A comprehensive guide to upgrading private domain traffic

Private domain traffic , relative to public domain traffic, refers to channels that are free of charge and can directly reach users at any time and frequency, such as self-media, user groups, WeChat accounts, etc. The development of the WeChat Internet system has provided a good foundation for the development of private domain traffic. Therefore, for the platform, it is a general trend to supplement the shortcomings of its own private domain traffic. Next, the author of this article provides a comprehensive guide to upgrading private domain traffic.

Creating a community and getting a few IP numbers equals private domain traffic? Then you really have misunderstood “user full-link lifecycle management”.

When we open the messages on our mobile phones, we will find that there are many methodologies taught to us about "community operation" and "private domain traffic operation", and it seems that there is never a lack of methodological learning.

From strategy to construction, and then to distribution fission, it has been tried and tested and has worked every time.

Why is it that as operations officers, after we have learned these things and put them into practice, we find that the expected effects and the “actual effects” are different?

The answer tells you: "The environment is changing", "The industry is changing", "The user's cognition and education have also changed", so you find that the original methodology is no longer effective, fission can no longer be done, and effective customers can no longer be found.

Many people think that the operation of private domain traffic is similar to "community operation". Whether the company uses corporate WeChat or personal WeChat, it imports users into the "personal account", and then forms groups, organizes activities, performs fission, and plants grass.

In fact, this "methodology" has been the "operating standard" for two and a half years.

I believe that "the closed loop of private domain traffic is built on the user ecology" and does not rely solely on the community. Why?

If you observe carefully, every operations officer can see that media information is constantly changing. "Now is an era of information explosion." Everyone has many social groups on WeChat, and the content deposited in the circle of friends is mostly "ineffective advertising" or "personal updates."

This means that from the perspective of WeChat personal IP operation and community operation, the length of time users stay in the private domain to attract attention is gradually decreasing.

Therefore, based on the current industry trends and development, I believe that "private domain traffic" is a "closed loop" that integrates "community operation, membership system, points system, community activities, community operation, IP operation, MCN, and offline self-organization."

This closed loop directly determines the user life cycle of the "platform" (brand) and controls the core consumer lifeline of the brand. Whether it is e-commerce or medical beauty, after all, this is an era where the focus has shifted from order conversion, platform GMV, and order volume to "ARPU and LTV."

1. “Cold” start of “old user” private domain traffic

Cold-starting private domain traffic is not just about building a "community". It is not as easy as building an IP. Putting aside the superficial methodology, there are basic operations such as "building IP persona", "circle of friends", "traffic diversion", "community operation and maintenance", "lecturing", and setting up a "business school".

I think the "cold start of private domain" can be divided into several aspects: the first is "operation and maintenance of old users, screening and stratification"; the second is the construction of "membership or points system or user level system"; the third is "cold start construction of the community"; and the fourth is "activity operation of regular creations."

1. Screen out the seed users who are suitable to be the “mid-level” users from the old users

The middle level is defined as "platform KOL, KOC". This type of group has specific attributes and stickiness on their own platform, so as to tap their potential from the application end, and then empower them to form a big IP and cover the C-end users of their own platform.

This kind of shaping effect has a "leverage model", which can leverage external traffic at very low cost. Let me give you a simple example: Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi were both Taobao's own internal anchors in the early days.

However, after being explored by Taobao’s operational team, their potential was discovered, and they were “empowered” from within, diverting traffic to drive overall consumption on the platform and attracting C-end users within Taobao. They then continued to increase the potential, thereby reaching out to the outside world and attracting more “KOLs and KOCs from other platforms” to settle in Taobao - this is the “self-incubation strategy”.

Let’s not talk about AARRR, RFM, AIDMA and other models that are highly theoretical and require a long professional operation cycle. It has been observed that the user portraits on most platforms are not so accurate.

Because from a business perspective, it is impossible for a PM manager or user operations director to lead the "user life cycle" business line alone. To be down-to-earth, the product organizational structure of most companies will not be too sophisticated from the user level. There will be no private domain traffic operation department, at most only a community operation department.

Therefore, the jurisdiction of the community operation department cannot involve the "full-link user life cycle product line" and the "community product line". When these are split independently, they will not play a big role in the construction and growth of private domains.

If you are a "person in charge of private domain traffic" or a user operations director, and you ask the product to draw a portrait for you, the life cycle and consumption frequency will not appear so detailed. All you may get is some cold data, and the intermediate process and communication costs are huge.

Then, with these data, you can only "direct traffic to build communities" or do some community activities, so the reach rate will not be very high.

So how can we build the "cold start private domain traffic construction work" from the perspective of old users for the full-link "life cycle management"? I roughly summarized several aspects:

1. Pull cycle (different dimensions of users, consumption, repurchase rate);
2. Labeling (labeling users according to platform attributes);
3. Do analysis (basic analysis of data, user volume, etc.);
4. Do screening (the essence of screening is to find the first batch of users who are suitable for private domain);
5. Do research (research is to discover needs and understand market conditions);
6. Prepare PUSH (SMS APP, public account, social media);
7. Import period (importing users to corporate WeChat or personal WeChat);
8. Basic operations (product selection, community content, friend circles, activities);
9. Find a match (not all users are suitable for waist-level foundation building).

First, we can evaluate the basic number of users based on the daily and monthly active users of the market, and conduct on-site questionnaire surveys on these users, or conduct questionnaire surveys through "public account tweets", "SMS push", and Weibo self-media.

The specific content of the survey may involve, for example, "official construction of private domain traffic groups", "official targeting of beauty categories", "food categories", "digital categories", "family life and other categories" to find in-site experts to serve as UP main empowerment plans.

As long as you love beauty, or like to take videos, take photos, live broadcast, and show off, you may become an official expert and enter the private traffic management community; through official training and participation in regular empowerment plans, you can become the "shiniest iron man."

Once you have done the basic research, you can do the "investment registration" for the first time. The investment registration form should clearly state the name, address, identity information, talents, whether there are social accounts on other platforms, number of fans, etc., so that it is convenient for operators to "screen".

Then the registration action is also covered by "pushing in the site, text messages, public accounts, etc.", which can reflect that users can push everywhere. If you want to take the strategy to a higher level, you can also do some "PR" communication, similar to recruiting UP bloggers nationwide.

During the basic introduction period, add the official IP number and prepare the circle of friends. When a certain base number is reached, we start to build a community. The early operations of the community are mainly based on "content output", which is also the most important "aspect" of building the platform's values.

During the basic operation stage, it is necessary to cooperate with community activities and the basic gameplay of the WeChat ecosystem. But you will find that the WeChat ecosystem is rather limited. This is why I have always emphasized why we need to build a "community ecosystem", because the community ecosystem is the most important place to retain users, extend user life cycle, and maintain daily activity.

Not all screened users are suitable to be mid-level KOLs or KOCs of their own platforms. The early tonality is very important. At the same time, don’t cast a wide net. You can start with a certain category. For example, the TikTok you often see starts with a certain category to test the waters, recruit, empower, and motivate creation.

2. Build a "distribution" fission model

The analysis is mainly based on e-commerce platforms and all-category vocational education platforms (Get, Fan Deng Reading). After you have screened your basic old users and done a good job of KOL diversion, you will find operational bottlenecks from a full-link perspective.

The so-called bottleneck is the "exhaustion of community gameplay". You can only sell goods or share content. So at this time, when the "old user screening" work begins, you must speed up the construction of the platform's "distribution strategy."

I have seen many platforms that directly started to introduce external customers without any distribution strategy in the beginning. In fact, this will cause a serious churn rate for the entire platform.

There are several distribution strategy models to choose from:

1. Becoming a platform-incubated KOL can directly have "distribution rights";
2. Through relevant task mechanisms (such as clocking in for a few days and spending a certain amount of money);
3. Purchase a membership benefits package (199, 299 packages, and then activate permissions).

The distribution model does not rely solely on an activity fission and new customer acquisition methodology, but is a complete system. For example, after becoming a KOL, you can invite a few people to form a fan group, and you can be upgraded to a certain level based on the number of fans in the group.

There are many models of social e-commerce platforms in the past two years that can be used as reference. The fission mechanism and promotion conditions at the phenomenon level are quite similar. But from an operational perspective, don’t even think about using “distribution to drive strong growth” because as a platform, if you position yourself as a distributor, then there is basically no difference from other products.

Therefore, for most platforms (online education, short videos, content e-commerce), distribution can be regarded as part of CPS, and the core platform positioning is still based on the tone of "mission, vision, and values."

On the one hand, distribution can drive KOLs to the platform, whether by directly sharing products or promoting products through content (short videos, live broadcasts, graphic notes), thereby adding a revenue channel. This type of rights and interests also paves the way for the introduction of external KOLs and KOCs in the future.

Like the early anchors of Taobao and the certified self-media KOLs on Douyin, they also have a "distribution function", but it is not too obvious. In addition to getting commissions when others buy products after sharing them on their own platforms, they can also enjoy the benefits by sharing them on other additional platforms.

Others, such as Yangmatou, Suning, Yunji’s live broadcasts and communities, are essentially aimed at serving as the middle force in the middle and empowering KOLs. Without a complete distribution mechanism, KOLs will appear particularly flat and can only monetize vertically through live streaming and selling goods.

Therefore, from an operational perspective, what we help our platform’s KOLs to build is an empowerment model of live streaming + distribution + private domain + community + IP, allowing KOLs and KOCs to form their fission closed loop.

Then the platform only needs to make good products (courses) from the supply side, which will achieve a win-win situation, stabilize the platform's C-end and small B traffic, and secondly provide empowerment.

2. “Community” is the “waist” fight club

No matter what kind of platform you are using, whether it is a single brand directing traffic to an IP, or a community generating private domain traffic, it is inseparable from three words: "people, goods, and place". The same is true for the education industry and the medical beauty industry.

People, goods, and places belong to the 1.0 era. In the 2.0 era, people, goods, and places pay more attention to the "place" - that is, a place that improves the user life cycle, allows users to speak independently, and realizes value.

The reason why Kuaishou, Douyin, and Bilibili were able to rise quickly is essentially that they built a "field" for users and created a culture of inclusiveness.

1. Most platforms don’t focus on “venue”

People are consumers, and it is very easy for us to understand C-end users and small B users.

Goods are the "supply side". Whether it is paid knowledge of high-quality courses, standard products of beauty, food and fresh produce, or various medical beauty services (small bubbles, face-slimming injections, hyaluronic acid), etc., these all belong to "goods".

Then we also need to think about the "field". At present, many APPs still use the "shelf" model, that is, the goods are divided into different categories and then put on the APP. In fact, this field can only serve as a display.

In the second half of the mobile Internet, what kind of environment do users need?

"There needs to be a place to take over content or produce UGC," because this is an open era and everyone is eager to share their professional knowledge or experience.

This is also the evolution of the original community culture, such as Weibo and Douban, but the survival of these platforms relied on interest organizations and the output was "graphic and text UGC". Now, as we are catching up with the era of 4G transformation and upgrading, the media has also changed.

From the original pictures and texts to short videos, I think the supply side is very easy to deal with for any player who builds a platform. For example, e-commerce has an established supply chain, and paid knowledge has established content. What is the most difficult thing to deal with? The answer is "users."

Therefore, we need to "start in this field". As mentioned above, when the operations manager selects KOLs and KOCs belonging to his own platform from the old user layer, short-term operations can be operated in a community manner, while long-term operations must use the "community + community" approach.

2. Build a “basic community” model and basic operations

Many people may think that there are many product communities, and the platform can just recruit a product manager to copy other people’s product prototypes. I think this is also possible.

However, when building a full-link operation of user life cycle from 0-1, I would rather suggest "exploring needs first" and then gradually upgrading functions.

Otherwise, there will be a situation where the rhythm of the "product line" and the "rhythm of the community" are not consistent. Moreover, the community needs to perform distribution, live broadcast, short video streaming, likes, comments, sharing, link generation, cards, mini-programs and other functions, which must also be scheduled according to the "private domain traffic demand."

The construction of the entire private domain is a full-link rather than a single-point operation, and each APP has different attributes and groups of people. Simply copying others may not necessarily lead to success.

From a business perspective, combined with the operations of KOLs and KOCs selected from the old users mentioned above, I believe that the 1.0 version of the community can be divided into three categories, namely "grass-planting recommendations", "hot-selling selections", and "sharing to make money".

The early crawler is very necessary. The crawler PGC is to make the "scene" look particularly atmospheric, so that the community KOL and KOC carefully selected by the operation end are willing to "share" on the platform, otherwise the community will appear cold.

The initial user activity operation is divided into two modules, namely the community and the community. It is best to do them in coordination. Let me give you a simple example. If you initiate a "one-week check-in event" in the KOL community, then the announcement of this event and the check-in address should be done in the "community".

In this way, your overall activity and user stickiness will be greatly improved. At the same time, high-quality content can also become popular among users and be recommended on the list.

If the selected KOLs and KOCs have more sense of ceremony from the operational end, in the initial stage they can also be awarded electronic certificates after they pass the activities or assessments, allowing them to "show off their certificates on the platform", which is also an interactive strategy.

The essence of sharing and making money is to accumulate knowledge for KOL distribution, so that these KOL and KOC know that they can enjoy profit sharing by selling goods through platform pictures, texts, live broadcasts and short videos.

3. Community upgrade is to "introduce more traffic in the future"

Why is it said that the upgrade of the community is for the introduction of subsequent private domain traffic? If you follow the traditional fission growth method, you will simply adopt short-term strategies such as group buying, bargaining, or old customers bringing in new customers. These are the basic configurations of the APP.

If the APP community can be continuously optimized and upgraded, then in the next stage the budget for advertising subsidies and attracting new users can be used to "introduce KOLs and KOCs."

Let me share with you how much intangible profit the introduction of the next KOL can bring:

1. Equals a large number of fans (because KOLs have many C-end users);
2. KOL cooperation means (stimulating internal C-end user consumption at one time);
3. It is equivalent to a PR promotion (KOLs have accounts on other platforms and most of them will forward the message);
4. Mutual empowerment (KOL and platform cooperation creates a win-win situation).

The community of the platform is a gathering place for treasures. The community function can be made into a headline, or even a search engine or Xiaohongshu, and can be further subdivided, such as "skin care", "body health management", "questions and answers", "skin testing", "diet matching", "clothing matching" and so on.

Try to operate the community as a vertical category of e-commerce and carry out segmentation within the category. All of this is about creating content, and content is the most important factor affecting the length of time users stay.

In the e-commerce field, I have seen many reasons why "e-commerce platforms have failed to transform successfully". In addition to the business model, they failed to grasp the industry changes brought about by content upgrades. Like boiling a frog in warm water, they think that the content section is dispensable. In fact, this is a big mistake.

When product homogeneity is severe and there is no shortage of supply, it is particularly important to promote content.

Because it is the link between products and C-end users, it needs to use the marketing power of KOL and KOC to drive consumption and stimulate growth. Therefore, in essence, the community part is a necessary path in the transformation of APP products.

3. The “membership” and “points” systems are the link between promotional expenses

Many platforms have "membership systems" and "points systems", but they are all one-time deals and lack any systematic elements. What is meant by the systematized level is whether, after a user becomes a member on a platform, he or she can directly receive “points” for the amount spent.

At the same time, is there a full-link task setting for obtaining "points", such as daily check-ins, daily sharing on WeChat Moments, daily "posting pictures and texts" in the community, or redeeming points? When a certain number of points are reached, they can be redeemed for gifts, or even get promotions in rights and interests. It is important to be able to form a strong closed loop.

Let users feel that they are "leveling up and fighting monsters" every time they consume, and as consumption continues to increase, the "rights and interests" unlocked will also be different, then an "addiction model" will be formed, which is also one of the most important means to increase user life cycle and retention.

1. Membership fees can be linked to “distribution”

Many people may think that "members are members", so why should it be linked to distribution? In fact, it can be completely connected and "distribution can be regarded as one of the rights and interests of members."

After all, this is an era where everyone can share. By setting it in the membership benefits, on the one hand, it can screen users; on the other hand, it can also "promote membership card" consumption.

If you want all members of the platform to be able to distribute, you can lower the threshold a bit. For example, you can "distribute" by opening a monthly paid membership. If you don't want to distribute to all employees, then put the rights and interests on a quarterly, half-year or full-year basis.

Of course, there is another way, which is distribution without charging membership fees. How to set this permission? For example, you can set it up to invite a few friends, and you can unlock distribution rights by purchasing by yourself or reaching a certain consumption threshold.

There must be a "level system" among members to facilitate user promotion. So how should the level system be set up?

Conventional platforms are set up according to the three dimensions of "ordinary membership", "senior membership" and "exclusive membership", but some platforms find it troublesome and directly set it up according to "month, quarter, and year".

At the same time, there are also platforms that will divide the membership into "ordinary and advanced" horizontally according to the dimensions of month, quarter, and year, such as monthly ordinary membership and monthly advanced membership. The essential difference "lies in the rights and interests of members."

Member benefits are mainly about selling "benefits" and points are two different things. What benefits can be given? Zhiyuan believes that it is necessary to formulate according to the tone of the platform and not to imitate others.

Coupons, offline experiences, distribution rights, live broadcast push throughout the site, birthday gifts, access to promotional activities, knowledge of content creation activities, etc., can all be given away. The essence of all rights and interests is not only to serve C-end users, but also to empower small B, and they can also become the rights and interests of small B distribution.

2. The points system can be connected with the "community"

Giving points for consumption is a common operating strategy of all platforms, but many platforms do not provide much information on the usage scenarios and ways to play with points. Points can activate the C-end from an essential level, but all platforms are providing this function, which means that "users' attention will be reduced."

If you want to be different from other platforms, you must start with the needs of the small B dimension, through the above-mentioned old users, and the KOLs and KOCs selected from the platform. These people are relatively loyal to the brand (platform).

From the early stage 0-1, you can add some "punching in", "signing in", "sharing in Moments", "following Weibo", and "writing content", so that the relative participation will be stronger. At the same time, it also cultivates the stickiness of small B users and C-end users, thereby increasing the length of stay.

Points can be connected with the community. Every time a community event occurs, users will be given points as long as they participate. At the same time, points can be redeemed in a special area. In addition to goods, some special and meaningful things can be used to enhance the brand value.

For example, "branded dolls", "commemorative badges", "short-sleeved POLO shirts", etc. are all good choices, and can also avoid the "homogenization of products" with other similar platforms.

The general points system is set up with several different levels from V1 to V5, from community rookie to "community leader".

The rules for upgrading can be divided into several different dimensions, such as "consumption points rebate", "community content creation", "social welfare", and "improving life happiness", and positioning can be based on the platform's tone.

Other ways to stimulate users and increase the retention of small Bs are regular "activities". The activities here not only refer to activities that sell goods, but can also be "content creation activities". For example, in the food category, the platform can call on "high-quality creators who share short videos of cooking and delicious food."

Then, we select small B users who have created high-quality content and give them cash rewards, or recommend them to the homepage, or increase their own platform traffic, etc. This series of actions not only allows small B users to participate, but also can influence the C-end users of the platform.

When a C-end user registers for an APP and sees such high-quality content output, he will be attracted. This is also the core reason why many women are accustomed to searching for professional knowledge on "Little Red Book" before shopping.

IV. Introduction of “KOL” and “Building of Organizational Structure”

Once the platform has completed the basics (distribution mechanism, selection of KOLs from old users, community building, certification and V system, and a series of SOPs for daily creative activities), the next step is a continuous PDCA cycle. The platform can select 1-2 times from its own C-end users per month.

In addition to these, when the community creates enough content and the functions of the community products (picture and text streams, short video streams, live broadcasts) are good enough, it is time to consider introducing small B from outside to create content on your own platform.

1. How to introduce external KOLs and traffic

Many platforms like to think in a way that "I need to find more distributors" to help me sell goods. In fact, this is very meaningless. Because of the definition of "distributors", this group of people are like Taobao customers. What they care about is the discounts on products and whether they can get benefits from the platform.

Therefore, the positioning of the operations manager is very important. We need to find more people who match the tone of the platform. The essence of introducing KOLs and KOCs is also for "distribution", to expand the platform's user base and increase GMV.

KOL is the waist, and distributors are the "fleecing". The latter are not sticky and are profit-driven. The former focuses on "content creation" and "content sales". KOLs who are able to monetize content mostly have personal closed-loop capabilities, namely UGC output + community operation + IP operation + product recommendation.

The ability of a distributor is relatively weak, and he can only build his own community group through "distribution in the circle of friends", but the influence of the IP remains in the "WeChat ecosystem" rather than the dimension of the entire site.

I have roughly summarized a few points here. So how to find and introduce KOLs?

1. The first step: What needs to be clarified is the tone of your own platform, "what fields" of KOLs you need to find, and "how many users the KOLs cover", because KOLs can be in the millions, tens of millions, or even just rising to the top.
2. The second step is to lock in the platform. You can look for platforms such as Douyin or Kuaishou short videos, or KOLs and KOCs on platforms such as Weibo and WeChat public accounts, or other similar communities.
3. The third step is “how to negotiate the price”. The approach I usually take is not to directly “invite them to join” but to invite them to cooperate in a live broadcast.

Invite KOLs to the platform for live broadcasts, and then provide KOLs with Weibo publicity, public relations, and WeChat public account self-media recommendations to strengthen their personal IP.

When you invite outside KOLs to live broadcast on your own platform, the KOLs will also synchronize their live broadcast links to their personal private traffic matrix; at the same time, from the perspective of platform operations, you can directly give the KOLs and KOCs a membership card and activate the distribution function for their accounts. In this way, the KOLs will also receive commissions for the products sold through their links after the live broadcast.

Not only points are awarded, but also membership levels and distribution profits. If you want long-term cooperation, KOL sales members can also get a share of the profits.

In this way, the cost of introducing and retaining a KOL will be greatly reduced, so that she can also bring in more C-end users (fans). The invited KOL also needs to be empowered. Every time the KOL posts a short video or live broadcast, she can be pushed to the homepage and traffic can be tilted, which will be conducive to long-term development.

2. Building the organizational structure

From an operational perspective, how do we build a team to upgrade private domain traffic and operate users across the entire chain?

I have roughly summarized that the initial team configuration from the operation side requires the following positions: community operation, product manager, member operation or user operation, and event operation.

This is just the online part. If you have a store, you will need to configure additional shopping guide operations. Of course, this also depends on the number of users on the platform and the scale of transactions.

The basic content that needs to be taken care of includes the initial planning of the community section of the product, data analysis, community operation through product screening data, basic IP operation, traffic diversion and other work, user operation planning of membership level system and points system, and event operation is responsible for "product-related activities and community, community-related activities."

With the gradual increase of KOLs and KOCs on the platform and the improvement of the functions of community products, live broadcast operations and short content (video, graphics) creation and operation personnel can be deployed in the future. If the basic foundation of all these is stable enough and the basic operations can be started, the team can be upgraded and the "media operations" can be expanded.

The media is mainly responsible for the discovery of external KOLs, the introduction of KOCs, business cooperation, as well as distribution channels and the connection with distributors.

The key KPI indicators for the entire chain of private domain traffic are: "KOL, KOC user asset management", data accumulation and quantitative management, mainly e-commerce, the key elements of private domain traffic are LTV and CAC. If corporate WeChat is used for operation, the key indicators are "traffic diversion", "service", and "monetization success rate".

I mainly focus on the e-commerce dimension. As the scale continues to expand, product and activity subsidies also play a very important role. Therefore, for the continuous upgrading of the community ecology, the essence is to "promote consumption" and promote the life cycle. Therefore, from the perspective of platform distribution, product selection becomes particularly important.

Secondly, with the increase of KOLs and KOCs on the platform, these user assets can also be divided and managed according to different categories. For example, some specialize in beauty products, some focus on food, and some focus on digital reviews.

These can be broken down into channel operations throughout the entire user life cycle. Each operator is in charge of different channels, different KPIs, and leads a line. Then the community homepage can push information flow according to the behavior of C-end users.

For example, the UGC ecosystem of Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu is constantly growing with one's own preferences, and all of this grows in a cycle.

5. “Incubate MCN and achieve self-organization”

Once the platform has laid a good foundation, it means that the private traffic operation and management of the community + community will continue to grow like a growth flywheel. In addition to the above, the supply side, marketing, activities, and delivery are also particularly important.

When it reaches a certain scale, the platform must break away from "community relations". The community only needs to manage top KOLs and important figures. The next step is to form the platform's self-organizing culture and user-initiated MCN.

1. How to start the platform incubation MCN

Some KOL and KOC users have basic UGC production capabilities, so the platform must continue to empower these KOLs and allow them to monetize, so that they can work together for a win-win situation.

Otherwise, even though the platform has its own KOLs and KOCs, and they have their own fan pools, if they cannot get continuous empowerment from the platform, they will find their own "supply chain" to sell goods themselves and ignore the platform, thus turning the platform into a "channel for acquiring traffic."

This is why you see that Douyin wants to build a closed ecological loop, from content creation, supply chain, Star Map advertising information flow, to KOLs selling products themselves and Douyin stores. Because users can monetize in the large traffic pool - there is business, they are willing to stay.

So at this time, if the traffic of the e-commerce platform reaches more than 10 million, the "traffic pool" should be opened to attract more KOLs and let KOLs form their own MCNs. So how to open up the ecosystem from the perspective of the platform?

At this time, we should abandon the idea of ​​cold-starting old users to screen KOLs, and start from the global perspective to "upgrade and reshape the traffic". The platform can empower "high-quality MCNs" and encourage capable KOLs to form MCNs and thus sign "official contracts".

The recruitment strategy is similar to the cold start strategy, which can be achieved through in-site push, SMS, or platform self-media announcements.

When the platform reaches tens of millions of users, one action will alert more KOLs, so when the MCN decision-making begins, you can still start from a certain category, such as digital, beauty, food, etc.

With the continuous exposure of the platform brand and daily S-level marketing activities, the platform has evolved from having many KOLs in the community to signing "many small organization MCNs", and these MCNs have become the "waist" of the platform.

This is also a common method used by most platforms to upgrade their strategies. For example, NetEase Kaola transformed from traditional e-commerce to MCN influencers, and directly announced the recruitment of 100,000 online shopping guides in the form of PR to empower them.

Not all private domain traffic must be considered from the perspective of "Internet celebrities". The most important thing is to find a platform that suits you. For example, Perfect Diary's KOLs are all people who want to be beautiful, and Koala revolves around "shopping guides". You only need to have certain potential abilities.

2. Why should we establish a self-organizing culture when traffic reaches a certain level?

The essence of self-organizing culture is that "traffic has reached its peak", and then the platform redistributes the rules. For example, you have seen those offline Douyin conferences, Kuaishou exchanges, and video number exchanges. These are not essentially dominated by the "official".

When the platform's traffic dividend is large enough, self-organization can actually "enhance" the relationship between the platform's users and users, and KOLs.

Of course, the platform perspective can also be dominant, such as offline award ceremonies, KOL sharing sessions, Xiaohongshu offline celebrity conferences, etc. The essence of self-organizing culture is a kind of "synergy effect."

Most of the self-organized organizations under the platforms are a way for people to get to know each other online and chat offline because of certain rules that are tacitly understood between each other. Today's social e-commerce and community group buying e-commerce are the evolution of self-organizing structures, and they can work together to form a powerful chain reaction.

The MCN under the platform is like a link for self-organization. If C-end users and C-end users do self-organization, it will be relatively difficult and the personal influence will not be that great. If it is an offline event organized by an internet celebrity under an MCN, or several KOLs jointly, I believe there will be many users participating.

From the platform's perspective, operations managers should also encourage this kind of "behavior". Photos and videos taken after each self-organized sharing session can be shared in the online community, and of course they can be exposed through live broadcasts.

Just like we see that every time there is an industry conference of a major player, "Dedao New Year's Eve Speech", there will be branch venues, and many of the branch venues are based on the influence of KOLs. These KOLs can attract investment through the branch venues and cultivate user stickiness.

The platform constantly emphasizes self-organization to "KOL", which is also decentralization, and establishes distributed and multi-center operation and control methods; under the self-organization, authoritative opinion leaders will emerge, and these opinion leaders are like the "middle axis".

In the initial stage, it is recommended that the official self-organization can work together with MCN or several big V Internet celebrities. When a certain fixed model is formed, the official only needs to provide material and process support. The self-organization can also charge tickets. The core of all this is centered around "empowerment by the central KOL or MCN."

Core point: Private domain traffic small closed loop = community + social group + content + KOL + products + distribution.

All platforms serve users, and the difficulty with traffic lies in the "closed-loop capability of the basic platform." Once you find the full-link user life cycle growth flywheel for your own platform and build the "waist" of the platform, you will actually not lack the ability to attract new C-end users and do things that are closest to the users.

Author: Wang Zhiyuan

Source: Wang Zhiyuan (Z201440)