How to use the 5W2H thinking principle to operate a community?

1. WHAT

(1) What is a community ?

Just like making a good product, it can gather a group of people to do one thing.

(2) What is a good product?

Continue to meet the needs of a certain group of people at a certain moment or in a certain scenario, and be willing to introduce it to others.

A community is not just a place (QQ group, WeChat group ), but a product-like thing that allows people to come and check it out when they need it.

What we need to do is to explain clearly to those friends who come to the community what this community can do together with everyone.

When I set up this study group, I clearly told everyone who wanted to join: Our group requires everyone to supervise each other, develop a habit of lifelong learning, and have output every day so that tomorrow we will be more professional than today.

So until now, the students in the group have been persisting towards this goal.

2. WHY

When building a community, you must know clearly why you are doing this?

(1) From the company’s perspective

In order to increase brand voice, for sales conversion , and to provide users with a better experience.

(2) From the user’s perspective

This place is different from other places. It allows me to gain things that other places don’t have: social interests, benefits, reputation, etc.

Not all brands have to create a community (just like launching a new product). For example, if you are just selling condoms, do you build a community to discuss with everyone how to use them? Or discuss the culture of condoms together?

For products like this that are used very frequently, the purchasing decision may usually be influenced by the user going to the corresponding e-commerce platform to see the reviews of other users, which basically makes the decision. For companies, it is difficult to monopolize users' time for social discussions and influence them to change their purchasing habits.

The reason for the formation of this study group is that as a college graduate who has just entered the society, I really want to persist in learning, but I am afraid that I cannot overcome laziness. Therefore, I want to find a group of classmates who have the same ideas as me and develop the habit of lifelong learning together. The WeChat group is just a tool that can break the regional asymmetry and bring together people with the same ideas as us to work together.

Fortunately, I found such a person, and we are still working towards our common goal.

3. WHERE

In fact, this issue has already been mentioned in the above content, which is: first establish a common goal in your brain, and then choose the occasion to implement it based on what you want to do.

For example, a travel group may be more suitable for QQ groups, which can have more operation functions; or you can directly build an official communication community within Mafengwo

A study group like this may be more suitable for WeChat, because for people who have already started working, WeChat is a social software that they use for a longer time than QQ, their usage habits are already determined, and the frequency of use is also higher.

4. WHO

When you understand what your community wants to do, why, and where, you need to know who can work with you to accomplish it and what responsibilities these people will have.

For example, this study group must be composed of people who share the same idea as me and want to persist in lifelong learning on the Internet , and we should supervise and encourage each other. For specific practices, please see below.

5. WHEN

Once you have a goal, you have to establish a common time limit for it so that everyone in the group has a common sense of mission and responsibility, and knows how long it will take to achieve the goal together, and whether you have to do something every week or every day to complete it together.

For example, in this study group, we need to develop a habit of lifelong learning. This is a marathon sport, so we have to come here to communicate every day, instead of "free-range". Psychology shows that it is easy for people to give up/ignore something that is beneficial/harmful to them in the long run because of the current comfortable feelings.

This is why, even though there is a slogan “Smoking is harmful to your health” on every pack of cigarettes, it still cannot stop people from smoking normally.

Finally, this study group has made a plan based on everyone’s time: communicate in the group from 19.20 to 20.00 every Monday to Friday. In fact, everyone is coming up earlier and earlier, and the time for communication is getting longer and longer. Even during weekdays or weekends, some students will take the initiative to share, which is a very good performance.

6. HOW

How to do it? Different people have different ideas about this question. Here, let’s look at it from a user’s perspective. What is the life cycle of the community product when he is “using” it (I shamelessly call it the “community chain”):

Know/Understand → Join → Communicate → Have a favorable impression → Be active → Pay → Give feedback → Invite people

Therefore, based on the user life cycle in the community, we look at how to do it from the company's perspective:

(1) Drainage (let people who don’t know know)

According to the purpose of creating a group, in places where there may be seed users , simply and clearly state "what kind of thing I want to do with everyone, and how this thing can help us"

—— At that time, I said in my university’s non-technical campus recruitment group that I wanted to find some partners so that we can supervise each other for lifelong learning. Then suddenly many friends added me on WeChat.

(2) Join

This step seems simple. In many groups, basically, a classmate comes, and then a few administrators welcome him, and then it ends. For the students who join the group, they join because they know what the group might be about, but as for what they can do in the group and what other people do, they have no idea. Therefore, we need to make the step of joining the group a ritual (even if the conditions are very high), so that confused students can quickly integrate into the group atmosphere.

—— Currently, the students who have just joined this study group need to send a 5-yuan red packet to 5 people, and then introduce themselves, what they do, what their name is, which city and company they work in, what they do, and why they want to join the group. Also, I will let him read the group rules and know how we communicate and share.

(3) Communication

After the new students have gone through a simple ceremony, they will generally feel less unfamiliar. At this time, you can guide them to communicate frequently with the "seed users" so that they can quickly integrate into the group and regard this place as "another circle of gay friends/girlfriends".

—— In the daily communication of this study group, I will occasionally @ those students who have not expressed their opinions and let them talk about their own views. At the same time, give encouragement and recognition (don’t underestimate the way of motivation, which will make people feel recognized and integrate into the group more quickly.)

(4) Producing goodwill and activity

Generally, after having a general understanding of the group and having some communication, people will gradually develop a good impression of the group and be willing to spend more time in the group. If this has not yet happened, it depends on the proportion. If there are a lot of people, you should reflect on whether there is a problem with your operation; if there are not many, you should consider whether you should replace some fresh blood to enrich the group.

—— Currently, most students in this study group are very active. I will also clear out students who do not participate in discussions more than three times a month on the 15th of each month. After all, I cannot force everyone to persist in the long run.

(5) Paid conversion

This depends on whether the group was originally established mainly for user payment. If the group is mainly used to solve customer after-sales problems or to increase brand awareness and solve user problems, I think it is unwise to guide users to pay too much, because users initially established the group because they knew what your group could bring to them.

Some students may say, "Companies are all about making money. I can't spend time running a community without bringing any benefits to the company."

There are so many forms of benefits. Money is benefit, brand awareness, reputation, etc. are also benefits. However, it does not mean that the "after-sales service group" cannot do paid conversions. You must first do a good job of after-sales service, which is the point that attracted others in the first place, and then appropriately introduce purchase links for other products, etc.

(6) Feedback

Feedback from group users is a good thing, which means that your group has allowed them to find a place to express their own value. Therefore, you should take the feedback from group users seriously, record it, and answer their questions regularly. This will make users feel that they are really doing something with everyone and that their own value is affirmed.

—— The content sharing rules of this study group a few days ago were re-determined based on the feedback from classmates. When formulating the rules, everyone expressed their opinions and actively spoke up, saying what the original problems were and why they had to be changed to the current way. In short, this group belongs to everyone, and everyone has the right to express their opinions and change some rules in the group.

(7) Recruiting people

Once there is a certain base of numbers, inviting people to join the community is a long-term process. I think the best way is of course: the partners in the group have a sense of belonging and are willing to actively invite partners with the same needs to join. To achieve this phenomenon, it is naturally related to whether the basic community environment has been built before. Of course, if a friend is just starting to invite people to join, we can encourage the friend who invites people, praise or regularly encourage such people in kind, agree with his sense of responsibility, and always let the friends in the group feel that "this group belongs to all of us, and we need to maintain it together"

—— This study group is currently in this state. Friends in the group will actively invite like-minded classmates to join, but because our group has high requirements, I will first talk to the newcomer individually so that he can prepare in advance. After all, before you want to run for a long time together, you have to have an idea in mind first.

7. HOW FEEL

Community operation is a long-term job. To understand what it feels like to use the "community" product, community operators need to constantly monitor the reactions and situations within the group and make adjustments around the main group goals. They can select a few active users to assist in management, and the best strategy is for everyone to work together to build a good group atmosphere.

8. OTHERS

There are some other ways to help us build community:

(1) Each level of the above-mentioned “community chain” can be managed in groups. For example, before joining a group, you can set up a reception group to pull in partners who are about to join, let them know what the group is about, the general situation of group members, etc.

(2) Regular activities. There must be regular activities in the group, whether online or offline, so that group members can develop the habit of coming to the group on time to participate, just like eating. This is what makes your group different from other groups, and it is something that group members cannot get elsewhere.

(3) Decentralization. Community operation is a long-term job. You need to identify some active group members to assist you in management, so you need to delegate power to them and you will be the one in final control.

(4) Appropriate competition incentive mechanism. A competition mechanism is introduced within the group, so that the group members who are given power are not static, and the group members who can receive regular prizes are also not static. Having an appropriate competitive incentive mechanism will increase the determination of group members to work towards common goals.

The author of this article @低头45度角 was compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games