New media operation: creating a high-viscosity fan community

From the perspective of sociology and psychology, "community" represents a social team or organizational group, which can also be called user group relationship. Today, our definition of a community is: a group that brings people together based on one point, need and hobby is called a community. This lesson is mainly divided into two chapters. In the first chapter, I will introduce to you what a community is, and in the second chapter, I will explain the key to marketing.

01

1. Get to know the community

With the continuous development and progress of society, the concept of community has gradually been valued by people, thus forming a more popular marketing method. The concept of community has evolved based on the characteristics of six eras.

Before talking about community marketing, let’s first talk about the concept of community. Is community a group within a community? Or does it mean QQ group? The explanation on Baidu is this: a community is simply considered to be a group, but a community needs to have some forms of expression of its own. For example, we can see that a community must have a social relationship chain. It is not just about creating a group but about bringing people together based on a point, need and hobby. We believe that such a group is a community. People who gather together because of family ties can be understood as a community, and organizations initiated in school due to common interests and hobbies can also be a community. Nowadays, social marketing basically refers to QQ groups and WeChat groups. No matter what type of product the social marketing is, whether it is based on a website or an APP, the mainstream battlefield is still QQ groups and WeChat groups. So why is social marketing so popular? The most straightforward and fundamental reason is this: community marketing is to bring together people with the same or similar interests and hobbies through some kind of social media, and then deliver products or services to the consumer groups at a specific time. Simply put, the current definition of community can be described in four aspects: based on the Internet platform (PC and mobile), cross-border e-commerce "welfare club", enterprises providing services and products to specific groups of people, and stimulating member participation, communication and creativity.

2. Characteristics of the community

The emergence of communities has evolved with the continuous development of society. Before choosing marketing methods, platforms must understand some of the main characteristics of marketing methods so that they can formulate marketing plans based on the characteristics and reduce some unnecessary operational losses. Next, I will teach you the main characteristics of four communities.

1. Virtuality: Communities exist in the virtual Internet, which means that the identities and locations of community members are virtual, and there is no actual geographical location because it is not restricted by space. When community members first join the community, they will exist in the community anonymously. Some community members may not know the true identity of the people they are communicating and interacting with. So generally speaking, the virtuality of the community can bring a sense of security to community members, and make community members willing to let go of their guard and make sincere friends with you and express their opinions. It can also enable the platform to obtain valuable content and good marketing effects in the community.
2. Equality: In a community, everyone can actually be a leader. As long as they are recognized by community members, they can make decisions, because the community is a relatively equal group for mutual communication.
3. Based on interest: Communities are usually formed spontaneously by different members from all over the world. Different people need a "catalyst" to build a community for mutual communication. In the community, this "catalyst" is interest. Most communities are established based on interest.
4. The "center point" of the community: Before the emergence of communities, we also had QQ groups and WeChat groups to bring people together, and constantly publish some product information and articles in the groups. In fact, the effect was not very good. It was not until the emergence of communities that companies could understand the importance of community members as the center and let community members become the dominant force in the community, rather than an enterprise. The center of the community can be seen from three aspects: content - the community needs community members to produce valuable topic content; production - community members can become producers of corporate products; characteristics - the community is open and autonomous.

3. Classification of communities

If we want to make good use of communities to carry out marketing activities, then we must understand the classification of communities. Only in this way can you make choices based on the characteristics of the communities. You must choose a category that is consistent with the nature of your products and that the company is proficient in. Today, communities have set off a marketing storm, and there are various types of communities. I will explain to you several of the main types.

1. Interest-based communities; interest-based groups are communities formed based on people's common interests. The members of the community are almost all like-minded friends. This type of community will be more lively and you will meet many friends here. For example, I believe everyone follows a few QQ interest tribes. This community is aimed at the demands of the post-90s and post-00s to "find similar people". Therefore, in the tribes of the post-90s and post-00s, there will be millions or even tens of millions of users following and topics.
2. Product communities; What are product communities? It means using a product to maintain the members of the community. It is a carrier that makes the product no longer a single tool. It is also a bridge that carries fun and emotion. Simply put, a product community is a community formed by products. Companies can use the influence and communication power of the community to stimulate the participation and activity of community members, ultimately forming sales and bringing corresponding profits to the company.
3. Learning communities: Based on the literal meaning, we can know that learning communities are a group of people who love learning gathered together. They are all spontaneous learning organizations. All organizational work is done by the group owner. The activities within the community are generally centered around learning. For example, a learning community initiated by "180 students preparing for the teacher qualification certificate and a teacher" is a learning community.
4. Knowledge community: This is a community where members share knowledge and experience with each other. Although it is also based on learning, it is still different from learning communities. Members of knowledge communities can decide for themselves whether to participate in community activities and can share their experiences and knowledge. Group members can teach and learn from each other and gain mutual affirmation and respect. However, learning communities organize activities through group owners, that is, they learn knowledge and exchange experiences through "knowledge leaders."
5. Brand communities: Brand communities are built on a set of social relationships between consumers who use a certain brand. They are non-geographical communities, initiated spontaneously by consumers or owners to form a user base and habits for the brand. They are an extension of product communities. Within brand communities, consumers have special feelings for a certain brand, which makes the value concept promoted by this brand consistent with the values ​​of the consumers themselves, thus creating some psychological resonance.
6. Self-media communities; to put it simply, self-media communities are communities where people gather together on self-media platforms because of their trust and love for private, popular, and autonomous communicators. So generally speaking, common self-media platforms are Tieba, Weibo, and WeChat.

02

Plans can never keep up with changes. There are too many random factors, which makes companies that are not prepared to face various challenges at a loss as to what to do. So when some platforms establish communities, how can they grasp uncertainties and carry out successful community marketing?

Key points of social marketing

1. Excellent product or experience + careful content dissemination

"The ultimate product or experience + careful content dissemination" is an important combination. Although social media marketing may not be successful if it is achieved, it will definitely not be successful if the community does not have this combination. Nowadays, for some platforms, it is an "era of social dividends". In this era, anyone who knows how to socialize and spread information can seize business opportunities. However, commercial marketing is about seizing the initiative or not. If the companies that have sung the sweetness of social media marketing do not take their products or experiences to the extreme, then all their commercial marketing is just a hype on the Internet that is easily forgotten. Of course, it is not enough to simply take the product or experience to the extreme. The platform still needs to learn how to communicate and promote it. Many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that social media marketing does not require communication. But think about it carefully, if you don’t communicate, then how can you show your product to your existing community members? If you don't promote it, they will have no way of knowing the benefits of your product, so communication is a must. As long as the right method is used, companies can embed communication into activities and let your community fully understand the products on your platform.

2. “Fan economy” is not equal to “community economy”

Many platforms believe that "fan economy" is the same as "community economy". In fact, this is also inaccurate. Any corporate brand will have its own fans, but if it only stays at the fan level, it is nothing more than a different name for the previous loyal users. For the platform, it only operates the "fan economy" and does not rely on the "fan economy". The "community economy" is to bring together people of different categories. These people have one thing in common, that is, they are relatively loyal to the platform's products or services. There are three stages for a platform to go through: the first stage is to attract users; the second stage is to turn users into fans; and the third stage is to turn fans into friends.

Community operation methods

We have already talked about two aspects at the beginning of this chapter. Now let’s explain the third part, the methods of community operation. This part is divided into three subsections, and I will explain them to you one by one.

Part One: Starting from "small". The reason why many social media marketing platforms are successful nowadays is that they start from "small". Companies will narrow the scope of their own communities, reflect their attitudes and propositions, thereby generating a niche personality charm, which brings together fans and users because they all recognize the charm of the company.

The second part: Learning to "connect" is what community operators must do. Being able to connect with community members anytime and anywhere is what community operators must do. Only in this way can companies establish deep relationships with community members. If you do not value "connection", then the community will definitely not be successful. It will only be a carrier that has gathered people. Therefore, the platform must learn to "connect" community members in a timely manner and communicate more with them.

The third part: The need for "cohesion" When a community first starts operating, its members may just be a group of ordinary members who need leadership to stay together for a long time because of something. Otherwise, it is easy for members to leave. If a community has no cohesion, then it is not a group, but a pile of loose sand. The platform also needs to learn to select. Companies cannot only focus on the number of people gathered, but need to focus on the quality of the crowd, so that the community atmosphere can get better and better.