepage display based on "algorithms", or even when people can't find the UP hosts they follow, creators can easily fall into confusion and self-doubt... This is especially true for in-depth content creation in vertical categories.

Vertical creation was originally an important advantage of official accounts, but with the convergence of algorithms and traffic distribution methods, other platforms can now poach creators more easily.

Long pictures and texts themselves give people a feeling of being "old and frail", which makes it more difficult for the public account system to retain talent.

The threshold for creating high-quality pictures and texts in vertical categories is relatively high. Once creators leave, it will be difficult to replenish them.

In the long run, will high-quality content in vertical categories still be the moat of public accounts?

4. Make videos more like videos and make pictures and texts more like pictures and texts

Ultimately, the public account platform still needs to sort out its own development ideas.

My opinion is that the binding of the video account and the official account is reasonable in itself, but if the idea is not clear and the official account becomes a vassal of the video account, then this section is really not necessary.

Under the impact of the video wave, traditional graphic and text platforms have been transformed, which is worth observing. For example, Weibo focuses on the attribute of "information upstream" and has become the first explosive point of information on the entire network through the fast, rigorous and instant attributes of graphic and text.

Many public opinion events that originated from Douban, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin eventually attracted mainstream attention through fermentation on Weibo. Have you ever wondered why?

In Wang Leehom’s divorce case, a marriage lawsuit between two American citizens, he went to Weibo to ask for “justice” after the American court’s ruling.

Weibo is not only the "Cyber ​​Court" but also the "Cyber ​​House of Representatives". Its daily active users are far less than those of Douyin, but no one has heard of Douyin's "Cyber ​​Court".

To some extent, the two microblogs are consistent. Although they are different in size and style, their core advantages as pictures and texts are very similar: to date, pictures and texts are still the most efficient carriers of information dissemination in a broad sense . Through the refined editing of information, pictures and texts are not only more efficient than videos, but also more rigorous.

On the other hand, because the technical capabilities of netizens are generally still relatively low, they can easily and quickly quote and copy pictures and texts, but cannot independently quote, cut and edit videos. This results in only pictures and texts being able to meet the needs of "copy-edit-dissemination". At least for now, videos cannot become the absolute upstream of information.

Therefore, Weibo has, to a large extent, replaced the ecological niche of "newspapers" in traditional society and BBS in the early days of the Internet. Television has not eliminated newspapers, but has been replaced by the new "online newspapers."

Who can say for sure that video will replace text and images?

The problem with official accounts may be that they still want long pictures and texts to "head-on defeat" the surging short videos in terms of traffic, just like when newspapers wanted to defeat TV stations in terms of fun and spreadability, which is simply impossible.

Returning to the essence of pictures and texts is the key to "survival". On the one hand , the two microblogs should do their best to retain various "authoritative releases" and work hard on the accuracy and authority of information; on the other hand , newspapers can be "cut" and pictures and texts can be copied and edited, which is an important advantage. We should strive to become the upstream of information like Weibo.

Furthermore, the content threshold for long pictures and texts is high, but the technical threshold is low, which is not necessarily a bad thing. How to play to one’s strengths and avoid one’s weaknesses is much more important than “how to distribute traffic”.

If public accounts really doubt the "subscription-accumulation" model of high-quality content, they should at least have effective alternatives, rather than launching "Little Green Books" today and learning traffic distribution from Douyin tomorrow. Other large companies have their own special situations. No one understands the truth of "those who learn from me will live, and those who imitate me will die" better than Tencent.

Can official accounts retain their vertical category advantages and allow content to continue to be their moat?

Today, it seems that Tencent’s strategic determination will be put to the test.

Author: Hippo Jun; Editor: Chu Qingzhou

Source public account: Deep-FOCUS Business (ID: DEEP-FOCUS), decipher where your time and money go every day.