In the previous post I mentioned that a community (an online community) has a lifecycle, moving from zero to growth and eventually decline. To extend that lifecycle and keep a community healthy, we have to apply operational measures. That is what I call community operations.
Operations differ across lifecycle stages.
Operations in the launch (seed) stage#
In the launch stage, the goal is to go from 0 to 1. I usually focus on three things:
- Define positioning and tone: they determine the community’s functional and cultural characteristics, and should be set early.
- Build the content framework and seed the first content: content is the foundation; without it, there is nothing to attract users. In the early stage, operators can produce content themselves or invite others to do so.
- Find seed users: the first group of users contributes content, interacts, and provides feedback. Their activity is critical for validating positioning and tone.
Operations in the growth stage#
Once a community survives the launch stage, the goal is to grow users and scale. If operations are effective, the community enters growth.
At this stage we use the three classic levers: content operations, user operations, and event operations. They are universal and apply to most communities.
Content operations#
Content is the foundation, so content operations are central.
The two most important points are output and quality. They keep users engaged and returning.
For example, a Q&A community like Zhihu can produce dozens or hundreds of Q&As every day, and many are high quality. That implies:
- the community is active,
- it has many contributors,
- and it adds a lot of new content daily.
Without operations, this would not happen (unless the community is highly self-governing, which is rare).
User operations#
In the growth stage, both content volume and user scale grow.
Users grow partly through organic growth and partly through acquisition. After users join, we need to retain them, keep them engaged, and encourage them to produce content. This is retention work.
How to attract new users and how to retain existing users are key questions for operators.
Some communities also involve paid-user conversion, which is another important part of user operations.
Event operations#
Event operations means organizing events to achieve goals like growth or conversion.
Events take many forms, with different costs and outcomes.
Content, users, and events reinforce each other and are often combined.
Due to length, I will not expand the three areas here. I will explain them in separate posts later.
Community operations include more than these three areas; these are simply the most universal.
Operations in the maturity stage#
When a community reaches scale and grows steadily (slow growth), and its products are relatively complete, it can be considered mature.
The focus usually shifts to retention/engagement and commercialization.
The three levers still apply and can be strengthened.
Commercialization is difficult and I do not have enough experience to go deep here.
Operations in the decline stage#
When user loss accelerates and content growth keeps falling despite multiple efforts, the community likely enters decline.
How do you rescue a community in decline?
In most cases the decline is hard to reverse. The best path is to pivot or open a new track.
For example, a single-category community may pivot into a comprehensive community. This pivot may happen in the growth stage as well. Another approach is to build new products or features.
Sina did this: after the portal declined, it launched blogs; when blogs declined, it launched Weibo.
Recommended books on operations#
A few recommended books: Super Operations, Learn Operations from Zero, Operations Mastery, and The Art of Community Operations.
Any good book is worth reading as long as it helps you.
Closing#
I am not an expert. My goal in writing this is simply to help people who are new to community operations gain a basic understanding. I welcome discussion and feedback.
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.