How WeChat engages its community
Nie feels this is the best way to be successful, because no matter how many reporters there are, they can’t compare to the number of users. She believes users should be used as writers instead.
Nie focused on three core words for her speech about WeChat and how to have a highly successful online community:
Interest
In order to have a successful online community, people need to have something to talk about, a common interest. Having something for consumers to discuss is the first step to building a virtual community.
Nei said it is not hard to find consumers, everybody is a consumer. She said the most challenging part is gathering them together in one space and giving them content that will make them stay.
Nie spoke of several Chinese examples of online communities, such as television program forums where viewers discuss the current episode or certain characters in the program. Nie said that as long as there are people interested in the same thing an online community can flourish.
Value
It is important to find the value in the consumer, learning what they like and dislike to better tailor the information that is offered to them.
Nie said that if you are unable to learn from your customers then you are looking in the wrong place or you are offering the wrong product or service.
In order for an online platform to be successful some value has to be associated with its consumers and its content.
Leader
All communities have leaders and the online community is no exception. There are always users who stand out from the rest. Nei says that it is important to find these users and to utilise their interest in the business.
She said that the best way to utilise these special users is to make them content editors or moderators, by doing this these users are empowered and will continue to promote your business. Nei noted that the most effective way to have a successful online community is to have users that want to talk about your community and share with people that they know. This is effective because it is free advertising and it keeps users coming back.
Nei said that the importance of mobile communities is a definite, however since there are so many active users of mobile forums, it is now possible to allow these consumers to be the sole content providers for these online communities, which then removes the need for a company to upload their own content.
She said that if companies are not taking full advantage of all mobile platforms they are missing out on a large amount of possible clients. This is the case because when people are online, they are more engaged than when they are reading a paper or magazine, they transform from readers to users, which creates an interactive platform.
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