I believe everyone has also discovered that the WeChat official account has recently updated a lot of functions. Among them, the content that has been hotly discussed and relatively controversial is the [Subscription number is folded, and system recommendation is added] content that is still in internal testing.
△ Image source: "Tang Ren" public account
Since the revision of "Information Flow" in 2018, this is another huge change.
All of a sudden, various "seismic" revisions and a new round of shuffling views were spread, and public account subscribers and public account practitioners had different opinions.
In addition, the backend of the WeChat public platform has also added a "publish" function, which allows unlimited posting of messages, and the material library is upgraded to a draft box.
What is the specific content of this revision? Is it really as bad as everyone says? What is the impact on the creators of official accounts? How should we deal with it?
Subscription number folding + system recommendation
It is understood that after the users who have been grayscaled enter the subscription number list and browse some push messages, a folding area "expand earlier messages" will appear, and the content recommended by the system will appear below the folded messages. There are graphic and video content from official accounts, as well as content recommended by topics.
According to the "Tang Ren" official account, the content published by the very read official account is more likely to be folded, and the content published by the frequently read official account will still be displayed directly. In addition, the position where the folding area appears is not fixed, and there will be an algorithm in it.
How long does it take to browse for folded content?
The official account of "Do you know Chi Cheng" tested three accounts with different numbers of subscription numbers and different frequency of use:
The first one is to follow 1000 subscription accounts, the most frequently viewed WeChat.
1. After swiping 15 pushes from the "followed official account", I saw the folding area of "expand earlier news";
2. In the algorithm recommendation area, content from the "Followed Official Accounts" also appeared.
△ Left: the first number; right: the second number
Image source: "Do you know Chi Cheng" public account
The second one is to pay attention to 400 subscription numbers, and basically not to post news of subscription numbers.
1. Open it for the first time, and after swiping 4 pushes from the "Followed Official Account", I saw the folding area of "Expand earlier news";
2. Open it for the second time, and only swipe 1 push from the "Followed Official Account", and then see the folding area of "Expand earlier news";
The third one only pays attention to 3 subscription numbers, and it is not commonly used.
Because the account followed too few accounts, it directly "does not display recommendations". Instead, it mixed and arranged the content recommended by the algorithm and the content of the official accounts it followed.
In fact, in the third case mentioned here, the Android version has been available for a long time. The difference from the beta function is that there is no "expand earlier news".
This is the first account we tested, an account that is not commonly used, and the subscription account only focuses on one or two accounts, and the system directly recommends content.
Recommended content includes unfollowed graphics, unsubscribed topics, and video content. The posting time of the recommended content is also not fixed. Like the video content, the one about Meng Wanzhou happened at the end of September.
The second test account follows 860 subscription accounts. I usually use WeChat frequently, but I don’t often read the subscription accounts. The recommended content has been swiped for a long time, and the tweet appeared only 3 days ago or 5 days ago, and the proportion of recommended content is very low.
Why do many people think that recommendation is a new feature? That's because if you follow too many subscription accounts, it will take a long time for you to swipe for recommended content, and it will be easily ignored by everyone.
Therefore, the function of this internal test is simply to add "expand earlier news" to increase the proportion of recommended content.
What will be the impact?
If you don’t break, you can’t stand. From looking at it, information flow to watching it, and people who like this content also like it, it can be seen that the official account has been looking for growth breakthroughs in recent years.
In the WeChat public class in 2020, Zhang Xiaolong mentioned "passive information acquisition" in his video speech. He said that many people are not willing to take the initiative to obtain information, but prefer to obtain it passively.
△ Image source: WeChat Open Class
Nowadays, it is not surprising that recommended content appears, but algorithmic recommendation also has advantages and disadvantages.
1. Small accounts and new accounts have more opportunities
This is clearly perceivable.
We can see from the recommendation that there are a lot of content that we don’t usually pay attention to and whose account reading is not high.
Under the "Matthew Effect" of the official account, it is indeed difficult for small accounts and new accounts to get out of the circle or increase their volume if there is no recommendation from a large account.
But with the system recommendation, as long as you make content with your heart, you will have the opportunity to be seen by more people.
Ah Ruan was the one recommended by the system.
Her account "ideal Ah Ruan" started in October, and the frequency of official account updates has been greatly reduced. The reading of ordinary articles is only a few hundred, at most about 1,000.
But in September, the reading volume of the historical tweet on August 24, "How naive are boys in love", has increased dramatically, with 7,000+ readings in a single day, and has continued to increase since then. As of press time There have been 18,000 reads before, which is 20 times that of daily tweets!
△ Image source: A Ruan
And another article, "After leaving the job, I didn't know how much this job is...", about the content of the workplace, has 7000+ readings.
A Ruan selected reading data for nearly 90 days from September 8 to November 29, and found that 91.5%, more than 28,000 readings came from other sources.
△ "Ideal Ah Ruan" reading sources in the past 90 days
Image source: Ah Ruan
In the past, Ruan might not have dared to ask for this kind of reading data, but the reading exposure brought to her by the system recommendation still made her very happy, and it also gave her the motivation to continue to resume updating.
On this point, Yuan Xiaobin, senior director of Netease Cultural and Creative Industry, also holds the same view. In his view, WeChat’s move can stimulate the creative enthusiasm of creators, especially new creators, because it is currently difficult for small accounts to obtain traffic. The second is to increase the user duration of the subscription account section. Whether it is an external short video platform or an internal WeChat video account, they are all robbing users of their attention.
The growth of WeChat has slowed down, short video live broadcasts have risen, and the open rate and reading of official accounts have declined. The official account, which has gone through 9 years, is facing internal and external troubles.
Algorithm recommendation has become a new way for WeChat to break through the traffic ceiling.
In the final analysis, the revision of the WeChat official account is to improve the reading efficiency of users, so that high-quality content can get more exposure, so that people who create with heart have more opportunities to be seen.
In this way, creators will be willing to stay on the platform and continue to create; users will also have more time to stay.
2. Algorithm recommendations may not be accurate, and recommended content may not be of high quality
The system recommendation is based on various tags of the user, and the recommendation algorithm thinks that you may be interested in the content. But the algorithm may not be accurate.
The one we tested above only subscribes to one or two official accounts and is not commonly used. The recommended content is mostly anime and wallpaper content, but we are not interested in such content.
A Ruan also said that she personally didn't particularly like the two articles recommended on the website, but read the better and more valuable articles in general.
She also thought about the reason. It might be that topics such as dating and workplace complaints are more suitable for the public, and the articles are more interesting, so they are selected by the algorithm. However, valuable and dry content is usually more serious, and the article opening rate is also low.
Zhang Xiaolong mentioned in the previous WeChat public class, "The purpose of our revision is to make users read more efficiently, but the essential problem is not the efficiency of seeing the article, but the attractiveness of the content."
Since the open rate has dropped and users are "too lazy to watch", the system recommends it. A good algorithm can naturally bring more high-quality content. It seems that the recommendation algorithm of the official account may still need to be learned.
How should creators respond?
The last time the information flow was revised, everyone thought of the stars to deal with it, but the current recommendation mechanism is still very unclear.
Some people may think that since the algorithm mentioned above will recommend some interesting topics that the public likes, shouldn’t it be possible to create content for these topics?
If the content style of your official account is of this type, you can also give it a try. If not, don't lose the big in order to cater to the algorithm.
As Yuan Xiaobin said, "We must study algorithms well, but we must not succumb to algorithms."
"Any platform has a high demand for high-quality content creators. Currently, the revised functions are in the grayscale internal test period, and the real impact has not yet appeared. However, I think that as long as you concentrate on creating high-quality content, readers will actively find them. For yours, you need to strengthen interaction with readers and cultivate your own iron fans."
Judging from the current test results, the probability of frequent-read official accounts being folded is relatively small. We also believe that WeChat will not give up easily the frequent-read users who have been cultivated for such a long time. We must believe that WeChat officials also want to change the status quo and develop in a better direction. After all, no one will lift a rock to shoot himself in the foot.
At present, the function is still in internal testing. As for whether it will be fully released, whether it will continue to be optimized, and when it will be fully released, it is still unknown.
What creators have to do is still insist on creating high-quality content, maintain their own unique style, maintain good interaction with users, and continue to cultivate their own fields.
Other updated features "unlimited" publishing, draft box
Recently updated, in addition to the subscription number folding and system recommendation that everyone has paid more attention to, there are also publishing and draft box functions.
- "Unlimited" releases
In the "Content and Interaction" column on the left menu bar of the official account background, "Publishing Records" appears.
The mass sending is the same as before, but there is an additional drop-down "publish" in the editor's "mass sending" button.
Click "Publish" to display: publishing will not occupy the number of group sending times, nor will it be pushed to users, and it can be published multiple times a day. Posted content can be added to custom menus, autoresponders, threads and page templates.
The common point of "mass sending" and "publishing" is that the link content is public, and both can open originality and appreciation. The difference is that "mass sending" is pushed to users, while "publishing" is just released quietly. It will not be displayed in the official account's historical messages, but it may be recommended by the system.
The "publish" link is also public and permanent. You can share it with Moments, communities, or put it in custom menus, automatic replies, topics, page templates, etc.
The content after "publishing" can be viewed in the "publishing" column of "publishing records", and deletion or modification is also in this place.
Over the years, most subscription accounts can only be posted once a day, and the launch of the "publish" function also makes up for this regret.
For creators who want to express more content, or content with strong timeliness, the "publish" function plays a key role.
And this function is also complementary to the system recommendation above. If you want to recommend more high-quality content, you must have enough content library to support it, and "unlimited" releases also bring more possibilities.
1. Graphic material library upgrade draft box
The draft box can be a little bit complicated.
First, after the upgrade, the content saved in the original editor will be stored in the draft box. After the draft is published, it will be removed from the draft box, and you need to enter "Publication Records" to view it.
Second, if you want to use the published content again, you need to "select existing graphics" - "published" on the home page.
Thirdly, the original graphic material is transferred into the historical graphic material. That is, the material before the revision, including the material of the custom menu, automatic reply, and page template, can be viewed in the historical graphic material. But if you want to modify it, you need to transfer it as a draft from the "draft box" - "historical graphic material" in the upper right corner to continue editing and publishing.
It is worth noting that even if the published content is deleted, it can still be converted into a draft in the historical graphic material and then edited. This also solves the problem that the content after the previous deletion cannot continue to be operated.
In short, this function is divided into draft box, published, and historical graphic materials, and the latter two can be converted into drafts for editing, which can be switched flexibly.
For this revision of the WeChat public account
What do you think?
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