After reading these 18 operations positions, you will have a thorough understanding of what operations should do and what they should focus on!

In the previous two series, " The next era of the Internet will be an era driven by [ operations ] " and " Why operations are most easily overlooked? 》 has repeatedly mentioned that operations are very complicated. First of all, within many Internet companies, there are different positions and functions such as "content operation", "activity operation", "user operation", " new media operation", " product operation ", etc.

However, if the product type and company business type are different, you will find that what operations need to do is likely to be very different.

In fact, a big reason why many operations practitioners are confused is that the operations positions and job responsibilities within Internet companies are highly non-standard.

Considering that many people may have only been exposed to one or several branches of operations, or even have never been exposed to operations at all, in order to help everyone better establish a comprehensive understanding of "operations", in the first series of the "Cognitive Operations" section, we will take everyone to understand the various operations positions and various types of Internet companies, and what are the differences in the operations positions that need to pay attention to and do.

We will discuss this at three levels.

1. What are the differences and connections between the four major operational functional branches in the classic sense?
2. Some specific operational positions and their job responsibilities;
3. For different types of products, there are differences in what the operations side needs to pay attention to and do.

1. The four major operating modules in the classic sense

At present, the four major operational functions that are relatively agreed upon in the Internet industry are content operation, user operation, event operation and product operation. Let me briefly explain what these four modules do.

1. Content Operation

The core issue that content operation, as a branch, actually aims to solve is: to build a virtuous cycle around the production and consumption of content, and to continuously improve various content-related data, such as: content quantity, content views, content interactions, content dissemination, etc.

Therefore, the issues that need to be addressed and solved under the content operation module may include one or more of the following issues:

• What are the basic attributes of my content? (Text? Image? Audio?)
• What kind of tonality is needed? (Funny? Jokes and gossip? In-depth reviews? First-hand information? Literary and heartwarming?) Where does the content come from? (UGC? PGC?)
• How is my content organized and presented? (Topic? List? Category navigation? Font? Font size? Line spacing? Paragraph spacing?)
• How to create content that users like more based on what is already available? (Content planning? Content selection? How can content leverage hot events and figures?)
• How can my existing content be consumed more easily and more frequently by users? (How to write content titles? How to push good content to users? How often to push? What are the means of push? EDM? Internal message? Push?)
• How can I make my content production sustainable? (Activities? Royalties? User incentives? Other benefits exchange?)
• How can I better guide users to interact with my content and even spread it? (Creating topics? Guiding discussion atmosphere? Designing communication mechanism?)

2. User Operation

Similar to content operation, the core issue to be solved in the so-called user operation branch is to establish a virtuous cycle around user addition-retention-activity-dissemination and the value supply relationship between users, and continuously improve various user-related data, such as: the number of users, the number of active users, the number of elite users, the user stay time... etc.

Therefore, the issues that user operations should focus on may include one or more of the following issues:

• Where should our users come from? (Weibo? Douban? Advertising? BD cooperation? Offline promotion ? Human flesh? Existing user communication?)
• How to implement it? (BD? Payment? Channel construction? Product mechanism setting?)
• After users come, how do we build and maintain relationships with them? (More interactions? More feedback? More gifts? More help in solving practical problems for users?)
• How to attract more users willing to stay here and play? (Analyze data? Focus on retention? Improve retention? Focus on activity? Increase activity? Design a user points system? Design a user incentive system?)
• When the number of users gradually increases, for example, reaching millions, how can I enhance my influence and control over the entire user ecosystem? (How to classify users? How should we serve and manage each type of user? How to create a valuable relationship between different types of users? How to build a benign and controllable user model on the site?)
• What if users churn? (Analyze the reasons for loss? Establish a loss warning mechanism? Recall? Abandon?) How to recall? (Recall strategy? EDM? SMS? Push?)

3. Event Operation

As for event operations, the core is to ensure the full-process project promotion, progress management and execution around a series of processes such as planning, resource confirmation, publicity and promotion, and effect evaluation of one or a series of events. When operating an event, one must first clearly define the goals of the event, continuously track relevant data during the event, and conduct a good evaluation of the event's effectiveness.

In fact, activities are a very common means of operation, and it is also a means that a qualified operator must master and use skillfully. Often in the process of content operation and user operation, many activities are inevitably involved. So in fact, there are not many Internet companies that set up "event operation" as an independent position.

Basically, a company may set up a typical scenario for an "activity operation" position, which may only have two

1. The company has a high positioning for "activities" and will regularly use some medium-sized and large-scale activities to increase certain core data or promote the company's brand. The planning, design, execution and confirmation of activities are usually complicated and require someone to take charge and follow up (activities such as Alipay's "Five Blessings" are very complicated);
2. The company already has a certain number of users. In order to retain users, it needs to plan and implement activities on a regular basis. Or maybe the business itself requires continuous activities to boost it (such as e-commerce websites, Taobao Tmall and other regular shopping festivals).

4. Product Operation

The so-called product operation actually involves increasing the specific data of a product through a series of various operational means (such as event planning, internal and external resource expansion and docking, optimization of product plans, content organization, etc.), such as: installation volume, registration volume, user visit depth, user visit frequency, number of user relationship pairs, number of posts... and so on.

Therefore, a "product operation" in the true sense is actually a person with relatively balanced comprehensive abilities, who is familiar with various operation methods, familiar with products, and can even complete some product plans on his own.

For an Internet company, there will be a scenario where a "product operation" position is set up. The following two situations are more typical.

1. A relatively mature product has a new branch function. For a period of time, one person is needed to coordinate various resources, do various tasks, and be responsible for the product data related to this function (for example, Sina Weibo launched a "micro group" function);
2. An early- to mid-stage Internet company does not need to divide operations into such a complicated way. It just needs someone who knows at least a little bit about everything, can do everything, and can also support the product, so he becomes the "product operation"...

2. Some special Internet operation positions

But in fact, in the Internet industry, the composition of "operation" positions is far more complicated. Some positions are sub-functions of the above three modules (such as "editor" in content operation), but there are also many positions that may even be difficult to be classified into the three modules mentioned above.

So here, we put forward some typical and common special positions and interpret their main job responsibilities so that you can have a more intuitive understanding of the current work content of various operations practitioners.

1. New media operation

This is a position that has become increasingly popular with the rise of social media and self-media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat public accounts in recent years. Its main job responsibilities include content maintenance of new media accounts, growth in the number of followers, fan maintenance, event planning, and external cooperation (such as joint activities and mutual promotion).

2. App store operations

The main job responsibilities include: connecting with various app stores , completing the entire process of APP release and listing, doing a good job of ASO for APP in the app store, establishing good relationships with the heads of each app store, and being familiar with the promotion resources and promotion methods of each app store channel (such as special topics, paid promotion spots, holiday events, limited free releases, first releases ), and even being familiar with the user composition, promotion efficiency, etc. of each channel, so that better promotion plans can be formulated when there is a need for product promotion.

3. SEO / SEM Operations

The main job responsibilities of SEO include: studying the search results crawling and sorting rules of search engines (such as Baidu, 360, etc.), formulating relevant search keyword matching strategies, and optimizing the website architecture, content presentation and even code based on the current content of the entire site, so as to obtain higher rankings in the search engine search results page and obtain more traffic.

The main job responsibilities of SEM include: analyzing search keywords related to products and businesses, and placing paid advertisements for related keywords in search engines to obtain more traffic. In addition, it is necessary to continuously adjust and optimize the delivery strategy based on changes in keyword search popularity and delivery prices.

4. Advertising operation/traffic operation

The main job responsibilities include: analyzing the data, promotion methods and ROI of various advertising/traffic distribution platforms (such as Wangmeng , hao123, Guangdiantong , WeChat Moments advertising, etc.), formulating promotion strategies and plans based on product promotion needs, and continuously adjusting and optimizing traffic/user acquisition costs.

It should be mentioned that with the development of mobile Internet this year and the shrinking survival space of pure "portal products" (typically such as hao123), the survival space of pure traffic distribution and traffic operation has become smaller and smaller.

5. Taobao store operation

The main job responsibilities may include: store product category management (such as which products to promote, which hot-selling products to focus on, etc.), listing and removing products from the shelves, basic product packaging & graphic copy design, formulation and implementation of promotion plans, application to participate in various special activities (such as Double Eleven , Juhuasuan, etc.), and online customer service.

6. Edit

The main job responsibilities may include: screening, reviewing and recommending content on the site (such as what content can be recommended), editing, modifying and polishing content, planning and producing key content, planning and producing related content topics, etc.

7.QQ group and team operation

The main job responsibilities are: maintenance of a specific QQ group or online group, including but not limited to regularly raising topics within the group, organizing activities, livening up the atmosphere, etc.

8. Other operations

Some "deviant" operations, such as brushing the volume, brushing the rankings , brushing the comments, filling various forums with psoriasis advertisements, sending group private messages, etc., are harmful to the user experience and destroy the character, so it is recommended to use them with caution.

There are also field promotions and customer service, which... most people are familiar with, so I won’t go into details.

3. Differences in operational work content among products and companies of different business types

1. Tool products

Tool-type products focus more on efficiency and experience, and usually the product is more important than the operation. Therefore, for a long time, the most important focus of the operation side is user growth. The main means may include channel promotion , BD, and some activities, and operations will deal more with data.

2. Social /community products

Social/community products focus on social atmosphere, topics and gameplay, and are a type of product that requires equal emphasis on operations and products.

The operation of this type of product may require frequent interactions with people. For example, initially you need to find a group of users who match the product's tone to use the product. Subsequently, you need to continue to maintain key users, and you may even need to immerse yourself in the product and play with users.

In maintaining the atmosphere of this type of product, operations also need to frequently create various topics and plan various activities, because they need to ensure that the topics and activities are liked by the target users. Therefore, operations should have a deep understanding of users, or even be the target users of the product themselves.

In addition to conventional channels, traffic diversion and dealing with data, user growth for this type of product may also need to be driven by frequently creating events, topics, communications, etc.

3. Content products

The core of the operation of this type of product is just one: to continuously produce unique, high-quality content and package it well to make it easier for users to consume (such as giving it a good title, doing a good special topic, etc.).

The user growth of content products often relies on content and topics. It is necessary to regularly plan a lot of interesting topical content and attract more users through the spread of these contents.

4. E-commerce products

The operation of e-commerce products is quite special, and it is divided into several parts.

The first is about the operation of goods and categories. Issues that need to be paid attention to include what kind of goods categories we choose to sell, which products to focus on promoting during the sales process, how to formulate the pricing strategy of goods, inventory management and supply chain management of goods, etc.

The second is the planning and implementation of various promotional activities, such as the 6.18 festival, Double Eleven festival, Double Twelve festival, etc.

The third is promotion and traffic building. This part will also deal a lot with data and requires familiarity with various promotion channels and tools.

The fourth is some things about user care and user retention, similar to CRM in traditional industries, such as what kind of users we should send small gifts or vouchers to on a regular basis and do some targeted activities.

Finally, there are some basic things, such as product packaging, copywriting optimization, and customer service in place, etc.

5. Platform products

The operation of platform products is more particular, because the operation of the platform pays special attention to "rhythm".

For example, for products like Taobao or Didi Chuxing, whether there are too many drivers or merchants, or too many buyers and passengers at the beginning, it may be a problem - it will cause a large number of such users to leave because they do not have a good experience.

Therefore, the operation of platform products will pay special attention to the "rhythm", and they will consider when to bring in whom and how many to bring in.

In addition, platform products will pay great attention to strategy and user retention. For example, Taobao merchants may need to be divided into many categories based on various dimensions such as region, goods sold, average order value, etc., and then maintain them separately. Especially after the platform grows larger, it is necessary to carry out refined operations based on the different characteristics of users.

Then, after passing a critical point of development, platform products will pay great attention to brand, so the planning and implementation of various activities, brand promotion articles, events, content, etc. will become a relatively important point afterwards.

6. Gaming products

The current operation of game products focuses on two major areas.

The first part is still promotion, various connection channels, various conversion rates , and various data.

The second part is income. For example, for a group of people who are more likely to pay in the game, the game company may have a dedicated team to revolve around this group of people and promote their payment through various strategies and operational means. The most vulgar means may be to pretend to be a beautiful woman in the game and ask the rich to give them equipment.

Finally, for all the above types of products, they may need to use new media and other channels to build brands and maintain users.

[Scan the top APP promotion WeChat QR code to get more dry goods and explosive materials]

This article was compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion) by @黄有湛. Reprinting this article requires the consent of Top Promotion , and please attach the link to this article!