1 operation philosophy, 8 core words to understand operation

For friends who are just starting out in the operations industry , here’s a motto for you. This motto is the core starting point of operations: operations need to be user-centric, and comprehensively master user operations , content operations , event operations , community operations and other methods to help achieve operational goals.

If we expand this mantra, there are 8 core words, namely 1 center, 3 goals, and 4 operation modules . This extremely short mantra is not difficult or awkward to pronounce, and I believe most people can remember it instantly.

One center, three goals

Although the so-called operation in the Internet field today has not yet formed a systematic discipline, the generally recognized definition is: a method of continuously improving the correlation between users and products by integrating specific resources around a specific product is called operation.

In other words, operations are the bridge between products and users. Products are the responsibility of product managers and developers, so users are naturally the focus of operations personnel. Therefore, the center is obvious: operations should be user-centered.

In addition, operational goals are usually changing. In the early stage of product launch, attracting traffic and verifying product demand are the main work focuses; during the operation period, attracting new users and promoting activation are the focus; during the promotion period, it is necessary to continue to attract new users and achieve conversions while continuing to attract traffic and promote activation. But in general, the goals of operations are nothing more than these three: verifying demand, maintaining users, and providing product feedback.

Four major aspects of operation

Looking through public accounts such as Socket Academy and carefully reading books such as "Super Operation Techniques", "Evolutionary Operation", and "Operation Front", basically all of them emphasize that we must be user-centric and carry out operations from the aspects of user operation, content operation, event operation, community operation, data operation , etc. Here we focus on the first four contents. Data operation is advanced content, which we will skip for now.

User Operation

The first is user operation. The so-called users are the households that use our products. They can be Zhang San, Li Si, Zhang San’s company, Li Si’s company, that is, it can be both to c and to b. If we have to draw a model for these users, we can refer to the pyramid model.

(The graphic is drawn with reference to "Super Operations")

• Celebrity users refer to those people who are well-known in society. They can be stars, entrepreneurs, etc. If this group of people use your products, it can help enhance the brand’s visibility and authority.
• Professional users are those who specialize in this industry or profession. They understand the product very well, understand the users of the product, and understand how to play the game. This group of people are basically the plug-in experts for this product and can play a big role in the optimization and promotion of the product.
• Contributing users are people who can continuously use the product, produce content, and advocate for the product. The activity and mobility of this group of people should be guaranteed.
• Active users are people who use the product frequently.
• Ordinary users are people who visit frequently.

After knowing who the users are, we need to conduct user operations. The so-called user operations are to find ways to make these Zhang San and Li Si in the pyramid model continue to use our products. For example, get close to him, organize fun activities with him, etc., so that he can recognize our products and buy our products.

Of course, in the Internet field, there is a special term for this thing, which is the eight-character mantra of attracting new users, retaining users , promoting activation and converting users . All very easy to understand.

• The so-called new user acquisition is to find and attract users;
• So retention means to keep users from leaving through incentives such as articles, activities, coupons, etc.
• The so-called promotion of activity is to let the remaining users come to play mahjong at home whenever they want, interact with each other, and improve their activity level;
• The so-called conversion is to organize a family gathering and sell some things to them so that they can pay, such as selling clothes, bags, games , membership cards, courses, communities , etc.

Since users are stratified and operations have different focuses, we must use different operational strategies for different user groups. How do we operate? In a word, be professional.

Operations personnel must be professional, which involves the use of some basic methods and tools , article writing, community gameplay, incentive mechanism design, code optimization, data monitoring, etc. It is a relatively detailed and technical matter, which requires operations personnel to not only talk but also go deep into practical operations.

Content Operations

The second is about content operation. The so-called content refers to anything we can see, touch, and hear. It can be a picture, a sound, a video, an article, or a combination of all of these.

These contents may help users obtain information, such as Toutiao ; may help users kill time, such as Miaopai ; may allow users to learn in-depth reading, such as the Get app; or may help users make consumption decisions, such as p2p financial platforms.

Different content goals have different gameplay, but the specific operation steps of the content are the same. The more common production process is as follows:

• The first step is to profile the consumer group of the product or content;
• The second step is hot spot collection and topic planning;
• The third step is content structure building and content production;
• The fourth step is channel selection and content push;
• The fifth step is to monitor content data;
• The sixth step is to modify the iteration content.

I won’t go into the specific content writing methods for now, we can talk about it another day.

Event Operations

The third aspect is event operation. Activities are all things that can be played and can bring benefits. Without them, there will be no traffic and no conversion. In this operation-driven era, activities are standard for every Internet company, whether it's the Double 11 Singles Shopping Festival or the Christmas Eve Carnival, whether it's taking advantage of the situation or creating a day, activities must be held anyway, even if you have to borrow money.

Why do we need to do this? Different activities have different focuses, whether it is to attract user attention, stimulate user participation, strengthen user awareness, or achieve sales conversion. But in general, the general framework of event planning will not change. It generally has these 9 steps:

The first step is to determine the purpose of the event; the second step is to determine the timeline of the event; the third step is to plan the form of the event and formulate the rules of the event; the fourth step is to follow up, design, develop and launch the event; the fifth step is to prepare promotional resources; the sixth step is to do a good job of risk control and alternative plans; the seventh step is to warm up before launching the event; the eighth step is to monitor the progress of the event; the ninth step is to announce the results of the event and conduct a review and summary of the event.

Community Operation

The next thing is community operation. The so-called community is a place where two or more people can play together, such as Douban groups, Zhihu topics, forum posts, and QQ WeChat groups . In short, in the Internet field, there are usually three steps to do a good job in community operation:

The first step is a cold start . You must find ways to find your own seed users and fill community venues with basic content to create a basic atmosphere. For example, when Zhihu.com was first established, it used an invitation system to invite high-quality users, such as Kai-Fu Lee , to ask questions. Once the questions and answers formed content, the high-quality content would form an atmosphere, which would then attract other users to participate, forming a cycle.

The second step is to explore the model, to understand the user needs, incentive methods, and community tone of the community being built; the third step is rapid replication and scale-up. Whether it is a WeChat group for reading, a QQ group for speeches, or a Tieba group for chasing stars, it is best to replicate it continuously and set up several in every city, county and township.

Okay, this is the philosophy I want to share today - operations need to be user-centric, and comprehensively master user operations, content operations, event operations, community operations and other methods to help achieve operational goals. The corresponding 8 core words are 1 center, 3 goals, and 4 operation modules. Have you remembered them?