Community Operation Growth Flywheel

We can start from the five major links of the community life cycle (cold start, fission, retention, monetization, and replication) to promote community growth, which can be called the community growth flywheel.

The first step is “cold start”: when starting a community from 0 to 1, you should first think about your own positioning and value, so that you can clarify the direction of all subsequent operational strategies and actions.

The second link is “fission”: it solves the problem of how to quickly expand from 1 to N after the community is established, and how to continuously attract more new users to join through fission.

The third link is "retention": how to cultivate the community to maintain user stickiness and make the community have longer vitality, which requires mastering the mechanisms and gameplay of a large number of active communities.

The third link is "monetization": how to stimulate users to place orders within the community? Each company’s business model, product form, and target population are different, but the users’ psychology has something in common. Only by grasping the psychological effects can we respond to ever-changing situations with the same attitude.

The fourth link is “replication”: when the scale of the community continues to expand, the strength of one person or a small team can no longer manage it. How to build a team and what mechanism can be used to further expand the community?

I plan to share the five stages of the community growth flywheel in five parts. Today is the first stage - cold start

A community is not just about pulling a group of people into the group. What’s more important is that you have to solve a problem: how can your group stand out? Comprehensive thinking during the cold start phase will largely influence subsequent operational strategies and execution actions.

In the cold start stage, our core thinking model is the four elements of cold start, namely target users, community positioning, personality profiling and value creation.

1. Four elements of cold start

Target users — Who are the users?

The type of our products determines the people who use and purchase them. We need to sort out and describe the characteristics and behavioral habits of the people in order to find them in batches more accurately.

Community Positioning - Who am I?

Whether it is operated by a business or an individual, a community should have its own distinctive characteristics so that target users can clearly understand their needs for us.

Personality Profile - What are my strengths?

The owner or operator of a community should have unique charm and characteristics so that users are willing to follow him.

Value creation - why should users pay attention to me?

What kind of value can a user get from our community? Whether it is economic value or spiritual value.

2. The first element of cold start: target users

(1) Analyze the thinking framework of target users:

• Personal background dimension : analyze the user’s age, gender, education level, family situation, etc.
• Professional characteristic dimension : analyze the user's occupation, income, interests, hobbies, etc.
• Psychological characteristic dimension : analyze users’ needs, motivations, desires, etc.
• Circle dimension : People with the same discourse system and the same circle are more likely to converge on certain behavioral habits and psychological motivations.

Let’s talk specifically about the circle dimension. For example, Douban is full of people who love literature, art, and music. They may come from different cities and have different income levels, but they all tend to be more literary in temperament and preferences. There are more 2D users on Bilibili. The levers for leveraging users in different circles are very different, and the circles can be broken down from these five angles.

• The first is the same industry : for example, the growth circle and the education circle. In the same industry, everyone has some common topics and behaviors.
• The second group is people with similar interests : for example, the photography circle and the foodie circle.
• The third is people from the same place : for example, people from Northeast China, people who have moved to Beijing, and people from our Sichuan region.
• The fourth is the same identity ; for example, a mom who is an entrepreneur.
• The fifth is the same culture : for example, fans of the dimension, culture, and art films we just mentioned, etc.

(2) Channels for finding users

The first batch of users for creating a group usually comes from our existing traffic pool, such as fans of the official account and WeChat friends already added to the customer service account. At the same time, we also need to continuously acquire new target users from the outside.

When looking for user channels, the accurate portrayal of user portraits as we just mentioned can bring twice the result with half the effort. Knowing what circle the users are in and where they are active, you may be able to find them faster.

3. The second element of cold start: community positioning

Why should users choose to join your group?

The answer is through community positioning, so that when users think of certain needs, they will think of coming to your group.

(1) Three focus principles for community positioning

When we think about our own community positioning, there is a thinking framework that can serve as a starting point, called the "three-focus principle." Focus on categories, focus on scenarios, focus on features.

Focus on categories

What does category refer to? For example, a certain lipstick community focuses on selling lipsticks with a full range of colors, the latest and most trendy ones. It can tell group members about any new products released around the world at the first time, and there are also professional makeup artists who constantly publish lipstick reviews, and can even provide authentic products at low prices.

Focus on the scene

What does the scene refer to? Melatonin’s brainwashing slogan, “I won’t accept any gifts this year, if I do, accept Melatonin,” has successfully banned the practice of giving gifts to the elderly during the Chinese New Year.

Focus Features

What kind of effects do characteristics refer to? For example, when buying shampoo, if your hair is very dry and tangled, you need a shampoo that is smooth, so you would think of Pantene; if your hair has dandruff, you need a shampoo that is dandruff-removing, so you would think of Head & Shoulders.

(2) The role of community positioning

First, help eliminate user motivation bias

In 2018, there was a phenomenal nationwide movement - sharing money for answering questions.

Qudian has a car installment product called “Dabai Installment”. In order to promote this product, Qudian cooperated with Knowledge Superman to launch a quiz activity. There were 12 questions in total. If you answered them correctly, you could split 1 million yuan equally. Two sessions were held and 2 million yuan was spent. It was found that all the users went to the platform that organized the event and it did not gain any traffic.

So Qudian made a similar product itself and spent more than 10 million yuan on an activity where people could earn money by answering questions. The effect was quite good, attracting more than 10 million users to participate. However, these more than 10 million users only sold 4 cars in the end, and the average customer price of the 4 cars was only about 100,000 yuan, so the total sales was about 400,000 yuan.

Why is it so miserable? This involves motivation bias. When you acquire customers, it seems that you have gained a lot of users, but the intentions expressed and the final behaviors of these users have nothing to do with the main value of your product.

Second, let users have a clear understanding and memory of our group

If a group only has a certain function, it will be difficult to retain users for a long time in today's numerous social networks. For example, if you are a business selling women's clothing, but there are thousands of communities selling women's clothing, why must users come to you?

A good approach is that since you have anchored the women's clothing category, you must have the most complete variety of women's clothing in this field or at least within your geographical area, or you must have some special channels where you can get the cheapest prices on certain brands. In short, you need to have some of the best tricks in a certain aspect to make users remember you.

Third, let the operator have clear goals in subsequent operations

All aspects are carried out around the core positioning, clarifying the role of community positioning and mutual communication.

(3) Five steps to achieve good community positioning

Now that we have clarified the role of community positioning, here are five application steps to implement it in practice:

• First, clarify your product type.
• Second, anchor on segmented populations.
• Third, analyze the demands of the crowd.
• Fourth, explore your own characteristics and determine your community positioning.
• Fifth, based on the positioning, determine your group name and subsequent operation strategies.

4. The third element of cold start - personality portrait

Personality portrait is how operators build personal IP?

(1) Five key points for building a group owner IP

First, the group owner is a real person like the group members.

It is best for a group to bring together people from the same circle. The group owner needs to be the same type of person as the people in this circle.

There is a very interesting test in behavioral psychology. When you meet and chat with a client, if you consciously imitate the other person's actions, for example, when the client drinks water, you also pick up the cup to drink water, and when the client holds his chin in his hand, you also hold his chin in your hand, you are mirroring his actions.

At this time, his favorability towards you will increase faster, which is very interesting. Why is this happening? Because we humans have the instinct to seek out our own kind, we have a natural affinity for them.

A community is also an online social space. If the group owner presents the same temperament as everyone else, it will be easier to enhance the cohesion of the community.

Second, the group owner needs to have unique value

Being just the same kind of person can make it easier to be liked, but it is not enough to be followed. In the community scenario, the group owner must also provide more valuable things to group members. The value is closely related to one's own talents, abilities, and accumulated experience, and can provide nourishment to your group members.

Third, the group leader has a personal style, that is, personal charm

Nowadays, whether it is a celebrity, internet celebrity or a private traffic operator, they all have the awareness of building a personal image, and the same goes for group owners. The group leader is a real person and must have a real personality, but everyone's personality is multifaceted, and showing every detail cannot become your unique label. Therefore, we must find the most distinctive and positive aspect of our personality, and constantly and consciously highlight and strengthen it.

Fourth, we must achieve richness and variety

A long-lasting IP must demonstrate growth in front of users. No matter how unique the value you can provide or how attractive your personal charm is, it cannot remain unchanged and always be in the same state.

Because users are growing, if you want your users to follow you for a longer period of time, you need to provide richer and more diverse value and inject more energy into them.

Fifth, the group leader must also be altruistic and help others

In fact, what we often think about is how to ask for something from users. But as a true leader, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility. The group leader must not only build the IP, but also become the spiritual pillar of the group. He must be able to help group members and coordinate mutual assistance among members. Only in this way can real trust be established.

Just now we talked about the five key points for group owners to build IP. The principle is easy to understand, but how to do it specifically? Here we provide a practical tool - personality portrait matrix.

(2) Personality Profile Matrix

Personality portrait is to sort out what kind of personality you can create.

Design your own personality label based on your own talents, and persevere in this direction to repeatedly strengthen your personality.

When sorting out your own talents, you can consider them from three dimensions: what I like, what I want, and what I am good at

After thinking clearly about your talents, design your own personality label from three perspectives: role, personality, and expertise

The role label describes your relationship with the users. The role determines how you get along with group members and even your words and actions in the group.

For example, if you are a professional consultant, you can give everyone advice in the professional field, help everyone solve problems and broaden their thinking. You can also be a shopping guide, helping people evaluate products and guide and meet consumer needs.

Personality label, which is what we just called personal charm, describes what kind of person you are.

Professional labels accurately identify your core value. The unique value that a group leader provides to group members must be that he or she is better than others in some aspect.

After the personality portrait is determined, the image is continuously output through specific settings in actual implementation.

Including your WeChat nickname, WeChat avatar, signature, Moments, cover, and Moments content. All of this external information is user experience. Your windows should be carefully designed to match your personality portrait and output continuously.

(3) Three tips on building your personal IP

First, the best character is Gao Wei

To attract others' active attention, you should add them, and then they should add you.

Second, we need to find the right niche and try to become the best at it.

There is only first place and other rankings, so you must make yourself very good in a certain field.

Third, we need to create a label that is both universally known and recognizable, and output it repeatedly.

5. The fourth element of cold start: value creation

To create a group, you need to be good at it, no matter what aspect it is, as long as your users have a reason to join the group.

(1) How to find your own value?

First of all, you need to determine what the user needs when joining the community?

For example, these types of needs: self-improvement, basic survival, social needs, economic benefits, and entertainment needs, etc.

Secondly, based on the broken down needs, summarize what specific and unique value you can provide.

For example, it may be a real product discount, practical knowledge, sharing of real-life experience, or a connection to activate resources. Only when you have a clear idea of ​​your own value can you talk about value shaping and personality portrait. The value of the community will be reflected at any time in countless details.

(2) How to reflect values ​​in group rules

The first is the community access mechanism

Is there a threshold for joining your community or not? If you are a person who is in the stage of large-scale traffic diversion, the more the better, and there is no need to set a threshold.

If you want more precise traffic from the beginning and don’t want a large amount of general traffic, then you can consider setting it up. If you have a threshold, then people who come in will naturally develop a sense of value.

The second item is group announcement

Many operators regard group announcements as just a tool to @ everyone, but in fact it should also be your showcase, especially when a new user just joins the group and doesn’t know anything yet, group announcements are an important channel to help him quickly understand what is being done in the group and what has been gained.

The third is group rules

In a long-term operating group, it is necessary to let your group members know clearly what they can and cannot do in the group? What are the scope and boundaries of discussion within the group? Set rules that are more conducive to reflecting the group's value based on your group's positioning.

The fourth is the elimination system

It is usually reflected in group announcements or group rules. Like the admission mechanism, it is a flexible, non-mandatory rule, and the elimination limits can be loose or strict. For example, there are rules set in many groups. Our group is prohibited from posting advertisements or adding people at will, otherwise it will be exposed.

Here are two excellent community rules for reference:

1. Reference to the Ganhuobang Group Rules

[Article 1] Ganhuobang starts with learning and discussing Internet knowledge, seeking dry goods and true knowledge;

【Article 2】Change group nickname: real name + occupation + city;

【Third Series】No politics, no preaching, no pyramid selling, no verbal attacks, no deception;

[Article 4] Success studies are prohibited. Those with A ratings are not allowed to enter. No spamming or hard advertising (all advertisements must be sent to the advertising review team first, and if they are approved, at least a 100 yuan red envelope must be sent before they are released);

[Article 5] There are often offline gatherings, welcome to participate, call for original articles, and support forwarding;

【Article 6】Do not post long articles, fewer reprinted articles, and no voicemails;

[Article 7] Those who remain silent for a long time and those who leave after grabbing the red envelopes will be cleaned up regularly;

[Article 8] There will be theme sharing every week for discussion and exchange in the group. You are welcome to recommend sharing guests.

Disassemble the specific functions:

[Articles 1 and 8] What can you get in the group?

[Articles 3 and 4] Ensure that group members are not disturbed by information irrelevant to the group topic

【Article 5】Deep Links for Withdrawal Group Members

【Article 7】Elimination Mechanism

2. Qiuye Group Rules

[Article 1] In daily communication, the best way is to search for questions first. If the problem cannot be solved, discuss it with everyone, but don't take it for granted that group members are obligated to help you solve the problem.

【Article 2】All members are prohibited from posting advertisements without the permission of the group administrator.

[Article 3] Learn to listen. Do not interrupt or deliberately interrupt other members before they have fully expressed their views.

【Article 4】You can question other people’s opinions, but it is better to give your reasons.

【Article 5】Different opinions can be debated during the discussion, but personal attacks on other members or malicious disruptions are not allowed.

【Article 6】A speech must not contain less than ten words. As long as we adhere to this group rule, the quality of speech in the group will be greatly improved.

discuss,

Disassemble the specific functions:

[Articles 1 and 6] Emphasize output quality and enhance group value

【Articles 3, 4, and 5】Build a healthy and good atmosphere

6. Suggestions on practical details of the cold start phase

First, the group name is concise and reflects important information

Second, the setting of the personality portrait is generous and appropriate. It is not recommended to use emoticons in your WeChat nickname, because it does not look professional enough and is not convenient for your users to search for it. It is also not recommended to bring false labels.

Third, group announcements should be as concise and logically clear as possible. Pay attention to line breaks for core information; more complex process operations can be marked with serial numbers or emoticons.

Author: Lao Fuzi operates

Source: Laofuzi Operation