Video Account Redesign: What are Circles? How to Deal with the Redesign?

Yesterday, the video account had a major revision, changing the original follow list to a circle, which includes the content under the follow and various interest tags. What does this revision of the video account mean? What impact will it have on video account users and how should we deal with it? The author analyzed and summarized these issues, let's take a look.

On March 8, the video account underwent a major revision.

The original follow list was directly changed into circles. This circle list includes the contents of follows and various interest tags. Some of these interest tags are recommended based on browsing habits, while others are generated by the system itself.

Interest tags include person tags, industry tags, product tags, etc., covering a wide range.

Why did the Video Account official make this adjustment? What impact will this adjustment have on Video Account players? As a Video Account player, how should you respond to this adjustment?

1. Why is adjustment necessary?

1. The useless performance of the watchlist

In addition to interest distribution and social distribution, video account subscription distribution (that is, following) brings very few views.

Why do subscription distribution bring so few views? I personally think there are several reasons:

(1) The official website does not simply present the content of the followed accounts in the follow list. This may be due to two reasons: A. User feedback data on the content is poor; B. Most users do not follow enough accounts, resulting in insufficient content in the follow list.

(2) Video account users are not very willing to subscribe. At this stage, video account users are still mainly 40-60 years old. This group of users is less sensitive to the Internet. Their demand for content is greater than their demand for accounts. Take my parents as an example. They often watch Douyin, but have never registered an account. In the WeChat ecosystem, there are a large number of videos for them to browse without following an account, so they are even less likely to take the initiative to follow an account.

2. Further strengthen the position of interest distribution in the video account distribution system

At the WeChat Open Class at the beginning of this year, WeChat officials publicly admitted that the proportion of interest distribution has increased by 400% in the past 2022.

Such changes can provide users with a better browsing experience and help increase the length of time users stay on the website, which is in line with the development laws of short video platforms.

On this basis, the video account will certainly further strengthen the proportion of interest distribution in the distribution system. Adjusting the follow page to a circle is essentially guiding users to actively browse the content under the corresponding tag, accelerating the collection of user interaction data, and accelerating the optimization of the accuracy of interest distribution.

2. What impact will the adjustment have?

1. The proportion of fan browsing will decline in the short term

Although subscription distribution is not limited to the subscription list, it will also appear in the friends and recommendation lists. However, among users who are accustomed to browsing content through the follow-up list, a portion of them will definitely be diverted, which will also cause the fan browsing ratio of many accounts to decline in the short term.

2. The number of views of hot content will increase slightly in the short term

Similarly, when some users browse content through interest tags, all content under this interest tag will be presented to the users.

Hot content is more likely to arouse users' interest and will naturally attract more users. The number of views of related content will definitely increase slightly.

3. The traffic of vertical accounts will increase

What kind of content appears under a tag is definitely not because the account has posted a piece of content related to the tag. It is most likely because the account has been posting content related to the tag.

Therefore, the more vertical the account is, the greater the probability of appearing under the corresponding tag, and naturally the more traffic it will obtain.

4. Some products may see a surge in sales

Within the interest tags, some are product tags, such as Pu'er tea.

If your content is selected and happens to be ranked relatively high, some users will flock to your homepage. If your homepage happens to have products mounted on it or is even broadcasting live, then it is likely to lead to transactions.

5. The long-tail traffic of the account will increase

For the original videos, most of the traffic was concentrated within 3 hours after release. With interest tags, the long-tail traffic of videos will increase.

3. How to deal with this adjustment

1. Focus on interest distribution and keep content vertical

Many video account players still rely on private domains to leverage public domains, but this approach has gradually been eliminated in today's video account ecosystem. In other words, this approach is no longer valid for new accounts.

At this stage, if you create a new account, you must adjust your thinking and pay attention to interest distribution.

If the users in the private domain are inconsistent with the user group you want to acquire, it is recommended to reduce the number of times the private domain is launched.

2. Optimize the conversion path and be prepared to receive long-tail traffic

If your content is included in the interest tag and obtains stable traffic, but you do not design a good conversion path, then this part of the traffic is equivalent to being given away for free.

Therefore, we must find a way to optimize the conversion path in advance.

3. Make sure to divert traffic to private domains

As mentioned before, new accounts are not suitable for using private domains to drive traffic.

However, for accounts that have already been launched, it is necessary to direct traffic to the private domain, because the subscription distribution open rate of the video account is too low.

It is impossible to lock in users simply by relying on subscription relationships, so it is necessary to direct traffic to private domains.

Author: Cai Zhao, WeChat public account: I am Cai Zhao (ID: woshicaizhao)