How many spam communities have you blocked? That’s not how communities work!

As operators, we also manage a lot of communities. But most of them are dead groups with few people chatting, or just various advertisements. It is strange that why other people's community operations are so good, but our own are not. What is the problem?

The result of private interests is that you are inexplicably pulled into countless groups. And 90% of the groups basically send various advertisements every day, so that we have to block or directly exit the group. So, does it mean that the community itself is not suitable for connecting users? I don't think so.

1. Positioning and types of groups

Let’s first look at three different communities.

The first one is Nayuki . Nayuki’s community updates frequently, and there are fixed columns and some activities combined with festivals. But it is not active. Nayuki’s community is essentially a broadcast. If there is anything, just shout it out with a loud speaker, and that’s it. But because the category itself is considered a semi-rigid demand and a fast-moving consumer product, it can still bring very good returns with the help of new products, promotions, activities, etc.

We can call this kind of community: rigid demand conversion group, which is basically the case for all fast-moving consumer goods, including Heytea, Bawang Chaji, McDonald's, Perfect Diary, etc.

The second one is China Southern Airlines , which has a very active community. Why? Because the original intention of China Southern Airlines' community was to define it as a special group for "junk advertising". China Southern Airlines has carried out a large number of fission activities, using "mileage" as the core to guide consumers to share. As we all know, there are too many similar activities now, which have brought a lot of harassment, so China Southern Airlines created its own corresponding group and guided these consumers to such a group, so that everyone can "harass" each other and obtain the corresponding "mileage". In short, China Southern Airlines has achieved a "self-closed loop of activities" in this way.

We can collectively call this type of community: spam advertising interaction group, which is used for various wool activities mainly based on activities.

The third one is Midea , which is a store group and is very active. It is positioned as a home appliance flash sale group, attracting consumers to stay in the group through flash sales, and at the same time, there are some lucky draw interactions on a daily basis. It is essentially also a rigid demand conversion group, but because of the "welfare" as a starting point and real people participating in the operation of the community, it has brought about interaction, and it is not just a one-way group.

We can call this type of community: private domain community, which is a real community with its own users.

2. Why do different styles exist in the same community?

Let's put aside these positioning issues and think more from the perspective of consumers. Why do consumers stay in a group for a long time? I call it "three-have consumers".

1. Have resonance

Resonance is simply the size of the group. Imagine a group of 10 people and a group of 150 people. What different feelings will you have when you enter? Going further, if you can have acquaintances when you enter the group, the consumer's perception will be even stronger. You find that Teacher Zhang from the school is also in the group, Aunt Zhao next door is also in the group, and Manager Li from the bank is also in the group... The endorsement brought by the existence of existing social relationships can quickly allow you to have a strong identification with this group.

Of course, store communities have natural advantages, but online communities are more difficult to establish, unless they are based on a specific scenario, such as online joint study classes.

2. Benefits

Welfare is the easiest to understand. When we join a group, it can be said that it is because of some kind of "welfare". Because you are given a coupon worth 18 yuan, because you are given a free cup of coffee, because you are given a free trial class... In short, because of some kind of welfare, we enter a community.

So, what about the future? If you want consumers to stay in the group continuously, you also need continuous "benefits". Benefits can be simply divided into two types: pure benefits + limited benefits. Pure benefits refer to benefits that do not require consumers to pay any cost, and the benefits themselves are also rigidly needed, such as drawing 3 boxes of eggs every Wednesday; there is also a limited benefit, which is more related to my own sales, such as giving a coupon of 50-20 for every purchase.

But no matter what, if you want consumers to stay in the community, you need to develop long-term sustainable "benefits" for consumers to engage in "wool" behavior.

3. Valuable

The last point is value. You may say, doesn't value mean benefits? You can say so, but there is a difference between the two. Benefits themselves are more like "wool", which are given directly and are also short-lived. But value itself is long-term, and most of the time it is a non-explicit cost. For example, a learning community will often share some industry reports, answers to difficult problems in the workplace, etc. These are value. Value is subtle, and benefits are at hand. Of course, sometimes the two are consistent.

It is precisely because of the needs of the "three consumers" that the above-mentioned community styles are different.

3. So, I already have a group, how can I realize my commercial value?

I believe that many students already have a community, and have been operating it for a while, and have also tried to carry out some commercial activities in the group, but it seems that there is not much effect at this stage. At this moment, what should I do?

1. We still need to start with the users and figure out which ones are the real consumers.

You may already have 500 people in your community, which is large enough. But the question is, do you know where these users come from? When we first created the group, we often adopted some fission methods to quickly attract people to the group. This was very valuable in the early stage. But at the same time, it did cause problems with the quality of community users.

Therefore, at the beginning, you need to identify the channel sources for different consumers. Those who have come in through fission, accurate potential customers (who have consulted in stores/e-commerce), and those who have purchased (purchase time, category, amount, frequency, etc.)... Only in this way can you have a basic understanding of your group users.

Of course, you will definitely say that you never thought about this at the beginning. What can you do now? See our tips below.

2. Actively operate and clarify users

It's very simple. At this moment, we need to take the initiative to clarify the users. What should we clarify? We should start with the three most basic aspects: first, which users in the community have interactive value and which are zombie users; second, which users in the community are potential customers; and third, which users in the community have already purchased.

How to judge interactive users and zombie users? It's very simple. Hold a lucky draw in the community, but the lucky draw requires a prerequisite, that is, let the users in the group send a password, such as "June 18-June 20, spend 100 yuan and get 19.9 yuan in cash back." This way, you can quickly understand the basic quality of the community.

What about potential customers? Potential customers can be developed more through import products. That is, take a product that is in urgent need and low-priced as an entry point to attract users in the group to buy. For example, a box of 8 eggs only costs 0.99 yuan on June 18, and there are only 20 pieces. Through import products, users in the group can make their first purchase.

Already purchased? Of course you know best. However, the core of the purchase is repurchase and benefits. How to repurchase, for the fast-moving consumer goods industry, is naturally based on the consumption cycle to promote; and the benefits are set up according to the amount of consumers to set different levels, to encourage consumers to make further purchases, such as 100 liters or more for silver members to get 5% off the whole store, 200 liters or more for gold members to get 90% off the whole store, 500 yuan or more for platinum members to get 15% off the whole store, etc.

3. Create nodes and convert them crazily

The core of our operation is still conversion. So how to achieve the most efficient conversion? Naturally, it is to create nodes, such as setting the 20th of each month as a flash sale day. As shown in the figure below, we can choose 7 products to launch: 2 of them are for traffic, 3 are for daily sales, and 2 are for profit. By matching different products, we can achieve the transaction volume and profit of flash sales.

4. Social advancement: the three-exposure rule

In short, the community is a very good operation platform. It is not as harassing as 1V1 messages, nor as ignored as Moments, but has a strong social attribute. Because of the social attribute, the community itself can also achieve fission and case demonstration inside and outside the community.

For example, you can guide users to share in their friend circles based on community activities. But communities are also very difficult to operate. It can be said that if a community can last for 90 days, it is enough to defeat 90% of its competitors. At the same time, if you can really treat yourself and your users as "people" instead of operating in a templated manner, you will definitely be able to gain more.

Author: Yang Jun, WeChat public account: Uncle Yang in the Workplace (zhichangyangdashu)