How to run a community well?

In recent years, the concept of community operation has become increasingly popular, and almost every company hopes to be able to engage in community operation . Indeed, the role of the community in the operation process is very important. But how to use it well is not so easy. In this article, we will use examples to analyze the definition of community, its positioning in strategy, key points in operation, and implementation steps.

First of all, there is a question: What is considered a community? Let's look at the following example:

1) A travel group of 30 people set out to travel abroad. In order to facilitate communication, the 30 people formed a WeChat group named "X Travel Group".

2) These 30 partners had a lot of fun and got along well with each other along the way, and they kept in touch frequently after returning from the trip.

3) After a long time, one day, one of my classmates suggested that we share "fun and cost-effective tourist destinations" with each other in this group.

4) After a while, the "X Travel Group" group gained access to some fun and cost-effective travel destinations. Many people learned about this and asked to join the group.

5) As more and more people joined the group and it was a mixed bag, everyone in the "X Travel Group" recommended a classmate named Xiao Ming as the group leader to carry out some management work such as formulating and reviewing group rules.

6) Xiao Ming managed very well, so more and more people came here and eventually many groups were formed. At this time, some travel agencies came to discuss cooperation. If "X Travel Group" could successfully promote orders, they could get a share of the profits. "X Travel Group" began to make a profit.

7) “X Travel Group” became more and more popular, so Xiao Ming and a few friends decided to set up a company to run it. Your career is growing steadily.

Now, may I ask, at what stage can “X Travel Group” be called a community?

In the first stage, a group of people gathered together; in the second stage, a group of people became strong communicators; in the third stage, they began to have a common goal; in the fourth stage, they began to attract new users continuously; in the fifth stage, they began to have clear division of responsibilities and management; in the sixth stage, they began to make profits; in the seventh stage, they began to be formally commercialized;

In fact, the answer to the question "What is a community" is not important. We just need to know what a successful community is. A successful community must be a group of people coming together to form an organization to achieve one or more goals. If it is at the company level, it can also be a strategic goal. In the above example, it is considered a successful community only if it reaches at least the fifth step.

In most of our operations , we have established relationships with our users, but users do not have relationships with each other. The community can solve this problem. The community allows users to accept our guidance in a specific scenario and communicate with each other, ultimately forming consistent behavioral norms, continuous interactive relationships and completing the same actions. This has greatly enhanced our operational efficiency.

Communities are very useful, but for a company, communities cannot be built just for the sake of doing it. We must first understand the positioning of communities in the strategy and the conditions for maintaining the vitality of communities, so that we can truly use communities as a weapon. Otherwise, it may backfire. In reality, there are many examples of communities that wasted a lot of manpower and material resources, and ultimately failed or had no effect.

Let's first look at a very great law of physics, the second law of thermodynamics: it is impossible to transfer heat from a low-temperature object to a high-temperature object without causing other effects, or it is impossible to take heat from a single heat source and convert it completely into useful work without causing other effects, or the tiny increase in entropy in an irreversible thermodynamic process is always greater than zero. The second law of thermodynamics includes a law called the " law of increasing entropy ." If we put it into an easier-to-understand meaning, it means that inside any closed object, if there is no external energy stimulation, it will change from high energy to low energy internally, and eventually reach a "thermal equilibrium", also called "heat death", that is, death.

The same goes for communities. If we cannot provide a continuous input of energy to the community, it will soon die.

Therefore, we must ensure that the community is in a closed loop where energy can circulate in order to maintain the vitality of the community . Only with vitality can the community generate value. Knowing the above survival conditions of the community, we can understand the two positioning of the community:

The first type: auxiliary type

In this case, the general company has its own main business, so the purpose of the community is to revolve around one or several needs of the company.

For example, if you are an e-commerce company selling clothes: we might create a community, invite members who have purchased clothes before, and communicate with them from time to time, share some knowledge, or push some discount information in real time. The main purpose of this community is to enhance user stickiness and increase repurchase rate.

For example, if you are a game developer: we will set up a community and invite some experienced gamers or some guilds to participate in tests or events before every product update or event. This kind of community is for the purpose of product research and user activation.

For example, if you run a high-end club: then we can set up a community, specifically invite some social elites, and regularly organize some high-end wine tastings, art appreciation sessions, etc. The purpose of this kind of community is to build connections and attract new members.

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The positioning of this auxiliary community is shown in the figure below:

The second type: commercial

This situation is relatively straightforward: the community is the company, and the company is the community . The purpose of the community is to achieve commercial monetization.

For example, WeChat business: the purpose of creating a community is to sell goods.

For example, some big Vs in self-media : they create communities to attract fans, and then directly monetize through some content or related products, such as sales, rewards, crowdfunding, advertising, etc.

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The positioning of this commercial community is shown in the figure below:

Of course, there is another situation, which is that it is auxiliary at the beginning, but after growing slowly, it becomes commercial. Just like the example given at the beginning of the article. These two types have many similarities in their specific implementation, but also some differences in the details.

After understanding the above, we will know the purpose of building a community. What are the core points that a community must grasp during operation? Including the following points:

(1) There must be a common purpose and values

This is very important and is a necessary condition for a successful community. The essence of a community is an organization. An organization will be composed of various groups of people. If there are no common goals and values, it will be easy for differences of opinion to arise, leading to quarrels and conflicts. A common purpose and values ​​serve as a guiding light for all group members and a standard for doing things.

For example, let’s look at the values ​​of Wu Xiaobo’s community:

1. Recognize the beauty of business;
2. Advocate self-struggle;
3. Willing to give and share;
4. Oppose the loser economy.

Another example is some Ele.me red envelope groups. The existence of this kind of community is very simple, but it has always been able to maintain a high level of activity and vitality. Because we have a common purpose, we come in to get red envelopes.

In the actual operation process, we can formulate a suitable common goal based on the strategic positioning behind us.

(2) There must be a certain threshold

Except for the situation in the initial stage where we need to attract a large number of new customers, in many cases, we still need to use certain thresholds to block those people with conflicting values. This becomes especially important after a certain number of members have been accumulated.

This is actually also an initial screening process for users. Generally, the threshold is set by charging fees or requiring users to complete certain tasks before joining the group. If it is an auxiliary community, it will be determined by the level of the user.

For example: a yoga studio now hopes to use social media to help its business improve. In this case, first of all, we take into account that the actual situation is an offline store with limited acceptance capacity, so the biggest demand is not the number of members, but the quality of members. Then we would like to expand the community by forming a community with the highest quality members among the current members. At this time, we can use user segmentation as an aid (please refer to "Methodology | How to Become an Operations Expert (Part 1): User Segmentation"), and then set the user level as the threshold for entering the community, which will be more reasonable.

(3) Ensure high-value output

After reading the heat death theory above, we all know that the continuous replenishment of energy is a basic requirement to maintain the vitality of a community. But this seems a bit nonsense. Everyone knows that high-value output is needed, but they don’t know how to achieve high-value output.

In order to output high value, you may need to look at other chapters comprehensively. The purpose of our specifically raising this point here is to enhance everyone's judgment.

As a decision-maker, if we have not grasped the opportunity to make high-value outputs, then it means that now is not the best time to build a community.

As an executive, if the company assigns us a task but we judge that we are unable to provide high-value output for the time being, the first thing we should do is to explain the importance of it to our leaders and strive to obtain relevant resource support from the company. Don’t be foolish and do it blindly, otherwise, this community will basically be declared dead.

In fact, a high-quality community cannot be created by simply mastering some methods. For most successful communities, their founders are opinion leaders who can output valuable energy. For example, Wu Xiaobo, Logical Thinking , etc.

(4) The output should be stable, and it is best to combine online and offline

Stable output refers to our operating strategy, or our rational allocation of energy. Never release all the good things at once, or fail to provide valuable things for a long time. In other words, when doing operations, you must make a plan first, and never act rashly.

In today's Internet age, direct face-to-face communication can more easily promote real emotional connections between people. Therefore, it is very necessary to combine some offline activities, such as meet-ups, sharing sessions, exchange meetings, etc. It doesn't have to be a big deal to have a lot of people in the group. You can just pull a group of active people out to a small place, have a cup of coffee, boost relationships, take some photos and put them in the group. The effect will be quite good.

(5) There should be hierarchy, with the upper classes supporting the lower classes and some users becoming managers

When the community develops to a certain stage, it will naturally form different categories as an organization.

• Opinion leader: usually the founder of the community himself, or a big shot specially invited by the community to take charge.
• Joint opinion leaders: They are generally experts in the field, but they only come here occasionally to take charge and provide opinions in some niche areas.
• Communicators: This is the most important group in the community. They can be considered the real fan group. They will spontaneously promote the community and contribute to community construction.
• Active people: Active people are those who are able to remain active and respond positively in the community.
• Participants: Although participants are not that active yet, they can still ensure that they can stay in the community stably.
• Bystanders: This group of people may have just entered the community, or are not familiar with it and are in the wait-and-see stage.

If you look carefully, 6, 5, 4, and 3 actually represent the user operations of attracting new users, retaining existing users, promoting activation, and converting existing users . When we have a clear understanding of the personnel structure of the entire community, we can then take appropriate measures to implement them. for example:

1. Disseminators must be encouraged and rewarded in a timely manner, and a certain sense of ritual must be created , such as public praise, granting some privileges, etc., to encourage them on the one hand and stimulate other people on the other.
2. Activists should be further guided and expected to spread the message proactively to create a sense of organization . For example, invite him to become the community's publicity ambassador, invite them to hold more offline activities , etc.
3. We should take the initiative to care for participants and enhance their sense of belonging to the community. In fact, it’s just chatting with them often, encouraging them to speak more and express more opinions.
4. Bystanders should be constantly guided to eliminate their concerns and enhance their sense of participation in the community.

We can complete the above four types by using the high-level method to lead the low-level method. for example:

• Give communicators some benefits and privileges to turn them into managers of the community;
• Let communicators organize offline activities and invite active participants, so that active participants can gradually become communicators;
• Let active participants take the initiative to contact some participants, initiate topics, increase the activity of participants, and turn participants into active participants.
• Allow participants to actively post some content as newcomers, so that bystanders can eliminate their concerns and turn them into participants.

The above points are the most critical points in community operations. It can also be said that the quality of these points determines the quality of this community.

Finally, let’s talk about the implementation steps of community operations:

Step 1: Determine the purpose of the community

Make it clear what type of community method it is. If it is the first auxiliary type, then you need to be clear about which specific link in the operation should be assisted. If it is a commercial type, then you need to consider macro factors such as market share.

Step 2: Establish community goals and values ​​around the purpose of the community

There is a slight difference between the two. In most cases, the purpose is what is thought in the heart, while the goals and values ​​are shouted out. But I believe that a truly great community has consistent purpose, goals, and values.

Step 3: Building community management staff

The management personnel of the first type of auxiliary community do not need to be very complicated. Generally speaking, 1-2 people are enough. The management and coordination of a daily community mainly focuses on matters. The other one is more business-oriented and focuses on connections with people. Sometimes it’s enough for partners to take care of each other.

The second type of commercial community has to have a more complicated management team. It requires at least a creator ( KOL type who also serves as an energy output), a daily manager (community secretary type who also serves as a daily manager), a new member acquisition person (mainly responsible for publicity and promotion of the community), and several partners (who can come to the platform in different scenarios). It will continue to increase with development.

Step 4: Determine the community’s carrier

This mainly refers to some third-party tools , such as WeChat groups, QQ groups, Maimai groups, forums, etc., and determines whether to add some auxiliary functions based on subsequent outputs. For example, if you need to do live broadcast in a WeChat group in the future, the current WeChat will not be able to meet the needs, and you will have to rely on some third-party tools such as Xiaoetong and Fans Circle.

Step 5: Establish community rules

Generally, the rules of a community include the following parts: who can join the group (gender, age, interests, etc.), conditions for joining the group (whether it is an invitation-only system, whether payment is required, etc.), rules to be followed (such as whether one needs to change one's name when joining the group, whether one needs to send red envelopes, whether one needs to introduce oneself, etc.), handling of violations (such as sending random advertisements, insulting and quarreling, etc., and determining different levels of punishment, such as warnings, kicking out after 3 warnings, etc.), etc.

Step 6: Develop interactive mechanisms and operational strategies

The interactive mechanism generally refers to how we respond in a timely manner when users take certain actions in the community. There are two types: automatic response and manual response. Automatic responses include some common questions and answers, photos, videos, as well as some daily check-ins, voting, etc., which can all be set in advance. Manual response is an early warning mechanism that mainly deals with some special situations. For example, if a user asks some tricky questions, or there is a quarrel between users, etc., we should be prepared for the time and the words we should use to resolve the situation. The operational strategy is just as mentioned above, which is to evaluate your own output capacity, allocate it reasonably, formulate and implement plans and continuously record relevant data to lay the foundation for subsequent strategies.

Step 6: Screening and splitting users

After completing the above steps of preparation, you can officially start the work of attracting users. For auxiliary communities, existing members are generally used for import; for commercial communities, they can only find ways to accumulate the first batch of seed users for import.

Subsequently, in addition to regular operations, we can also quickly accumulate users in a short period of time through the fission of some communities. Regarding fission, we will introduce it separately in the next article.

Step 7: Monetization

When the community develops to a certain extent, we will eventually need to consider how to monetize it. If it is the first type of auxiliary community, it may be able to help the main business grow by completing its tasks; if it is the second type of commercial community, it must produce and sell its own products, and generally realize monetization through membership fees, rewards, crowdfunding, advertising, e-commerce and the like.

Step 8: Copy

This step is mainly aimed at the second type of commercial community. As a business model , if it is successful in a small range, it is necessary to consider expanding the scale. At this time, it can be replicated by expanding personnel, products, or building a media matrix.

Here we have finished talking about the community. Community is a method of operation. To truly run a good and long-term community, we still need to be able to produce valuable energy, energy that can truly spread through word of mouth. Otherwise, even if it is popular for a while, it will only be a flash in the pan.

summary

When building a community, you must first clearly identify the positioning and clarify the goals and significance of the community. A good community is one that gathers a group of people together, focuses on a common direction, and works together to create something that can generate value. After we have completed all this, we should think about how to pass this energy to more people. At this time, fission becomes very useful.

The author of this article @志远 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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