With 3 million followers in 30 days, Douyin's science popularization track has ushered in "new hope"

Due to various difficulties, the science popularization track on Douyin has been in a "declining" stage recently, and @打工仔小张 may be able to provide new ideas, from which Douyin science popularization bloggers can get inspiration.

"I am really grateful to Xiao Zhang. People with social anxiety really need it."

On February 20, @CCTV News reported on its Douyin account the short video expert @DagongziXiaoZhang's deeds of popularizing science and helping others. In the comment section, a netizen wrote a message like this, which received 51,000 likes.

@CCTV News Tik Tok video screenshot

Looking back at Tik Tok in February, @打工仔小张, known as the “mom-oriented science blogger,” was definitely a dazzling presence.

With the immersive popular science of seemingly insignificant common sense in daily life, such as: how to go to the hospital to register for medical treatment alone, how to take the high-speed rail, how to take the subway, how to apply for a passport, how to eat at Haidilao alone, how to watch a movie, etc., Xiao Zhang quickly hit the panic hearts of a group of users who are new to society, new to urban life, and those with social phobias .

Not only did she gain nearly 3 million followers within 30 days, she also became a hot topic on Weibo and was reported by various media outlets. Many netizens jokingly called her "the top figure in social survival studies."

"What you take for granted in your daily life may very well be an experience that others have never had."

CCTV.com commented that the reason why @DagongzaiXiaozhang became popular is because "she broke the Internet's stratosphere and filled the information gap with gentleness and patience. This is the correct use of knowledge."

According to Kass's observation, before @打工仔小张 became popular, the Douyin knowledge popularization track, which had experienced a glorious period, has been in a relatively "quiet" state for a long time recently. So, can Xiao Zhang's popularity bring new ideas to Douyin's popular science content?

1. @DagongzaiXiaozhang’s “accidental” road to fame

Before starting the “How to How to” science video series, Xiao Zhang was not a pure science expert.

It is understood that as early as July 2021, Xiao Zhang started his own creative journey on Douyin.

In the early days, most of her content was in the form of "chattering", sharing food, funny jokes, life experiences, travel stories, etc. Although the overall style was relatively "casual" and there was no specific theme, Xiao Zhang showed an optimistic, positive and humorous side in it, and many small things became very interesting after her narration. Therefore, there were videos with more than 10,000 likes in the early works. Some advertisers also took a fancy to her expressiveness in the videos and took the initiative to approach her to seek cooperation.

Although the video data performed well, the growth of fans was not satisfactory. It is reported that within a few months before the account was created, @打工仔小张's fans reached 100,000, but then fell into a situation of sluggish growth . According to third-party data, in 2022, Xiao Zhang's account only gained 70,000 fans, and the growth rate was much slower than before.

The "huge" turning point occurred after Xiao Zhang started the "How to" science popularization video series.

On January 26 this year, Xiao Zhang released a video titled "Xiao Zhang teaches you step by step how to take the high-speed rail when you go to the high-speed rail station for the first time."

In the video, Xiao Zhang, who was about to take the high-speed train to go back to work, recorded the entire process of taking the high-speed train while explaining the specific steps of each process to the user in detail.

From reminding everyone to arrive at the high-speed rail station half an hour in advance to luggage security check, picking up tickets, finding the waiting room, going to the corresponding waiting room to wait for ticket check, checking in, finding the carriage, and taking a seat, the whole process was clear at a glance with her immersive explanation.

"Although it seems that no one will want to watch this, but what if, what if someone needs it?" Xiao Zhang said this at the beginning of the video.

As it turns out, her daily science videos not only attract a lot of viewers, but also meet the needs of many groups . "I feel this kind of science is really meaningful," "Don't be afraid of being laughed at, I'm 23 years old and have never taken a high-speed train," "High school students who have never left the county really need this kind of science video"...

Along with these highly praised comments that attracted a lot of users' recognition, the first video released by Xiao Zhang received a total of 473,000 likes.

Afterwards, Xiao Zhang, who was greatly encouraged, released a series of "How to How to" videos.

For example, "How to go to the hospital alone to register for medical treatment for the first time", "How to take the subway for the first time and transfer to different routes", "How to take the bus", "How to take a plane", "How to book a hotel", and later issues such as "What to pay attention to when taking a bath and rubbing your back in a big bathhouse", "What to pay attention to when eating barbecue in a barbecue restaurant", and "How to play script killing".

Each video basically adopts the method of personal experience + detailed explanation, allowing users to follow her footsteps to master every knowledge point, and the popular science content each time can accurately meet the practical needs of a certain group of people.

Because of this, the "How to How" series of videos received a lot of praise, and the account also ushered in a peak in the number of fans. According to third-party data, before January 26, Xiao Zhang's number of fans was less than 180,000.

Since the release of the first popular science video on January 26, the number of followers of his account has begun to grow rapidly. As of today, the number of followers of @打工仔小张 has reached 331.9W.

2. After Xiao Zhang became popular, can Douyin’s science popularization track usher in new ideas?

Before Xiao Zhang became famous with his popular science content, the popular science track in Douyin's content ecosystem had already gone through a period of "glory" and then a period of "decline".

Since 2018, a number of knowledge accounts have emerged on Douyin. In order to support this type of content, Douyin also launched the "DOUzhi Plan" in March 2019 and the "DOUzhi Plan 2.0" in September 2019, launching a full range of service solutions for knowledge content creators in terms of product functions, operational incentives, content creation tools, and other aspects.

With strong support, knowledge and science popularization accounts have grown at a visible speed on Douyin since 2020. On the one hand, knowledge and science popularization big Vs with more than 10 million fans have been born one after another; on the other hand, the boundaries of content types are also constantly expanding, covering psychology, life encyclopedia, human geography, astronomy and physics, economics and finance, medical health and other fields.

Among them, we were able to witness popular science accounts from multiple fields and with different content styles shining among them.

For example, @长安范儿——人文地理, which mainly tells users about the cultural and scenic spots of various provinces, cities and counties through pictures + explanations + background music, is affectionately called the "best geography teacher" by many fans;

The food science account @我是不白吃 uses "animation + music + explanation" to popularize food science. The explanation style is humorous and very appealing.

@Science Travel focuses on the scientific mysteries of the universe and life. Through rich and abundant images, it greatly reduces the dullness that knowledge itself may bring, and makes it easier for users to be drawn into it.

After publishing two videos on "Popular Biological Identification on the Internet", @无限小亮的科学热门, a big V in the picture and text era, successfully opened the door to short videos with his hilarious crosstalk-style popular science features, gaining more than 1.11 million followers in 7 days, and then grew into one of the top knowledgeable big Vs on Douyin.

@绝秘研究院所长, who focuses on popularizing natural science knowledge, has attracted a lot of fans' love and attention by showing the public the rare natural landscapes that are hard to see in daily life. He once set a record of gaining 3 million fans in 15 days.

The thriving scene did not last forever. Starting from the second half of 2021, the knowledge popularization track began to show a clear "decline" trend, which is typically manifested in that many of the previous big Vs have fallen into a bottleneck in increasing fans, and some have even begun to lose fans. At the same time, video data has also declined significantly, and some million-fan influencers have completely stopped updating because they cannot maintain operations. On the other hand, there are few new popular science accounts that perform well.

The reasons for this "withering" dilemma are not difficult to understand.

From a macro perspective, the content ecosystem of Douyin has reached a state of saturation, with almost every track showing a state of "lack of growth". The knowledge and science track is a relatively niche track with a high threshold, with a limited content completion rate, and it is much more difficult to create a hit than general entertainment content , which has further led to a decline in the traffic of related content.

From a purely content perspective, in a specific field, a lot of knowledge content has commonalities and similarities. If the form is not very different, users will easily become aesthetically fatigued.

In such a "difficult situation", Xiao Zhang's popularity not only adds a touch of color to the popular science track, but also provides some new content ideas for creators who have already entered or want to enter the market.

First of all, from the perspective of popular science and areas of interest, in addition to those advanced and high-threshold knowledge, creators can also focus their vision on popular science content that is related to daily life and "just in case someone needs it." After all, the information gap has always existed between users of different age groups, cultures and life backgrounds.

By leveraging your expertise or experience in certain fields and targeting that specific group of people "in case there is a need", you may be able to gain new possibilities in the highly competitive short video content ecosystem.

In this process, creators can maintain a positive interaction with users, so that they can continue to produce popular science content that people really need. For example, in Xiao Zhang's comment area, you can always see "help requests" from different users, and Xiao Zhang will always output corresponding content according to the needs of fans, so as to gain more favor.

Secondly, affected by the characteristics of the content, the popular science content on Douyin itself is prone to the problem of low completion rate. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the humorous and equal expression of the content, so that the popular science content can be presented in a way that users like and understand.

Earlier, we saw many popular science accounts output knowledge through video materials/+picture and text annotations+explanation. For example, @科学旅行号 not only has a clear explanation under each theme, but also provides video materials that match each sentence. When it comes to some theories and experiments, graphic demonstrations are also used to provide detailed explanations. This method creates a documentary-like feeling, making it easier for users to understand the content conveyed by the account.

There is also the account @这不科学啊, which vividly interprets knowledge themes in the form of plot +, and then restores and "reveal" various interesting and unpopular scientific experiments. It not only presents a professional, interesting and relaxed style, but also makes the character of Akimi Wu, a young genius and the smartest man, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, thereby strengthening users' memory and stickiness to the account.

Looking at Xiao Zhang again, he is recording real life while conveying trivial knowledge points in real life scenes. This vlog-style popular science method eliminates the boredom of knowledge itself, allowing users to acquire knowledge immersively in a relaxed and entertaining atmosphere, which is full of fun .

On the other hand, the method of real people appearing on camera and giving distinctive explanations not only narrowed the distance between Xiao Zhang and users, but also made Xiao Zhang's image "established". The account became more recognizable, making it easier to establish trust and complete subsequent monetization.

It is worth noting that monetization is still a major problem that plagues many popular science creators. Except for a small number of industry experts and influencers with professional and professional endorsements who can monetize through image licensing, cultural and creative customization, knowledge payment, platform sharing, etc., and some influencers who obtain stable income through live streaming, advertising is still the most obvious way for popular science influencers to monetize.

Kas observed that compared with before, after becoming popular, Xiao Zhang has been favored by more brands, but at the same time, some doubts have also emerged.

For example, in the video titled "What Friends Who Have Never Been to the Gym Should Pay Attention to" released on March 1, many fans expressed dissatisfaction in the comments because the laundry detergent fragrance beads advertisement in the middle was too long and the entire video did not introduce the entire process of going to the gym in detail as in the past.

It is undeniable that Xiao Zhang's appearance has indeed given us new possibilities for popular science content. However, after becoming popular, how to maintain the freshness of the content, achieve continuous growth in the number of fans, and how to balance the relationship between content and monetization, and not arouse fans' disgust, are still issues that he needs to consider in the long run.

Author: Yue Yao

Source: WeChat public account "CaasData (ID:caasdata6)"