The idea of a community#
In the traditional sense, a community refers to a society made up of people in the same place, region, or country. That is the sociological definition.
When we talk about community operations, the community here usually means an online community (below simply “community”).
An online community is an online platform that gathers users who share common traits and provides interactive services.
There are three elements: shared traits, interactive services, and an online platform. Any online platform that meets these can be seen as a community, such as Douban, Zhihu, and Tieba.
A brief introduction#
Community vs. social platforms#
When people hear “community,” they often think of social networking. That is partly true, because communities do have social attributes. But communities and social platforms are different.
For example, are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter communities or social platforms?
They are the latter. Those platforms are people-centered, with content secondary. For a community, content is primary and people are secondary.
Of course, some platforms combine both, so it is fair to say they are both community and social platform, such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat.
Two key elements#
A community has two key elements: content and users.
Content is the foundation. It defines the positioning, tone, and features of a community, and it also shapes the user profile.
For example, Hupu started as a basketball community. Most content was about basketball: live commentary, results, reviews, and post-game discussion. That content attracted people who love basketball (mainly NBA fans), mostly students, with some working adults.
A basketball-focused community cannot attract a large group of people who love reading but do not care about basketball. Those people would more likely go to a book community like Douban Reading.
Users can take multiple roles. The most common are content consumers (consuming does not equal paying), who are the demand side. Then there are content producers, who create content for others. Producers can be ordinary users, elites, or experts. That is where UGC and PGC come from.
- UGC: User Generated Content, large quantity but uneven quality.
- PGC: Professionally Generated Content, smaller quantity but higher quality.
But being an expert does not automatically mean the content is PGC; it still depends on quality.
Community lifecycle#
Everything has a lifecycle, and communities are no exception.
Typical stages:
- Launch (seed) stage: the community is just starting, with very few users and content.
- Growth stage: users and content are growing.
- Maturity stage: the community reaches scale and runs steadily; growth slows.
- Decline stage: negative growth, users churn, and content growth slows or stops.
Positioning and tone#
Positioning and tone are crucial. They determine functional and cultural characteristics.
Positioning means the field or target audience. Hupu started as a basketball community for basketball fans (mostly students). Shaoshu Pai focuses on productivity for white-collar workers. Positioning defines what the community is for.
Tone means the style of content and user interaction. Zuiyou leans toward humor, Zhihu is professional, and many open-source communities are technical. Tone and positioning reinforce each other, but they are primarily shaped by content production, moderation, and user cultivation.
Types of communities#
Different positioning, tone, and audience lead to many types. There is no absolute classification; a community can fit multiple categories.
For example, Zhihu can be seen as a content community, a Q&A community, or a vertical community.
CSDN, OSChina, and SegmentFault can be seen as technical communities or vertical communities.
The current trend is for communities to expand their dimensions rather than stick to one. Even vertical communities broaden their scope. Hupu started with basketball, but now includes games, life, tech, and more. This relates to community evolution at the end of maturity or into decline; broadening can extend the lifecycle.
This article gives a basic overview of online communities, though it does not go deep. If you have questions, feel free to reach out.
There is a comment system on this blog. You can log in with your GitHub account to leave a comment. I work in open-source community operations. I am far from an expert, but I would love to connect and discuss. My WeChat ID: zhaofawei26.