Birds of a feather flock together, and people form groups. This ancient saying largely confirms the objective existence and value of communities. For anyone, only when customers become users, users become fans, and fans become friends can it truly be called a community.
With the development of the internet, consumption concepts have changed accordingly. Thus, all staff of Gaopeng engaged in a three-hour learning and discussion session.
Looking at internet development, from offline to online, from PC to mobile, and from mobile to big data, the iteration of eras is often accompanied by the harsh reality that "one general's success costs ten thousand lives." When we are not ready to embrace an era, the next one quietly approaches. The awkward and tragic thing is that many blindly follow without being prepared, causing a large number of people to become guinea pigs of the internet era in new media marketing, mobile marketing, and community marketing. Though we have not been at it for long, we sat down to reflect quietly. Whether internet celebrities or live streaming, what they are doing now is essentially running their own vertical niche circles, and they will eventually move toward the community model—gathering people with common needs into their own small circles. Communities with precise target users and not necessarily large numbers will gradually replace blindly established large groups that only run advertisements. "Small and beautiful"—in the game of operation, is this not a pleasure? While solving users' needs, it also satisfies one's own sense of identity and commercial value. Community marketing and social media have their own charm; the future belongs to communities.
Learning and discussing the concepts and elements of community marketing were part of this study session. Through rich cases, the lecturer showed us the arrival of an era of word-of-mouth.
Figure 1: The constituent elements of a community. Common interest determines whether a community can be established, which is what we mean by "people of a kind associate." The structure of a community determines its survival. A community is often composed of one leader and several quality members, giving the structure resilience and cohesion. The core of a community is output, which determines whether the community has value and can empower. Combined with reasonable operational models, a community can last long. Finally, replication determines the scale of the community.
Figure 2: All staff listened attentively and discussed. After understanding communities, how to build Gaopeng's own community marketing became an important topic. Colleagues put forward their own opinions and suggestions based on what they had learned and observed in daily work.
In the electroplating circle, many companies are also trying to transform from traditional marketing to community marketing. Traditional marketing certainly has its own advantages, but the trend of the times is pushing the electroplating industry forward. As one of the players, Gaopeng is also exploring and experimenting with a model that combines traditional marketing and community marketing.
First, online, we hope to empower customers through the official website, WeChat official account, mini-programs, and other carriers, thereby building an electroplating ecological community. Second, offline, we hope to develop reasonable and effective methods to classify and regroup customers with different needs and pain points, and conduct targeted interaction, communication, and discussion, evolving into closer relationships.
In summary, although a single afternoon cannot complete a full development plan, through everyone's enthusiastic suggestions and intense discussions, Gaopeng's informatization, dataization, and community building are advancing step by step. Through learning, everyone has come to understand that community marketing is not an unattainable blueprint, but lies in the careful observation and thinking of daily work and life. The collective wisdom of everyone has added great brilliance to Gaopeng.
