The end of private domain is brand community

How to operate a private domain? Generally, people have a distorted understanding of private domains. The author of this article talks about two aspects: "The present VS future of private domains" and "Brand community VS private domains". Let's read it together!

Most companies have a distorted understanding of the private domain.

For example, everyone is busy attracting people to WeChat and selling goods on mini programs. Many people only regard private domains as the second Tmall or JD.com for their companies. However, this approach will not only bring short-term GMV, but also bring endless problems.

For another example, I found that the private domain departments of enterprises that are good at private domain are all large teams. However, the continuously growing GMV cannot cover up the continuously declining labor efficiency.

However, some companies that do not regard private domains as sales channels and are committed to building "brand communities" have created incredible business results.

Jarod, the user operations partner of Zanyi GGN, and I spent two months polishing this private domain white paper, hoping to convey to the industry the correct concepts and paths for doing private domain, and share our experience in practicing "brand community" in recent years.

The following is part of the white paper:

1. The present and future of private domain: “Private domain also needs to focus on long-termism”

Current problem: “The problems with private domains are not in the private domains themselves”

Almost all private domain departments of enterprises are suffering from four common problems:

1. The dead group
2. No repurchase
3. Too low efficiency
4. Conflict of authority

1. Eventually become a dead group

"The dramas I direct and perform every day cannot save the continuously declining activity level"

Most of the corporate communities in China are only active for a week. After a week, the private domain community becomes an advertising notification group, with only the corporate customer service sending promotional information in a cheerful tone.

Looking at the dead silent group, the only method that the private domain department can think of is to create an "atmosphere group", commonly known as a water army. The purpose of these atmosphere groups is to use the "herd effect" and "herd mentality" to induce lurkers to surface. Experienced private domain operators will assign specific roles to members of the atmosphere group. Some are responsible for asking questions, some guide the topic, some swipe the screen to express gratitude, and some share shopping experiences...

But the atmosphere group is a typical "death in the spotlight" because there are only a small number of people in each group, and these people cannot come to support the jokes every time. Over time, their identities will inevitably be discovered by users in the group.

Therefore, the self-directed and self-acted dramas every day cannot save the continuously declining activity level.

2. No repurchase

“The LTV value of users is just idealism in the private domain.”

People who work in the private domain often say: "The essence of the private domain is to build relationships." Companies hope to achieve long-term user value mining and increase customer life cycle value (LTV) by relying on private relationships with users. However, LTV value is often just an ideal for companies. Real private domain operations will encounter two key problems, causing the repurchase rate to drop precipitously.

(1) Products will have a sweet period, a period of fatigue, and a window period

A company that sells snail noodles may calculate the LTV value of users like this: users eat snail noodles about twice a week, buy 8 bags a month, and consume 96 bags throughout the year.

However, the short-term repurchase rate of a product category is not the same as the long-term repurchase rate. When calculating the LTV value of users, many companies ignore a psychological factor, that is, users have a sweet period and a fatigue period.

It is impossible for a normal person to eat 96 bags of snail noodles in a year, because he will get tired of it. He needs to wait for a certain period of time before buying again. Users' high-frequency repurchase only occurs during the sweet period. There will be an incalculable window period between the sweet period and the fatigue period.

(2) Without service value, there is no relationship value

Relationships are not about discounts or coupons, nor are they about asking good morning, good afternoon, and good night in a group. What value-added services does your private domain provide to users? What kind of emotional value does your private domain bring to users?

For private domains, the key to sustained growth is not attracting new customers but repeat purchases, and the key to repeat purchases is service. If you want to pursue LTV value, private domains are not operations departments, but service departments.

3. Low labor efficiency

“A team of several hundred people and a net profit of several million, is it worth it?”

All companies that are good at private domain have one thing in common: their private domain department is a large department with considerable staff. All companies that are not good at private domain also have one thing in common: their private domain department is a small department with pitiful staff. A first-tier domestic beauty brand that is famous for its private domain has a private domain team of more than 1,000 people, but the efficiency is very low.

Bai Xiao T's private domain revenue in November 2021 was approximately 16 million, the private domain team's after-tax profit was approximately 5 million, and their user operation center has 200 people.

In 2022, Pop Mart’s private domain team sold 25.2 million goods on Video Account in three days, but their consumer operations center has 200 people.

The "2019-2022 Private Domain Talent Demand and Salary Survey Report" shows that 63% of companies' private domain departments have only 1-5 people.

We have said before that the key to private domain repurchase is service, and the key to service quality lies in whether there are enough people to provide the service.

For example, how can private domains improve user retention? The method of a certain food brand is to provide 1v1 customer service for the core high-order customer groups, so that these people feel that they are being specially cared for.

People who work in the private domain will find that many KPIs can be solved by increasing manpower, such as the user retention rate mentioned above. But when manpower solves the user-side problem, labor efficiency becomes a hidden danger on the enterprise side.

With about 200 employees and a net profit of 5-6 million, is this a good deal? Whether it is a good deal depends on how the company defines the value of the private domain department.

4. Conflict of authority and responsibility

“Private domain is not the business of the private domain department at all.”

What exactly is a private domain department? Different companies will give you completely different answers. In some companies, the private domain department is the membership operation center under the e-commerce department; in some companies, the private domain department is another e-commerce division parallel to Tmall and JD.com;

In some companies, the private domain department is the user operation team in the back-end link of self-media;

In some companies, the private domain department is the digital middle platform for the entire company.

People who work in the private domain will find that all the business of their department is intertwined with other departments, making it difficult to solve any problem independently.

If a private domain user wants to get a membership level, the brand department must review whether it complies with brand management regulations;

If a private domain person wants to do a promotion, the e-commerce department must review the price discount to see if it disrupts other people's price order;

If private domain people want to attract new customers from offline stores, they must cooperate with offline sales to collect data.

…

In essence, private domain and private domain department are two different things. Private domain is the result that the enterprise is pursuing, while private domain department is just one of the means to achieve this result.

If an enterprise wants to do well in the private domain, it must break down all departmental barriers and balance all conflicts of interest.

Because of the different definitions and understandings of private domains in the industry, there are many schools of thought in the private domain suppliers. Everyone says that they are doing private domains, but they are not doing the same kind of private domains.

Who should I contact if I want to do private domain business? “All external companies can only solve partial problems”

Party A’s understanding of “private domain service providers” is basically one-sided. When a boss says he wants to do a good job in private domain, his understanding and that of his team are often diametrically opposed. There are several types of companies in the private domain service provider world:

• TP-type companies : They are familiar with the operation methods and rules of e-commerce stores. Some of them can even help brands integrate logistics and warehousing, and directly introduce service providers to brands, but in essence, they are all engaged in traffic operation and trading. Representative companies include Ruilaibang, Baozun Xunxin, Ruoyuchen, etc.
• Advertising companies : The company itself is an advertising company, or the executives have worked for 4A companies. They are good at using creative methods to leverage the growth of private domain users and are familiar with media strategies such as seeding, fan operation, and advertising. Representative companies include Blue Label, SMG Group, and Changyi.
• SaaS companies : Supported by technology, they mainly provide digital system construction services based on SaaS. On this basis, they also provide agency operation services. Representative companies include Shangpai, Youzan, Tencent Qidian, iCC Grow, Weimob, Sensors, and Growing IO.
• Social e-commerce companies : familiar with WeChat ecosystem gameplay and WeChat ecosystem tools, attach importance to the construction of community and friend circle content, and the overall gameplay is inclined to the micro-business style. Representative companies include Blue Whale, Xiaolibian, Quanliang Technology, etc. * The companies cited in the article are just more focused on a certain type of business, or because of a certain type of business. Many companies have already laid out multiple types of businesses and cannot be classified into a certain type. This article is only for illustration.

No matter which private domain supplier an enterprise chooses to cooperate with, it will find that all companies providing private domain services can only solve the problem partially.

The so-called "full-case operation" is essentially a pseudo-concept. Each type of company only extends its business in other private domains in the field it is good at. But each type of business requires the team to use different ways of thinking.

Suppose we are doing a new customer acquisition activity, and we are also using a "full-case agency operation company", but the methods of these types of companies will be completely different:

• TP-type companies: put the waiter’s WeChat QR code in the express package, attach a 5-yuan coupon, and attract users to add WeChat;
• Advertising companies: Plan an online flower-sending game before May 20 to divert users to WeChat;
• SaaS companies: Create a small program that is linked to the cash register. Users must automatically follow the company's small program to make payments.
• Social e-commerce companies: Find a product that costs 10 yuan, hold a 1 yuan shopping event, and let users follow you to get the bargains.

Each type of company has its own path dependence and thinking inertia. It is not that these companies cannot do other businesses, but that they do not have the cognition and thinking to do other businesses, which will lead to their "full case" not being able to meet the full case needs of Party A. Of course, the more important reason is that the private domain involves too many business links of the company and the interests of too many core departments. Private domain business is the result that the company wants to pursue, not the business of the private domain department itself. All private domain service providers can only solve local problems locally. Only when the top management of the company has a clear understanding and overall deployment can they coordinate internal and external teams and get real private domain results.

Future trends: "In the private domain, we must also focus on long-termism."

In the past few years, private domains have been viewed more as sales channels, and have been regarded as another "Tmall" whose mission is to sell goods. Later, companies engaged in private domains found that if private domains are defined only as sales channels, a series of problems will arise:

• Market price chaos: Consumers who come to the private domain will definitely hope to get a more favorable price. This price will disrupt the price balance of various channels such as Tmall, JD.com, Douyin, and Pinduoduo.
• Weak supply: Private domains not only require lower product discounts, but also customized products or services. However, the size of private domains is much smaller than that of Tmall and Douyin. Factories cannot obtain large-scale orders and cannot provide independent products. Also, because the private domain order volume is relatively small, it is difficult to keep up with the logistics and customer service levels.
• Imbalance in labor efficiency: Selling goods in private domains is different from selling goods on platforms. E-commerce platforms have perfect digital facilities to help companies reduce operating costs. However, sales in private domains must basically avoid the sight of platforms to ensure higher profits. Therefore, the operating costs of private domains will increase dramatically as GMV increases. Compared with these annoying business problems, the more important reason for companies to change their views on private domains is that everyone has discovered that the value of private domains is far more than just selling goods.

In particular, as more and more brands choose the DTC strategy, the current private domain is more regarded as a "user service center."

Enterprises hope to communicate directly with users in the private domain and deeply explore user value. "User value" sounds a bit "empty", let me give two examples to illustrate what contributions the private domain has made to enterprises besides selling goods.

Intuitive Data: “Every penny earned by traditional data research companies can be taken away.”

There is a famous saying circulating in our user operation team: "Every penny earned by traditional data research companies can be taken away." In the past, when traditional data companies conducted user research, they would divide it into qualitative research and quantitative research. "Quantitative research" is to look at data statistics, while "qualitative research" is essentially the researcher's insight and judgment of consumers. For example, for a potato chip product, Tina from the research company may define the consumer's consumption motivation as "self-reward" after completing a focus group interview.

Mike, another member of the research company, may define consumers' consumption motivation as "guilt compensation."

It can be said that "qualitative research" is essentially a subjective judgment, and the research results depend entirely on the researcher's cognitive level, not just customer facts.

A company can rely on data reports from researchers to understand consumers, but it can never rely on researchers’ cognition to judge the market.

With private domains, companies can not only see quantitative data such as consumers’ repurchase rate, churn rate, conversion rate, age and gender, but can also intuitively see what consumers are saying and what their attitudes and reactions are towards products.

Simply put, companies no longer have to use sample surveys to "analyze" consumers. They can directly "observe" what consumers are thinking and what they will do. Because of the private domain, companies have a "feeling" of consumers, not just data indicators. This is what I call "intuitive data."

Companies use this "intuitive data" to guide product development, find creative ideas, discover business opportunities, and optimize operational methods, and the "hit rate" is several times higher than before.

Membership model: derive new business models around private domain membership

Most private-domain companies only have members, not a membership model. Members are just a part of registered users, while the membership model is to build a new profit model by serving high-net-worth customers well. For example, Costco, the originator of the membership system, does much more than just charge members. In order to collect membership fees, Costco has established a new business model around the membership system. For example, Costco's senior membership fee is $120 per year. If you spend $500 at Costco every month, you can earn back the $120 annual membership fee. If the monthly consumption is more than $500, you can still "make money."

That year, Costco relied on this trick to "come back to life", and the membership renewal rate reached an astonishing 91%.

Costco also has a well-known profit line, which requires that the gross profit margin of goods cannot exceed 14%. In order to provide members with sufficiently cheap goods, Costco adjusted a series of business logic.

For example, Costco is the largest wine manufacturer in the United States. The purpose of building its own winery is to control upstream production costs and ensure commodity prices.

Costco has only about 4,000 SKUs, while Walmart has 100,000. Fewer SKUs is to ensure the sales volume of each SKU, because only when the volume is large enough can Costco have stronger bargaining power with the factory.

Members can not only enjoy cheap prices, but also many privileges. Costco members have 13 privileges, covering all areas of food, clothing, housing and transportation. For example, Costco cooperates with First Choice to offer members low interest and low handling fees. By studying Costco, we can draw a conclusion: the membership model sells services, not products. Under the membership model, when consumers buy things, they value the service privileges they have, and these service privileges can be adapted to any product of the company. The reason why consumers choose you is not the price and quality of a certain product, but the comprehensive service you can provide.

For most private domains of enterprises, membership is just a business segment. But in fact, membership should become a business model.

Why do private domain companies need to transform to a membership model at this stage? A very important reason is the shift in business objectives. When a company grows to a certain stage, the cost of attracting new customers will soar, and the company's business objectives must shift from pursuing new customers to pursuing repeat purchases. The company's definition of the value of the private domain must also change from "a free, reusable traffic pool" to "a relationship pool that generates sustained consumption power."

When talking about private domains, many companies say that they have tens of millions of members, but they rarely mention the consumption contribution and repurchase rate of these members.

Costco, the originator of the membership system, has only about 20 million members worldwide, but its membership renewal rate in the second year is an astonishing 91%.

Therefore, a good membership model can tie consumers' wallets tightly, resulting in extremely high product repurchase rates and extremely low user churn rates.

Moreover, the membership model requires consumers to top up before they can consume. This top-up can be a membership qualification fee or a consumption deposit. But no matter what the membership fee is, it requires consumers to pay in advance before buying or selling.

This advance payment gives the company a certain cash flow, which is equivalent to an investment that will not be distributed to the company. The company can use this money to make many business arrangements.

In general business, new customers are more important than repeat customers, while in membership business, repeat customers are more important than new customers. Therefore, the membership model is essentially solving the problem of "sustainable growth in an environment of traffic depletion."

Using "intuitive data" to guide business operations and using private domains to incubate membership models, these two perspectives on private domains are both aimed at the long-term value of private domains rather than the current sales value.

If we look at the private domain from a long-term perspective, the reason why many companies cannot do well in the private domain is not essentially a problem of funding, technology, or even manpower, but a problem of understanding the private domain.

"What exactly is private domain for enterprises?" The starting point of this cognition determines the outcome of the business.

In General Liang’s view, the ultimate goal of private domain is “brand community”.

If an enterprise can view the private domain from the perspective of a brand community, then its private domain will have greater business imagination.

2. Brand community VS private domain: Are you using a “funnel” or a “ladder”?

When the concept of private domain did not exist in the world, Lego started to develop private domain. However, Lego's private domain is not like the private domain we are familiar with. The correct name of Lego's private domain should be "brand community".

They created a platform called Lego Ideas, where fans from all over the world can upload pictures of Lego products they designed. People in the community will like and vote on the products. As long as the number of likes exceeds 10,000 within a year, Lego will release the product and give the creator 1% of the sales dividend.

Image source: Internet

Judging from the data of 2021 alone, fans have submitted more than 36,000 projects on the platform, and dozens of sets have been launched on the market. Because of the participation of community fans, LEGO was able to shorten the time to market for a set of products from two years to six months.

What is the difference between brand communities and general private domains? The most essential difference is that traditional private domains are based on "funnel thinking" while brand communities are based on "ladder thinking". Almost all companies that engage in private domains use growth funnels to measure the value of private domains. Attracting new customers, activating, retaining, converting, and spreading, these are the funnel levels of traditional thinking.

This way of thinking treats users as traffic, and strives to make this traffic flow from the upper edge of the funnel to the lower edge, and extracts user value layer by layer through "attracting new users, activation, retention, conversion, and dissemination." Users who are not fully exploited are so-called potential customers. Users who are fully exploited are so-called "LTV full life cycle customers." However, the ladder thinking regards the private domain as a community that helps users improve. Users can grow together with the brand in this private domain. The value of the private domain is equivalent to building a ladder for users to help them grow.

LEGO divides users into four levels based on their preference for the product and how they play with the product: users, members, believers, and rule breakers.

• Users: Active family users, people who buy LEGO products;
• Member: refers to members who are able to communicate and are willing to interact through the Internet, social media, etc.;
• Believers: People who are willing to maintain a continuous dialogue with LEGO and actively participate in various activities;
• Rule Breakers: People who take the initiative to modify toys and collaborate with you to create new toys.

These four types of users continue to grow in the LEGO community and eventually tie their own destiny to LEGO.

Specifically, “brand community” will present four characteristics, namely:

1. Self-organization
2. Closure
3. Strong connection
4. New Class

1. Self-organization: the private domain of “de-operation”

A man named Lauren Carpenter once did an interesting experiment: He gathered 5,000 people in Las Vegas and invited them into a dark conference room. Each of them held a paper stick. One end of the paper stick was red and the other end was green. In front of them was an electronic screen showing an old-fashioned table tennis game. Carpenter said, "Okay, guys. The person on the left side of the meeting room controls the left racket, and the person on the right side controls the right racket."

Immediately, the 5,000 people discovered that the racket on the screen would move up and down as the average number of red paper sticks increased or decreased. In other words, each person's paper stick was a vote for the decision-making behavior of "swinging the racket". Thus, the 5,000 people in the audience completed a ping-pong game carnival without any "command".

We often call the masses a "mob", but this experiment tells us that the group can emerge with its own wisdom.

Applying this theory to the community means that the community is a self-organization that can operate independently based on simple rules.

For example, in the case of celebrity fan groups, agents and celebrities do not spend money on operating them, but fans spontaneously form organizations with clear division of labor to vote for their idols, cheer for them, take photos, and create topics...

The community of Tiaohai Bar was formed almost spontaneously. If the drinkers who come here to drink feel that the atmosphere here is good, they can contact Tiaohai to create a group. They have no restrictions on the operation of the group. You can decide what the group name is, what content to post in the group, and what activities to organize.

Fans have spontaneously established more than 100 small groups, including Reverse Moyu, Three Broomsticks, Independent Music Lovers, and Three City Drunkards. The rules of each group are different, but together they form the Jumping into the Sea community.

A real community should be "self-governing" rather than "governed by others". Let's think back to those excellent offline communities, where residents must have spontaneously initiated topics, formed communities, and organized activities. There is a representative type of community that is completely "governed by others", and that is prisons. Moreover, this kind of "self-governance" is not completely laissez-faire, waiting for users to "awaken" on their own. Behind the seemingly "self-governing" community, there is actually a hidden operational design.

However, this "de-operationalization" design is more about designing the system, culture, and code of conduct of this community, rather than specific activities, specific group speech rules, and specific private customer service scripts.

For example, although Tiaohai does not set rules for the community, the administrators will create a group called "Zhangqun People Summit", where the product-related content to be released by the community every day will be placed. However, the administrators decide how to release it and what tone to use, because they think that using unified copywriting and materials to distribute it lacks human touch.

People who work in private domains often lament that operations are tiring. "Tired" does not mean that we have to invest more manpower and time costs, but that there is a problem with the operating mechanism of the private domain itself, and the operators have not allowed the private domain to emerge with their own wisdom.

2. Closedness: Actively build a private domain wall

Take a test: Which of the following communities has the strongest vitality?

• SM Group
• Beijing Fishing Friends Group
• Wechat business development group
• PPT sharing group

I believe everyone's first instinct is the same as mine, the order is SM group > WeChat business group > fishing friends group > PPT sharing group. These four groups also represent the four typical driving forces for community formation: identity recognition, common interests, benefit creation, and resource sharing.

But why does the “SM group” have such strong vitality?

Because it is a subculture, the more niche something is, the fewer people share the same interests. Once two people of the same kind are connected, they will cherish each other. Because of its subculture, group members are not recognized by the external mainstream values, and the hostility and scrutiny from the outside also strengthen the internal unity.

The revelation this gives us is: A real community should not only consider the market size, but also choose a sufficiently closed track. Even if your track is not closed enough, you should take the initiative to build the "wall" of the community.

There are nearly 4,000 residents in Dimona, a desert town in Israel, all of whom are vegetarians. But they don't eat meat, not for health reasons or for animal protection, but because they all believe in the "Garden of Eden diet."

In their value belief, "people are born not to eat meat, but to consume plants." Because of this belief, they have formulated a set of life rules that seem very strict to outsiders:

• No meat, eggs, or dairy products, and an almost entirely plant-based diet;
• Eat seasonal foods and avoid seedless foods, such as seedless grapes or watermelon;
• Community members over the age of 13 observe a one-day fast, eating nothing but water;
• Eat a raw food diet for at least four weeks each year;
• Salt is only eaten every other day, and sugar can only be eaten for four weeks a year at most;
• Community members receive monthly massages and abstain from alcoholic beverages.

A good community will first use community behavioral norms to create a "wall". Secondly, when the community is large enough, the large community must take the initiative to split into different small communities. The basis for maintaining a community is the close relationship between community members. And there is no close relationship in the world that is not private. Dormitory, hometown, friends, colleagues, classmates... If your identity is very different from each other, it will never be possible to form a group.

Only private relationships can bring a sense of belonging and security.

Therefore, the closed nature of the community requires us to ensure that community members enjoy special privileges, special activities, and use special jargon to communicate with each other.

3. Strong connection: "Encircling users" and "forming a circle of users" are different

Most brands’ private domains merely “encircle users” rather than “let users form a circle.” We can use a picture to illustrate the difference.

The picture on the left symbolizes "circling users". The atmosphere is like you pulled 20 people from the street, locked them in a room, and did a new product tasting; the picture on the right symbolizes "letting users form a circle".

The atmosphere is a bit like if you pulled 20 people from the basketball court and put them in a room to discuss the quality of a pair of basketball shoes. They will give their opinions in the discussion, argument and joke.

In a truly high-quality "brand community", community members must communicate with each other. If in a private domain, only the private domain administrator and private domain members communicate, then this private domain only "circles users" but does not "let users form a circle."

The reason why we need to “let users form circles” is because circles are “contagious”. The members of a circle are in close communication with each other, and information related to the circle will spread quickly within the circle.

For example, if the electronic music master Afrojack is going to participate in the Beijing YOULO electronic music festival, we, the passers-by, may not feel anything, but once this news is released, most of the electronic music fans in China will know about it within a few days. Moreover, because of the popularity within the circle, people outside the circle will take the initiative to watch, forming a breaking circle effect.

Then the hot and popular atmosphere of the electronic music festival will make passers-by who don’t know electronic music marvel at how popular this form of music is, and they will start to actively search and pay attention to it.

Therefore, the key to operating a brand community is not to direct and perform by yourself every day, arrange for the "atmosphere group" to speak in the community, and create an active atmosphere. Instead, it is to design online and offline activities so that community members can communicate and do tasks together, so that they can become friends. Three years ago, Nike created the running community "Pao Baixiang" and regularly invited running groups in Shanghai to participate in running activities. Nike will specifically invite nutrition, recovery, and sports psychology organizations to join and provide scientific knowledge related to running. In addition, it will also hold irregular film screenings where people in the community can watch marathon events and running documentaries together.

Nike does not have a so-called atmosphere group, but because there are activities and content, it provides community members with sufficient communication materials, and people gather here to discuss and interact spontaneously.

4. New class: Let users find a "second identity" in the community

A "brand community" is not just a gathering place for online users. It is more like a society parallel to the real world. In this society, there is another set of operating norms, which will form a class division different from the real world. For example, a basketball community has fans of all kinds and from all walks of life. But in this basketball community, the focus is not on who is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but whether you can do a 360-degree dunk in the air. In the basketball community, the labels of real identities are hidden, and the community will give you new identities to pursue. Slam dunk king, sharpshooter, assist king... these are the new identities you want to strive for.

If a person is not living a satisfactory life in the real world, he can try to find a new meaning in life and create new social value in a virtual community. On the contrary, if a person is living a satisfied life in the real world, he can still find new life pursuits in a virtual community. So we say that brand communities are creating new social classes and creating new values ​​for ordinary people.

In addition to this professional skill, another way for you to gain community status is to contribute to the community.

Still in that basketball community, if your basketball level is only average, but you always actively help plan community activities, are willing to contact and coordinate the time of community members, and contact free venues for members' basketball games... your contribution to the community can still be respected.

If there is a formula to express how to gain class status in a community, the formula is:

Community status = professional value + contribution value

Therefore, a good community operator must try to proactively blur the real identities of members, and strive to create new community classes based on the professional values ​​and contribution values ​​of members, so that members can discover new life pursuits in the community.

The above are the contents of the first and second parts of this white paper. The third and fourth parts of the white paper discuss the eight business scenarios of brand communities and the methodology for building brand communities.

Figure｜Methodology for building a brand community: “Role chain”

Author: Liang Jiangjun, public account: Liang Jiangjun (ID-liangjiangjunisme)