Why Focusing on a Niche Is Essential for Content Creation
I shared some guesses about feed algorithms a while back (Let's Talk About So-Called Smart Algorithms? | Just Another Speculation). We all know that building a vertical niche is important because it meets users' expectations and reduces unfollow rates, but what I'm sharing today is something outdated (from early last year).
Do algorithm-driven platforms have human intervention? Do accounts actually have weight? Can some people get preferential treatment from the platform?
The answer is yes.
In the news app where I once interned, the operations team would interfere with the platform's algorithms.
First, after an account publishes a post, it can enter the recommendation feed through machine algorithms. Once there, a list of accounts appears in the operations staff's backend dashboard. The staff then manually adjust the recommendation weight based on content quality—in practice, if management isn't strict enough, more often based on their mood—to give certain content more traffic.
Second, when an account's content appears multiple times on the operations staff's list, they'll start to recognize it. Staff will mentally mark that account as active (each vertical domain should be managed by different people, but cost-saving measures might mean just one person manages everything), apply an appropriate tag (or even assign a numerical weight value) for recommendation purposes.
After consistently producing excellent content in a vertical domain that gets recommendations, these accounts will catch the attention of user operations staff (or KOL operations). They'll proactively reach out to establish somewhat official partnerships, granting certain traffic advantages.
During this process, there's always room left for new accounts to enter the system. Old accounts may lose weight due to inactivity. Another way to lose weight is if the operations personnel behind you leave and get replaced—your replacement might not like your content, won't get familiar with your account, and you'll gradually be forgotten and relegated to the cold palace. (Another function of human intervention is screening content for legality and compliance, applying blocks, reducing weight, muting accounts, and other punishments.)
This is why persisting in vertical domain content output is necessary—to get familiar with the people behind who can recommend your content to the algorithm, and to escape the path of always relying solely on machine algorithms for traffic, entering the advanced stage of "manual recommendations."
The less mature the platform, the greater the human intervention, because content quality is uneven and algorithms are harder to tune. They rely more on manually distributing quality content across different time periods. The more mature the platform, the more it focuses on algorithms, because their content pool and account volume are large enough that even if some accounts get buried, it doesn't affect the platform's overall development.
So when operating an account on algorithm-driven platforms and building vertical domain content, sustainable content output is essential.
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This article was originally published by the official WeChat account Li Xuehan. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.