How to profile and expand “seed users”?

This article describes the typical characteristics of seed users , aiming to help everyone learn how to cultivate early seed users for a product and how to communicate with these users.

What I want to share with you in this article is: the portrait and expansion of ideal seed users, that is, what a typical seed user looks like, and what methods we should use to find them and make them our seed users.

First, let me share a point of view with you: when a product is in the seed user stage, feelings are often more important than data. How do you understand this sentence?

Perhaps everyone understands that when we are developing products and operating them , we often need to look at the data and let the data give us the answers, right? This is one of our core principles.

However, at the seed user stage, our absolute number of users cannot be too high. It is very likely that your seed users will only be a few dozen or a few hundred, or at most less than a thousand people. So at this stage, if your user base is so small, the role and significance of the guidance that the data can give you may be relatively small.

Therefore, at the seed user stage, I recommend that you spend a lot of time with your typical users, or even turn yourself into a typical user.

What do your users like? What are they doing? In this case, most of the time it is actually the real feeling you get.

For example: Do you feel close to this group of people? Or do you feel the atmosphere in the entire seed user group is good? How do you feel about the experience and emotional identification of our products among everyone? What is their status and awareness?

I think the above feelings may be more important than data in the seed user stage. So let me share this core idea with you first.

1. Ideal Profile Characteristics of Seed Users

Now let’s take a look at what an ideal seed user, in the most ideal situation, should look like. What characteristics should it have? I think there may be three reasons:

1.1 High fault tolerance, stronger and more urgent demand

High fault tolerance. This is actually in: "Seed User Series (I): The value and necessity of seed users? 》 has also been mentioned.

Our early new products often have many problems, and a lot of product experiences are not perfect, right?

Therefore, what we need more are users with higher fault tolerance, rather than the kind of users who will curse the whole world or uninstall you immediately when they see a bug.

Such users are definitely not the users we needed in the early versions.

So why are such users so fault-tolerant? This is often because the related needs are stronger and more urgent.

For example, when Didi Chuxing launched its first version, there was actually a large number of users who were companies like this. They were probably located in relatively remote areas where there were very few taxis, but their websites were often working overtime at night. So when a product like this appeared that could help them book taxis, their needs were very urgent and strong.

So much so that even if the early versions of Didi had a very bad experience, even if they were terrible, even if many people were scolding them, they didn’t care, because the demand for this product was so strong for them. So this is the first point, the fault tolerance is high, and the demand must be stronger and more urgent.

1.2 Willing to interact and make suggestions

The second is that the best user is relatively active. He is willing to express his opinions, like to make suggestions, is willing to continue to interact with you, and is even willing to operate the product with you.

For early stage products, you need users to help you polish and improve them, right? What if your user is a dull person who basically just uses the product and is not willing to give you a lot of feedback or suggestions after using it? Such a user is actually of limited value to the growth of your early operations and early products.

On the contrary, what we need is someone who is more positive and active, and is very willing to express his opinions, like to give us suggestions, and is willing to continue to interact with us. This is the kind of user we need, so this is the second feature.

1.3 Have a certain influence

So what is the third characteristic? The third characteristic is that it would be best if your seed user has a certain influence in a small circle, or even better if he is an opinion leader in a specific circle. What are the benefits of such a person?

That is, once you make him your early seed user, and you have served him well and made him recognize your product, it is very likely that you can use this person to influence an entire circle.

Because he is the opinion leader in this circle, if he mentions it to everyone in the circle one day, saying that he is using that product recently and finds the experience of this product very good and that he likes this product very much, if he only mentions it once in the circle, this circle may have been infiltrated by you and influenced by you.

Summary : High tolerance for errors, stronger and more urgent demands, willing to express opinions, like to make suggestions, willing to continue to interact with you, and even willing to operate the product with you, influential in a small circle, and even an opinion leader in a specific circle.

This third point is a very ideal feature. Our ideal seed users should meet these three characteristics as much as possible.

2. Several common methods to find seed users

Now that we have talked about several characteristics of ideal seed users, let’s share with you how, if you have already identified who your seed users are, you can find them and influence them so that they are willing to use your products and become your real seed users.

Here are some common postures to share with you:

2.1 Mix with friends offline and build a strong sense of trust (based on people)

The first common approach is to mingle with the offline circle and then build a strong sense of trust with the people in this circle.

It is a people-based method. In other words, in the early days, because my product was not well-known and many aspects of the product were not perfect, it was impossible to attract users directly with this product.

However, I can use myself as a person. I can become friends with you first, and then based on this friendship, for example, I can ask you for a favor or something like that, and let you use my product first. This logic is valid.

For example, when I was starting a business , I was working on a learning product. At that time, I particularly needed a group of people who were very passionate and willing to pursue self-growth, learning, and sharing, and I wanted them to become our seed users.

At that time, basically the first 500 seed users of our product were brought up by my team and I through offline participation in many learning salons and some learning and exchange organizations. The basic logic was that I attended the salons and then communicated with them in the process, and we shared with each other our understanding of things like learning.

If our cognition and understanding are relatively consistent, then we can become better friends. With this foundation of friendship, I can tell them at the right time that we are now making such a product, and whether it is possible to ask them to be a sharer and invite them to use our product. This logic is relatively smooth.

So this is the first common approach: find the gathering place of your target users offline, then mingle in the circle, build a strong sense of trust with them, and then influence them to become your seed users. This is one approach.

2.2 Relying on the output and transmission of values ​​and ideas, they are naturally attracted (based on events)

What is the second most common posture? It is called relying on the output of values ​​and ideas to naturally attract a group of people to become your seed users.

If the previous logic calls it based on people, then this one is based on things.

This logic is based on what we just talked about in the previous part. Some users are willing to use your product because they have urgent needs or they particularly identify with something. So if they use your product based on such needs, they can tolerate even if the product is a little bit bad or the early experiences are a little bit bad.

Therefore, this method requires you to output the concept of your product (why you make this product, what is the motivation behind making this product, what kind of problems you hope to solve, etc.) to the outside world.

2.3 Application of invitation codes, boundary conditions, etc.

The third common method can be understood as an invitation code or setting some boundary conditions.

Simply put, their use is to create a sense of closure and scarcity through invitation codes, convenient conditions and other similar methods. In other words, my early product may not be suitable for everyone to use, so I may need to screen out some more suitable users in some way.

For example, as we mentioned earlier, users are more serious, more motivated, and more willing to interact with us. In fact, this means they have a stronger degree of recognition of this matter.

If you are familiar with the Internet industry, you will find that the invitation code mechanism is often used in the early development stages of a large number of products. For example, Zhihu and Sina Weibo actually used invitation codes in the early days. The current PMCFF community still uses a similar invitation code mechanism to select a group of our seed users.

It not only allows for filtering but also creates a sense of “scarcity”, allowing users to be more proactive in participating in and being attracted to the product.

At the same time, these boundary conditions can also be extended in many ways. For example, when posting in the Hupu community, everyone must complete a series of tasks or answer tests, and only if they pass can they continue to participate.

2.4 Long-term cultivation of social media, communities, forums, etc., and targeted poaching

What is the fourth common posture? It can be understood that it means long-term cultivation in places like social media and communities, and then after discovering the target users, you can poach them in a targeted manner.

Because many of our Internet products are based online, so for online products, you actually need to be more active online, have a stronger presence, and then be more influential in small circles.

Such people are often online. For example, Weibo, Zhihu community, or WeChat public accounts , when there are such a group of people paying attention to them, you can communicate with them in a gradual manner, slowly establish some relationships, and then "recruit" them in a targeted manner. To put it more nicely, invite them to come and become your seed users.

This can also be understood as the "leek-cutting theory" in operations.

So what’s so special about this? Be especially particular about your communication style.

Let me give you an example: a friend once sent me an invitation to use their product and become one of their first users. In fact, I have received many invitations like his, and some of them were very rude.

For example, we are going to launch a product now, and I invite you to use it, and then attach a link. (But if my time is relatively scarce, I would basically ignore this kind of message); but the message sent to me by the friend I just mentioned successfully caught my attention at the time, and I did read every word he wrote to me carefully.

Because he came up to me and said, XXX, and he really liked my writing or it was comfortable to talk to me, and then he told me that he had a question to ask me, and then he told me the question was such and such (roughly saying that he wanted to make a product, but it was rather difficult to invite a lot of big names with sharing abilities). Then he wanted to ask me how he could invite people like me and become their first users? And introduce to me what the specific products do, their philosophy, etc.

Frankly speaking, his statement and attitude really touched me, and I was willing to become a seed user and contribute value. You can savor the logic here carefully.

Therefore, if you want to invite a lot of users online, you have to consider that online is not like offline where there are plenty of opportunities to get to know each other, interact and become friends, because the space for online interaction is limited.

Therefore, when introducing products or inviting users online, these aspects are actually very important. You must make the other party fully feel your sincerity, and clearly and simply convey to the other party the values ​​​​and concepts behind what you are doing.

If you succeed in doing these and the other party also recognizes your ideas and your products, he or she will be willing to help you.

So this is the fourth more common one.

So far, this is the content of the second series of seed users. The content explains the typical characteristics of seed users and how we can find these seed users, influence them, and make them willing to use our products. I hope this content can help you get some inspiration on how to be a seed user. Thank you.

Source: Fengcheng Kuangke