How to improve product user activity and retention through UGC design?

This article will start with five discussion points and talk about how TO C products can improve product user activity and retention through the design of UGC modules?

On September 20, Meitu completed its community-based redesign, placing the community directly on the homepage to encourage users to shift from tool consumption to content consumption. According to public operational data, the activity of the new version of Meitu's social module has increased by more than 10 times compared with July; the core users of the community use the community for an average of 25 minutes a day, browse 75 pictures, and open the community more than 8 times.

On December 14, Ctrip App announced the launch of a new feature: travel photography, which was placed on the middle tab. Users can collect UGC information such as text, photos, and videos during their travels. This is considered to be a move by Ctrip to achieve content + transaction, and is also expected to boost user activity and stickiness.

Left: Meitu Right: Ctrip

Products with billions of traffic, such as Meitu and Ctrip, are facing user loss and sluggish growth, and are trying to retain users with UGC + light social networking. UGC has apparently become a common way for products to increase user activity and stickiness.

When many people mention UGC, they immediately think of community, and the way to do UGC is to add a community module to the product. The main way of content production in the community is UGC, but UGC is not necessarily equal to community.

A common mistake made by many TO C products is to create UGC in order to increase user stickiness, or simply add a community tab to the product. This time, I would like to start with 5 discussion points and 3 cases to talk about how TO C products can improve product user activity and retention through the design of UGC modules?

1. UGC Type

• According to the complexity of function types from light to heavy: comments, dynamics, topics, Q&A, community;
• According to the content carrier/production cost from low to high: text, pictures, music, short video, vlog, live broadcast.

Of course, in actual operations, there may be variations in UGC types. For example, comments can be transformed into various display forms such as product evaluation, video barrage, and reply posts. The specific one to be adopted depends on the product business. UGC in a broad sense actually includes all content that users create or participate in creating.

2. The value of UGC in promoting activation and retention

【For content producers】

Promote activity : Improve user activity through instant feedback (likes, comments, questions, answers, attention, featured, rewards)

Retention : Help "create user value" and improve user retention through the superposition of user content payment and sunk costs;

Think about it, if you have published a large amount of content in a certain product and accumulated some attention; and these contents continue to get traffic exposure and get feedback from others, for you, the migration cost will be relatively high, so you can get a relatively high retention.

【For content consumers】

Activation promotion : Follow, subscribe, and interact with KOLs and high-quality content producers to keep these users active.

Retention : UGC content based on the core scenarios of the product can provide more value to users, thereby retaining users with relevant usage behaviors (reading, collecting, sharing, etc.); in particular, compared with PGC, UGC can be said to be a low-cost and more efficient way of content production.

【From the perspective of quantifiable data】

Key indicators to focus on : overall activity contributed by the UGC module, daily active share, retention rate and activity level of different types of users; consumption rate of UGC content, interaction rate between users, attention rate, etc.

Based on past experience: the retention rate of users who have produced UGC is significantly higher than the retention rate of users who have interacted with UGC. The retention rate of users who have consumed UGC is significantly higher than the average retention rate of daily active users. The overlap between daily active users (taking information products as an example, users who log in 3-4 times a week on average) and UGC users is relatively high.

3. Scope of application of UGC

Not all products are suitable for UGC. It has certain applicable conditions and none of them can be missing. On the other hand, if any of the inapplicable conditions is met, it will be difficult to do a good job of UGC.

[Applicable conditions]

(1) The product has a sharing scenario : that is, after users have completed using the product, they can have ready-made UGC materials, or their inner motivation to share can be easily triggered, which can greatly lower the threshold for UGC.

For example, the fitness community of Keep has low operating costs for daily check-ins and sharing of fitness progress. Another example is content-based products (i.e., the core demand of users using the product is to consume content). Content provides a natural UGC scenario, such as NetEase News’ comments based on news information, WeChat Reading’s comments and ratings based on books, and notes sharing based on courses.

Content-based products have natural UGC scenarios

(2) There are typical active UGC users : This determines whether there are stable content producers. For example, fans have a strong motivation to form a group to chase stars, so Weibo's daily activity is now driven by celebrity gossip. The three major long video websites have also launched fan communities, such as iQiyi Bubble Community, Tencent Video Doki, and Youku Planet; Douban focuses on literary youths who read books, movies, and music; and Taobao Live's merchant groups are all stable and active UGC users;

Whether you are a typical UGC user, Clay Shirky’s book “Cognitive Surplus” has a good condition for judging: knowledge + free time + desire to share are the basic components of cognitive surplus.

(3) UGC can match the core needs of the product : UGC is built on the core usage path of the product, which can add points to the user's usage experience, thus ensuring that the UGC content has a stable content consumer; for example, e-commerce product reviews, Taobao's Q&A and buyer shows, Xiaohongshu's note sharing, etc., because of the authenticity of UGC, it is more trustworthy than product details and can be used as a reference for user consumption decisions.

[Exclusions]

(1) The product usage scenario is single, and users have no UGC needs or habits : This is often seen in products with strong tool attributes. If tool products force UGC, users will be disgusted and the products will most likely be useless. As users, we feel the same way. For example, Alipay, as a payment tool, how to do social networking and community, users just don't buy it;

(2) User positioning does not meet UGC conditions : For example, entrepreneurs. 36Kr previously had an Arctic Community, which was positioned as a gathering place for entrepreneurs to discover, share and communicate. Later, it died, mainly because it was inactive. When we look at the three conditions of cognitive surplus, entrepreneurs have knowledge, but they generally don’t have time and may not be willing to share. High-quality private communities may meet their needs. Another example is some elderly people’s sharing communities, the same is true;

(3) Users have high requirements for content professionalism, and PGC is more capable of meeting these requirements : For example, financial products, such as Ant Financial and Snowball, have their own communities, but their content mainly comes from contracted financial experts.

The above is an analysis of the applicable conditions of UGC, which can be used as a basis for judgment before starting UGC.

4. UGC types suitable for different products

Combining some of the examples given above, we can also see that different products are suitable for different UGC types.

• Social products : community. As a side note, there is actually no clear boundary between social networking and community. There is often a community in social products, such as WeChat’s Moments. The core of social interaction is to grasp the scene, and content is the interactive scene. For example, multiple people commented on/liked an article or a sentence within an article, creating a resonance of ideas and interaction.
• Tool products : Q&A. For example, Maoyan Movie is actually a ticket purchasing tool, but based on the users’ need to interpret and share movies, it has added the functions of writing movie reviews and Q&A.
• E-commerce products : review and evaluation, Q&A. E-commerce products are actually very broad, including both physical goods and virtual items, such as online education, knowledge payment, and event tickets. (It should be noted here that the core purpose of UGC for e-commerce products may be to bring transactions, that is, content e-commerce, and promoting activation and retention may exist as a secondary goal)
• Content products (information, video, music) : ALL. As mentioned earlier, content is a natural UGC scenario.

5. Key UGC product design and operation methods

Screenshot of TuChong push

This was my first time registering on the TuChong app. I posted three pictures I took on it, and then pop-up messages kept reminding me that my works were liked, commented on, and followed. I guess it gives newcomers more exposure opportunities. This caused me to open Tuchong frequently within a day and remain active for a week. This reflects the product's strategy of incentivizing new employees.

Key product design and operation methods

This picture can intuitively show the core business logic of UGC. For UGC, the first two indispensable roles are: content producers and content consumers. In the middle is content distribution that relies on product mechanisms.

Products : A good content distribution mechanism allows content to flow freely between producers and consumers; provides light social interaction functions (repost, comment, like, and follow), matches instant feedback, and forms a closed loop; creates more scenarios to promote UGC (topics, Q&A, activity templates); and provides incentives for new users.

The importance of the distribution mechanism is particularly worth discussing. Many products are reluctant to do UGC because they are worried that UGC will destroy the existing content tone and cause bad money to drive out good money, such as Zhihu, which has been criticized recently. This problem actually seems to be able to be solved through perfect review and distribution. The review eliminates low-quality content, and only qualified content can be displayed.

At the same time, the explicit content displayed to most people is determined by the distribution mechanism. As long as the content distributed is good, there is no need to worry too much about the tone. Distribution includes algorithmic distribution and social distribution. Social distribution is based on relationship chains, while algorithmic distribution is much more complicated and includes more dimensions.

Operation : The periphery is the operation mechanism, which mainly uses human intervention to promote content production and consumption, making the entire UGC operation ecosystem healthier and more sustainable. It includes topics and activity operations to cultivate UGC habits; user stratification operations, matching different incentive measures; amplifying the value of UGC; selecting UGC to create special content columns; off-site channel distribution; understanding users, knowing their fundamental demands, and promoting product iteration and updates.

VII. Case

Here are three typical examples: the music software NetEase Cloud Music, the idle trading app Xianyu, and the fitness social application Keep.

These three products are also involved in UGC for different purposes, some of which are to increase user activity and retention, and some of which are to achieve revenue conversion and build product competitive advantages. Each has its own experience that can be learned from, but also exposes some problems.

1. NetEase Cloud Music

【Positioning】Music social application;

[Purpose] In the context of a late start (launched in 2013), a crowded industry, and a lack of capital and copyright, we want to differentiate ourselves from other competing music software, increase user stickiness, and attract users accurately;

【UGC function】Music reviews, playlists, and friends’ updates;

Thinking process: ①Is UGC applicable? Content-based products have natural UGC scenarios. Every song on NetEase Cloud Music is a topic. Users want to share and communicate when listening to songs. There are already a large number of music review UGC on social platforms. ② Applicable UGC types include music reviews. At the same time, friends often share music with each other, so there can be personalized playlists and dynamics, and certain social relationships can be established through address book contacts, Weibo friends, and nearby people.

【Operation】KOL sharing playlists; supporting content creation; certification privilege system; topic operation; subway lyrics marketing;

Online music industry traffic data analysis

[Feedback] With its unique "nostalgic" and "nostalgic" commentary style, NetEase Cloud Music has broken out of the industry's red ocean and successfully escaped from AT's music copyright squeeze; as of December 2018, it has accumulated 600 million registered users and more than 100 million monthly active users, and has long occupied the first place on the App Store's free music list. At the same time, according to the Xianyu and Zhuanzhuan traffic data analysis provided by Quest Mobile (July 2018), NetEase Cloud Music's 7-day retention rate is higher than that of Tencent Music, its average monthly usage is second only to Kuwo, and its uninstall rate is also the highest, indicating that user characteristics are very concentrated, and those who remain are loyal users.

2. Xianyu

【Positioning】C2C idle trading community;

[Purpose] Idle transactions are relatively infrequent, and we hope to increase user activity and retention; there is information asymmetry in second-hand commodity transactions, and the trust between users is not high, so relationships need to be built;

【UGC function】Baby message; LBS & interest pond, and matching functions such as publishing content, topics, Q&A, group chat, etc.

*Note: Publishing products is a form of UGC in itself, but pure products lead to a too strong product transaction atmosphere. Now we need to explore more content scenarios to allow users to "browse".

Thinking process: ①Is UGC applicable? Sellers want to speed up the sale of goods, and buyers want to buy cheap and reliable goods. There is a demand scenario for production and consumption of content in between. Individual sellers are typical active UGC users because they are driven by income. If compared with e-commerce products, Taobao's UGC has achieved initial results. ② Applicable UGC types: Interested buyers will have the need to bargain or ask further questions, so a variation was made based on product evaluation, and the product message function was launched. At the same time, idle transactions originated from flea markets in communities and schools or second-hand sections of local forums and Tieba. Because these people are semi-acquainted, it is easier to engage in in-depth interaction and retention. Therefore, Xianyu wants to make an online version of the "flea community" (fish pond), hoping to help buyers and sellers establish a trusting relationship and increase user stickiness.

[Operation] ① Recruitment of pond owners: from invitation code system to open and self-created ponds; ② KOL operation (pond owner empowerment, assessment incentives, pond owner conference); ③ pond level points system; ④ content and expert topics; ⑤ college pond competition during graduation season

[Feedback] Yutang was launched on November 13, 2014. According to data released by Xianyu, as of April 2017, two and a half years after Xianyu’s launch, 55.3% of users (over 100 million) had joined Yutang, and there were 735 Yutangs with more than 10,000 users. According to the traffic analysis of Xianyu and Zhuan Zhuan from July to September 2017 provided by Quest Mobile, in terms of user stickiness, since Xianyu established its community earlier (Zhuan Zhuan launched "Circles" in June 2016, a year and a half later than Xianyu), its average monthly usage time per person is more than 50% higher than that of Zhuan Zhuan. There is also a gap between the two in terms of active user retention rate, with Xianyu being better than Zhuan Zhuan.

Analysis of Xianyu and Zhuanzhuan traffic data

In terms of active fish pond types, the LBS-based university fish pond is the most active, because there is an entry threshold, the user portraits are similar, the trustworthiness is high, and the online and offline linkage is good; followed by interest fish ponds with a large user base such as animation, digital, maternal and child, but Xianyu has not released their specific activity data. As far as I know, a large proportion of active users in interest fish ponds are small businesses with incomplete qualifications that have been blocked by Taobao, and even the pond owners are micro-businesses. The quality cannot be guaranteed, and the activity of C-end users is not high. The problem lies in that the high-frequency demand of interest users is interest communication. There are already many vertical interest communities on the market that can meet this demand, and they have also opened up second-hand sections. However, second-hand transactions are actually a low-frequency demand, and the problem of single product usage scenario has not been solved well. On May 20, 2017, Xianyu’s head, Chen Weiye, announced at the Fishpond Owner Conference in Hangzhou the goal of incubating 100,000 fishponds with 500 active people. It can be seen that Fishpond 2.0 was launched in April 2017, supporting the creation of open interest fishponds, and began to be fully people-centered, with supporting WeChat group page format and user invitation functions, giving play to the personal influence of fishpond owners, and introducing a fishpond competition elimination mechanism, which was a prelude to this goal.

3. KEEP

【Positioning】Fitness social application;

[Purpose] Sports auxiliary tool applications are low-frequency and lack stickiness. We hope to use content + social networking to improve activity and retention;

【UGC function】Fitness community, news, articles;

Thinking process: ①Is UGC applicable? Active users record their daily eating habits and show off their fitness results after working out, while novice users watch and worship fitness gurus, creating a stable demand for content production and consumption. ② Applicable UGC types: From professional and high-quality long articles to daily fitness check-in short updates, all can meet the needs of different users.

【Operation】①KOL operation; ②Certification, level medal honor system; ③High-frequency topic operation (Weibo linkage); ④Event operation (challenge, brand cooperation, etc.);

Sports and Fitness APP Traffic Data Analysis

【Feedback】It was launched in March 2015 and expanded rapidly in 2016 at a rate of 10 million users added every two months. So far, it has accumulated 160 million users and has been recommended by the App Store many times. According to the sports and fitness app traffic data analysis provided by Quest Mobile in April 2018, similar apps have the characteristics of high user scale or high user usage frequency due to their user incentives and interaction methods. However, there is still a gap in apps that have both high user scale and high user stickiness. Keep's monthly active user base is second only to Yuedongquan, but the average monthly usage times per person are not advantageous, indicating that there is still room for improvement in user stickiness. The running craze has driven the growth of related apps. Keep can optimize more running-related functions and content.

Finally, let’s summarize the experience of improving product user activity and retention through the design of UGC module:

1. UGC has its own scope of application. Before considering doing UGC, check whether your product positioning or user needs match the applicable conditions.
2. After deciding to introduce UGC, think about the UGC types that are applicable to the product, including both functional types and content carrier types. It is not necessary to create a separate community module.
3. After the UGC module is launched, product and operations must work together to utilize a good distribution and feedback mechanism to jointly serve the user roles at both ends of the UGC: content producers and content consumers; and provide good incentives for new users.
4. UGC data can be monitored and measured, and refined operations can be carried out to promote activation and retain data. For example, the overall activity contributed by the UGC module, the proportion of daily active users, the average length of stay per person, the retention rate and activity level of different types of users; the consumption rate of UGC content, the interaction rate between users, the attention rate, etc.

Source: Gao Lele