E-commerce UGC community operation complete guide e-commerce

Don’t always think that you can build an active community in one go or with just a few moves. There is no such simple thing in the world, and simple things have no value. This is basic logic. This article only focuses on discussing how to do a good job in e-commerce UGC topics (ensuring value and high activity). Topics such as the upstream supply chain, the relationship between the B-end (merchant operations) and the e-commerce platform, and product iteration are not included in the discussion.

1. Background of e-commerce UGC community

Friends who are not particularly familiar with UGC can first briefly understand the definition of UGC:

UGC (User-Generated Content) is user-generated content. It is a content source relative to PGC (Professionally-produced Content). Simply put, more professional and authoritative content specifically output by professional individuals and organizations belongs to PGC, such as movie entertainment programs, books and periodicals, professional media information, etc.; on the contrary, the pictures and texts in your circle of friends, Weibo, Zhihu answers, and various videos on Miaopai are mostly UGC. UGC is a model of "mass content production" that was born with the rise of Internet 2.0.

So where did e-commerce UGC originate?

Let’s think back to when we were shopping, for example, on Taobao. The first thing we did was to understand the basic information about the product, such as price, appearance, color, etc. In addition to this, what other information is every consumer eager to know but that the merchant cannot provide?

right. Is the product genuine and how is it used by people who bought it? etc.

Users can only obtain answers to these questions through information shared by other buyers. (Yes, this is also one of the spirits of Internet 2.0: I am for everyone, and everyone is for me.)

But do all products need this information? Let's summarize it in an abstract way. From the perspective of "whether it is topical", all products can be classified into three categories:

Universal products: These are completely standardized products that are sold all over the country, such as Coca-Cola, Nongfu Spring, McDonald's, etc. Users only need to consider whether to buy them or not.

Adaptable products: products whose demand varies from person to person, such as clothing, books, movies, digital 3C, etc. Different people will have different choices due to their own body shape, identity, taste, preference, and knowledge;

High decision-making cost products: For example, houses, cars, drones, or gifts for important people, etc. are all classified into this category, which means that each purchase requires a lot of decision-making cost (energy or money) before purchase;

Among these three categories, the first category has almost no "e-commerce topicality", while the second and especially the third category are operation points that our e-commerce UGC operations can fully explore.

Let's take a look at the current situation in the industry. In fact, typical e-commerce UGC content is essentially nothing more than three types: buyer show, seller show, user product consultation and recommendation (such as maternal and child, 3C digital, home appliances, gifts and other products with higher decision-making costs), expression of feelings, etc.

The specific content presentation styles include: text and pictures, short videos, and this year's popular live broadcasts, etc.

The participants of e-commerce UGC include: mainstream buyer users (including potential buyers), sellers, and enthusiasts (KOLs in various product fields). Of course, content generated by the operators of e-commerce platforms themselves, such as "editor's recommendation", etc., strictly speaking, does not belong to UGC, but is merely "official guidance content."

In addition, there are market stakeholders in various segments, such as manufacturers, channels, brands, promoters, etc. They sometimes publish information supporting their own products and disparaging competitors. The content generated by these groups is lower in proportion to mainstream content.

With such a simple sorting and definition, it will be much easier for us to discuss the operation of e-commerce UGC communities later.

In May 2016, the number of monthly active users of mobile shopping apps as a whole was 467 million, a year-on-year increase of 37.3%. The user scale and growth rate are very impressive. ——Data source: QuestMobile

Wherever there are transactions, there is information asymmetry, and information asymmetry will prompt the creation, modification and dissemination of content.

This shows the huge potential size of e-commerce UGC.

2. Return to the original intention of UGC operation

Well, everyone, please don’t let your mind wander to happy shopping. When reading this article, we are in the position of operators of the e-commerce community.

Let’s first think about it from the operator’s perspective: What is the purpose of e-commerce platforms operating UGC?

Yes, increase user activity and improve conversion rate at the lowest cost. Our operations must always revolve around this core goal.

For comprehensive e-commerce platforms that sell standardized goods, the industry's current common means of increasing user activity are nothing more than crude interest-stimulating methods such as various low prices, coupons, holiday activities, etc., which are highly homogenized, have no creativity, and lack technical content.

To use Steve Jobs’s words about Microsoft: they just have no taste.

I have mentioned in previous articles that the essence of UGC community is content ecology, and the core of building a good UGC community is to build and maintain the three core elements of UGC - the relationship between content producers, consumers, and content:

Producers gain incentives to produce quality content;

Consumers get the content they want;

High-quality content can be delivered from producers to consumers as soon as possible and its life cycle can be extended as much as possible;

This core ecological principle is also fully applicable to e-commerce UGC.

After understanding the operating logic of UGC, we should focus on the motivations of two types of users: What are the motivations of e-commerce users to produce content? What motivates consumers to read content? Finding the answers to these two questions is equivalent to finding the driving force of our e-commerce community.

3. Motivation: Why do users use e-commerce apps?

When talking about user motivation, we need to keep in mind a premise: e-commerce products are first and foremost just a shopping tool in the user’s mind. Therefore, all fantasies that run counter to commercial behavior, such as "building a commercial spiritual home and soul destination that makes users happy", can be shattered in advance, at least for a considerable period of time.

So, are all the topics about adaptive products and high-decision-making products mentioned above the motivations for e-commerce users to visit e-commerce UGC? This is obviously not true at present.

for example:

When I check book reviews and movie reviews, I will first choose Douban; when I want to learn about 3C digital products, I will first choose vertical forums and communities related to digital products; when I want to learn about fashion and clothing, I will first look at fashion websites;

…

It is difficult for users to use e-commerce products as the first channel to obtain product information. The reason is: in the minds of users, e-commerce products are just a shopping tool. How can they believe the objectivity and neutrality of your content? This is an issue we will explore later.

To be down-to-earth, we start with simple and direct e-commerce UGC content as the entry point for community building. Let’s take a new look at what the motivations are when buyers from e-commerce platforms visit e-commerce UGC communities?

When e-commerce product buyers read (consume) content, their motivations are:

Decision support when purchasing goods (pre-sale behavior)

This is the most mainstream content consumer motivation, which usually occurs before purchasing goods (pre-sales). It is the purchase reference information we need when purchasing all non-generic goods.

For example, when buying clothes, you can see how they look on real people; when buying a DSLR, you can see how the photos taken by other users look; before going to a restaurant to eat, you can read user reviews, etc.

The inherent advantage of e-commerce platforms is that they are closest to potential shopping users and are more likely to provide direct content-related channels (if the content is well organized and credible, users do not need to search through other external channels).

Finding resonance (post-sales behavior)

After purchasing a product, many people want to know whether they got a "great value" or if they are not satisfied with the product and want to see if other people are complaining about it. In these cases, they will visit the user reviews of the product.

Find new ways to play and use (after-sales behavior)

For some products that are "playable" and "expandable", such as 3C digital products, VR, drones, etc., users also need to find some strategy information. Of course, as mentioned before, review websites, forums, etc. provide this type of content, and their advantages are more obvious at present.

In addition to buyers, there are several other types of people who consume content on e-commerce websites, such as product developers (manufacturers), people in the middle and upper reaches of the supply chain, and store owners.

So, why do they read e-commerce UGC content?

Of course, it is to collect market information.

Understand user preferences, consumer trends, etc., so as to better optimize subsequent product designs or merchandise categories.

In general, e-commerce UGC users have the above four motivations when "consuming" content: decision support, finding resonance, seeking strategies, and collecting market voices.

So, what are the corresponding motivations for content producers?

The following explains the motivations of three types of content producers: merchants (sellers), brand owners (product manufacturers), and buyers.

For merchants, their ultimate goal is to increase customer flow and improve order conversion rates. Common name: make more money.

For example, shooting exquisite buyer shows, product usage reviews, instructions, positive user feedback, etc. are all to influence users' favorability towards the merchant and their purchasing decisions.

For manufacturers, their purpose is to enhance the positive image of their own brand and strengthen users' mental cognition (please note the difference between the purpose of merchants and that of brands).

For buyers, the most mainstream motivation for people to review products is to express their feelings, such as expressing satisfied praise or dissatisfied complaints, and sharing the joy after shopping (social recognition), etc. A considerable proportion of users also make positive reviews of products in order to obtain material incentives from merchants.

Summary of user motivation: From the above analysis, it can be seen that e-commerce UGC has a strong utilitarian color, and it has never had a place for "humanistic social interaction".

It is a true portrayal of "the hustle and bustle is all about profit".

4. How to plan the content ecology of e-commerce UGC

After analyzing the motivations of e-commerce UGC content consumers and producers, we can now start to build an e-commerce UGC community that has real value for all parties.

By the way, our friends who work in product and operation please remember: we are the creators and guides of the platform game rules, but we are definitely not participants. Being a referee and a player at the same time will cause trouble.

Users may have the motivation to spontaneously produce and consume content, but this does not mean that these behaviors will occur on their own, so they require proper guidance from our operators.

The key to these "motivations" triggering users' "spontaneous behavior (generating content or consuming content)" is: operational guidance, community atmosphere, and real incentives.

The so-called guidance means formulating some rules or mechanisms to connect the motivations of content producers and consumers, thus laying the foundation for the healthy production of content.

For example, when sellers provide buyers with “cash back for positive reviews”, it is a typical motivation connection. Of course, this “mechanism” or gameplay is formulated by the “merchants” themselves (at the expense of part of their profits), not by the platform operators.

Considering that one of the motivations for content consumers to read content is "purchase decision support", what is needed is objective and neutral content. This type of content will reduce the neutrality of the content, and in fact platform operators should not encourage it.

So, what "operation mechanisms" can the operators of our e-commerce UGC community try to build?

Based on the previous motivation analysis, I will now sort out three motivation connection points and provide some content mechanisms for reference. You can follow similar ideas to develop more creativity:

Connection point 1: Producers increase traffic and improve conversion rate + Consumer purchase decision support

Yes, in fact it is our most common "seller show", but have we ever thought that it is a waste to put the "seller show" in the product introduction details: it can neither obtain timely feedback from consumers, interact, nor "flow".

But if it can be used as part of UGC content, it can be greatly liberated - what I want to say is that the redundant time, beauty and talent of thousands of merchants can be monetized.

For example, a large number of physical stores are currently in a state of depression, and their employees are idle most of the time. In fact, many physical stores now have their own online stores. So why not make use of the "redundant assets" of their employees and let them create content?

For example, live streaming clothing matching in the store, or making it into a short video, this kind of "seller show" is a big step further than displaying products through pictures.

Connection point 2: Consumer purchase decision support (as well as finding resonance and seeking new ways to play) + Producers enhance brand image and influence customer mental positioning

Can our product operations consider opening up an independent UGC area for brands to interact with users or organize brand activities (such as brand evaluation essay contests with prizes, etc.)?

For consumers, whether it is to express their opinions on the brand (praise or criticism or admiration) or to learn more about the brand (as support for purchasing decisions), these are all strong demands, and brands are naturally happy to increase interaction and exposure with consumers.

As the creator of e-commerce UGC, we can fully meet the needs of both parties, such as:

Brand interaction: accept and answer all questions consumers have about the brand;

Brand activity column: various activities initiated by brands to consumers from top to bottom, which can be prize-winning guessing contests, promotional discounts, and other interesting activities;

After-sales service connection: To put it simply, it means transparently accepting user complaints and complaints and giving necessary responses. Of course, promoting this content requires the involvement of multiple resources, but it is worth a try.

In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of users (mainly brands) to produce content independently, our operators can instill the advantages of content interaction to brands, and at the same time provide a variety of activity and promotional templates to lower the threshold for them to produce content.

Of course, considering the era of "entertainment to death", if we can make template activities and promotional samples more entertaining and interesting, user stickiness will certainly be stronger, and it can even serve as a new profit point.

Connection point 3: Content producers (buyers) express their feelings + consumers (buyers) seek resonance

Both parties at this connection point are buyer users, and it is a golden point worthy of in-depth operation.

But it is not easy to design a good connection point mechanism.

For example, nowadays more e-commerce platforms are reflected in the "product evaluation" area, but there is an inherent exclusionary relationship between "product evaluation" and "sharing", and the importance of "maintaining content neutrality" has also been mentioned before, so we need to open up a new content module as the user's "product show".

So, the question becomes: How should we design a content presentation mechanism that makes buyers particularly willing to actively contribute content?

Li Shaojia believes that a very good way is to give meaning to the content in the form of a special topic.

This can transform many of users' low-level "showing off" behaviors into high-end "sharing" behaviors, reduce the negative emotions of content consumers, and thus form a healthy content ecological order.

For example, a user saves money to buy a Chanel bag and wants to show off but can't find an outlet to show it off. At this time, if you can provide a special topic, such as "It turns out that your favorite bag can be matched with clothes in this way", this gives the user a reason to release content.

Of course, the design of the topic is extremely important. The basic principle is that it should be specific and interesting. For example, some of the "Autumn Mood" seen on Taobao is not a very good topic because it is too abstract (as can be seen from the popularity data).

5. Five steps to build e-commerce UGC content

The previous article discussed the core of the entire content ecosystem. So, what should we do in the process of operating and building from 0 to 1?

Below are five construction steps, which are also applicable to the operation of new community functions on mature e-commerce platforms.

Step 1: Promote values ​​to content producers and provide high-quality demonstration content examples and convenient content production tools.

The prerequisite is to let content producers truly feel the value of producing content. For example, give a set of data to merchants and compare the traffic and conversion rate that can be increased through excellent content with the "data when there is no content" and so on.

Remember, content production has a high threshold. If possible, try to provide them with convenient content production templates and tools, and provide exposure privileges and other incentives to content producers who are "the first to try".

Step 2: Connect content and products and import users

Once the early content is prepared, the products can be associated with the related content when the new version is released. This means that the content can be accessed from the products, and vice versa, the corresponding products can be accessed from the content (this creates a lot of profit space for the platform).

Step 3: Ensure the content experience in the early stage and formulate measures to ensure "content neutrality"

In the early stage, manpower can be used to intervene in the content, and content can be released through a semi-review system to ensure the tone of the community. After a good content self-elimination mechanism is formed, the content can be slowly released to operate on its own.

Of course, low-level advertising content can be cleaned up through machine filtering and management measures such as account blocking.

The neutrality of content is very important. We can curb all kinds of malicious promotion or malicious attacks on a product by implementing "content reporting" (fake buyers) and review systems, establishing a user credit system, and providing user behavior tracks (meaning that all series of content produced by the user can be accessed).

Step 4: Guide and maintain e-commerce content ecology

As the community's early content and user behavior are initially improved, the operational work should shift to the creation of a content ecosystem. This aspect of operational work is actually professional and complex, including:

Incentives for content producers

Decentralization of content

High-quality content exposure and flow

Eliminating the Matthew Effect

Extend the life cycle of premium content

…

Step 5: Develop a user growth mechanism

As the UGC community continues to develop and mature, it will be necessary to fine-tune the grading and classification management of community users, so that content producers will have room to continue to grow and output content.

For example: open up the user's "attention chain" and cultivate celebrity users (content producer KOL). In this way, content consumer users can pay attention to buyer users who are particularly proficient in various commodity fields, which can further encourage these users to improve the quality and professionalism of content, cultivate a healthy community content positive cycle, healthy producer competition, etc., while celebrity users, due to their idol burden, will be more willing to maintain the neutrality of the content. These are the scenes that the e-commerce UGC community is most happy to see.

The content related to user classification management and upgrade is not within the core scope of this article. Due to limited space, other topics will not be discussed in depth.

Summarize

E-commerce UGC communities exist to serve e-commerce (low-cost user activity, traffic, and conversion rates). It is important to avoid letting content drive product direction and make the company's own positioning inappropriate, as this would be counterproductive.

E-commerce UGC is a huge topic involving the interests of many parties and is extremely difficult. In fact, there are currently no particularly good products in the industry, even for Taobao, the leader in e-commerce.

For most e-commerce products that do not have such a large number of active users, they should follow the following when building an e-commerce UGC community from scratch:

Start with the easy and then move on to the difficult (starting from the content needs of e-commerce users)

First the heavy ones and then the light ones (operate with heavy users in the early stage and give necessary concessions and privileges)

The foundation must be solid (the mechanism of healthy cycle of UGC ecology)

And other principles. Instead of always thinking that you can build an active community in one step and with just a few moves. There is no such simple thing in the world, and simple things have no value. This is basic logic.

Author: Everyone is a Product Manager

Source: Everyone is a Product Manager