How can we encourage users to actively share and attract traffic?

01

Since the Internet traffic dividend began to gradually disappear in 2015, Internet companies have begun to look for various ways to attract traffic in order to ensure the continued growth of their products.

These methods are varied and varied, but I personally think that there are two main types of effective methods: combining O2O to divert traffic from offline to online and divert traffic through social ( community ) models.

Today I would like to discuss with you my in-depth research findings on the latter - user-initiated sharing is the core.

Socializing is a basic human need.

Before the Internet invaded our lives, traditional social activities were conducted offline. In the Internet age, we began to transfer some of our offline social activities online, thus forming online social networks .

In a large social network, we can find a group of Internet users with common interests, cognitions, and values, which will lead to a peak effect and form many communities based on interests, backgrounds, commonalities, etc.

Users in a community generally have something in common, so they can communicate, collaborate and infect each other more effectively. Users start from social platforms, gradually form communities, and finally form a community economy through activities that can generate economic value in the community.

Led by social platforms such as WeChat , Weibo, and QQ, China's mobile social industry has grown to 600 million users, accounting for nearly 90% of the total mobile Internet users (according to the 2017 China Social Application Demand Value White Paper by Pan Asia Macro Intelligence).

More than 50% of these mobile Internet users are under 30 years old.

There are now more than 40 mobile social products in China, which mainly meet the seven major needs of mobile social netizens: hormones, instrumentality , loneliness, lyricism, showing off, venting and self-improvement. Because of these needs, mobile Internet users will introduce offline communities into these social products to meet their own social needs.

In this way, Internet companies can achieve effective traffic generation. I call this the first step of the social lead model.

When the first step develops to a certain extent, the second step of the social traffic generation model can be initiated.

Internet users first bring offline communities online, and then gradually form each user’s own community through mutual communication on social networks.

The second step of the social traffic generation model is to introduce Internet products, commodities and services into users’ online communities to achieve traffic generation effects.

Whether it is the first step or the second step, the core that can promote traffic is "sharing".

Without the core behavior of sharing, Internet products cannot achieve the effect of attracting traffic from outside the site to the site.

02

How to drive users to actively share?

Different from traditional industries, the Internet industry attaches great importance to the concept of "user first".

The success or failure of the Internet industry is highly dependent on traffic, and in the highly competitive Internet industry, users have many choices, which dilutes the concept of "loyal users".

Users do not have much emotional attachment to Internet companies and products, which leads to the fact that they can switch from one Internet product to another without any worries.

Internet companies that understand this principle will definitely treat their users as their parents and serve them well.

Even if Internet companies want existing users to help share and promote to their friends, they can only try their best to get users to share on a voluntary basis.

Driver Sharing Model

The motivations that drive users to share voluntarily can be divided into three categories: interests, emotions and spirit.

The motivation for sharing may be different for different users in different situations.

If Internet companies want to influence their existing users to actively share and help attract traffic, then they need to study and understand the driving sharing model (a model that I spent 3 months researching).

1. Benefits

Benefit-driven means can be to encourage users to actively share by benefiting themselves, others, or both.

Generally benefits are in the form of money or money's equivalent, such as vouchers. Of course, benefits can also be presented in other forms, such as free goods, concert tickets, etc.

A typical example of both selfishness and altruism is Ele.me. Users can share red envelopes after ordering meals on Ele.me. In order to encourage users to share with multiple people, the platform allows the Nth person to grab a big red envelope. The red envelope contains coupons that give you a 1 yuan discount for purchases over 20 yuan.

If we think that sharing will be driven as long as benefits are given, then we don’t fully understand benefit motivation.

Let's look at another example.

Pinduoduo is a retail e-commerce platform that uses group buying (benefiting both oneself and others). Users can share red envelopes with friends on the Pinduoduo APP. As long as the friend answers the question correctly, both the user and the friend can get a 12-yuan threshold voucher (9 off for purchases over 168 yuan and 3 off for purchases over 88 yuan). Although users gain more benefits from Pinduoduo than from Ele.me, in fact its driving force is far less than that of Ele.me.

Why?

Most users start to use Internet products with an exploratory attitude. The first time may be out of curiosity or interest, and people may be willing to share in their own community.

The rules of general Internet products are relatively simple, and users can understand them after experiencing them once or twice.

Once they understand this, users will begin to weigh whether it is “worth” continuing to share.

Therefore, if you want to drive users to continue sharing, you need to understand "psychological value".

Psychological value = “Benefit” gain – payback

Cost refers to the price or effort required to actually obtain benefits.

To get an Ele.me voucher worth 3 yuan off for purchases over 25 yuan, "payment" includes sharing red envelopes, grabbing red envelopes, and spending 25 yuan to order food. If users feel that the cost is no more than 3 yuan, then the final psychological value will be a positive number.

In the example of Pinduoduo, although the "benefit" is 12 yuan, in addition to sharing and requiring the other party to answer the question correctly, the main cost is 256 yuan. Finally, if the user feels that what he has paid is worth more than 12 yuan, then the final psychological value is negative.

Psychological value depends on how users interpret and judge the "value of their efforts", so different people will have different psychological values ​​for the same situation. Only when users feel that the psychological value is greater than 0 will they consider sharing.

Finally, whether users are willing to actively share depends on the comparison between psychological value and social cost.

• Psychological value > community cost, users are willing to actively share
• Psychological value < social cost, users are unwilling to share

Community costs refer to the risks, financial and non-financial costs, losses, impacts, and prices that users need to bear after sharing in their own communities.

How to measure community costs depends entirely on users' interpretation and judgment of shared content and community members.

For example, sharing charitable content is more likely to be seen as having lower social costs than selling goods. Although it seems simple for users to decide whether to share or not, in fact, users have quickly interpreted and judged the relevant psychological value and social cost. Therefore, Internet companies need to consider multiple aspects as a whole and cannot judge based solely on the superficial value of benefits.

This is the importance of refined application.

Knowing this, if you want to drive existing users to drive traffic to the product (actively share), product managers need to design some activities where users can profit (self-interest or altruism) through sharing.

At the same time, activities need to take into account sharing, profit and content without incurring too much "effort" and community costs.

2. Emotion

Although profit-driven factors seem to be very powerful in driving users to actively share, in fact, the effects provided by emotional and spiritual drives are far greater than those provided by profit-driven factors.

Emotional drive refers to the emotional/emotional satisfaction that users experience from sharing itself and the feedback they receive after sharing. This includes finding resonance, expressing emotions, gaining sympathy, etc.

Some people want to find an outlet for their emotions. For example, if they feel uncomfortable after being scolded by their boss, they post on their Moments to complain about their boss. I feel better after complaining.

Some people hope to gain some kind of emotional satisfaction from feedback from the community, such as posting photos of themselves receiving awards on stage on their Moments; the more people like the photos, the happier they feel.

That’s why many people are willing to share restaurant food or tourist attractions in other countries on their Moments, even if the restaurant or tourist attraction does not provide any monetary benefit to Internet users.

Similar to profit-driven, Internet companies need to consider the following formula if they want to encourage users to actively share through emotional drive.

• Psychological Value = Emotional Benefits – Costs
• Psychological value > community cost, users are willing to actively share
• Psychological value < social cost, users are unwilling to share

Emotional benefits are not as easy to quantify as “profit” benefits. How high the specific emotional benefit is depends entirely on the user.

Taking the example of being scolded by the boss, users will immediately feel that the emotional benefits of sharing are very great. Ask the same users to judge a week later and perhaps the emotional benefits will be very small. It is because there is no quantifiable standard for emotional benefits. As long as Internet companies can "catch" users' emotional needs at the right time, the motivation for active sharing will be very great.

In order to make good use of emotional drive, product managers need to understand what emotional appeals the target group of the product has and how these emotional appeals can be expressed or satisfied. Then incorporate all of these into the core considerations when designing the product. Only Internet products that can accurately grasp users' emotional needs can drive users to actively share.

3. Spirit

Spiritual drive refers to the spiritual satisfaction or pleasure that users gain through sharing, such as recognition from friends, shaping their ideal image in the eyes of friends, or positioning themselves as living a tasteful life.

Some people want to create a very positive image for themselves. They often share some in-depth articles or photos of books they have read on their Moments. These people hope to shape themselves through this kind of social sharing.

"Like" is an effective mental driving function. It meets the users' need to gain community recognition. In order to find a sense of identity, users are willing to share actively, hoping that these shares can win them more likes.

People always hope that things will get better and better and that their lives can be improved. Although life has not yet reached its ideal state, this longing heart still wants to do something.

This is how the mentality of comparison arises.

For example, some people like to share photos of traveling, buying brand-name bags, and dining in five-star hotels in their Moments.

• Psychological value = spiritual benefit - cost
• Psychological value > community cost, users are willing to actively share
• Psychological value < social cost, users are unwilling to share

Mental benefits, like emotional benefits, depend entirely on the user's interpretation and judgment. Spiritual benefits also vary depending on the community in which they are shared. For example, if a flight attendant shares photos from all over the world in a social group in her hometown, she can achieve a competitive effect.

However, if the same content is shared in the social group of colleagues, there will be no comparison effect. Similar to emotional benefits, spiritual benefits have no specific quantitative standards and are absolutely different for each person. Therefore, the effects it can bring are also unlimited.

To make good use of spiritual drive, product managers must clearly understand the spiritual needs of target users . Then incorporate all of these into the core considerations when designing the product, so that users can easily gain satisfaction in this regard.

03. Summary

The best way to drive a sharing model is to combine interests, emotions and spiritual drives. Through this combination, the benefits are made greater, thereby increasing the psychological value. Internet users like to try new things, which requires Internet companies to constantly understand the new habits of their target users. These changes in habits will force product managers to come up with new “ways of playing”. Regardless of the "gameplay" used, the driver sharing model still applies.

The driving sharing model is based on people's psychological needs.