How does an e-commerce app build a “grass-planting” community from 0-1?

For most of the current toC Internet companies, in the second half of 2019, they have been gradually shifting from acquiring customers through public domain traffic to the refined operation and fission of private domain traffic, building a good reputation, and bringing in new customers.

When it comes to refined user operations, some of the methods we can think of is to start from the place closest to the users . The current Internet pattern has been formed. When chatting and communicating with users, most users are immersed in WeChat. The APP is like a shelf full of goods. If we want to make users sticky, the most commonly used methods are social networks + communities + official accounts + mini programs to build a perfect matrix.

Use the APP as a shopping shelf, the community within the APP as a place to interact and retain users, the community as a traffic pool where activities can be notified early, the official account as the first place to promote content, and the mini program as the fastest tool for community ordering in the WeChat ecosystem.

So today Zhiyuan will focus on some methodologies for building communities within APPs.

1. “Discover the crowd and find your position”

Just like the current e-commerce, all are moving towards content e-commerce. For example, live streaming of goods in the community, sharing of short videos, and the community inviting users to write notes are actually nothing more than moving the comments (after receiving the goods) to the community. The difference is that the display form and content production are more refined, which makes it easier for platforms, brands and users to establish opportunities for being recommended.

Discovering people and finding community locations

So when building a community from 0-1, the most important first step is to discover the crowd and find the right positioning. Before doing anything, as the person in charge of community operations, you need to think clearly about the following issues, make a good plan, and then take action. The details are as follows:

1. What is the purpose of building a community?

2. What added value can community building bring to the APP?

3. How many users are there on the platform now?

4. What is the daily active user rate on the current platform?

5. What kind of groups are these users?

6. What is the user’s consumption potential? What's the age range?

Once some basic data and information have been collected, do a good analysis. The next step is to do basic positioning. Do we create this community to guide community users to use the APP frequently to maintain active retention, or do we want to slowly cultivate users' consumption and sharing preferences through this section? In terms of products , what functions do we want to achieve in the early stage? For example: signing in, taking short notes, posting to Moments, collecting likes and comments, etc.

At the operational level, we need to think about the user introduction process, the screening process, and the planning of weekly activities. For example, (check in once a week to get cash), what kind of rewards can be received for posting notes on WeChat Moments for XX consecutive days, the incentives for reviewing high-quality notes and short articles, and the rules and standards for incentives for reviewing high-quality short videos. During the cold start period, you need to consider at least 10 days of operational planning , such as "after crowd screening" , "whether to create a group" , independently operate the community, "10-day community activity schedule" , etc.

2. “Analysis of requirements and initial product model development”

From the operational perspective, we have done the basic planning and the basic product prototypes, so the project team will develop the product. We all think that other people's products are so much better. Zhiyuan believes from project experience that in the early stages of building a community for an APP, we should not focus on the details of a function, but do a good job of top-level design planning . Product planning of the community framework is very important.

When building a community through APP, the most common approach on the market is to open a "community" channel within the APP . In the community, Zhiyuan's previous methodology was to open two channels first, one is: follow, and the other is: discover. Why do this? Here are the reasons:

1. Pay attention

In the early stage, the community product planning of this channel should be done in the form of "master" and "official bacteria" . The display form is similar to the form of WeChat "friend circle dynamics", and the publisher is the "official bacteria" (that is, the official staff account), and the content can be published in the following dimensions:

1. Official News

2. Daily News

3. Event Introduction

4. Main product materials

The functions that can be implemented are: commenting, liking, sharing materials, generating my QR code, saving pictures and texts, that's enough . This can be used to publish (promote XX hot-selling product) , member day activities, or community activities, as well as daily brand reports , brand events, etc., and cooperate with the community to carry out related activities. For example: open the APP, enter the grass-growing community, comment on the first circle of friends (official bacteria), and get free product trials for high-quality content, etc. This can avoid the empty period during the initial cold start-up.

(As shown in the picture)

2. Discovery

This channel will be the main battlefield of the e-commerce APP community in the future. Because content is the future trend for driving goods , all categories must be planned well. However, in the early stage, Zhiyuan believes that it does not need to be divided too detailed, because the product prototype is easy to draw. What needs to be considered is whether there is a large amount of UGC. If not, technology is needed to crawl and do PGC. More content does not mean better. It is recommended to plan 2-3 categories first.

When designing product prototypes and planning secondary categories, you must not forget one thing: the banner. I have seen many products that, during the early stages of product prototype design, simply removed the banner in order to imitate Xiaohongshu or other content communities for the sake of aesthetics. However, you may not have considered that a lot of content can be placed in the banner from 0 to 1.

For example, the early community's new member manual, new member rights, community activities, etc. can all be placed in the banner resource position to cooperate with operations. Don’t ever think about waiting until the product is perfect before cultivating users . If Zhiyuan has taken this path, the market may not give you such an opportunity. The two go hand in hand.

Don't try to make the community product prototype into an information flow like Xiaohongshu in the early stage, and users can just search directly when they come. A new user who doesn't understand the rules on your platform will have a default system rule in his mind, which is the rule of others. After using your product, he feels that the experience is not good, and it does not follow the rules he expected, which will cause a gap and cause loss . Therefore, the rules and gameplay must be well done in the early stage and put in the most conspicuous position to educate users.

After the community prototype is drawn, you can arrange for the UI design to be produced. It is best to design the image style and color values ​​according to the brand color to avoid future style mismatches, visual confusion, and the lack of a core VI system for the brand.

Of course, the above only discusses the framework from the operational level. Regarding topics, likes, comments, note editors, poster generation, topics, personal center planning, etc., these technical aspects will not be separated and shared for the time being, because the technical logic codes involved are not very professional, and we are afraid of misleading readers.

3. “Starting the community and initial operations”

Regarding the team structure in the initial community operation, Zhiyuan suggests that there should be event operation, KOL operation, and designers, and basically everyone has their own responsibilities. Once more channel categories are opened, recruitment can be carried out.

In the early stages, you may need to do a lot of basic work to create a new product. After the product is formed and put on the shelves, the event operator needs to write a community introduction and recruit early "seed users" in the platform's community or official WeChat account. The seed users here tend to be "small B" and "experts". During the recruitment process, remember to let users fill in basic information in the form of golden data or forms.

This will help you understand the user's basic information and portrait , so that you can "prescribe the right medicine" to cultivate them in the later stage . If you want to have a little sense of ceremony, you can also make some "admission notices " and other commendation picture posters. Posters that are not conducive to users spreading pretentiousness are all hooliganism, so these are all within the scope of consideration.

At the beginning of the recruitment, you may need to prepare some content. It is best to form a document reserve and then make a poster, as follows:

1. Introduction to the community

2. Community rules and regulations

3. Recruit KOL KOC introduction

4. Benefits (what benefits does it bring)

5. Future Planning

6. Initial activities

With a clear basic direction, you can start recruiting amateur KOLs or small amateur KOCs. In the early stages of recruitment, you may also need technical support to crawl some (PGC) related content to present it in the category channel, so that the amateur KOLs and amateur KOCs recruited in the early stages will not see that the community has no content and appears empty.

Regarding initial operational activities, Zhiyuan suggested that they should focus more on short content notes, short articles, life, etc., or around the platform's brand attributes that are more compatible with users. For example, Toutiao requires KOLs to produce different content, which may have a broader dimension. Taobao's experts may produce more "product-oriented" content. Of course, there must be a core main direction in the early stage.

Regarding the "topic operation" in the initial operation, this can be done together with the event. After recruiting amateur KOLs, users can participate in the event by using the #xxx# topic during note-taking time. High-quality topics will be rewarded, etc. Topics can be divided into two categories. The first is: vertical product topics, which are topics about a certain product in an event , such as: Adolf, a cow, etc. The second type tends to be thematic: it is done for a certain festival or a certain main event . In this way, there will be more topics in the long run.

4. "User system, platform KOC, KOL cultivation"

The cultivation of platform KOL and KOC can be made into a KOL cultivation plan, which can be cultivated and incubated for a long time. It mainly cooperates with the initial stage of the product to make several sections:

1. Content production (short article) (long article) incentives

2. Tasting experience group (the platform officially recruits KOCs to invite them to experience tasting)

3. VLOGO short video talent incubation

4. Live broadcast incubation

5. Certification system

6. Hierarchy system and top-level design of distribution

Communities and communities are inseparable. WeChat communities can be used as places for chatting and communication, and communities can be used as places for activities. Any community activities can be reached to users through communities.

I believe many of my friends know about content activities . For example, you can support beautiful short articles. According to the content and the combination of pictures, you can select selected authors. The selected authors can serve as the official tasting group. The tasting group mainly focuses on some new products launched on the e-commerce platform. You can invite these more concerned amateur KOCs and KOLs to conduct free tastings. After the tasting, let the users promote the products, write articles, record short videos, etc.

As the names suggest, VLOGO and live streaming select selected users from their own amateur KOCs and platform amateur KOLs, and allow these users to live stream on the platform. High-quality anchors can be given the main homepage, have fans inclined, and participate in offline store visits and other activities.

There are many certification systems on Weibo, Zhihu, Baidu, Toutiao, etc., which can be used as reference. When the number of experts and amateur KOLs on the platform reaches a certain level, when designing products, you can create an expert certification system, professional certification plus V plan, etc. Different product stages and different numbers of users can be met for different needs.

Zhiyuan has an article that breaks down the user levels of the community. Click: Points level system to view it. During product design, when the number of users reaches 100,000 or 200,000, users can be stratified. This is also a form of screening, which divides important KOLs and unimportant KOLs into levels.

5. “Introduction of external KOLs and Internet celebrities”

When the number of users on the platform reaches a certain scale, the underlying infrastructure is well established, and the functions of the community are relatively sound , there is a need to grow again or promote the stickiness of the platform's existing KOLs and KOCs. At this time, KOLs can be introduced from outside. Never introduce them when all the facilities are incomplete, as this will result in serious loss and waste useless money on KOLs.

Internally incubated KOLs are relatively loyal and have a relatively low churn rate. KOLs introduced from outside are mostly in the form of business cooperation or invitations, which can only bring temporary traffic. KOLs invited from outside may require a lot of time to run in and guide KOLs to use the APP. Therefore, for e-commerce communities, incubation is suitable in the early stage and introduction is suitable in the later stage.

The process of introducing external KOLs to the platform is as follows:

1. Community organization setting (media, KOL operation positions)

2. Conduct market research (what types of KOLs are needed, beauty products, skin care, etc.)

3. Find matching KOLs

4. Make a list of KOLs to tap

5. Prepare relevant cooperation plan introduction

6. Contact KOL or agency

7. Business Cooperation

8. Post-operation

In the medium term, when we introduce some KOLs and big Vs to our platform, KOL-related operators should maintain and establish relevant relationships . For example, if there are products that need to be tasted, they can be sent to KOLs for tasting, and they can cooperate with KOLs, requiring KOLs to log in to the APP several times a week and post certain content and how many pieces. In this way, the platform can leverage the momentum to create momentum for its existing KOLs, forming a state of attention for mid-level Internet celebrities, which will increase more activity and sales.

Secondly, you need to learn how to create files for KOLs, with the official database as follows:

1. KOL name

2. Number of KOL followers

3. Which channel does the KOL attribute to?

4. Influence, highlights.

During the establishment process, KOLs need to be graded and divided into stages. Which ones belong to the mid-level KOLs, which ones are of average level, and which ones are of upper-middle level? The platform needs to empower them at different stages. In fact, operating mid-level KOLs means giving KOLs what they want. For example, if they want a stage, you can hold a beauty conference at the end of the year and invite all the KOLs on the platform. If they want to make money, you can motivate them to write articles, take notes, and shoot videos. This is a long-term job.

6. “Empowerment of KOLs”

In order to enable the KOLs invited from outside to have a more effective influence, give full play to their advantages, and drive the amateur KOLs on the existing platforms, they need to be packaged in three parts:

1. Packaging

2. Empowerment

3. Traffic skew

After introducing KOLs, they need to be packaged. For example, you can invite new big Vs to do a live broadcast, or invite them to visit the company and then shoot a VCR blessing video, or you can have an interview with the company's big V. After completing this series of actions, you can also help KOLs with PR public relations, public account content dissemination, Weibo interaction, etc., which are all conducive to leveraging KOLs and introducing your own platform. These are all empowerment areas.

Only by amplifying the value of KOLs and creating resonance with the platform can we retain KOLs introduced from outside. You can’t just operate a KOL or a group of KOLs and ask them to help you shoot a video and write some notes. You need to form a deep relationship and stickiness so that you can retain them.

After all of the above have been done, when everything is ready, he can allocate more resources to these KOLs and let them truly have influence on the platform. In addition to diverting traffic, he can also create KOL hot topics. Only when KOLs have formed influence on the platform can he influence the users of his own platform through the influence of KOLs.

Initial stage of community building:

1. Manage platform C-end users, guide notes, and develop into KOC

2. Introducing KOLs for mid-term business cooperation

3. Introduce big Vs in the middle and late stages

4. Most of the traffic in the later stage, introduce stars

With such a logical operation, on the one hand, it can prevent user loss. For C-end users, they can see that there are many internet celebrities on this e-commerce platform, and it is good to have content recommended by internet celebrities. For internet celebrities, I have gained fans on the platform and can also monetize it.

In the later stage, when small internet celebrities see that many well-known big Vs have also settled in the platform, more UGC will be generated, and the venue will gradually expand. When the number of users reaches a certain scale, the brand's voice will be relatively large relative to the platform's voice, and it will appear "thick", just like Xiaohongshu. At this time, it is obviously particularly easy to invite celebrities to settle in.

7. “Post-operation”

Regarding product development needs, you can also follow the above logic. In the early stage, you can focus on existing C-end users, in the middle and late stages, focus on KOLs, and in the later stages, focus on celebrities and big Vs. When the number of users reaches a certain level, the community’s homepage can use algorithms to distribute notes and create information flows. It’s like when you are browsing Xiaohongshu, it can always recommend content based on your preferences, and when you are browsing Toutiao, it can always recommend content that you are interested in, which is “one face for each person”.

Once the top-level design of the top-level community is completed, operation becomes a long-term job. There are many ways to operate activities. I can share with you some of what I have learned from Weibo:

1. KOL certification, topic traffic tilt (UGC empowerment)

2. Weibo Night, celebrity award ceremony (actually, they are all leveraging to strengthen their own brands)

3. Commercial cooperation (providing resources and information flow to brands)

4. Live broadcast and short video empowerment

5. Xiaohongshu’s KOL visits stores and unlocks new ways to check in

6. Offline cross-flash

7. KOL Awards Ceremony

You may want to think about the above models and see whether most of the current community products are formed by this operational logic and methodology. Everything is changing, but the underlying logic remains unchanged.

Final Thoughts

“Community building is not difficult, but operating KOLs well is more difficult”

That’s all about the top-level model for e-commerce to build a “planting grass” zone in the Discovery Channel. I’ll share it with you. As for the things I haven’t shared, they are just some details. If we " look at the entire product from a bird's-eye view" , you will find that " most of the methodologies are the same, the only difference is the empowerment given to some people at the middle level of KOLs." In an era when branded goods are becoming increasingly homogeneous, China has no shortage of goods. In the future, the most effective way to help users reduce decision-making is through content recommendation. Whichever platform can capture mid-level KOLs and retain them well, I believe that GMV will not be too bad.

Author: Wang Zhiyuan

Source: Wang Zhiyuan (Z201440)