Experience | How to do user operations well

Operations is actually a very profound subject, just like deploying troops. Do not stick to the rules. Only by being flexible and responsive, and knowing both yourself and the enemy, can you win every battle. Maybe everyone understands many principles, but if you don’t do them, they are equal to zero. Only through actual practice can they truly enter your stomach. The key to operation lies in details. The more details, the easier it is to ignore. The simpler the problem, the less likely it is to be done well. The more repetitive the task, the less likely we will think deeply about it. This is the difference between operations.

User operation is the most important and difficult part of operation work. Users are the most valuable resource of the community. The importance of user resources will be reflected in many aspects, which is the so-called user operation.

The basic logic of user operation is very simple, that is, first analyze the attributes and characteristics of the people in your community, establish a "pyramid" structure of users, and then subdivide each link into "pyramids", find different breakthrough points for each point, and find the same and different operation strategies and solutions.

This article only represents one person's opinion. Different people have different understandings. It does not mean that what I say is necessarily correct. As I said before, I just hope to give everyone some inspiration and help.

Common mistakes: First-class users, users who always stay in this community

Understanding of categories: This is a mistake that many operators tend to make after entering the community. Remember, the best users are never waiting to be found. The basic strategy for user operation can actually be summed up in seven words: maintain on-site and search outside the site. Many people have been doing the first four words. This principle is actually just like raising fish. What we need to do is to be a fisherman, not an angler. The fisherman knows which types of fish are suitable for raising in this pond, and he also knows to put new fish fry in there from time to time. Fishermen will only make the fish in this pond less and less.

The user maintenance strategy can also be summed up in seven words: cast a wide net and focus on training, which is similar to the logic of finding a partner. The best users are always the ones you cultivate with care. It's definitely not something you can wait for. Why? The reason is simple, because your community is not Facebook or QQzone, and there are no users that you can always find. Even if there are, the user data analysis background alone cannot help you solve all problems.

Work hard and be a caring fisherman!

Common Mistakes: Ignoring the Important Nighttime Hour

Lei Lei’s understanding: Many people focus their energy on user operations during the day and often ignore the important time period at night. Daytime is important and should be used well. You must know that user work is very tiring. If you want to do a good job in user operations, especially in the early stages of your work, you must spend a lot of time accumulating enough and good users. It will not work if you are lazy.

The benefit of user operation is that as long as you pay enough attention to it, it will become more and more popular and the easier it will be for you.

Why should we make good use of the time at night as well? The reason is simple. Just think about the types of people who might visit your website during the day and you will understand. During the day you are at work, and most people are also at work. Is it possible for users who are deep, layered, thoughtful, cultured, and profound to have so much time to spend on your website every day in broad daylight? What’s more, “bad money will drive out good money”!

Try hard at night too. But take care of your body!

Common Mistakes: Treating Users Roughly

Class’s understanding: A community is actually a society. Since it is a society, there are bound to be good and bad people mixed together. Then you also understand the principle that "when the water is too clear, there will be no fish." Don't expect your community to be full of good or great people, because that is absolutely impossible. Don't underestimate users. They are real people in real life, and those who visit your website are basically not fools. Many people may be at a much higher level than you. I have met many users on Mop who are company bosses, directors, and even senior executives of foreign companies with annual salaries of several million US dollars. Many users are graduate students, teachers, and many elites from all walks of life.

However, in the community, you may never know their true identity, and they may not tell you. Many people often cannot find a sense of existence in the real world, but can find their true self in virtual communities.

If you are rude to a user without giving him a reasonable explanation, you will definitely lose not just him, but several people or a group. So you have to consider the consequences.

Any user details outside of community rules must be handled with caution. Users are never wrong. They are partners in helping you build a good community. What reasons and qualifications do you have to make users feel that you are superior?

Common Mistakes [4] Over-reliance on QQ when communicating with users

Class understanding: QQ is basically the most commonly used tool for direct communication with users, but don't rely on it too much. As we all know, Chinese characters are profound and extensive. When you say a sentence, the other party may understand your tone completely opposite. There are also some people who often fail to grasp the main point when chatting with users and talk in a long-winded manner.

When communicating with users, you must understand what your purpose is. Help him solve the problem? Cultivate feelings? Discuss something with him?

What's more, many people are brought in by the users, and you actually become the one chatting with them. Sometimes you even chat with great interest, and this is during working hours!

There are 8 hours in a day. Think about how much effective time you have. You waste a lot of time like this.

There is another situation. Sometimes things can’t be explained clearly on QQ and the other party is anxious. Wouldn’t you give him a phone call?

Know how to use time effectively and flexibly to help users solve problems.

Mistake #5: Trying to reconcile conflicts between two user groups

Class-like understanding: Please note that we are not talking about two users, but two user groups, that is, two groups of people fighting each other. I have made this mistake more than once, so it's a lesson I learned. We often don't want to lose any user, let alone a group of people, so we will try to mediate between the two sides. You have to know that even if you say only nice things from the bottom of your heart and you are really doing it for their own good, the other party will think that you are biased towards them. What's more, there are always traitors and troublemakers in the user group. The end result is that both groups of people tend to leave your community.

Handle it according to the community rules, and any party who violates it must be punished. Of course, we must try our best to ensure fairness. Don't let your emotions get the better of you.

Common Mistakes [Six] Throwing Your Own Work to the User

Understanding of categories: First, let me introduce the basic model of the user pyramid of the community, and you will understand

Users can help us do a lot of things, and we must be grateful to them. But it does not mean that everything can be left to the users.

The user model influences each other from top to bottom, level by level. At the top are our operations staff (it doesn’t mean you can be superior. I have never told users “I am a senior executive of Mop”).

The user model tells us that you are like a general, "If the soldiers are incompetent, the generals will be incompetent as well." If you don't fully understand the job, do it proficiently and reach a level where you can be a mentor, and you don't even know where the problems others have, you will just hand it over to the users. Think about what the consequences will be! These jobs actually belong to you because you are not skilled enough.

If your abilities are not good enough, the quality of the users you maintain will be very poor. The whole circle is not any better.

Don’t make excuses for your laziness. If you want to be strong, you must first become strong and build yourself into an excellent operator before you can bring out the best users. For user operation work, my personal suggestion is to practice more by yourself in the early stage, work with users in the middle stage, and then hand it over to users in the later stage.

I bring up this topic to tell my operations workers that they must clearly distinguish which tasks can be done by users. This means that the number of things you can assign to users is limited, and you need to know how to control it.

That’s all I have to say for now. I hope we can communicate more in the future. In short, I hope everyone can value users, treat users well, and be a caring person. I wish you all good luck in your work!