The 6-step core self-examination checklist for community operations, a must-read!

Through years of operational practice, I have summarized six elements for the healthy development of a community. When you are about to build a community or when problems arise in the community, you can use them as a self-examination checklist. Let’s go through them one by one.

(1) Value output

When building a community, it is necessary to clearly define the value output of the community . Value output includes the value that the group owner gives to members, as well as the value generated by their connections with each other. Note that you need to maximize everyone's connections, rather than posting messages one-to-many from a high position. Otherwise you will be very tired and the value you can produce will be exhausted very quickly.

For example, in my operating circle group, the value that the group owner and volunteers can provide is to help everyone connect their personal connections and resources, allowing people in the group who have cooperation opportunities to get to know each other, and also to connect them with first-tier Internet companies in first-tier cities. The value generated by members connecting with each other includes topic discussions and collaborative connections.

The value of a community cannot be written down coldly, but must be made felt by members through a series of actions. Maria, a senior user operator who has joined the "Operation Circle Plan" for a year and a half, said: Every day when I get home from get off work, I will read all the messages in the circle group, for fear of missing out on useful information. This group has brought me different perspectives, resources and circles. She has her own unique value among so many groups, and deserves to be pinned to the top.

Someone may ask, I also hope that group members can establish value links with each other, but they don’t talk to each other, and they don’t know each other’s needs. This leads to our next key factor - people of the same kind. It may be because the people in the group have no intersection or common points with each other, and they are put together without screening, so it is naturally difficult to generate sparks.

(2) People of the same kind

You need to know clearly what your users look like and where they are, and then exude your values ​​to attract them.

As for the user portrait of my circle group, I observed and refined it from the users I have served, fans of public accounts, and friends in WeChat Moments. I found that there are three main types of people:

A college student who is about to graduate or has just graduated wants to enter the operation position, but does not know where to start and has many confusions about the future. In the group, you can ask seniors for advice and see the career paths of different operators;

B has been working in operations for 1-5 years, but is quite anxious. He hopes to have a circle where they can grow together and discuss some popular ways of playing. Many people also have the need to transfer positions or change jobs, and can obtain information from multiple sources in the group;

C Freelancers and small and micro entrepreneurs. They may not have done operations before, but after leaving the platform they realized how necessary this skill is, so they are willing to join in and learn. They can also recruit A or B students in the group to become part-time partners.

If we compare people of the same kind to small fish in a fish pond, the next step is to select a few big fish to become core members and help us maintain the group.

(3) Core people

I recently read the book "The Small Group Effect", and the author mentioned an interesting point that users would rather be big fish in a small pond. The big fish here are the core people.

The value of core people: on the one hand, they can help you share the workload; on the other hand, they also have a certain influence and value output capability, and can solidify and attract a small group of users.

What are the selection criteria for core personnel?

• Identify with the core values ​​of the community
• Have certain qualifications, be willing to share, actively answer questions, and often get praise from group members
• The development direction of the core people is consistent with that of the community, and they can leverage each other's strengths. For example: core people want to build personal IP, or recruit seed users within the group to cold start a project, the community can satisfy him without hurting the feelings of other users.

Okay, the fish pond has been established, and there are big fish and small fish. So what do you want them to do in the group? How to enrich their time in the group and make members feel it is interesting and valuable? I have observed that some group owners or core members will diligently guard the group, answer questions as soon as possible, and act as babysitters and chat companions. I think if we can use product thinking to design content and make the content into products, efficiency will be greatly improved.

(4) Content design

So how do we use product thinking to design content? Let’s think about it: when users come to the community, what do you use to grab their attention? That's what's in the community. Usually divided into online and offline. Some people will roughly design it into morning newspaper, noon newspaper, online sharing session, and offline sharing session. I think this lacks the unique tone of the community, it is easy to overlap with other groups, and the recognition is not high.

The purpose of content design is to start from user needs and avoid self-satisfaction. Taking my community as an example, I feel that sending out a morning report every day is too ordinary, and I can’t come up with anything original, so I turned it into a [Daily Skill], introducing a little trick that an operator would use, such as a hidden feature of WeChat or a new app. Next, I observed that everyone has the need to increase followers precisely in the circle of friends, so I promote each other in the circle of friends once a month and exchange friends in each other's circle of friends. The exposure each time is more than 20,000, and the number of followers increased by nearly 100 people. Moreover, they are all highly trusted friends with the endorsement of second-degree connections, and they have facilitated a lot of collaborations.

I observed that ordinary offline activities made everyone a little tired, so I organized a [Brainstorming Session]. Each time, I gathered a group of operational experts to brainstorm on the operational problems of a sponsor, so that what we learned could be put to good use. The sponsor would provide everyone with afternoon tea and prizes. With this kind of activity design, everyone is very enthusiastic, and there are forty to fifty people in the group of 200 for each offline activity.

If I were to use a fish pond as an analogy, I think content design is the water plants that add life to the pond and allow the fish to play to their heart's content.

(5) Humane rules

Every country has its own laws and every group has its own rules. The existence of rules is to let people know what the group encourages and what it cannot do. What needs to be reminded is that the rules should be humanized. There are people who want to advertise in every group. You can guide them to do soft advertising in compliance with regulations, instead of telling them that they can’t do this or that, which makes people feel uncomfortable.

For example, in our operations group, someone wanted to increase the number of readers of the official account, so they threw an article link in the group and no one showed up. This is not in compliance with regulations. But if you turn it into an operational discussion, such as "Please give me some advice on this title", it will be compliant. For some people who wanted to sell goods, we set up a time period in the group on Double 11 to encourage everyone to sell goods. If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. The existence of selfishness is reasonable, and the group leader needs to guide it skillfully.

(6) Profit model

Talk about it last but not the last thing to consider. You need to plan in advance how to make money. One way is to make money from people in the group, such as entry fees, in-group e-commerce, and knowledge payment. Online paid activities, etc.

Another way is to use the community as an asset to earn money from external financiers. For example, when our circle becomes more influential, there will be clients who want to sponsor us, or do paid soft advertising and distribution for them, or bring key people in the circle to provide consulting services to the clients, etc.

A community that wants to make money right away can’t even start;

A community that has never wanted to make money cannot continue.

The above are the five essential elements for building a healthy community.

Finally, I would like to say that to build a community, you must have an ecological mindset and deeply understand the principle of benefiting others first and then benefiting yourself. This is a kind of cultivation for life.

Author: Ponyfish

Source: Ponyfish (xiaomayugzh)

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