How to build your first community from 0 to 1?

Five steps to build your first community

Like-minded people - implement your community values

Under the theme of "like-minded" in the community, we should try our best to achieve values ​​that everyone agrees on. Only with values ​​that everyone agrees on can we maintain long-term connections.

1. Community Name

The name is the most important symbol and the first label and first impression of all brands.

3 ways to name

The first method is extended from the existing core source. Its characteristic is that it is closely related to the core source, and no particularly specific information can be seen from the name.

For example, extending from the soul figures: Luo Zhenyu’s Luo You Club and the omnipotent Da Xiong’s Da Xiong Club. For example, extending from core products: Mi Fan Group, Meiyoujia

The second method is to start from the target users. If you want to attract a certain customer group, you can choose a name that is vertically related to this group. Generally, you can tell what the company does from the name.

For example, behavior: book-opening gang; hobbies: running group; content: practical information gang; concept: do it as soon as possible, BetterMe base camp.

The third method is a combination of the above two methods. Such as Wu Xiaobo Book Club and Qiuye PPT.

Notes on naming

A good name should be easy to remember and spread, so that your target customer base can find you quickly. Unless there are special reasons, you should avoid using broad, unfamiliar, and obscure words.

Community Slogan

Communities are based on network connections. Everyone is a stranger to each other. How can you prove that you are a member of a certain community?

Do you and the people in the group have the same secret code? We call this information the subculture in the community. We believe that a community that forms a subculture with a high degree of consensus will be more vital.

Slogans are the concentrated essence, and products, companies, brands, etc. are naturally the most carriers of community subculture. Even though there are thousands of slogans, they can generally be divided into the following three categories.

Functional type: Explain your various characteristics and use the most specific and straightforward information to let everyone know what you do at the first sight, such as Baidu's "Baidu it and you will know."

Benefit type 1 explains the direct benefits that the function or feature can bring to you and the contribution it can make to helping you achieve a certain goal, such as Qiuye PPT's "3 minutes a day, a little progress".

The three-view type explains the attitude, feelings, and emotions behind the pursuit of this interest, as well as the world view, values, and outlook on life after the interest is sublimated, such as Wang Xiao's "Women's Own Way of Living".

2. Visual Design

For a community, it is particularly important to highlight the sense of ritual and unity, so vision is the most basic means of expression.

Online activities mainly involve setting up community avatars and group information.

Whether it is a QQ group, WeChat group or forum community, how to make group members organized and set up basic information and visually unify it on the communication platform is a very important first step.

Offline activities mainly revolve around the community's name and slogan for visual design, such as background walls, cards, flags, badges...

Whether it is online communication or offline activities, vision is the most basic cognition, so it must be carefully conceived, and the core of all this visual design is just one, that is, the LOGO.

To build a community, we need a unified name, a unified slogan, a unified logo, and a unified activity brand. We need a unified visual design to visualize and standardize the community, thereby creating a vivid visual effect to the outside world.

3. Promotional poster

Today's social networks are increasingly relying on WeChat Moments for promotion. When promoting in WeChat Moments, launching visually impactful posters will have a greater visual impact than simply launching copywriting or graphic articles.

4. Output method

Form: Use a form that you are good at to continuously output, communicate, and interact with members to continuously strengthen common values.

Official content: Luo Zhenyu's talk show video, 60-second voice, and the "efficiency manual"

Interaction forms: such as group discussion, group sharing, Q&A, internal group welfare activities, etc.

Peripheral products: such as Qiuye PPT's 3-minute micro-course, action-oriented calendar, etc.

Offline activities: Teacher Qiuye not only meets with community members regularly every year to strengthen emotional connections

Rhythm: It is best if these output methods can also add a sense of ritual. For example, Luo Zhenyu’s voice messages are sent out at 6:30 every morning and must be 60 seconds long. Xiaomi’s Orange Friday releases the latest MU. Doing similar things in a fixed way can be connected rhythmically, forming fixed usage habits, generating expectations for the next time, and gradually increasing participation.

4. Active powder washing

Generally, he uses some content means to eliminate "fans" whose values ​​do not match his.

For example, Luo Zhen once publicly criticized traditional Chinese medicine, which caused dissatisfaction among some people who recognized traditional Chinese medicine.

In his opinion, these so-called fans "do not share the same values, values ​​and values ​​as the real people. It will be difficult to make money from them in the future, so it is better to just let them unfollow him."

Structure - Forming the rules of your community

To operate a community well, you need to formulate operating rules that are in line with your own positioning. The rule model can start with one community, verify the feasibility of the model, and finally replicate it on a large scale.

Does the community need to set thresholds?

When setting up a community, there must be a threshold to ensure quality, and to make joiners cherish the community because of their "sense of contribution". Only capable people are willing to play in the circle together. Without energy equality or energy complementarity, it is difficult to have efficient connections among community members.

5 types of introduction rules

Invitation system: The invitation system is generally used for small circle introduction.

Task system: It requires certain efforts, and generally one can join only after completing a certain task.

Payment system: The mainstream community payment system is still a membership system, where you pay to become a member of a certain group of "like-minded" people.

Application system: It requires assessment just like applying for a job, in other words, you need to have sufficient talent.

Preparatory camp screening system: For those who are willing to join, a preparatory camp can be provided for observation and assessment, and only those who meet the requirements will be allowed to join the formal community.

How to join a group to create a cohesive community

Only by allowing group members to see and feel a series of entry rituals can we create a cohesive community.

Notification mode: Before joining the group, a dedicated person will be arranged to conduct one-on-one information review and inform the community's positioning and operation model to avoid group members being completely ignorant or only having a vague understanding of the community's main arrangements after entering the community.

Joining the group in batches: Many communities like to gather people all at once and let many people join the group at once. This makes the group look lively, but there may be a window period before the official activity starts. It is not good not to arrange activities, and arranging activities also increases costs.

In fact, entry can be controlled in batches, so that those who came earlier will feel that they have come to the right place when they see new people coming in, and they can also take the initiative to help those who come later. When people who come later see that there are many people who came earlier, they will also feel that they have come to the right place, and they will thank those who came earlier for their help, and pass on this culture of mutual help.

Introducing big names: If there are big names joining the community, they can be invited to join when the number of ordinary campers is about the same, and they can be solemnly introduced. Everyone is asked to welcome the big names to the group. In this way, the big names are fully respected, and ordinary campers have the opportunity to fully understand the big names, identify with them, and have a stronger sense of identity with the community.

Set up a welcoming officer: Even if there is no introduction when a big shot joins, he or she will be noticed and pointed out by sharp-eyed members, so there will be no lack of lively atmosphere. But ordinary people will feel lost if they join a community and no one pays attention to them.

Therefore, we can set up an assistant position of "Welcome Officer", who will be responsible for actively welcoming new members when they join the group and actively sharing some personal information of friends to attract everyone's attention, so that new members will feel valued and recognized after joining the group, and thus like the community.

Opening event: If the community members are almost all present, then an opening event can be arranged. At the opening event, the camp leader can give a speech, invite old community members to share their own growth experiences, and discuss and promulgate group rules with everyone.

Make good use of group announcements to inform group members of the requirements

Generally speaking, from the perspective of setting up group announcements, we can clearly define "three behaviors": encouraged behaviors, discouraged behaviors, and prohibited behaviors. This is a strict control of quality.

Encouraged behaviors: such as publishing original sharing, self-introduction when joining the group, and insights into growth, etc.

Undesirable behaviors: such as asking novices questions, posting links to helpful advice, etc.

Prohibited behaviors: posting advertisements, soliciting votes, using dirty words, endless arguments, destroying the harmonious atmosphere of the group, etc.

How to design community rules reasonably?

Community rules should be based on the principle of "three mores and three lesses", namely, more praise, more encouragement, more compliments, and less criticism, less accusations, and less confrontation.

How to make community rules easier to follow (traffic police rules for group rules)

Homogeneity effect: People living in cities are more likely to obey traffic rules. If we are all the same kind of people, it will be easy to achieve.

Threshold effect: The higher the cost of joining a group, the easier it is to follow the rules. Just like the cost of a driver's license.

Punishment effect: Anyone who breaks the group rules will be dealt with immediately. Just like the traffic police will issue a ticket immediately when they find a violation.

Incentive effect: Praise immediately those who do well, so that everyone will be willing to do things that are encouraged.

Delegation effect: Giving the supervision of group rules to group members is like hiring a large number of auxiliary police officers when the traffic police are too busy.

How to guide members to read important messages.

For particularly important messages, use the "@all members" function to force everyone to watch.

Give important news a fixed format, publish it at a fixed time, form a column, and cultivate everyone's reading habit.

Remind everyone at any time to use specific climbing keywords to search for important historical records, such as reminding everyone group chat keywords: WeChat chat etiquette, weekly Monday exposure.

Carousel notifications in the group: For some messages, you need to arrange for the assistant to send them to the group multiple times in the morning, noon and evening.

Create topic notifications: In order to avoid causing everyone to be disgusted by excessive screen swiping, smart assistants should also learn a skill to actively release guiding topics to encourage everyone to participate in group chats, and then naturally release notifications.

For individual members who have blocked group messages, one-on-one private chat notifications should also be considered.

How should community seed users be matched?

Hybridization effect: There is a joke on the Internet that says the group of long-term active middle-aged people is like this.

One or two popular people who are still as charming as they were in the past; three or four scholars who have gradually transformed themselves successfully; five or six secular angry young people who are unwilling to grow old; seven or eight foodies who post photos of their food every other day; a number of trendy people who like to pose in various poses for photos;

Many dull fans who would rather be silent than leave the group; a few friends who often point fingers at each other; suspected thinkers who occasionally make some dry jokes; so-called "politicians" who have all kinds of gossip;

A few geniuses with flamboyant personalities who love to tell jokes; a few assistants who are eager to serve; someone who stays up late every day to make fun of this and that; someone with a strong memory and is good at reminiscing about the past; a few literary young people who often compose poems and sing to relax and cultivate their character; a group leader who is strong inside and loves to send out red envelopes.

Star effect: A good community must have a soul figure

If you want to keep the group fresh, you must have people with high potential energy as the core of the group. People with high potential energy are like the sun, always emitting light and heat and radiating energy to every planet in the solar system.

As long as there are people with high potential who continue to share in the group, no matter what form it is, most people in the group will be motivated to persist and participate.

Where can community seed users be attracted?

The difficulty from 0 to 1 is much higher than that from 1 to N, because the quality of seed users and the value obtained from them in the early stage are the key to the entire community operation .

True love gathering method, influence gathering method, and online label screening method.

There are a large number of scenarios on the Internet that can gather people with certain characteristics, such as attracting them through an online micro-class or live broadcast on a certain topic, inviting fans who have commented on a certain person's Weibo one by one, or looking for users of a website with a specific style.

Find your own position, look for these scenarios, and connect them through interaction. It may take some time to gather the first batch of members, but it is very cost-effective if the foundation is laid.

5. Offline scene entry method

Information collection of community members

Fully understand the situation and status of members before they join the community, so that you can make comparisons after a period of time to see the positive impact of the community on members.

Understanding user needs will help improve the focus of community operations.

Collect some personal communication or address information to facilitate follow-up services to users later.

How to create a visual social business card?

Build a community cloud address book, build a community cloud think tank, and build a community cloud business card.

How to establish a community operation team?

Core operation team: the initiators and organizers of the community

Brain Operations Team: Core and Active Members of the Community

Assistant team: active members who identify with the community

How should community members be managed?

Establish an operation observation group system: For some people who are suitable for operations but do not understand operations yet, we can recommend an observation group system, let them join the operation team in advance, observe the atmosphere of backstage operations in advance, and mobilize their enthusiasm for cooperation in a large group.

Establish an operational review system: After each important community activity, the relevant person in charge must promptly communicate his or her feelings within the group, comment on each person’s work contribution, collect suggestions for improvement, propose optimization directions, and provide additional small benefits.

How to prolong the participation of core members of the community?

Provide growth opportunities, help increase influence, and provide job opportunities

Operation-Activate your community atmosphere

What are the three necessary stages of community operation?

Attract members with the same frequency: Birds of a feather flock together, and the emphasis is on screening members with the same frequency.

Establish emotional connections: On the basis of establishing value recognition, the community needs to create multiple connections between people.

Create a chemical reaction: When you meet the right person, cooperation becomes a natural thing.

What are the most common mistakes when running a new community from scratch?

Mistake 1: Treating the study group as a social group

Mistake 2: Not understanding the community’s positioning

Mistake 3: Underestimating the cost of community operations

Mistake #4: Expanding too quickly without building a solid foundation

How should a community operation plan be designed?

Recruitment stage: cost planning and enrollment goals

Operational stage: schedule and implement weekly and monthly community activities.

Dissolution stage: This stage mainly involves archiving community information and conducting unified accounting of community operating costs.

How can new members of the community overcome the sense of unfamiliarity?

Introducing yourself when joining a group is the simplest way to break the ice, allowing group members to quickly become familiar with each other.

How to create cross-connections between different members in a community?

In the process of operating a community, you must find ways to encourage group members to pay attention to each other, and they can even pay attention to each other in multiple ways.

What are some good ways to cross-connect in the community?

The cross-connections of the mobile Internet revolve around social relationships, including QQ groups, WeChat groups, WeChat, Weibo, QQ spaces, etc.

Recently, Alipay launched the "Dadao" function, which is also a new cross-connection model.

In mobile media, forwarding, commenting, liking and rewarding have become very good connection modes, and the cross-connection of the knowledge economy has created more possibilities.

For example, the Zaixing, Fenda, and Sina Weibo's Weibo Q&A that everyone is using now are all new connection modes. Moreover, with Zaixing and Fenda, the difficulty of connecting with professionals has been greatly reduced.

Study a course together and become alumni; co-author a book or collaborate on an article; travel together; make an investment together; care about someone together; reward each other for good work; send exclusive red envelopes to each other for happy events;

Join a branch together to meet and chat frequently; promote each other's products or services; cooperate in a training camp or serve as training camp assistants; send each other small gifts; when you find information that is valuable to the other party, take the initiative to @ the other party or send it privately.

How to create emotional connections among community members?

Actively responding to others' sharing and making them feel cared for and respected is a positive emotional deposit;

Sharing the soft side of your life can stimulate emotional resonance and also make deposits to your emotional bank;

Actively looking at other people's Moments, liking and commenting, and even giving rewards are also good emotional deposits;

Seeing that members are in trouble, proactively introducing resources and making recommendations is also a good emotional deposit;

How to create a sense of participation among community members?

Actively guide; actively respond; motivate.

Use “Daily Question” to inspire community members to communicate with each other.

Do a good job of organizing the highlights of the group to avoid the negative impact of members swiping the screen.

Actively guide everyone to make high-quality speeches and gradually form a good group speaking culture.

Insist on having someone to organize the essence to avoid people thinking that this is a spam group.

How to activate the quiet and "lurking" people in the community?

Some people are always lurking in the community and don't like to talk. We need to find out why they don't talk and adopt tiered management.

Where do social sharing personnel come from?

Sharing by community soul figures; guest appearances; rotation on stage; experience summary system.

How to do a high-quality online group sharing?

Prepare in advance; notify repeatedly; emphasize rules; warm up in advance; introduce guests; induce interaction; control the situation at all times; conclude with a summary; provide benefits; and build a brand.

Social Sharing Checklist

Which form is best for group sharing?

Voice sharing/picture and text sharing

How to conduct online consultation in the community?

Attractive consultation topics and stories; inviting suitable consultation guests; ensuring the participation of ordinary members; and having a consultation host who is good at controlling the situation.

Why do people in the community like to send red envelopes?

Liven up the atmosphere; report new members; activate group members; announce good news; reward individuals; post flyers.

How to send red envelopes effectively in the community?

You must have a legitimate reason and cannot be willful; it must be either enough or big enough; if it is true love, you must send a targeted packet; activate the red packet invincible connection mode; sending red packets at the right time will maximize the effect; cleverly set rules to make red packets a weapon of motivation.

How to efficiently launch a community check-in project?

Deposit system; elimination system; supervision system; incentive system; iteration system

How to operate community check-in with low organizational costs?

Operational structure; talent management; efficient organization; process-based; responsibility system; shortened cycle; newcomers join the group first.

How to create a positive community environment through community check-ins?

Role model; encouragement; feedback competition; promotion competition; output competition; fun; surprise; touching; agreement.

What are the different ways to check in on social media?

Check-in by people who share the same theme; autonomous private check-in; door-to-door check-in; check-in by celebrities; paid participation.

How can we make social check-ins last longer?

There is a theme that everyone agrees on.

The punch-in action design should be simple and operational.

The check-in action should be as interactive as possible so that everyone is happy to participate.

The forms of clocking in can be diversified, and it is not necessary to emphasize that everyone clocks in.

Friends who actively participate in checking in also need incentives.

How to create benefits for the community?

What are some surprising community benefits?

Give out material things; give out red envelopes; give out courses; give out honors; give out points.

Any tips for increasing social media stickiness?

Pin it to the top; post beautiful photos; meet more often; show off singing skills; show off special talents; make clever connections; provide great assists; attract new people.

How can we better integrate into the new community?

Join a low-quality community and don’t introduce yourself.

Join a quality community and don’t be in a hurry to show your presence.

When joining a quality community, it is more important to observe calmly than to connect immediately.

If you have the opportunity to introduce yourself, be sure to prepare your self-introduction well.

Do more things that are helpful to others in the group.

Let others see your creativity.

Use other people's words to recommend yourself.

Output—Forming a community output promotion matrix

Brand media that builds community

Brand activities to build communities

Build brand products for the community

Copy - Make your community more powerful

How to replicate thematic communities

Leading the new with the old, and developing continuously

First, build a high-quality community and discover talents while operating it.

Through the community metabolism, people with the same frequency are retained and join the core sports group.

In the core group, we guide core members at any time to understand our skills in large-group operations, cultivate the operation team, and arrange them to do assistant work.

Wait until there are people who have sufficient ability to control the group, and the existing community has accumulated a certain amount of energy, then take some of them to create a new group.

During the operation of a new group, if you discover a particularly high-quality member, you should promptly guide him to join the core operation group for training.

6. Community fission tools

New users see the poster → follow the official account → an introductory message + group QR code pops up automatically → join the group → the robot automatically @prompts the user to forward the poster + screenshot → the user shares it on WeChat Moments → sends the screenshot to the group → the robot passes verification within the group → a new group QR code pops up automatically on the official account.

Fission group building includes three key links:

①Trigger point design; ②Poster design; ③Kuangsan copywriting design

Guiding words are also the key design of group fission: forwarding texts to friends circle, guiding texts to join the group, and reviewing and approving texts.

One-time flash group sharing

Select a core figure in the community who has a certain influence, and ask her to post copywriting and posters in her circle 3 days in advance and establish a WeChat group;

Require those who join the WeChat group to clearly know the sharing topic, outline, time and lecturer information to avoid blindly joining the group or misleading expectations;

After the crowd joins, arrange warm-up and warm-up of related topics to build up everyone's anticipation for the content;

On the day of the sharing session, members will be notified promptly and further instructions on the instructor and course content will be provided;

After sharing, actively guide interaction, create a communication atmosphere, guide everyone to buy the "Golden Connections" course on NetEase Cloud Classroom to learn more content, and encourage students who have purchased the course to take screenshots and share them in the group;

The next morning, we sorted out the highlights of the chat group and shared them to facilitate those students who did not have time to participate in the sharing.

The group will be disbanded after 48 hours of notification. We will use the notification opportunity to share the final highlights and strive to guide shopping. At the agreed time, thank everyone for participating and sharing, and disband the group.

How to avoid overdrawing your community energy?

Don’t set too high expectations on community members;

Don’t randomly invite people who don’t agree with the community’s cultural values ​​into the group;

Don’t frequently organize activities such as canvassing for votes in the community;

Don’t tolerate a few people chatting in the group for a long time just to liven up the group atmosphere, or even lead the topic off track;

If you see people or things that disrupt the group atmosphere, you should deal with them immediately;

Don’t be reluctant to give red envelopes to community members;

Avoid frequent commercial promotions.

Source: Walking with the wind