Work Hack Director Shi talks about how to use short videos to grasp online business opportunities in the post-epidemic era

[](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDXpQ31EtbnI8iFPmTkO UORoPRK_G8DbTG8E37ufgeOjLxwR4ZD3qtpjFK1T1nSMwiBvm_JEMwOMP9Vtv0lobRz8VMcGDT0TMXiu9-uaz NLPQPop-KFDYrWlNfAk1gymCKuRBmBWnyaYj3sXOr70oW-CsPQK9-Jh_4kDvQTPgmfcN7QZkx0nxL35aCzlv x/s1280/%E6%8E%8C%E6%8F%A1%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E5%95%86%E6%A9%9F.jpg)

Before, I had heard of Director Shi’s name on the Internet, and had also read the book “[TikTok Millions” written by him and 617 Liu Yizhen in a bookstore. Traffic is fully disclosed](https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vista/products/0010942245?utm_source=vista&utm_medium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-202307)》. I am glad that under the introduction of [Senior Yijia] (https://www.facebook.com/AirAaronHuang/videos/1049289352739794) in the doctoral class, I finally had the opportunity to hear his insightful observations and sharing on the short video ecology.

Director Shi is a well-known new media business consultant in Taiwan and the founder of [Hacker Business] (https://www.facebook.com/selfmedia.next/). He has more than ten years of online marketing experience. He is the IP business consultant and trader of TikTok “Hacker at Work”, and also manages the TikTok account “[Director Shi’s Witful Life](https://ww w.youtube.com/channel/UC_HVLMqZMLYfYS_HlY0cBrw)”, “Director Shi’s unpaid lecture”.

At the lecture on “Seizing the Online Business Opportunities of the Epidemic” hosted by Mu Yun Salon, Director Shi suddenly asked everyone at the beginning: “Who do you think are the real money-makers in the era of websites?”

He pointed out that if you want to be exposed on search engines such as Yahoo! and Google, you must first be willing to spend advertising fees. However, the fees that ordinary people can afford are very limited, and they will never be comparable to big companies like momo and PChome.

Business battle is a competition for traffic

In the previous Web 1.0 or 2.0 era, as long as any merchant had a product that unexpectedly became popular and became a hot seller on the Internet, the platform would try every means to take away the rankings and traffic, leaving no room for survival. The reason is very simple, because the commercial battle is essentially a competition for traffic.

Times have changed, and when people enter the era of Facebook, everyone can still enjoy the dividends at the beginning. When Facebook opened up advertising, a lot of traffic had to be purchased. So when companies and the general public realized that spending money to buy traffic and ads became popular, we ordinary people had no chance!

Therefore, when it comes to making money online or starting a business online, it is not actually a national activity, but a patent of some large companies.

But times have changed. Director Shi tells everyone: Now some Internet celebrities and creators can surpass the results of those big companies and platforms by their own efforts, that is, the traffic of a single video. And what each of our consumers care about is not advertising, but high-quality content. Having said that, what is the most important thing that each platform needs to compete for now? It’s not the advertising fee, it’s the user’s time.

Time is the most valuable asset and the only indivisible resource in the world. Director Shi said that when every platform needs an audience, it will need an endless stream of content, and it is best to have content generated by the audience.

Regarding content production, with the evolution of the times, it has now changed significantly. In the past, shooting videos was a very troublesome task and required a lot of equipment; but now, you only need a mobile phone to shoot, send it to the platform, and then you can monetize it through traffic! Therefore, Director Shi believes that now is truly the time when every individual can expand their earning opportunities through the Internet.

He reminded everyone: Times have changed now. In the past, “the aroma of wine does not worry the depth of the alley.” But now you have to push the wine to the entrance of the alley, just like scooping it up on the spot in a conspicuous place at the entrance of the alley, and don’t forget to use an electric fan to blow it to let people passing by smell the aroma and stop.

In the past, you may have heard of the “[Long Tail Theory](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/Long Tail)”, but unfortunately, in today’s society, there are only hot products, but no long tail. Director Shi pointed out that if you open your mobile phone and look at various platforms now, you will naturally find an endless stream of content pushed to you. It is conceivable that your attention will only be attracted by those hot things, and it is impossible for you to search or discover them slowly by your own strength.

Short video is a communication medium that everyone needs to understand

Director Shi believes that short video is a medium and communication method that everyone must understand now, whether you use it in life, work or business… If you really want to use your individual power to seize the trend of the AI ​​era, then short video is undoubtedly the best opportunity.

Nowadays, every boss wants to control traffic through short videos. The reason is obvious. Because if your traffic always relies on Internet celebrities and brands, then the other party will inevitably want to harvest you. This is the so-called “trap to kill”!

Speaking of this, Director Shi suddenly asked: “Have you ever realized that after the COVID-19 epidemic ravaged the world, this year was the year when the growth of many industries exploded?” This statement sounds very reasonable, but will you think further, do you think there is something strange? Why does the promised retaliatory economy or consumption seem to be coming! But, why does it seem to have nothing to do with me?

Why does it seem that traffic is harder to obtain than before? Why is it harder to make money than before? Do you know why? The reason is simple, because everyone is smarter now!

According to Director Shi’s analysis, the so-called traffic essentially reflects people’s emotions. For example, have you noticed it? The content of the quarrel is very popular. For example, the “White Rice Rebellion Incident” that has recently attracted public attention has continued to have traffic even after the store owner and students quarreled! Because anger itself is a highly arousing emotion that can easily inspire people to take action.

The hidden essence of traffic is emotion, and what is reflected behind the emotion? That is human nature.

Director Shi said with a smile: “The true nature of human nature, what can defeat lust? It’s eating! What can defeat eating? It’s laziness. What can defeat laziness? Anger! What can defeat anger? Jealousy. What can defeat jealousy? Fear.” He further analyzed that during this epidemic period, everyone has been in an atmosphere of fear and fear for a long time. These are actually manifestations of human nature.

Therefore, if we want to understand human nature, there are four key words that are very important, namely “carpe diem”.

Have you noticed that when you open your Instagram and Facebook recently, almost two out of every three people go out to play! Or have you noticed that the rise of some Internet celebrity coffee shops seems to be unreasonable. In fact, they are not based on rigid needs, but on a desire or trend. Think about the catering industry that has been booming this year, such as some bars, coffee shops or Internet celebrity shops. In fact, they are not focusing on rigid needs, but on meeting the needs of certain groups.

In other words, many people don’t think much about it when they are invited to eat, drink and have fun. As long as time and funds permit, they will set off if someone invites them! Because everyone has been holding back the past three years, and they don’t know what will happen in the future? Therefore, everyone agrees with the principle of “carpe diem”.

Director Shi also mentioned that people are often very conflicted. While we enjoy ourselves in time, there is a faint sense of worry in our hearts. He found that some people have started to review their insurance policies in recent years, and they suddenly discovered that our own health is very valuable. And from a business point of view, the nutritional and health food market is still growing rapidly. If we take probiotics as an example, we can subdivide different product lines. For example, this probiotic is for children aged 0 to 5 years old, another probiotic is for primary school students, and this probiotic is specially for office workers…

Therefore, the sense of worry that exists in everyone’s heart will also cause the performance of various insurance products and health foods to grow rapidly, becoming a large-scale track in the market in recent years.

The sudden epidemic has changed people’s way of reading, listening and thinking.

Director Shi also reminded everyone that if you are friends who are engaged in the real economy such as markets and events, many people have been almost overwhelmed recently. At this time, you must find ways to allocate manpower to deal with it, and try to make back all the money you have earned in the past three years in the second half of this year or throughout the year! The reason is simple, because these budgets that were originally supposed to be spent will now explode because the epidemic is under control, but if we wait until next year, it may be a different situation.

In the past three years since the COVID-19 epidemic has been raging around the world, everyone has become accustomed to the way online meetings operate. In the past, when it came to having a meeting, it was necessary to make an appointment to meet in person, but now everyone can accept to chat online first, and if they feel that the discussion can be achieved, then make an appointment to discuss in detail. Therefore, online meetings not only improve people’s work efficiency; in addition, everyone is also accustomed to watching live broadcasts and [short videos] (https://blog.wenk-media.com/?p=3242) during the epidemic. [](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWsn0no3QUVww_rh9fC Qikhoxzz8P55UKjggfayd5NfTLOvCS1S0FNRKQ1tLiGdAH1FX5BEcOeUAjRhz-CvzJ0v0NtgW8fUjc_bgj T0AqzIP0ikYpkT6E25mh5APLXxEYWVOucZuvo30fFOa4myny5pfbzS774IOkhNoyQNULkJFWCGE48MYw1V 5I3nauB/s1280/%E7%9F%B3%E7%B8%BD%E7%9B%A3%E8%AB%87%E7%9F%AD%E5%BD%B1%E9%9F%B3.jpg)

Nowadays, when everyone opens Instagram, it is full of Instagram Reels short videos. Why is the short film feature so popular all over the world? Director Shi believes that it is because people always want to pursue a more efficient way of living and working. Therefore, there is no distinction between old and new platforms, but there is a difference between efficient and inefficient platforms.

Social media continues to innovate, but the essence of many things will not change. Therefore, Director Shi is not optimistic about Facebook’s new social platform [Threads] (https://www.threads.net/@vista) because the name is difficult to pronounce and difficult for ordinary people to remember. However, he believes that short videos are different. They not only meet the characteristics of “more, faster, better, and cheaper”, but also allow people to spend less time and gain greater rewards and excitement!

Looking back at TikTok, in fact, this platform first made its way through short videos, and other platforms quickly followed suit. So why are short videos the current trend? Director Shi mentioned that people always have to move in the direction of high efficiency, and it is obvious that short video is in line with the demand for high efficiency.

According to the 2021 Nielsen Internet Survey, which analyzed the Internet and audio-visual usage of Generation Z, it was found that up to 90% of the young generation are keen on watching audio-visual entertainment content on online digital platforms, and especially like videos produced by Internet celebrities and amateurs. After the international version of TikTok came out in 2017, it sparked a short video trend. According to official statistics, TikTok has 1 billion global monthly active users in 2021. At present, the global App has been downloaded more than 2 billion times, and nearly 70% of its users are between the ages of 13 and 24, making TikTok known as “the secret paradise of young people under the age of 20.”

Through learning and action, grasp the online business opportunities in the post-epidemic era

Director Shi pointed out that the epidemic has indeed changed many things, but some people’s habits will not change at all. He laughed and said, please stop asking: Is short video a trend? This is an indisputable fact. But you have to ask yourself: Do you have a place in the world’s future blueprint?

He suggested that if you think it is a bit difficult to start TikTok now, don’t give up easily! You must try to operate YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, because TikTok has led the global social media trend in recent years, and YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are really not that difficult, and the entry barrier is not that high!

He said that many food creators have become large through Instagram Reels last year, and they have also received a lot of job assignments. Even his current employees work part-time after work, which shows that this is indeed a rare opportunity.

Perhaps, many people think that short video content is very short, but in fact, TikTok can now upload 10-minute content! Therefore, the crux of the problem is not the length of time, but the length of information density. Director Shi took the short videos he shot himself as an example. The slowest one would change scene or rhythm within 3 to 5 seconds. So you have to think about how to set 20 exciting points in a 1-minute short video? Nowadays, the average endurance of people online is 7 seconds, but this is the data before the epidemic in 2020, and now there are only 3 seconds left.

[](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiHJWmbc4TkPz-Esxsc iEusgcxf43bWo8nUp3j_HLcIvgO9ChVdgPClBJ6qa4IeeyfXOjxitO7Tne2_tUtnmoh62AoR46yKPraGGo o2i8ZKxZmzWCzOsHST1XWUkzX5PmzPvH0Z_0LMb5J4xAVaCFTOeWnJUT3vQQYeS0qn_s1inVW6uMv3_xCS IHsLXP0/s1280/%E4%BA%BA%E5%9B%A0%E8%A1%8C%E5%8B%95%E8%80%8C%E6%88%90%E5%8A%9F.jpg)

People get impatient easily, so you have to be quick! There are so many platforms now, and everyone sees so many videos and advertisements every day. Instead of spending money to make a wonderful video, it is better to increase the frequency and breadth of your exposure as much as possible! Because consumers and audiences are just like scumbag men and scumbag women. They are all very carefree and like the new and hate the old! And because people always forget again and again, our exposure strategy is to keep repeating and increasing the frequency.

When it comes to doing business, Director Stone believes that the most important thing is to have goals, which is to adhere to the strategy of “Start with the end in mind”. Therefore, for those who want to make money by producing short videos, you must first master the traffic monetization policy; of course, in the process of content production and marketing, you must also prove your ability to gain the recognition of fans and the blessing of traffic.

He shared with everyone the formula for monetizing traffic, which is that revenue equals traffic multiplied by product. In other words, everyone must try to monetize good products and services. Therefore, if you don’t have products and services yourself, it will be difficult to make money online. This is also why at this point in time, the monetization efficiency of ordinary amateurs or pure Internet celebrities is very poor.

Nowadays, we see many self-media creators or Internet celebrities with monetization ability. In essence, they have the status of a boss or expert offline. In other words, he himself has a project to realize it. Therefore, Director Shi recommends that people who have a full-time job or want to do a side job should clearly understand the purpose of investing in short video creation: first know which projects you want to make money from, and then push back to create content! In this way, you can improve your traffic monetization efficiency.

When talking about the issue of monetizing audio and video traffic, Director Shi said sincerely: “People cannot watch vulgar and boring things forever. They will eventually learn and grow.” You must know that if any popular content platform lacks changes over time, people will feel numb and indifferent to the existing content, so please pay special attention to it. But having said that, this also means that there will always be opportunities for everyone to turn around and reshuffle the cards.

Speaking of this, Director Shi quoted a passage from the founder of Amazon in the United States [Bezos] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/Jeff Bezos). In the past, many people have often asked Bezos to predict what emerging trends will be seen in the world in the next three to five years. But he said that few people ask, what is the unchanging truth in the next three to five years? Therefore, Director Shi suggested that everyone should not aim too high and build their strategies on things that remain unchanged. He also did not forget to mention that artificial intelligence and short videos, which are currently popular, are definitely trends that will remain unchanged in the next five years!

Director Shi mentioned that short videos are now in full bloom, and platforms such as TikTok exist to solve the traffic problem between brands and products. As you can imagine, public traffic on all social platforms is very expensive now, but the conversion efficiency is getting worse and worse… What’s even worse is that once you don’t continue to burn money, there will be no subsequent traffic. [](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAAUTF7mWg_tsk-_vMTevcxY57K-_0UERxHHo84fQ3HlcOgNBl2y3vOuWyE7qzUwIc6TOyDcmQ3KhfQC_9 6FRbNk3Gci6uKnKfSo0Tsjt2HVme_Z9bFXKhvdWi1QZBLGOpcS383o_FNRfxLUbacvMTl8pCV HKZhRnCWS_enksTVgB5rwY9EYsiBShSHWp/s1280/%E7%9F%B3%E7%B8%BD%E7%9B%A3.jpg)

Director Shi pointed out that looking at the development of TikTok or other short video platforms, they are still in the stage of a hundred schools of thought contending, which means that if we enter the market now, we can still exchange high-quality content for traffic. In other words, as long as you can create content that is good enough to attract people, the platform will not hesitate to recommend it, but will provide traffic support to help you solve the problem of not having money to buy traffic, and then proactively help the content find accurate target audiences.

Therefore, if you have a high-quality product or service, just put it on the TikTok platform, you can easily win fans and sell out the product. Looking at it from another perspective, if you are a person who creates Internet traffic through videos, and as long as you have a clear group of fans to follow you, as long as you find the right product and put it in the video, then pursuing success will be a matter of course.

Director Shi optimistically expressed that in the future, not only will everyone have the opportunity to become famous, but they will also be able to convert high-quality content into interest e-commerce through [Short Video Content Monetization Methods](https://tw.news.yahoo.com/How to Make Money from Short Videos-Analysis of 3 Platform Monetization Methods-160300125.html), and then conduct online group purchases through Live Broadcast. When the consumer experience is satisfied, the ultimate goal of traffic monetization can naturally be achieved.

The definition of success varies from person to person. In fact, it depends on how much time and effort each person is willing to spend in exchange? Until now, I still work very hard every day. Because I love my job, I love my life, and I hope to continue to share better content and the most useful things with everyone.

By Director Shi

I am very happy to have this opportunity to participate in Mu Yun Salon and listen to the entire lecture. It can be said that I have benefited a lot and fully felt Director Shi’s enthusiasm for short videos. Of course, it made me decide to devote myself to the world of short videos!

I feel that Director Shi is like a short video evangelist. We both agree with content marketing, but I am used to writing in words, while he tells stories through short videos, presenting various knowledge to more people in a vivid and interesting way. We are not alone on the road to content production and marketing. Of course, we also hope that more friends can join the ranks of co-creation⋯⋯

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Further reading

• Former “Health” magazine editor-in-chief Huang Huiru talks about the writing method of long articles
• Zhang Qiongwen, Director of Tuka Power Plant, talks about the application of Tuka design in educational marketing
• Former “former health” magazine editor-in-chief Huang Huiru talks about how to write concise essays (content input)

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