Please read this section with these questions:
1. What is the “black hole period” of TikTok account?
2. What strategy should be used to face and get through the “black hole period” of TikTok?
3. What is the update strategy for the TikTok account in the account creation stage?
When a new account is created (if it is a vertical account), it will often encounter a situation: after careful shooting and editing, a few videos are posted, and the number of views is very low; after posting more than a dozen videos, the number of views is still very low; after posting dozens of videos, it seems that there is not much improvement. At this time, you may be discouraged and come to the conclusion: “TikTok is really not easy to do, those who say they have done it are bragging!” Then transfer the person in charge of this part to other positions and give up the TikTok road.
This is the “black hole period”. 98% of people will give up because they cannot survive the “black hole period”, especially merchants who run vertical accounts.
1. Reasons and duration of the “black hole period” of TikTok accounts
1. Why is there a “black hole period”?
In the previous section of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, I mentioned: For a new account, TikTok “doesn’t know” you, doesn’t know what content you make, and doesn’t know which ones to recommend to you from so many users. The “black hole period” is a process of continuously optimizing the accuracy of TikTok’s recommendation of us. The process from being completely inaccurate and relying only on luck to becoming more and more accurate is a process of “modeling”: it requires us to continuously publish good works, add appropriate copywriting tags, persist for a period of time and constantly adjust and improve. When the model is built, we can get through this “black hole period”. At that time, when our works are recommended again, the user population will be much more accurate.
So before the “modeling” is completed, we will definitely be in the “black hole period”, and no account can bypass this process. If you can’t see the results for the time being, don’t be discouraged, you are not not growing, but taking root.
2. How long is the “black hole period”?
The “black hole period” of accounts with a wide range of fans such as pets and funny accounts will be shorter, while vertical accounts, especially very obvious sellers, will have a longer “black hole period”.
General category video works are more likely to be liked by the general public, and it is easy to take on the 300~500 views randomly pushed by the platform. As long as the works are good, it is relatively easy to get good data and high traffic. There are many cases where a few works have broken the million views. However, such accounts usually encounter a problem: the commercial monetization value of fans is small, and the path to monetization is longer and more difficult.
It is difficult for merchants to take on random traffic. Videos selling nail products, no matter how beautifully they are made, cannot be liked by men in random traffic, so they will encounter the problem of poor data before the “modeling” is completed at the beginning. Therefore, the “black hole period” of this type of account is longer, usually several months. However, once this type of account completes the “modeling”, the commercial monetization value of fans will be greater, and the closed-loop path of monetization will be more direct.
The factors that affect the length of the “black hole period” are as follows:
First, the update frequency and quantity of short videos. Every time a work is released, a part of accurate users can be screened. When the sample size reaches a sufficient amount, “modeling” can be completed. So you can produce as much content as possible, speed up the accumulation of sample size, and promote the “modeling” process faster. For the same content, the effect of updating one post a day and updating two posts a day is still very different.
Second, the quality and systematic nature of the content. Needless to say, the quality of the content, we all know that if the content released cannot attract the attention of users, no matter how much is released, it will be useless. Only good quality content has the meaning of persistence. Another point to note is the systematic nature of the content. The content you release should be closely related to your user portrait, product and business model. If the purpose of a merchant account is to sell false eyelashes, then it cannot post a carefully polished beauty video today and a large-scale wine tasting video tomorrow, otherwise the user portrait will be completely messed up, otherwise it will waste time and get lost in the “black hole period”. This is why when I find that there is a problem with the user portrait of my own account (for example, there are male fans of women’s clothing accounts), I will ask the operation to manually clean and optimize it, in order to let the algorithm clarify our fan portraits and labels as soon as possible and complete the “modeling” as soon as possible.
2. How to better survive the “black hole period”?
Although many accounts with goods will experience the “black hole period”, after repeated practice of hundreds of accounts, I summarized our team’s methods and used them in incubating the overseas projects of Chinese companies that cooperated with me, helping many Chinese companies’ TikTok accounts to successfully survive the “black hole period” and saving them at least half of their time.
When your account is in the “black hole period”, remember to read and use the following three methods repeatedly.
1. Label the account: clarify the target user portrait, as well as the corresponding vertical and pan-vertical labels
Many accounts have been unable to survive the “black hole period” because the merchants themselves have not figured out the user portraits and what other larger common labels exist among these users.
For example, if your account sells jewelry products, then the user portrait is first female, and then extends to categories such as beauty and fashion. Analyzing the user labels again, mothers, working women, daily wear, skin care and anti-wrinkle, etc. can also be attributed to your user portrait.
You will not go astray if you test content and products along these directions, and you will be able to better accumulate typical and accurate fans, so that TikTok can “know” your account more correctly.
So how can you accurately label your account? Here I have summarized five labeling methods, which are very useful.
First, the account name and introduction I mentioned in the first section of this chapter should be as simple and clear as possible.
Second, the matching of the video screen and copy should be clear and accurate. If it is a painting account, keep posting the painting process, and match the copy and topic tags that match the screen, and repeat and deepen it continuously.
Third, set the content according to the interests of the target user portrait we set. If you sell pet supplies, you can explore the common interests of “poop scoopers” and reflect them in the first sentence of each video. In this way, you can quickly attract a group of fans who keep pets.
Fourth, do everything you can to make users with accurate labels complete the purchase behavior. This is for areas where there are TikTok stores. Purchase behavior is an important way to label an account, and it has a higher weight than likes and follows. Therefore, when we sell products on the small yellow car, the labels of the first group of users are very important. We must find ways to guide users with accurate labels to buy and filter out inaccurate people.
Fifth, use Promote (Double +) paid traffic to boost. When we launch Promote (Double +), we can customize the crowd and choose the crowd we want to launch. TikTok will know “it turns out that you want these people to see it.” If the effect of the delivery is good, these labels will be deepened, and your account weight will also increase, because it means that our content is good, and it will be liked by a specific group of people with the help of Promote (Douyin+); if the effect is not good, you need to look back and check your own problems: Is there a deviation in the user portrait? Is the content not strong enough? Using these five methods well and repeatedly labeling the account correctly is walking on the right path. 2. Avoiding and correcting “reverse labels” After reading the five methods of labeling, you may have questions: If I sell jewelry for women, what if a man sees this product and thinks it can be given as a gift to his girlfriend or wife, should I attract this kind of fans? After all, as a gift, it can open the user’s psychological account, and it is more refreshing to pay.
This is a very typical problem, and it is also a pit that our TikTok anchors have fallen into [Pit 2]: Some anchors will use the words “Male friends can also buy it back as a gift to their girlfriends or wives” when live streaming jewelry in order to increase their live performance. However, this approach is inappropriate in the early stage of the account. In the account creation stage, it is necessary to avoid the influx of inaccurate people, which will cause problems with the account’s labels and hinder the progress of the “black hole period”; but when the account has developed to the mature stage and the labels are already very clear and stable, it is okay to develop such customers.
In the account creation stage, I will specifically ask the operation to manually correct the fans with “reverse labels”: For example, we will manually delete male fans. Because TikTok will mistakenly think that some men like my content or products, and will try to push some of these users to me. But most men must not be interested in my products. If they are really pushed, it can only reduce my completion rate and other data, and the background will determine that my content is not good, so it falls into a vicious circle, which is too time-consuming.
So at this stage, I will not only avoid attracting fans with “reverse labels” in content positioning, but also manually correct these fans to keep my fan labels clear and simple. This is very helpful for labeling accounts, and it will be able to get through the “black hole period” faster.
3. Three major persistences: persist in cultivating online sense, persist in updating content, and persist in optimizing content
Most people give up before they get through the “black hole period”, which is really a pity. I have taught a student before. She made an account to sell jewelry. She persisted for two months and updated more than 50 videos, but because she didn’t make any orders, she gave up. After I explained the principle of the “black hole period” to her, she still insisted on giving up because she felt that the product selection was not good and wanted to restart an account to sell diamond paintings.
She made a diamond painting account for another two months and found that it was still difficult to make orders. One day she came to me and asked me why it was so difficult and whether TikTok couldn’t make money. I said to her: “Log in to the account where you first started making jewelry and I will answer your question.” After she opened the account, she was surprised to find that there were more than 1,000 more fans, and the videos she had posted before received a lot of likes and comments, and many of the comments were from strong buyers such as “Where to buy?” and “How much?” At that moment, she deeply understood why I had said the “black hole period” in the first place, and also felt the regret of not listening to what I said and insisting on stepping into the pit. There are two reasons for anxiety: wanting to do a lot of things and wanting to see results immediately. But the facts are often not like this. We must persist on the difficult and correct path and “let the bullets fly for a while.”
III. Update strategy in the account creation stage
1. Video release time and update frequency
My strategy is to update 2 videos every day, with the release time fixed at 10 am and 10 pm, which corresponds to the local time of my target market (the United States) at about 10 am and 10 pm (the United States has 3 time zones, as well as winter time and summer time, so I won’t describe it accurately here).
You can set the update strategy at 2~3 videos per day based on your team’s content production capacity, and determine a fixed update time. Time consistency will make your analysis a habit, knowing that your account will have new content updates every time, helping us occupy the user’s mind and build brand power at the same time.
For the specific update time, refer to the prime time of your target market and convert it into China time.
2. Rating video content and investing different resources
Each of my accounts updates 2 videos a day, so 14 videos a week, except for special circumstances. For these 14 videos, I will ask the team members to screen out 2~3 videos for paid streaming based on our own satisfaction, whether it is a more expensive big production, and the data 72 hours after the video is released. Once a video with more than one million views is released, the responsible employee will be given a “chicken leg”.
Repeatedly doing this can motivate employees to produce good content and allow accounts to continuously obtain traffic conversion orders. We should spend advertising money on the most worthwhile content, right?
The most important thing in this section is to take you to an in-depth look at the process that TikTok may go through during its account creation stage. At the same time, corresponding solutions are given so that you no longer fear the “black hole period” and can get through it as quickly as possible with rhythm and strategy, complete the “modeling” of the account’s fan tags, and have the ability to realize commercialization.