WeChat’s “Ask a Question” feature recently launched the “Ask a Ask Host” role, inviting creators to serve as hosts, initiate discussions with fans and the community, and co-create content. This feature not only enhances the interactivity and playability of Ask, but also provides creators with the opportunity to gain more exposure in various WeChat scenarios. The article will delve into the original design intention, usage scenarios and impact of the “Ask the Host” feature on the WeChat content ecosystem, and analyze how this function can improve content quality and community atmosphere through the combination of public and private content distribution, while providing creators and users with a richer interactive experience.
WeChat pulls “thank you for the invitation” into the functional component of Ask a Question.
After more than half a year of grayscale testing, the “Ask the Host” function has been gradually liberalized recently, and like me, many creators have received invitations to use it in the background. This is not a very novel product feature, and it can even be said to be “very retro”. (If you don’t receive an invitation, you can wait a little longer.) ）
“Ask the host” function invitation Source: Tang Chen screenshot
According to the official introduction, “Ask a Question Host” is a private domain co-creation tool in WeChat, you can initiate a Ask a Ask discussion with fans and the community, invite them to co-create content, get rich exposure opportunities in various scenarios on WeChat, and amplify the influence of your account.
This is very similar to the host of the Zhihu Roundtable in form, and can also be regarded as the WeChat version of “thank you for the invitation”: in Zhihu, we hope to break the geographical restrictions and make traditional guest discussions better on the Internet in the form of “Zhihu Roundtable”.
Come and ask as a host
In terms of specific use, before the launch of “Ask the Host”, users can only submit questions through “Publish”, and the published content does not display the publisher account, only the answerer’s account.
After the launch of this feature, “Ask a Question” has an option to “initiate a discussion”, and creators can publish content through “Initiate Discussion”, which can display the publisher’s account (official account or video account), as well as a prominent host logo.
With this layer of “identity”, the creator who initiated the question, that is, the “host”, has a greater presence in the Ask the Ask community and is more likely to be noticed by users. In addition, within the WeChat content ecosystem, there is a chance to get recommended exposure in scenarios such as the Ask a Question homepage, WeChat search page, take a look, and official account information flow, and unlock more WeChat traffic entrances.
The picture on the left shows that before the update, there is only the “Publish” function; The picture on the right shows that after the update, you can choose “Publish” or “Discuss” Source: New List
To put it bluntly, for creators and brands that have a need to increase followers or activate private domain traffic, “Ask the Host” is very convenient and enhances the availability of Ask a Ask Internal Public and Private Domain Co-creation Tools.
The launch of this functional component also digs into the interactivity and playability of Ask a Question. Lei Technology mentioned a good scenario: in order to promote fans and shorten the communication distance with fans and readers, the creators of the official account will often choose to set up interactive topics at the end of the article to encourage everyone to leave messages and interact.
This kind of interaction has a strong circle, even if it is an amateur reader, he pays attention to a certain official account, mostly for its content, positioning or professional interpretation. They have their own professional insights and experiences, and they will seriously share them in the comment area.
Host identity display Source: Tang Chen screenshot
On community-based platforms such as forums, the benefits of one or more wonderful comments – the spread of articles, fan discussions, and topic popularity – are huge. If it causes a sensation within the public domain, it is basically “breaking the circle”.
However, considering the closed nature of the official account, or the native private domain characteristics, this kind of wonderful and high-quality interactive messages are mostly framed in the comment area of a single article – the official account is also consciously strengthened – it is difficult to be displayed, let alone distributed to other scenarios. The information exchange between users and creators is more of a one-way output from creators, resulting in low information flow efficiency.
“Ask the host” has its own “action” in this scenario: the host invites specific and professional KOLs to participate in the topic discussion, make a sample, and after setting the tone of the topic, ordinary users can participate in the topic discussion, and then be distributed and recommended to more people, and the one-way comment is upgraded to multi-dimensional interactive public domain content.
This kind of content distribution brought about by the combination of public and private domains will theoretically make the answers more accurate and professional, and objectively improve the quality of the content of the question, meeting the needs of users seeking answers for high-quality results. As a result, creators, fans (users) and platforms achieve each other in the process。
Real, more human
I have mentioned that the creation threshold for Ask is lower, and it is also more open than official accounts, video accounts and circles of friends, providing more real emotions and emotional feedback content from ordinary users for WeChat search scenarios, which is an effective supplement to the first two.
This also makes Ask, which extends from meeting users’ long-tail search needs, to become a content product in the WeChat ecosystem that is close to the goal of “a carrier that everyone can create”. These contents often emphasize individual experiences, perceptions, and emotions, and are UGC attributes that provide reference, share experiences, find like-minded people, and have strong interaction.
I have always believed that a platform-based content product can be called a content community if it has elements such as community cultural identity, user interaction and relationship precipitation, content production and incentive mechanism, and service governance capabilities.
The starting point of Ask a Question is not the community, but starting from search, doing Q&A, to planting grass content, based on the original intention of solving the specific needs of users in the search scenario, it has naturally grown a content community.Q Yiqian has shown three differentiating characteristics from similar products in terms of community appearance:Authenticity, interest gathering and rejuvenation.
Take the real as an example, that is, the human touch of the question and answer. This is the most rare point of content products under the impact of AI. Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, its content distortion problem has existed for a long time, and after generative artificial intelligence is widely used in content production, Xiaohongshu’s content distortion problem has become more prominent.
For example, false notes, the actual effect of home and travel content is seriously inconsistent with the publicity, the excessive beautification of pictures in tourist attractions, and the difference between buyer show and seller show caused by filters seriously affect the actual experience of users. The key reason for this is that Xiaohongshu’s commercial atmosphere is too strong, and the drainage or temptation of interests leads to mixed fish.
The content shared by users began to differentiate from vertical categories to interests, and more spontaneous “generating electricity with love” and real creation. Similar to the discussion initiated by Guo Hu as the host: What is the “beloved concubine” you wear on your wrist? As a “match” for a 100,000+ article on “Wenwan Bracelet Hurting Incident”, many fans (readers) were invited to post real bracelets and share their love under the topic.
This sense of realism, or human touch, is also an important driving force for the formation of the atmosphere of the community.
“Ask the host” has been further strengthened in this regard. Under this function, the creator “initiates a discussion”,It is not that the user asks a question and it ends, but that the questioner needs to solve the questions of “who will answer” and “who will discuss” by himself。
“Guo Jing’s Internet Circle” mentioned that in the current situation of AI flying all over the sky, the most important role of an individual is the ability to ask questions, and the WeChat “Ask the Host” function is also “anti-AI” to a certain extent, which not only tests the level and ability of the questioner itself, but also tests the author’s operational ability and community ability. Manually asking questions, others answering manually, and then others manually liking, commenting, and sharing, all of which are “anti-AI”.
In Tang Chen’s view, the starting point of asking the host is not “anti-AI”. Fundamentally, this is a rare community self-reserved land in the WeChat content ecosystem, and the real human touch is also the biggest feature that distinguishes it from similar products. Asking does not exclude the use of AI tools in content creation.
Along this line of thought, you can also make a guess: “Ask the host” function, further highlighting the value extension of the WeChat account system in the form of a community.
Ask a question, there is still a high threshold for interactive participation. Although WeChat has covered almost all Chinese Internet people, the volume of the official account or video account is also large enough, but to become a registered user of the official account and video account, from the process, verification blocking to the product mechanism, will post a number of content production users.
But also because of this threshold, the user accuracy, professionalism and activity of the products under the WeChat account system are unmatched by other products. Coupled with the decline in the open rate of the official account, the launch of the Ask the Host function is also to activate the community ecology on top of the WeChat account system, and to do addition restrainedly.
This also makes it more than Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, Baidu Know/Tieba and other products, to ensure the purity and human touch of the community to the greatest extent. For example, after Zhihu “broke the circle”, the entire content also tended to be generalized, and the traces of AI became increasingly obvious, making it very difficult to find valuable content.
For Ask, the biggest challenge is no longer too deep the entrance, operational restraint or insufficient user popularity, but how to find a balance between the public and private domains, maintain this balance, and cultivate a community ecology of Ask.
Ask the host, it is also a new attempt in this direction. Fundamentally, Ask is not to be another Zhihu or Xiaohongshu, but to provide users with a social and interactive content community, which is more like a product system for public domain traffic, and then effectively connect plug-ins in different regions of the WeChat ecosystem to open up private domain and public domain traffic.
Ask is an important supplement to WeChat search content and serves the WeChat content ecosystem. It has always been a strategic product of the “cultivation system”. This also means that Ask is constantly adjusting its positioning and operation strategy. In the future, there may be new changes in the question, and the tone of its content community will be stronger.
Resources:
The new list, “WeChat “Ask the Host” is fully launched, what is the use for creators? 》
Lei Technology, “WeChat “Ask the Host”, the most innovative retro design”
Tang Chen, “WeChat search “long” out of the content community, the road to ask may be the right one”
