Entering the Red Ocean, How Should Video Authors Choose a Platform?

When making videos, every video creator has to face a lot of problems, such as the direction of creation, fan growth and monetization. Faced with these problems, how can video creators find solutions that suit them? In this regard, this article analyzes the experiences and feelings of three related practitioners, hoping to help you.

Before joining the campus TV station, Haozi was full of expectations.

Just hearing the name of the "TV station", he guessed that there must be many talented people there who could teach him film and television post-production, as well as advanced usage of software such as PR and PS. So, in order to ensure that he would be selected, Haozi brought out another identity that he was not willing to let his classmates know about normally - a video blogger with 30,000 followers.

Unexpectedly, the mouse who wanted to hook up with a rich man ended up hooking up with a poverty alleviation cadre. With the mentality of learning something, he finally "sneaked into" the campus TV station, but in the end, he was the one who knew the most about video production.

In the end, all video creators have to face a bunch of problems, such as creative direction, fan growth and monetization, which still need to be figured out by Haozi himself.

1. Become a blogger out of interest

Haozi, 20 years old this year, has been making videos for 5 years. "The Rat in the Barn" is his most well-known ID and the account with the most fans, but he calls it a "small account"

He spent the first four years of his video production career running another account. Like most bloggers who make videos out of interest, Haozi, who was still a junior high school student, did not have any purpose when he first made videos. At first, he just imitated the live game bloggers he loved to watch, and used videos to record himself.

At that time, his videos were of various types, including "Dead Cells" and "The Binding of Isaac", "just recording for fun". It was not until the summer of 2019 that one of his "League of Legends" videos caught the attention of a big anchor, and the sudden hundreds of thousands of views made him taste the sweetness for the first time. He wanted to take this opportunity to transform into a LOL blogger in one fell swoop, but after two episodes, Haozi couldn't do it anymore. The reason is simple, he found that this "is not what he wants".

It was at this moment that he had the urge to open a small account.

That is, this account has 260,000 followers on Douyin alone.

Perhaps he was not ready to give up his "big account" with 30,000 fans. He initially opened a small account because he wanted to create content that he wanted to create and find a comfortable buffer for himself. At that time, he was just getting into "Genshin Impact", so he decided to present his novice experience in a funny and sarcastic way, which led to the small account "Rat in the Barn" which now has more than 600,000 fans than his big account.

Now, the main content of this account is the funny and funny activities of the original god. The audience likes it, the number of views is not low, and it is also inspired by his own feelings. Haozi and the trumpet have spent a long honeymoon period.

Recalling the "happy moments", he mentioned the time when he first joined Douyin at the beginning of last year. Although he had only been on the new platform for two months, one of his videos happened to go viral. The editor liked that video very much and had high expectations for him. With the support of traffic, his followers increased very quickly during that period. But unfortunately, he did not stick with it.

His video data was very good during that period.

Although Haozi always calls himself a "lucky lazy dog", laziness is not the reason why he often stops updating and posting videos. Most of the time, he is deeply confused and doesn't know what content to produce.

At the beginning, I made funny videos for newbies to get into the game. He himself had just gone through that phase, and many of his complaints came from real feelings. I was able to speak out my heart. Later, although I was still playing Genshin Impact, many of the things I wanted to say were no longer so easy to say. I had to find and think about them, and they might not be what he wanted to say the most, which would make him doubt himself.

When facing his own video works, Haozi would feel embarrassed and ashamed, like a public execution. Even if he was very satisfied with the lines when he wrote them, he might not be able to face them after just one day. So after exporting the videos from the editing software and publishing them, Haozi would no longer watch his own videos, and his evaluation of them was "useless".

In addition, due to the epidemic last year, he basically stayed at home and rarely went to school, so his video-making state has not been very good. Over the past year, the operation of his small account has naturally been intermittent.

The last video dates back to December 14 last year.

Although he often stops updating, Haozi never stops thinking about what kind of video he wants to make. He has many new ideas to try, such as learning cooler special effects, writing a script that can convince himself, or thinking about writing lyrics and tuning the sound.

Fortunately, he is still a sophomore, and he still has plenty of time to "waste". "I am still young, and I still have the capital to try and see what is not suitable and what is suitable and can be continued." Whether it is platforms such as Douyin or the MCN agency he signed, they will not interfere with his creative direction, and he can still be a blogger "out of interest". So even he himself has not ruled out the possibility of opening a "small account" and starting over.

Although not fully prepared yet, the young mouse seems to be ready to face the new year which is still steaming hot.

2. Turn video from a hobby into a career

But unfortunately, not all bloggers can try and make mistakes as recklessly as Haozi. Many bloggers who make videos as a job are still under pressure from reality.

"Qiao Meng Bao Feng Dang", who just became a full-time blogger two years ago, has more considerations about income in addition to creative thinking.

As a Minecraft animation creator, his videos are excellent works of high standard in the eyes of the audience and in the evaluation of his peers. Whether it is the natural movement connection of the characters in the animation, the camera movement that adjusts according to the movement, or the overall 60-frame high smoothness of the animation, Qiao Meng has studied his own secrets and made these parts as satisfactory as possible.

Please use 60 frames in your imagination

Since he started learning how to make animations, Kaomeng has been a fan of the Annoying Villagers series. Therefore, in his works, in addition to a lot of imitations of the series, you can also find a lot of Easter eggs that pay direct tribute to it. In the process, he also gradually learned how to combine memes with animations and gradually found his own style.

For example, make brainwashing web game ads into MC style

In college, he also learned programming, which allowed him to use plug-ins more flexibly than others and make adjustments according to the needs by typing codes. After a year or two of accumulation, he built up his own unique resource library and a more efficient workflow. Others may take a week or two to complete the work, but he can complete it efficiently in just one or two days, "both efficient and of high quality."

This made his animated videos quickly stand out. Not only did the audience and the platform give him affirmation with data, but even other top bloggers with millions of followers saw his potential and often extended olive branches to him to collaborate on videos, which helped him accelerate his accumulation of fans.

He collaborated with FoFTG on the "Game vs. Reality" series

There is no doubt that Qiao Meng can now make a living with videos, but when he first turned videos from a hobby into a career, he also faced the problem of how to support himself.

After learning video production during college and discovering that it was a way to make money, he decided to become a full-time blogger after graduation, even though he had originally planned to become a programmer. The first hurdle he had to overcome was convincing his parents.

To this end, he listed all his chips, just like describing a project with a PPT for investors: playing representative works, describing future prospects, and even analyzing in detail the ways to make money and the conversion rate of income, etc. He finally convinced his parents to give him a year to try.

Even now, Qiao Meng has fully proved and supported himself with his works, but compared with other people of his age, he still maintains a more "stable" attitude and is more active in posting videos on multiple platforms. In this regard, he does not hide his thoughts, "I just want to make more money", "If there is some income, it is definitely better than not posting."

He also turned his animation process into live broadcast content

Of course, as a video creator, he naturally wants his work to be seen by more people. Publishing works on multiple platforms will undoubtedly expand the audience, but many authors still worry about whether their works will not be accepted by local audiences.

When he first joined Douyin, Qiao Meng wondered whether his MC animation content would be unpopular there. But from his observation of his own videos, "the videos that were very popular on Bilibili eventually became popular on Douyin as well", and his video style was also accepted by the audience here.

Even if audiences on different platforms have different tastes, good works will always be seen. In this regard, he is very confident in his work.

3. Do what you want to do

Another blogger, "Mantou Zhenjun", not only believes in his own work, but also believes in his team. Compared with individual bloggers, team work is much more convenient, but there are also many aspects that require more consideration.

Different from most bloggers who start out of interest, Mantou, who now shoulders the responsibility of a team, actually did not think of becoming a video creator at the beginning.

In his last job, Mantou was a programmer with a heavy workload. Whether it was out of love for his hair or to "not affect playing games at night", he resolutely quit after working for half a year.

But at that time, he knew that he didn't want to stay up late and work overtime, but he didn't think about what he wanted. After failing the civil service exam after preparing for a year, he began to look for the job he wanted and returned to the origin of his interest.

In his first video, "Calculating the amount of money spent on Genshin Impact using Python" showed his programmer characteristics.

At first, he narrowed down his scope to "games". He thought he had an idea, so he applied for a job in game planning; he learned modeling software, so he applied for 3D art; he could write something, so he also applied for game copywriting. "At that time, I thought very broadly, but in fact, I thought very simply." I just thought that since I loved playing games, I must find a job related to games, "to do what I want to do."

Later, during an interview for a game planning job, he learned that the company needed video producers more, so he came to his current position by accident and was responsible for the incubation of the account "Mantou Zhenjun".

Compared to individual bloggers who take things one step at a time, team projects are more expensive, so they need to find the right direction from the beginning. When the project was first received, the company only decided to produce content related to "Genshin Impact" and did not refine the positioning. After Mantou and his team analyzed the content of various platforms, they finally decided on a clear track: strategy videos for novices.

He decided on this direction because he observed that players' habits of reading guides have actually changed with the evolution of mainstream media.

Not to mention the earlier era of flipping through game magazines to find strategy guides, even the graphic strategy guides on game websites, public accounts and other channels are far away from today's players. Opening a video or social platform and searching for what you want to find has become the preferred way for a large number of players to find strategy guides. Platforms such as TikTok, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu have unknowingly become the main distribution centers for strategy guides.

When a new player wants to find a guide, a short video or a long picture is enough to tell him what to do. As for why to do this, it may belong to more advanced content, which requires a longer content volume to explain clearly, and long videos are undoubtedly better at it. It’s just that there are always more people who play "shallowly" than "deeply", and Mantou and his team are targeting these players who "don't need to understand too much".

Now "Mantou Zhenjun" has been updated for half a year, and judging from the results, their initial positioning was very accurate. When all platforms were updated, the strategy videos performed best on Douyin, while on other platforms, their updated funny videos were more popular.

In addition to the consideration of "larger user scale", the reason for setting this place as the main battlefield was the affirmation and traffic support from the other party after contacting the platform operators, which was also a major motivation for them to make the decision, and ultimately led to their rapid growth within half a year.

Now their video data is pretty good

There is no doubt that different platforms are tolerant of content, but there are also some subtle differences in content style, which Mantou always mentions. Sometimes it may be these differences that make a video receive two different feedbacks. Many times, if a video does not go viral, it may just be because you did not choose the right platform. You can try more.

His love for games has always been an important motivation for him to keep trying. Although he started out as a programmer, Mantou's passion for making videos is no less than that of others. Even when he's playing games after work, he always thinks, "This is quite interesting, can I tell everyone about it?" While he's still enjoying the fun of the game, "he's changed from a person who plays games to a person who loves to share games."

As for the future, Mantou also has a longer-term vision. Especially after the epidemic is over and people can go out more conveniently, he believes that the team's advantages will become more obvious, and they will try more new video directions. Whether it is Douyin, which he is currently focusing on, or other platforms, he is very optimistic and believes that they still have the potential to carry other content and forms, which is enough for him to try more.

Even sometimes, he "fully understands the thoughts of those who doffed" and wants to do it twice. But in the end, "happiness always outweighs fatigue", and he still feels that making videos is something he likes, and adds, "I'm very happy."

Author: Zaoqi Zaoshui; Source public account: Game Research Society (ID: yysaag)

Original link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ni-LckRS2-kYr1np07Fj9w