The implementation and methods of community operation!

WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Tieba, these products are like big trees, community operation is the ivy on these big trees, and distribution fission is the branches and vines of this ivy. So the ivy will look like the tree it is, and it will grow densely only when it has more branches and vines.

In this era of scarce traffic, data operation, ABtest, PDCA, community operation, and distribution fission have become popular in the industry like mushrooms after rain. Everything must be done in moderation, otherwise it will be bad.

Recently I saw a company offering a million-dollar salary to find a community operations director, which is really impressive. How much GMV will be generated if 1 million is spent? It’s hard to say, only those who go there will know!

1. What is community operation?

Community is actually a kind of relationship maintenance, using all available products and tools on the Internet to establish relationships with your target users. Interactions and transactions occur based on relationships. If it is limited to WeChat groups and QQ groups, it would be a bit narrow.

In fact, the essence of community operation is fan operation and fan economy. Pull all of your users into the community. Moreover, this community operation is different from the operation of working for social product companies, that is, the difference between Party A and Party B. Weibo, Kuaishou, Douyin, and WeChat all have community operations, but these are the rule makers. Other communities use these communities as tools to increase fans and attract users.

The main purpose of this community is sales. In the past, companies could manage users well by making or purchasing a CRM, and then reach users through text messages, phone calls, etc. However, with the need to activate users, attract users, and split users, operations personnel need to go out and interact with users frequently to make users aware of the existence of the company or products. But they can't send text messages or make phone calls every day, right?

Therefore, the WeChat ecosystem as an outward extension tool of CRM has received high attention from everyone. However, this tool is not the only one. Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Baidu Tieba, etc. can all be used, but the WeChat system is now the most powerful.

Therefore, community operation should use all social platforms to reach the general fans, increase fan engagement, and enhance fan value.

2. Is community operation really that magical?

Nowadays, people all over the world are engaged in community operation, which is the same as when there were QQ groups everywhere. There is nothing new. All products will have a bonus period when they are first launched. The earlier you get involved, the higher the returns will be. Those who come later will basically be wasting their time and not only have to pay an IQ tax. Why? Because you have to spend money to learn from the experience of those who have entered earlier.

(1) Weibo

When Weibo was first launched and had not yet become profitable, all those big Weibo accounts doing marketing were making a lot of money. Xiaomi's fan economy generated a lot of traffic on Weibo (the so-called hunger marketing and sense of participation). Durex was well-known to everyone. How many boxes of Durex were sold through Weibo, and how many people lived a happy life.

(2) WeChat

Who wrote the official account when it first started? Which of those writers is not rich now? Which company doesn’t have a public account now? Maybe a stall owner in a vegetable market can have a public account by paying 300 yuan.

(3) Toutiao

When Toutiao first started, all the content was scraped. Later, when self-media became available (a super popular concept in 2015), the first group of people could attract a lot of traffic by just writing some content a few times. Now the traffic is leaning towards the top, various KOLs, various institutions, and various MCNs. Because there are still few people who can produce professional content, Toutiao is not a UGC platform, although it wants to be a UGC platform with a long-term high valuation.

Therefore, community operation has now become a standard for all companies. They simply hope that the WeChat business model + distribution fission Pinxixi model can bring more shipments. It's just a good dream. Who doesn’t have a WeChat group nowadays, and how many can you check every day?

All social community products have a common problem - information overload.

I remember when I was using Weibo, I would leave comments for Liu Xiaoqing and he would reply to me and we would chat. He was the one who would reply to every comment (in mid-2010). It was a great experience to interact with fans and audiences for the first time. But after a few months he stopped saying that (in the third quarter of 2010) because any random Weibo post would attract tens of thousands of comments .

3. How to implement community operations

1. Platform construction

(1) Self-media platforms: Establish accounts on major community platforms, such as Weibo, Toutiao, Tieba, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc., and madly output content and accumulate fans. Of course, the key point is to study the rules of each platform and reasonably use the rules and loopholes to increase followers.

(2) QQ system: Personal QQ number and QQ group are two powerful weapons. Many people think that ancient products like QQ are no longer useful, but you are wrong. People born after 1995 love to hang out on QQ and have a lot of fun playing it. Are you going to give up on this Internet product with the third highest daily active users?

(3) WeChat system: WeChat personal account, WeChat applet, WeChat public account, WeChat group. This is a must to build the framework first.

2. Personnel establishment

(1) Content Editor: With big imagination, broad knowledge and good writing skills, he is mainly responsible for content editing, content cooperation, content planning and other work.

(2) Event planning: Have a big imagination, be sensitive to data, know how to spend and make money, and be mainly responsible for marketing activities, fission event planning and execution.

(3) Product Manager: Familiar with the rules of various third-party open platforms, mainly responsible for product implementation, docking operations, technology, UI, etc.

(4) UI illustrator: has good artistic skills and a big imagination, and is mainly responsible for the optimization and design of posters, illustrations, and banner materials.

(5) Operations Manager: A person with a big brain, who understands products, UI, content, and data. He knows everything and is responsible for user operations and other miscellaneous tasks (haha).

(6) Training BD: Strong business ability, long legs, big eyes, and a young lady. Mainly responsible for media development, business cooperation, agent training, etc.

3. One word: "Do it"

WeChat group as an example:

(1) Seed users: Where can we obtain seed users? Existing paying users can be added to the group first, and then new users can be added to the group after they purchase.

(2) Welcome message: Users will receive a welcome message upon entering. You can set the welcome message according to the purpose. For example, you can send the group rules, the tasks that new members should complete, introduce the group tone, introduce the assessment rules, etc. Set different welcome messages for different groups.

(2) Active users: Regularly send product-related content and organize activities such as check-in, sign-in, promotional discounts, and content-related topics. It is important to regularly plan topics within the industry for discussion, such as a group of mothers, and participate in initiating more topics on how to educate babies. Remember that community products basically follow the 28 rule, where 2 people are active and 8 are lurking, but that’s okay.

(3) Group rules: define what users in the group can and cannot do, how to handle violations, etc. For example, posting an advertisement once will result in a warning, and posting an advertisement twice will result in expulsion from the group.

(4) Group tasks: The most important task is to attract new customers. Use official accounts and mini programs to do more incentive activities to attract new customers. For example, invite friends to help with discounts, and get rewards by forwarding posters to your friends circle.

(5) User growth: Place group ads and advertise your own WeChat group account on channels such as Toutiao. You can publish soft articles from industry KOC or KOL to attract users to join groups or follow official accounts.

(6) Group classification: Different categories of users are placed in different groups. Users have their own circles. For example, there is no way to tell high-spending customers from low-spending customers in a group. Try to classify and group users.

(7) Group administrator: The energy of operations staff is limited, so the work of group administrators is assigned to allow core users to manage a part of the user group, and operations staff to manage core KOLs. Of course, the process will involve the distribution of interests, management rules, etc.

(8) Distribution fission: Introduce the concept of agents, allowing a number of core and motivated KOLs to serve as regional agents, or allowing users in your own group to serve as franchisees. The concept of analysis commission is involved in the middle. It is best to only involve 2 and distribution, and try not to involve the country's red line.

(9) Gradient rewards: In the fission distribution game, you can set gradient reward rules based on the number of people you recruit or the size of the distribution quota. For example, sales of 1,000, 5,000, and 20,000 correspond to different commission amounts.

I won’t go into much detail here. I’ve only talked about some concepts and methodologies. If you want to know more practical information or want me to post a specific plan, then you are not suitable for operations. Operations are about playing the game to the best of your ability based on the cards in your hand. If you feel it is empty after reading it, then I will give you an assignment. Write down the group rules. You can think about it yourself or look up other groups and communities, and write it down word by word by hand. Then this thing will belong to you. But what you see from others will always belong to others.

IV. Conclusion

WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Tieba, these products are like big trees, community operation is the ivy on these big trees, and distribution fission is the branches and vines of this ivy. So the ivy will look like the tree it is, and it will grow densely only when it has more branches and vines.

Community operation is dependent on ecology, and all the rules are set by the big tree, so companies can be divided into two types: one is a parasitic company that relies on the big tree to survive; the other is a company that only regards the community as an auxiliary, and its goal is to grow into a thriving tree.

Therefore, friends should also carefully choose community operation as the development direction. There is really nothing to be proud of if you manage hundreds of WeChat groups. Only managers who can manage hundreds of millions of users and formulate ecological rules are the core. Moreover, there are very few companies that can grow big by relying on the WeChat ecosystem. In the end, they can only rely on their own products, which is the core.

Of course, some people said, aren’t Pinduoduo and Qutoutiao doing very well? After all, you have to have a good father! Tencent has invested in it, do you have it?

If not, it may be considered as inducing sharing and you may be banned. Besides, hasn’t Pinduoduo also started to enter the Fifth Ring Road, and hasn’t Qutoutiao also started to improve the quality of its content! Tactical victory is only temporary; the core barriers of an ecosystem are king.

The average order value of users outside the Fifth Ring Road is very low. Pinduoduo does not make much profit from selling so many packs of tissue paper (the best-selling category). It is unlikely that a big advertiser like Mercedes-Benz will put too many ads on Qutoutiao as it can only sell a few cars. Therefore, the core of e-commerce is good quality, low price and good service. The producers of good content are always concentrated in the hands of a few people, otherwise everyone would become writers or industry experts!

Community operation is a parasitic ecosystem. If you want to grow bigger and stronger, you can only use it but not rely on it!

Author: Bai Gaoliang

Source: White Sorghum