Hello, I'm Xiaoliu.

Recently, many of my friends around me in the self-media have stirred into a wave of short video commotion:

◆ Those who have not yet begun, are entangled in the question of whether or not to do short video, and how to do it;

◆ Those who have already been in the process of doing so, found themselves in a traffic predicament, struggling to support.

Even some friends who never show their faces are doing short videos with picture scrolling + subtitles.

Those like me who insist on writing text also have a title called: "classical self media".

My kind of sticking to writing words also has a title: "classical self media", which means stubborn self media that only writes words and doesn't make much short video.

Today we will talk about this topic:

Everyone is watching short videos, writing text is still meaningful?

1

Let's break it down:

What is the essential purpose behind doing text, or doing short videos?

It's to communicate.

Party A is shoving information they want Party B to know into each other's brains and attempting to exert influence.

Since it's communication, we need to understand the three elements of communication:

◆ The content of the communication

◆ The target audience (sender and receiver)

◆ The medium of the communication

Let's look at the content of the communication▼

What is the communication? Spreading one's ideas, opinions, attitudes, lifestyles, knowledge and experience ......

Secondly, the object of the communication▼

If it is directed communication, that is, delivering a specific content to a specific user;

if it is broadcasting, that is, spreading the content as far as possible and attracting individuals who are likely to be attracted to individuals.

And finally, the medium▼

That is, in what form?

Newspaper, radio, TV, web, short videos ......

Any communication process is subject to interference, signal noise or outright disruption.

The environment in which the transmitter and receiver are located creates signal noise for encoding and decoding content.

2

We understand the 3 elements of communication: the communicator and the receiver, the content, and the medium, and we know about noise in the communication process.

So let's get back to the question we wanted to talk about today:

Write text or make video?

Let's look at both from a communications perspective: what's changed? What hasn't changed?

◆ Has the communication content changed? No.

I was writing about the workplace, and now I'm still writing about the workplace; I was writing about learning methodology, and now I'm still writing about learning methodology.

◆ Communication object has changed?

It's a good thing that I've been working on this.

My mainstream user object is still 24-35 years old young people in the workplace.

◆ communication medium has changed?

My mainstream users are still 24-35 years old.

With the arrival of the 5G era, people no longer pay attention to their own traffic, and began to use short videos to brush the drama, and began to get used to seeing live broadcasts and video classes.

The original PPT picture + voice mode, began to look interactive insufficient, the meeting mode, the mode of discussion is more accepted.

So the conclusion is:

want to spread the object and content has not changed;

communication medium is changing, and will continue to change.

3

The key to solving the question of what exactly is being done and not being done is to find out what is changing and what is not.

Amazon founder Bezos once made the widely publicized observation that "businesses need to base their strategy on what's constant, and it's such an exciting principle to put all your resources ALL IN on what's constant".

I think the same advice applies to personal brands and careers.

When a person chooses what change they want to make next, it's important to look at the layers at which such a change will occur:

◆ Environmental layer - changes almost every day

◆ Behavioral layer - changes because of the environment

◆ Competency layer - changes slowly

◆ Beliefs and Values - very difficult to change

◆ Identity and identity - changes that are not always easy to make, but are not always easy to change.

◆ Identity and Spirituality- Hardest to change

Whether it's text or video, these are actually adaptive changes to the environment and behavior.

But competence and orientation don't change.

How do you think about problems, how do you solve user problems?

The user base hasn't changed;

The essence of making money is to provide value in exchange for the user, and that hasn't changed either;

So is there still a market for the value you're providing, and is there still someone to pay for it?

If it's still there, then what we care about is not whether to write text or make videos.

Rather, is my ability to deliver value becoming more specialized?

Just like Mr. Huang Lei of The Wayward Life, whether he's doing a cooking show or a lifestyle variety show, the craft of cooking hasn't changed.

As for whether it's in a five-star kitchen or on a wood-fired shelf in Xishuangbanna, it's not a big deal.

4

Behind the choice of writing text or making short videos is actually a person's philosophy of life choice.

I myself went on a retreat in 2018 and spent a month living on Cangshan Mountain, a mountain away from Dali.

The climate of Cangshan Mountain in December is very peculiar, the morning is strangely cold, the window can see the snow-capped peaks of the mountains, go out for a walk have to wear snow boots and down jackets; midday sunny, sunny people dizzy, like a different day; and to the evening when the sun goes down, the whole village instantly back to the ice age.

In that winter, the B&B inns built along the Erhai Sea were dismantled and relocated due to policy reasons.

Those who had invested all their savings to make a living in the Erhai Sea began to scatter, and were at a loss for what to do.

I was there and felt different degrees of change and unchanged:

◆ The climate changed in a day;

◆ The B&Bs built on the Cangshan Mountain and the Erhai Sea didn't survive for a few years, they were torn down;

◆ The Jing Nai Nuan on the Cangshan Mountain has existed for who knows how many years, from dilapidated to refurbished, from the smoky and cold to the crowded with tourists.

......

But the Cangshan Mountain has remained the same, and the Erhai Sea has remained the same, they have existed quietly for millions of years.

What changes gets power, what stays the same gets attention.

5

Focus on what you can sink your teeth into and be a long-termer.

That year was at a low point in my career.

My team disbanded, my girlfriend left, and my body bloated to 80 pounds ......

I asked myself, if I'm going to keep freelancing, what do I do next?

If I'm going to continue to output content, what am I going to output?

Instead of struggling to follow the crowd, I ask myself what are my core competencies as a freelancer.

Having figured this out, I started a year-long program of hard work:

◆ A book a day, a week to do a reading PPT, asked to find 5-10 cases to explain the knowledge points, and make notes on the material;

◆ An offline class, I will spend two weeks to do the restoration and dismantling, and make notes on the class;

◆ With the knowledge that I have learned, to focus on the 5-meter range of life, and to make a good job of it.

◆ Every time a participant asks me a question, I will try to ask a question and answer a lesson to make a small lesson note.

My point of view is:

The core ability of self media, is the power of learning.

It's a never-ending curiosity and professional-type interpretation of the world.

With these, it will be able to give continuous knowledge service to the world.

Talking about this, you've discovered that short videos or articles, or maybe even making VR content in the future.

None of that matters.

What matters is whether you're sinking your core competencies and whether you're consistently solving user problems.

Whether you're working for someone else or working for yourself, that core is constant.

What changes gets power, what stays the same gets attention.

This is what Cangshan Erhai has taught me about life, and I give it to you.

? Message Board ?

Do you still read words?

What do you think about video and text?

What do you think about video and text?