On March 26, 2020, I was invited to participate in an online sharing event organized by XChange in collaboration with National Chengchi University's recruitment month, where I shared alongside data analyst David. My main topic was "copywriting skills."
I'm grateful to XChange for organizing this event and giving me the opportunity to share at National Chengchi University's recruitment month. Years ago, I wanted to get into the Graduate Institute of Journalism at National Chengchi University but didn't make it. To have this opportunity to share many years later is like fulfilling that dream in another way!
That day's sharing was conducted via online video conference, and I really felt that today's students are fortunate—they have access to so many resources and many senior alumni who can help answer their questions.
I'm Karen, Brand Marketing Group Manager at XChange, and my full-time job is as a news journalist. I've worked in both traditional and new media, so I can be described as a cross-media professional.
During my presentation, I emphasized the cultivation of copywriting skills. Many people think journalists and copywriters are unrelated, viewing copywriting as more commercial. But in reality, different journalists can bring different perspectives to their own specializations.
While I wouldn't claim to be extremely professional, after accumulating five years of cross-platform writing experience in online, television, and self-media, I believe that before discussing copywriting skills, we must first return to "the ability of social insight." Based on this premise, my advice to students was to "break out of your echo chamber"—don't live only within your circle of friends and your own world.
I conducted a test during the session, asking them whether they'd prefer to read news about "Liu Zhen" or "Wuhan pneumonia." Most students chose the latter, but when I revealed the answer, the majority of people online actually preferred news about Liu Zhen. Although it was a simple test, I used it to remind students, especially those at top universities, to understand the opposite perspective. Understanding doesn't mean agreement; rather, it's about accumulating more diverse viewpoints and angles, establishing a ruler to measure your own values.
Only after that did I discuss the accumulation of copywriting skills. I divided writing into three main purposes:
- Traffic
- Quality
- Creating Buzz
Of course, there are many other dimensions, but these are the three I focused on in this presentation. In the industry or when managing personal media, you can't escape these three aspects.
The Balance Between Journalistic Professionalism and Traffic and Quality
The following mainly addresses the industry perspective. I believe you can insist on a principle like "I don't want to copy articles from PTT, Dcard, or expose communities," but then you also need to have the ability to meet KPIs. Since online media monetize through traffic, without traffic, how can you monetize? How can you support employees or develop your business?
Secondly, there's quality. While pursuing traffic, the most important thing is maintaining quality. Quality doesn't just mean correct grammar; it means having unique perspectives, being able to catch others' attention, and finding angles different from what everyone else is doing in a sea of identical information. That's what makes media interesting. You can immediately know how well you're performing today and right now. You can learn from competitors, accumulate different perspectives, and adjust immediately. I really can't stand waiting a week or a month for a report to get feedback on my own work.
Finally, there's creating buzz. This is what gives me the most sense of accomplishment—finding something and exposing it, which triggers others to follow, doing things that are ahead of the curve.
These three points aren't just applicable to media. I believe that in the process of pursuing goals, the more important learning is how to maintain a flexible, open mindset, observe culture and trends, thereby improving your own abilities, and simultaneously use the workplace to verify what you've learned, accumulating unique experiences. When you learn, improve, test, and adjust your steps day and night without stopping,
one day, your definition and judgment of this world will no longer be A or B, but AxB=C+D+E.
Life is not a multiple-choice question, and certainly not a one-way street. Mutual multiplication creates leverage.
