How to operate a community?

I saw a joke on WeChat Moments some time ago: "If you don't have a high enough perspective, you will only see difficulties; if your vision is too narrow, you will only worry about trivial matters."

Why is community operation so difficult? Maybe it's really not high enough. Many times, what confuses us is not the difficulties in front of us, but the fact that we don’t know where the future lies.

Most community leaders have never thought about why they bring people together. What are your expectations for the community? Do you want your business, your life, or your being to be different? How to meet everyone’s different demands?

The first principle of community economy is community

When "Silicon Valley Iron Man" Musk was giving a TED speech, the host asked him why he was able to succeed in different fields? He thought about it and said, maybe I have mastered the first principles?

What are first principles? The first principle first came from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said:

“There are first principles in every systematic exploration. First principles are basic propositions and assumptions that cannot be omitted, deleted, or violated.”

Back to Musk, what does he think of the first principles? He had this to say:

"It's important that we think from first principles, rather than comparative thinking. In life, we tend to compare, and do what others have done or are doing, which results in only small iterative developments. First principles thinking is to look at the world from a physics perspective, that is, to peel back the surface layer by layer to see the essence inside, and then work up from the essence layer by layer."

This is the first principle in his eyes.

Community (Community), the root word (common) means common, and it is obvious that the community naturally has the gene of community. What is a community? The revolutionary mentor Marx believed that human society has been organized in the form of a community from the very beginning. Human community life has evolved from the group life of animals, but is far superior to the group life of animals.

The earliest explanation of community can be traced back to Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. Aristotle believed that:

"Humans are city-state animals. Their survival must depend on the city-state. The city-state is a community with the ultimate good as its goal, which allows human excellence/virtue to be truly and fully demonstrated. In the purely biological sense, there is no difference between humans and animals. Only by joining the city-state community can humans cooperate with each other to achieve the ultimate good. Otherwise, if they leave the city-state, they will be either gods or beasts."

In "Community and Society", one of the classic works of Western sociology published in 1887, the author, German sociologist Tönnies, used "community" to refer to a close, exclusive social connection or common lifestyle based on natural emotional consistency. This kind of social connection or common lifestyle creates a living community with close relationships, mutual assistance, and humaneness.

The community grows naturally mainly based on blood ties, emotions and ethical solidarity. Some sociologists define community as groups, organizations and teams that live together for a specific purpose.

At present, the core root of the various problems encountered in community operations is that the community is not constructed from the dimension of community. The foundation of a community is a group of like-minded people, not a mob. Only like-minded people can resonate with each other and the synergistic network effect of the community can be brought into play.

A butterfly in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon River in South America, occasionally flapping its wings, may cause a tornado in Texas, USA two weeks later. What would happen if hundreds of people performed the same action together? Imagine the magnificence of the scene when millions of Muslim pilgrims gather to worship at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

How to move from a mob to unity?

How to form a community? At different levels of business, community manifests itself as community of interests, community of cause, and community of spirit.

The revolutionary mentor Marx said:

"Everything people fight for is related to their interests."

How are the benefits reflected for the community? The currently popular community group buying is a good example of the thinking of a community of interests. Members are very active in promoting the platform even without receiving any salary, and forward information about various products in their Moments and WeChat groups. Because they get a commission for every transaction.

The sustainable development of the community requires the comprehensive introduction of a membership management system. Different levels should be designed based on the different value contributions of members, with corresponding rewards and permissions, and individual contribution rankings should be announced regularly in the group.

Taobao’s advertising slogan is “Save money by using it yourself, make money by sharing”. As long as you become a VIP member of Taobao, you can share all the promotional information on the platform. It means that you don’t need to purchase goods or open a store to sell goods, and you don’t have to worry about logistics and warehousing. Everything is completed in the online WeChat group, and order collection is automatically transmitted to the backend, which is responsible for shipping and delivery.

For the platform, it is equivalent to converting every member into a promoter. There is no need to pay wages, and commissions are returned based on orders. This not only locks in users, but also the circle of friends behind the users.

In the past, there were only transactions between traditional e-commerce platforms and members. Taobao would not give you a few hundred yuan back just because you bought goods worth 10,000 yuan or recommended them to three friends to buy. But what will a member of a traditional e-commerce platform think when she finds out that her friends not only save money but also make money by buying goods on other e-commerce platforms? If she buys products from you but doesn’t get any benefits, can she still stay on your platform unwaveringly?

Why can Pinduoduo, Daily One Tao and other e-commerce companies still carve out a niche in the e-commerce industry which is almost monopolized by Tmall and JD.com? This is because they make great use of the power of social networking to mobilize members' circles of friends and fully tap their potential.

For many people, it is not difficult to gather hundreds or thousands of people into a WeChat group. The difficult part is how to operate it after they are together and how to get a group of people to worry about one thing. Imagine if you had a community with 90 million members, how would you run it?

In a sense, political parties are also a kind of community. For a community, what is the so-called "critical minority"? The core seed users. A reporter interviewed Xiaomi partner Li Wanqiang, "What is the secret of Xiaomi's success?"

Li Wanqiang replied: "First, the sense of participation, second, the sense of participation, and third, the sense of participation." Where does the sense of participation come from? Lei Jun said: "Xiaomi exists because of Mi fans". No matter how large the Mi fan army is today, it is inseparable from the first 100 "critical few" who are called angel users by Lei Jun. It is precisely because of the community compound interest effect that Mi Nian’s number has snowballed from a hundred people to tens of millions today.

What inspiration does this provide for community operations?

There are at least two inspirations. The first is the selection of scenes. When we are in "The Road to Revival", facing the scenes of countless martyrs who went forward one after another for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the new China that was exchanged for their lives and blood, as the sons and daughters of China, our hearts are surging and a sense of mission arises spontaneously.

This is the role of the scene, which can be simply stated as: what will people do at what time, in what occasion, and under what circumstances? Where is your community scene? How do users feel?

Why does a person want to join a community? On the surface, it seems to be driven by loneliness, but in essence it is a search for a sense of existence, happiness and superiority. Communities need scenes to declare to the outside world that "we are different." How to prove that you are different?

The scenario for Xiaomi mobile phones is running points, which highlight the superior performance of Xiaomi mobile phones. Later, it was evolved by the liquor community into a product tasting meeting, such as pulling the wine line, observing the wine foam and so on. For a tea lover, the scenario of small can tea is how to carry it conveniently while on business trips or traveling and keep it fresh without getting piled up.

These products highlight their unique advantages by redesigning specific scenarios, thereby occupying the user's cognition, so that when the user enters the scene, the first thing that comes to mind is the product. For example, if you are afraid of getting a sore throat, you think of Wanglaoji instead of chrysanthemum tea; if you feel sleepy or tired, you think of Red Bull instead of Nestle coffee.

Second, what is everyone’s “community dream”?

What value does the existence of a community have for individuals? Whether it is rallying people's hearts or operating and maintaining, it must rely on a common community goal.

Why should we contribute to the community? On the one hand, it is based on common spiritual pursuits, and on the other hand, the community should empower individuals. How does the community empower individuals? Is it to meet more outstanding people, learn more knowledge, or be proud of joining the community?

Community model canvas: IP+community+scenario+crowdfunding+sharing economy

In recent years, the Gobi Hiking Challenge has become very popular among business elites, which involves hiking across 108 kilometers of the desert in 4 days and 3 nights.

What force made this group of people who care most about time and are the busiest to take out four days from their busy schedules to gather together from all over the world and cross the vast and uninhabited Gobi Desert, and complete the race even at the risk of heat stroke, fractures, shock, etc. Many people come to walk in the Gobi Desert every year like they are addicted. I think the most important reason besides the Gobi Desert is that there is a group of like-minded people waiting for you there.

The qualifications for participating in the Gobi Hiking event are very special. The registration fee must be paid through crowdfunding. Each participant must initiate crowdfunding on the designated website. The registration fee of 12,800 yuan can only be raised by friends around you. Only if the crowdfunding is successful can you obtain the qualification to participate.

People who have walked through the Gobi Desert have an affectionate nickname: "Gobi Friends". In Baidu Encyclopedia, "Gobi Friends" refers to the group of people who walk in the Gobi Desert. Walking in the Gobi Desert has become a way of life for them. Many people feel honored to have the identity label of "Goyou". Over the past decade, tens of thousands of business elites, including entrepreneurs such as Liu Chuanzhi and Wang Shi, have set foot on the Gobi Desert. They call each other "Gobi friends", forming a very unique new community.

No matter who you are or what your background is, as long as you walk through the Gobi Desert, you will have an instinctive sympathy for each other. This is a tacit understanding that "we are all people who have fallen into this world, so why should we have known each other before we met?" In the name of the Gobi Desert, you can hone your will, feel the inner strength that is inherently sufficient, and inspire fellow Gobi travelers to explore higher life goals.

The reason why Gobi hiking is so popular is that, on the one hand, the project's circle positioning coincides with the spiritual demand of the middle class to regain their true self. Secondly, the planning and design of the entire project scene content is inseparable from the creation of the IP community.

First of all, the participants who can complete 12,800 yuan in crowdfunding have their own traffic and are super connectors in the social circle. Bringing together such a group of people with IP potential is of great value in itself.

The teammates who trekked through the harsh environment of the Gobi Desert with strong winds and scorching sun had only one goal: to keep going. They believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who have walked through the Gobi Desert and those who have not. Although it is a joke, hiking in the desert has indeed become a "code" for identifying a certain elite circle.

The same hobbies, the same experiences, the same cognition, and especially the brotherhood and sisterhood formed by supporting each other in the face of wind, sand and pain. Even after leaving the Gobi Desert, many Gobi friends still miss each other and have formed Gobi Friends Associations and spontaneously established Gobi Friends Foundations to participate in social welfare activities. Crowdfunding acts as a lever to leverage the hundreds of acquaintances and friends behind each participant. During the entire event, every share and forwarding by a participant indirectly affects hundreds of thousands or even millions of friends behind them.

Looking at the entire event, it is not difficult to find the business logic behind Gobi hiking: IP+community+scene+crowdfunding+sharing economy. What lessons can other community founders learn from this?

First, determine the target population, recruit influential and appealing community partners from the target population, then determine the application scenarios of the product, and finally link the IPs (opinion leaders, product experts) in the target population and super users to jointly form a community to influence more potential target users.

What is IP? Simply put, they are influential people, things and events. For example, Luo Pang is a knowledge IP, the World Cup is an event IP, and Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse are brand IPs.

You don’t need many IPs, but they must be accurate and influential. Many IPs mobilized when communities are launched are grassroots opinion leaders. IP has strong value labels and content output capabilities and comes with its own traffic. The main function of IP is to occupy the user's cognitive high ground.

People's cognitive space for a category can accommodate up to seven brands. Obviously, once potential users' cognition is captured by competitors, it will cost a higher price to convert them. Data shows that it will cost at least 10 times the price to win them back.

The scenes in the community are used to enhance the experience, tap into users' diverse and personalized needs, and create opportunities for cross-border monetization of the community. The community is a catalyst that catalyzes the formation of strong relationships between companies and users, and between users, from weak relationships to strong relationships, from consumers to users, from users to members, from members to fans, from fans to employees, and from employees to partners. When all members become partners and worry about the development of the business like partners, product problems, sales problems and growth problems will no longer exist.

All this is not a fantasy. Decades ago, Drucker, the father of management, proposed that "everyone is a CEO". Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin also spared no effort to promote "everyone is a CEO" many years ago.

The sharing economy in the community mainly solves the problems of community commercialization and sustainable development. In the community system, users are not only members, but also important distribution channels.

The sharing model can not only convert users from one-time transactions to continuous transactions, but also bring in more new users through word-of-mouth fission. The community will eventually become a platform, and only a community platform can provide a one-stop system solution for members' lifestyles.

Source: Lu Yan