Community operation: Does your group need to be active?

1. Does your group need to be active?

Group activity has always been a major problem for group administrators/person-in-charge. Various activities such as red envelopes, activities, sign-ins, and clocking in are emerging in an endless stream, wasting time and energy.

I have been thinking about a question: does a group have to be active ?

I don’t know if you have ever thought about this question. I don’t think so. It depends on the group's positioning, direction, and operational objectives. For some groups that should not be active, it is not necessarily a good thing even if you force them to be active. Instead, it may harm the company and the users in the group. After all, group activity is a mutual thing that requires the joint efforts of members and administrators, and it is not something that can be achieved just because you want to or force yourself to be active.

2. Active Cost

So why don’t all groups need to be active? Let’s analyze it. Let’s look at it from the perspectives of both administrators and group members.

1. Administrator

As an administrator, what do you need to do every day to keep the group active?

Management costs: When new members join the group, they need to be taught the group rules. When there is a quarrel, the administrator needs to step in to calm it down and understand the cause of the quarrel. When someone posts an advertisement, the administrator needs to kick them out and reiterate the policy. Activities need to be organized regularly, etc. These are the management costs that the administrator needs to spend when maintaining an active community.

Content cost: We all know that the reason why group members gather together is because there is high-quality content available in the group. Therefore, in order to keep the group active, the administrator needs to prepare a large amount of content, which requires a lot of content costs.

Time cost: Maintaining the group, managing group order, preparing content, etc. all take a lot of time. Experienced people will definitely know that it is relatively easy to create a group, but too much time is spent on maintaining the group.

Similarly, what benefits can you get as an administrator?

Monetization income: No need to say much about this, it can be monetized.

Brand promotion: User fans can be well accumulated through groups, so the users of groups created by brands are very accurate. Brand marketing through groups is low-cost, effective and more focused.

Traffic: There is no need to say much about this. Where people gather, there is traffic, and where there is traffic, there is revenue.

2. Group members

What does it take to be active every day as a group member?

Time cost: Yes, it takes a lot of time for group members to be active in the group every day, and the time cost cannot be ignored.

Content cost: A group is a platform for communication. Whether it is users or group members who are active in the group, they need to make meaningful speeches, and users themselves also need to output some content. These are the content costs for active users in the group.

Emotional cost: This should be easy for everyone to understand. Communication within the group requires emotional investment, and the emotional cost here needs to be taken into consideration.

Similarly, what benefits will group members get in the group?

Red envelopes: There is nothing much to say about this. There are often various red envelopes in the group, which can be regarded as a kind of income.

Information acquisition: When encountering problems, everyone is accustomed to asking in the group whether there are any experts/gurus who can help them. This kind of information acquisition is one of the benefits of group members.

Behavioral recognition: Helping to maintain order in the group, sharing your skills and experience, etc., will bring you everyone's recognition.

Social relationships: In the group, you have the opportunity to meet great people or influential people in the industry. This is why many people are willing to join various groups crazily.

3. Balance benefits and costs

So does your group need to be active? Just decide based on the benefits and costs.

When the benefits of your active participation in a community are greater than the cost of your activity, then you should promote community activity; otherwise, there is no need to do so.

Similarly, from the user's perspective, when the user's active cost is greater than the group benefit, the user will definitely not be willing to be active; and when the user's group benefit is far greater than the active cost, the user will naturally become active.

3. Which groups do not need to be active? (Example)

E-commerce sales group (low price)

This type of low-price e-commerce sales group does not require active users. You just need to frequently throw products and links into the group. As long as the price of your product is indeed attractive, users will definitely buy frequently. So there is no need to spend energy to activate the group, just continue to throw high-quality products.

E-commerce sales group (high price)

The high-price selling group is different from the low-price selling group. The decision-making cost of high-priced products is high, so it is necessary to promote harmonious social relationships through group activity. Therefore, the high-priced selling group must promote group activity and increase the relationship with users through group activity. When the emotions are there, the deal is done. Therefore, the key to conversion is whether the emotions are in place, and activity can effectively enhance the emotions of both parties, so activity is necessary.

Learning materials sharing group

Do such groups need to be active? I don't think it's necessary. The group owner continuously throws appropriate information into the group, and everyone can take what they need without having to spend time and energy to keep the group active.

Many people may wonder how this type of group can make a profit. It is actually very simple. Build a better paid group, and users can pay to become members if they want to get better content.

Education transformation group

Does the education transformation group need to be active? I think it is necessary. First, let’s sort out the conversion process of this type of group. Users are attracted to join the group through free courses, and then users try the free courses for free. After that, we answer users’ questions, give key explanations, and convert them to paid courses. Then the process of answering questions and explaining things to free users is actually a step to make the group active. The importance of this step to the final conversion is self-evident. So do you think this type of group needs to be active? Not only does it need to be active, but it should also focus on this step.

Author: T Brother

Source: User Operations