After thinking for a long time, I finally made up my mind to sort out the overall ideas of operations . Many people asked me what operations are for? Many people also say that operations are just miscellaneous work, but in fact, in the future network operations will inevitably become a profession that continues to determine the development of a company. In my opinion, operations are an internally driven closed loop floating on the sea. Without keeping you in suspense, we will explain them one by one.
Why does operation exist? Many people become operations professionals because of the situation. I believe that when you were making career plans ten years ago, you would not have thought of operations. At that time, the Internet was not yet a standard of the era, and there was no concept of Internet operations. Everyone has transitioned from various industries, some from management to operations, some from technology to operations, some from products to operations, and I went from training to operations. We have transformed into operations in response to the development of the company. Rather than saying "existence is reasonable", it is better to say "existence is needed".
A successful operation must meet the needs of the public well. This has nothing to do with "good or bad".
Operators with a high vision can see the market, those with an even higher vision can see the future market, and those without a vision can only see the boss.
It is impossible to operate a product that is not needed, and the only option is to commit suicide.
So who put forward the demand? Every operator knows that it is the users. In the past, everyone saw the top of the pyramid, but now the bottom of the pyramid is the key to determining success or failure. However, the majority means that opinions are complicated and it is difficult to satisfy everyone. Therefore, the first key task of operations is to analyze user data and come up with a demand analysis form. (It is difficult to adjust, but we still have to adjust. There is no demand that cannot be decomposed, just because we have incomplete data collection.)When you happily submit your proud analysis report, you will find that the future is not bright. For example, if you want to build a house by the sea, there will be countless practical problems in every link such as transportation, waterproofing, waste disposal, etc. that will shatter your beautiful idea. Countless meetings, countless overtime, and accompanying the product manager to eat one box lunch after another.This is the second focus of operations: ensuring that every feature of product design is in line with user behavior habits. If a programmer sees this and says that the operations staff is not as diligent as you say, it only means that the operations staff of your company is not responsible enough! How can an operations staff who does not understand the product design process propose functional upgrades? Once a product is missing, it is difficult for operators who are not involved in product writing to find the corresponding personnel to make modifications in the first place.However, the operation work has just begun at this time. The house has been repaired, and all decoration matters are within the scope of operation work. This is content operation. Good content operation is not about filling in information, but about penetrating the product and building the product's personality from the inside out. It is also a continuous operation task. Content operation is the "link" connecting user operation, event operation, brand operation, etc.From the perspective of content output sources, content operation methods are divided into two types: official output (PGC) and user output (UGC) (which must be determined during demand analysis). Regardless of which method is used, data analysis of its content is particularly important, and the following two points need to be noted:
Always pay attention to the impact of content on users every day. You can monitor it through UV/PV, content click-through rate , number of interactions, number of reposts, average page visits per person, visit depth/user path, etc. Basically, you should set a time every day to monitor.
Summarizing and analyzing the periodic data, the effect of content on the product is gradual, because user awareness needs to be stimulated. Similarly, many problems are exposed and also need to be reflected by a series of data. For example, if a large number of false likes are found, should we set the number of likes for the same IP? All of them need data to support them.
In fact, in my opinion, new media is also a kind of content operation. It just uses socialtools to push out content more subtly, which will produce explosive effects. Therefore, new media will be more valued by companies. I think the main tasks of new media can be divided into the following points:
Promotion (attracting fans, promoting, increasing readership, etc.) can be combined online and offline.
Content (the bonus period has passed, it’s time to compete with strength, and content is the most powerful strength)
Activities (Weibo and WeChat are platforms for publishing activities, and the design of activities is the most important, as explained below)
Users (this is the highest requirement of new media, constantly changing topics, tracking hot spots, and various forms to meet the appetites of different users)
When you have a relatively stable product and a high-quality content structure, your operation will have taken shape, and the next step is the key to success or failure. User operation is the most critical and difficult link, which can be mainly divided into activity operation and community (group) management. Let's explain them one by one:Many people know about event marketing , but not many do it well. Here is a key point: when doing events, you must have a product mindset. In the absence of much support, a well-designed event can help the company break the deadlock.For example, I previously planned an event for a physical therapy device. It was actually very simple. I posted on WeChat Moments to express my gratitude to my family. I didn’t promote the product. I simply gave away the physical therapy device. However, the event itself was a detonation point. Everyone could get the product for free, and it could promote social energy and stimulate social resonance. A lot of people participated, and it seemed that the company spent a lot. But in fact, that batch of physical therapy devices were second-generation products that were not sold during Double Eleven . It was difficult to market the upgraded version once it was launched. At the same time, you need to buy the subsequent physical therapy patches for using the physical therapy device yourself, which is equivalent to giving you a dog, but you can only buy dog food from me. The indirect benefits are considerable. And after using a product and downloading our app, it will be associated with other products.Therefore, the activities should not be too profit-oriented. Users like free things, but they are not stupid. The essence of the activity lies in the fact that both parties can reach a win-win situation in terms of interests. Simply attracting fans and attention is fake. The current Internet is full of various event marketing , most of which are low-level eye-catching.Community management is also called group marketing , which can be prepared before the product comes out. I recently joined an outdoor q group, and after joining I found out that it was set up by an outdoor organization. But so what, in the group I can know a lot of fun places, a lot of camping skills, and by the way, if there is any equipment I am short of, I can buy it in it. When the group owner maintains good relationships, everyone becomes his sales representative. This is group marketing, with the group as the bond.The core of community marketing is how you can continuously provide the value output they need. The quality of value output directly affects the cohesion of the group and the conversion of the population.I recommend that you learn about the community building of Yixinli. More than 300 psychological counselors provide them with a large number of online articles/topics/answers, as well as offline training in universities across the country, all of which are free of charge. Therefore, I hope everyone can join other people’s communities to see how they maintain them. PsGood maintenance does not rely on costs, but on forming a community of interests and sharing survival and death.Li Shimin tells us that water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Users are like water. You must steer the boat well and avoid capsizing.If you have mastered the users, then you are a very good operator. There is no doubt that 80% of the operators in the market are striving for this. However, there is another link that you may not encounter, but it is very important, which is business BD operation. Even if you are already an operations director, you may not be involved in this aspect. Small companies do not have the scale, and large companies do not have the authority.The so-called BD is the abbreviation of Business Development. The main work content is to seek partners, negotiate business cooperation, coordinate the company's external resources, and maintain business advancement. Large companies will have dedicated business departments in charge, but in fact BD and operations are inseparable.Only by controlling the operation of BD can you have a say at the partner level.Don’t think that you can become a BD as long as you have strong communication skills and a quick mind. You may mess up the cooperation if you are not careful. An excellent BD needs to master the company's processes, accurately understand every aspect of the product, and be able to extract the value of each part of the product. Through these values, he or she can plan cooperation models (soft article sharing/traffic interconnection/API cooperation, etc.). At the same time, he or she must have high emotional intelligence to negotiate those cooperative relationships. Therefore, BD is better than operations and higher than operations.If BD is done well or the overall operating model is improved, a virtuous cycle will be created. So guys in operations, if you want to be more advanced, you should try to understand some BD processes.When we achieve this step, we will find that we have already had an impact on users, and even these effects are continuing and spreading. Then your overall operational closed loop has been formed, and you have gone from "nothing" to "something". As long as the driving force of this closed loop is improved, it will continue to provide value. Even if new demands arise, they can be filled internally within this closed loop. At that time, there will be new content output, new activities, and new business channels, which will continuously open up these markets and enter a virtuous circle.Of course, it does not mean that forming a closed loop will bring good returns. The market is floating. Perhaps a huge wave will come and the closed-loop structure will be broken. For example, government intervention may block the original user path, such as QVOD. Crisis intervention is needed at this time, but we will not discuss this here.So to sum up, let’s get back to the essential work of operations.An HR once asked me what I am best at in operations. I was stunned. To be honest, I couldn’t say it. As an operator at this stage, we are monitoring every link, but there is no link that we are particularly sure of. Afterwards, I asked several executives who were particularly good at operations, and they were also confused by this question. Although they gave various answers to get by, they all tacitly pointed out a fact: operations are resistors, and if any link is missing, the current will be cut off.If you are really good at a certain section, it means that you are still just a junior operations specialist and are still struggling with the small links, or you are not doing well in that section, which is why you keep focusing on it. The more experienced the mathematician, the more difficult it is to explain what numbers are.The real career curve of an operation is an upward spiral. You will plan, summarize your experience, and exercise your problem-solving ability within one pattern, and gradually enter another pattern. In that pattern, you will begin to refine problems, propose new ideas, and retain them until you enter a new pattern. Every accumulation of quantity is silent. Once it settles to the point where the market can open a door for you, your quality will be raised to a higher level, and of course your salary will also be raised to a higher level.Internet operations have a large scope and a low threshold, and a large number of people have poured in. Some come to test the waters and then leave, while others work hard to do it well. China does not lack operations personnel, but it is very short of high-quality operations management.So please remember: real advanced operations management is the person who can control the entire artery of this closed loop and steer it at all times according to market fluctuations.
