How can community apps prevent user churn?

Definition of churned users

Different products have different definitions of user churn . Social apps usually define it by the length of time since the last login, while e-commerce apps define it by the time since the last purchase.

Generally speaking, for social software like QQ and WeChat , if users do not operate for one or two months, it can be considered that the users have been lost. One thing to note here is that QQ and WeChat are highly social software. Even if we don’t use them, they will still be installed on our mobile phones. In this case, it can actually be considered as loss, because the value of social software lies in solving communication problems, and not using it for communication for a long time is equivalent to loss.

So for community products, how should lost users be defined? Since the community focuses on content, I think churn can be defined as users who do not speak or interact for a long time.

Signs before loss

Community products emphasize content. Users increase their activity by posting, commenting, replying, liking, etc. Correspondingly, users will also show some signs before churn, such as:

• The login frequency is reduced: the number of times the app is launched each day is reduced, and the interval between launching the app is lengthened.
• The frequency of speaking decreases: the number of posts, comments, replies, and likes per day decreases.
• The number of followers decreases: not following other users, paying less attention to hot posts, and not participating in activities.

In addition to the above points, different products may have other signs. Generally speaking, we can estimate the possible loss of users based on the usage process and make corresponding optimizations.

The above lists the processes that most community product users will go through, and each point needs attention:

Download: Find out the reason why the software was not installed after downloading, such as the installation package is too large or the package is damaged (generally, the application market will filter out problematic installation packages, but some models may not be compatible with the installation package)

Register to create a new role: Most apps use a mobile phone number verification code to register or use QQ, WeChat, or Weibo to quickly register. After registration, users are usually required to fill in a nickname. For lazy users, you can make some optimizations in the role creation process and help them choose a nickname. Of course, if the user does not like it, it can be modified.

Browsing: Users have their own aesthetics and habits regarding the UI and interaction of a page. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be counted by dwell time. Finding pages that users are not interested in and optimizing them, and moving popular pages or functions to higher-quality traffic entrances are also effective ways to prevent loss.

Speech: For a community, the amount of user speech is the core of judging its activity. Whether the editing function is powerful affects the user's desire to speak. Articles with beautiful pictures and smooth layout can not only enhance the image of the community, but also stimulate users' desire to create.

Waiting for interaction: The waiting here refers to the time a user waits for a comment reply after speaking. If the community is not very active, using a small account to comment, reply and like is a common method. Filling the waiting time after speaking can effectively increase the activity of the speaker.

To summarize the above content: the community can reduce user churn by optimizing two aspects: reducing the cost of registration and creation and increasing users' desire to speak .

How to detect users who are about to churn

Discovering users who are about to churn requires data support. We can analyze it from the following data:

1. Observe the time when user retention drops significantly. For example, if the retention rate drops the most from three to seven days, it means that new users are usually most likely to churn within 3 to 7 days after registration.
2. Record the newly registered users’ daily login time, page dwell time, number of interactions with other users, and content of interest within 7 days
3. Analyze the changes in data , find users who may churn, and then analyze user portraits to find content that they are interested in and push it to them.

The second point can also be used to analyze old users. Reducing the churn rate is an important part of user operations , and refined operations cannot be separated from the support of data.

How to save users who may churn

The third point mentioned above usually uses emails, push , and SMS to save users who may churn. In fact, it is too late to save them after they may churn. We might as well start to reduce the churn rate after registration:

“It is not impossible to save the country in a roundabout way”

The interaction of the community depends on the content, and the output of content comes from users. In fact, communities are just like real life. It is difficult for strangers to have in-depth conversations. When a new user first enters the community, you can let him choose content that interests him or use social connections to find people he knows. Use content of interest and familiar people to increase the new user's favorability towards the community. Specifically, two problems need to be solved:

• Increase the number of users who follow you and the number of people who follow you
• Increase the frequency of interactions between people you follow

Let me share three industry cases on improving new user retention, which may help you gain some insights:

The secret to Facebook's development and keeping a user is to get him to add 7 friends within 10 days.

During LinkedIn's early development, it was discovered that users who added five contacts within a week had a retention rate /usage frequency/stay time that was 3-5 times that of users who did not add five contacts.

Twitter discovered new users who stayed and followed more than 30 users. After they registered, they were recommended to follow in order to increase the number of followers of new users and ultimately improve retention rate.

From the above three cases, it can be seen that increasing the number of new users following and being followed can significantly improve retention, that is, reduce churn .

We can refer to Weibo and recommend users you may be interested in to new users, and describe them in one sentence to tell you who they are. In addition to recommending people who may be interested, recommending people you know is the most effective. Please note here: In addition to introducing people you know to new users, you should also recommend new users to their friends and tell them that there is a new friend of yours in the community. This will increase the probability of mutual attention and the new user's favorability towards the community.

How to increase the frequency of interaction between followers? This can also be referenced on Weibo, where you can extract the Weibo posts of the people you follow into the “Follow” page. For new users, it will feel very intimate to see familiar people when opening the community. If your community does not have many users, you may want to use the "Follow" page to increase the frequency of interaction between people you follow.

This article was compiled and published by @老祖由(青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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