Paid social and paid communities: Let’s talk about community value and community operation!

In this era where "free + value-added + advertising" is popular, I think there will definitely be a lot of trolls starting to criticize a social networking product with such a wide range of users if it adopts a charging strategy. In the eyes of many people, it is simply a gangster-like scam to charge fees, or it is impossible to achieve.

However, QQ groups started to charge fees. Why do QQ groups become paid? Everyone has their own opinion. I won’t say much here.

First, let me talk about a theory. A conjecture in the field of mathematics, called Six Degrees of Separation, Chinese translations include the following: Six Degrees of Separation Theory or Small World Theory, etc. The theory states that there are no more than six people between you and any stranger, that is, you can get to know any stranger through at most six middlemen, as shown in the figure.

Relationships within three degrees are called “strong relationships”, and those beyond three degrees are called “weak relationships”. What can be transmitted between weak relationships is only information itself, while what can be transmitted between strong relationships is influence. No matter how profound the theory is, the close combination of "six degrees of separation" and the Internet has begun to show its commercial value. In recent years, people have paid more and more attention to the research of social networks. Many network software have also begun to support people to establish more trusting and close social connections. These software are collectively referred to as "social software." You may be numb to these words: society, network, region, business, blog, SNS. However, once those who foresee the opportunity find the commercial value of aggregating them, it is not just the network world that will be changed.

We may meet thousands of people in our lifetime. Some of them are extremely important to me, while others are insignificant to me. The reasons and methods for establishing our connections are also very different.

In our lives, the higher a person's status and the more famous he is, the more friends he will have, so he will be less willing to expand his circle of relationships because they are often overwhelmed by them. If the damping disappears in an instant, you can call Robin Li, Jack Ma, and Pony Ma at will. Don’t you want to talk about movies with Feng Xiaogang? You can make the call now. But we can only say that this has become a disaster. Many celebrities have complained that many people have called their homes and said, "Are you XXX? I like you very much!" and then hung up. Many people were so annoyed that they turned off their phones or even changed their numbers.

This disaster is a very interesting story for us outsiders. Once the relationship between these celebrities and the public is flattened (six degrees becomes one degree), their value to the public begins to disappear. The public can only call them, ask, and then show off that they have called the stars, that's all. This huge flattening project did not expand the circle of friends of the fans, they are still far away from the stars...

Information dissemination

Having said so much useless stuff, let me talk about the dissemination of information through social connections.

The development of social applications has not reached its end as many people say, but has just begun. In the previous stage, there were six degrees of connection; before that, there were only information connections, but rarely two-way connections; so what’s the next step? In my eyes, this is the era when the third degree of influence begins to take effect.

Information dissemination, what kind of information is high-quality information? I think, three points.

High-quality information should be absorbed, digested, applied, and then derived into new high-quality information, which is useful knowledge. Knowledge is not static, it must be dynamic and it must be alive.

Let me say a few more thoughts on the “sharing economy”. Sharing of houses (AirBNB) and cars (Uber) is just the starting point. There is something bigger to come – sharing of knowledge. I have written an article before about the community operation of the sharing economy.

As information becomes more transparent and the stage becomes more spread, people with ideas and skills begin to become active on Weibo and WeChat, and the concept of community is slowly penetrating. From free to paid, from a few people to a group, from joining in the fun to integrating resources, these are all progress. Designers set up a design group, marketing people set up a marketing group, programmers set up a programming group, and so on.

Paid Community

I think the payment model is a good phenomenon. Commercialization is an inevitable trend in many fields. Looking at and embracing change positively may bring unexpected rewards.

On the one hand, payment is a way to screen members. You can select members who are determined and courageous, form a group to keep each other warm and develop together.

On the other hand, members’ payments can help the community leaders obtain value in return. This will ensure that community leaders upgrade their services, bringing continuous high value to members more professionally and attentively, thus achieving a virtuous cycle.

It is true that there are already many paid groups now, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, and as few as hundreds or dozens. The free groups are basically only active for one or two days, and then advertising business cards are flying all over the place, and then everyone can't stand it, some quit the group, some block the group, and finally only one dead group is left.

But the value of paid groups is different, because everyone has paid to join, so they will cherish the opportunity in the group, because everyone in the group has paid to join, and are willing to pay for value, so these people themselves are a kind of value, so I basically deleted all the free groups now, leaving some company and friend groups, and the others are paid groups, and the value and resources I get in the paid groups are far greater than the entry fee I paid, so everyone used to say that the Internet is a free era, but now I want to say that mobile Internet is a paid era.

The founder of Traveler, Judge, once published an article on Huxiu.com, in which there is a passage:

It is undeniable that people’s social status, economic strength and consumption concepts vary greatly, and social interaction is essentially an exchange of information and value. In the process of establishing relationships between people, if there is a potential difference in the supply and demand relationship between the two parties, the weaker party will inevitably need to provide more value to compensate the advantaged party. To put it simply, at least invite the other party to have a meal or drink tea.

Social products serve to realize value. Their significance lies in serving people who are willing to pay for social interaction and providing more opportunities to gain benefits. In addition, the user quality of social products is an important factor affecting user experience. It can even be said that the pain points of stranger social networking lie in the quality, security and privacy of users. Generally speaking, the overall quality of paying users is better than that of free users. Improving user experience creates value, and due to the increase in user consumption levels and willingness to pay, products can also directly or indirectly benefit from monetization.

Community Value

Mobile Internet has changed the way people obtain information and socialize, bringing new business opportunities. The era of the masses has disappeared, niche groups and communities have emerged, channels, teams, and products have become fragmented, and traffic is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Faced with a fragmented environment, new media, communities, and opinion leaders will form new traffic entrances.

Community economy should not be too big, but should be refined and in-depth, with the focus on mutual assistance and value sharing. When value is continuously injected and management is continuously standardized, the community will be able to continue and form backbone and deep members who support each other. Mobile Internet has changed the way people obtain information and socialize, thus bringing new business opportunities. Mobile Internet has led to an explosive growth in the quantity and frequency of everyone’s social interactions.

In the past, your social circle was very narrow, and on average you would have no more than 150 close interactions with people in your lifetime. But now, your circle of friends can exceed 5,000 people. If you have more than one WeChat account, it can be tens of thousands or even millions. They have social relationships with you to a greater or lesser extent, directly or indirectly, and the frequency of social interactions has increased significantly. Mobile Internet is a radical disruption, and all trends are related to it because it changes the mode of information transmission and sharing.

The community has not performed particularly well in the past two years, and even "Luoji Siwei" no longer accepts members. I guess we can’t collect them anymore because there are too many people and they are too loose. I feel that the past two years have been the era of grassroots communities, and in two years we may enter the era of big-name communities.

What is the value of community? It’s about us picking up the fragments, attracting people, and building our own core competitiveness. It is difficult to compete with BAT when making an Internet product, but if I put 300 or 400 people in a classroom and promote some products and services, you will find that BAT cannot compete with us. This is the value, picking up the fragments, it may not be big, but it is enough to feed you.

To build a community, you must first have appeal. There are two types mentioned here: one is the new media, including traditional media, joke tellers, and industry big names; the other is opinion leaders, such as Jack Ma and Pony Ma, who are business leaders and big Vs. Only people with influence can build communities, while it is more difficult for people without influence.

Now vertical users are becoming clearer and clearer. What are vertical users? For example, doctors, scientists, and lawyers, each field has a circle. There will be some opinion leaders in the circle, and when you have questions about something, you may look at their views and opinions.

Water group?

Let’s talk about why I don’t allow my group friends to chat in the group.

Generally speaking, it is difficult for the human brain to process multiple pieces of information at the same time. This is the fundamental reason why a "discussion" with more than four people feels very "chaotic". Of course, some people like to climb stairs or read in a jumpy manner. In fact, this can be understood as passively digesting and absorbing other people's knowledge and information. When two or three people chat in a group, it is actually very efficient and very rewarding. The prerequisite is that these people must be of similar level or have a good understanding of each other.

When the number of participants reaches a certain level, the output value is basically equal to 0 - this has nothing to do with the user's level of knowledge accumulation. Because when the number of people reaches a certain level, brainpower becomes insufficient...or some people simply give up on the information. In fact, you can imagine that if 100 out of a group of 500 people are speaking at the same time, this phenomenon is already terrifying. After chatting for one night, there will be at least tens of thousands of messages.

Chatting in a group of dozens or hundreds of people is nothing but a waste of time.

So I think it is best to express your opinion or an article in one paragraph as much as possible.

A person should express his thoughts and ideas clearly in words. If someone disagrees, he should express his thoughts and ideas clearly in words, either by refuting or supplementing. In short, it should be clear enough. Instead of you and I talking one by one, and then sending hundreds of messages like this in one night, I don't think it is valuable.

In the SNS Social Research Institute group, I often see very good ideas and discussions. And they are all in sections. For example, the group leader Zhang Jun is the CEO of Shuaixing Technology, a debater, and a product manager. Pansy Cave product manager, Brother Jeff, and Brother Zheng Yanbo who switched from the advertising industry to social products.

Community Operation

In the process of operating the community, my realization is that the decentralization of community operations can be inspired by the concept of decentralization in nature. Every individual is a brand, every individual has emotions and desires, and every individual must find a sense of existence.

Therefore, the decentralization of the community means that there is no one-man show, and it is not just a few star members speaking out, but everyone has the right to speak, interact with each other, and "cross-infect" each other. Everyone feels that this is their spiritual home, and everyone is happy to label themselves as "I am from such and such community", and they can't help but show off to others that they are a member of a certain community. Such communities are relatively successful and interesting.

The birth of a community may be that a certain person or a group of people, because of some "shared interests", intentionally or unintentionally initiated the existence of a niche group. Later, with intentional or unintentional promotion, the members of this niche team may increase, even spread across the country or the world.

Any excellent community, no matter what its "past life" was, needs to be designed and optimized if it wants to thrive in its "present life". After continuous optimization, what has been precipitated is the community's mission, culture, behavioral norms, etc.

For community culture with Internet genes, the balance between "decentralization" and "centralization" is both an art and a technology. It is called an “art” because, after all, it is people who operate the community, and people are complex, and their abilities vary. Without those people who are highly willing to contribute and are loyal to the community, the community may lack cohesion, become fragmented, and eventually come to nothing and disappear. If decentralization is not achieved and only a few people are making decisions, the community will die and your partners will leave you. This is called "death from exhaustion."

Therefore, the community is developing in the contradiction and paradox between "decentralization" and "centralization".

I suggest that friends who are engaged in self-media and operation should set up their own paid group. It is not for the purpose of making money, but to experience the process and the charm of operation, learn something from it, and summarize some methodologies of their own. In this process, you can deeply understand the logic and experience of completing transactions on WeChat.

Why

Okay, so you said so much all of a sudden? Let’s talk about why I should invite you to join the group?

To answer this question, I would like to share an article by Feng Dahui, "What's in it for me":

I often meet people who have nothing to do with me or who I don’t know at all. After finding my contact information, they send me messages and say they want to make an appointment to talk to me and want to hear my views on a certain industry.

A former colleague came to me today and said the same thing. What can I do in this situation? Of course, the answer is a direct rejection. How come former colleagues are not related at all? The only connection between us is that we both worked in the same company, and we had no overlap. Why refuse? I would ask myself (or the other party): What benefits will this bring to me? This is not a paid consultation. At most, it will take a meal or a cup of coffee, and then a few hours, not to mention that making appointments will also consume fragmented time.

Some people say, can’t I just talk to you for an hour? Why are you so arrogant? I'm looking for you because I respect you. There is no such thing as a one-hour interview in this world, unless it is an accidental encounter. Otherwise, if you meet for a one-hour coffee, both parties will waste a lot of time.

Some people may say, why are you so profit-driven? What benefits do you want? The "benefits" mentioned here are the value of your time investment, which must be measured. Everyone wants low input and high output. Your time should be given to your family, to your company, and to yourself to do what you like. Why spend it on strangers? It is not difficult to meet the requirements of others, but doing so does not bring any value to yourself and the time is spent inefficiently. Many people are embarrassed to refuse other people's requests, especially when the other party may be introduced by a friend, a former colleague, or even someone who comes to you because of your reputation, but these relationships are actually not important to you. When they approach you, have they considered what value they can bring to you? Most people just try their best.

Look at it from another perspective, if you are the one making an appointment with someone, why waste their time if it doesn't benefit them? Is it beneficial to myself, or to others? People should be selfish, but they cannot always be too selfish. People cannot always be too selfish, but they should be self-interested.

That’s right, isn’t it? What good will it do for me to add you to the group? Who are you? Why? What value can you bring to the group? Of course, if you can join the group and share valuable information with everyone, I would be very happy to invite you to join the group. The value that a person brings to the group is far less than the value that the group brings to him. This is indeed true. Moreover, the more people there are in a group, the more difficult it is to manage. If you don't pay, why should I increase the difficulty? That's the reason.

I won’t talk about those garbage groups and advertising groups. Let's talk about a high-quality boutique group. I've added you in. If this group has 400 people, it means that I've created an opportunity for you to connect with 400 group members, and the group contains huge personal connections, cooperation information, and opportunities, providing unlimited possibilities. I will not talk about this point for now. Take myself as an example. I joined several good WeChat groups, and often expressed my opinions and interacted with group members in them. Along the way, I had smooth sailing, which paved a good way for my future development. After all, not everyone can master the community. Especially those who are still in the same group, I think this type of users can be T. For users who have not spoken, of course we can consider other reasons or the positioning of some groups, such as being very busy or unable to talk, etc.

Let me talk about why I don’t want to invite some people into the group. There is actually another reason. That means you don’t understand online social etiquette. I no longer have the energy to talk to this kind of person.

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