To add social elements to tool products, the key is to find the combination of tools and social.
1. Tool products can add social elements in this way
1. Look at it separately: tool products and social products
Tool products , as the name suggests, are mainly tool attributes, and the core is the word "use", which is practical, can help users query data (data query products), can help users memorize words (English word products), and can Help users find their destination (map products), and help users reach their destinations (taxi-hailing products). These are typical tool products.
At the same time, tool products not only connect people and things, but also connect people and people. For example, vocabulary apps are all about connecting people and things, and users only need to complete the purpose of memorizing words through the app; while taxi-hailing products, although they seem to connect people and cars on the surface, are actually connecting people and people. , users and drivers, but there is no social relationship between people. Whether it is a driver or a car, in the eyes of passengers, it is actually a tool to achieve their goals.
Social products must be products that connect people. There are concepts of community, community, communication, and interaction. The core highlight is a "communication". , get to know more people, gain more recognition through sharing, and so on. Social communication must have people, and a group of people. This is the premise, and then provide them with a communication channel on the basis of a group of people, so that they can interact and generate social value with each other.
Tool products are equivalent to "tools", which are called "tools" in the physical world, and those that are tools are biased towards use, referring to specific, material things. In other words, this thing is useful for my study, work, and life, so I will use it. It is equivalent to my tool, knowledge can be a tool, furniture can be a tool; and social products are equivalent to "Tao" , the metaphysics is called the Tao, and the Tao is inclined to abstract, empty, and spiritual things. For example, social status and honor in reality, such as showing off and likes in the circle of friends, such as the number of fans on social platforms, the number of followers, etc., it is equivalent to my spiritual appetite, which can satisfy my spiritual and spiritual aspects. needs and so on.
2. Combined view: tool products and social products
Since we want to add social elements to tool products, we cannot separate the "tool" from "social". If we simply add a social product to the tool, we don't consider the relationship between the two at all. , then why put them together! So what we need to think about is how to combine these two elements.
There may be many ideas about how to combine them. One of my ideas here is to find a way to find the combination point of tool attributes and social attributes, that is, the combination point of "device" and "Tao". Then this Where is the combination point? My personal understanding is this:
(1) Think about and find out what kind of social value tools can bring to users (this social value includes both online and offline values), this social value is the combination extending from "device" to "dao"
(2) Think about and find out what kind of tool value social networking can bring to the product. This tool value is the combination point extending from "Tao" to "device" .
That is to say, in the instrumental element, the meaning of "dao" is extended to "dao" to connect to the social value, and then in the social element, the meaning of "dao" is extended to "device" to connect to the tool value .
When designing tool attributes, without weakening the "device", it is natural to consider the "Tao" and the social value that this tool brings to users (such as spiritual satisfaction, sense of honor, etc.), Find a way to add this point. For example, if I use a certain tool to accomplish one thing (recite 10,000 words), I can show it off and gain recognition from my friends. What I have learned by myself can improve my daily life or study skills, and can also improve my psychological self-confidence, social identity and so on.
When designing social attributes, on the premise of not weakening the "Tao", it is natural to consider the "device", consider what benefits this social platform can bring to users in terms of specific practicality, and so on. For example, for English products, there can be a leaderboard display in the social elements, and a display of daily word check-in. Such a display will have an incentive effect on users, so that users will naturally consider that they also need to work harder. Then it comes back to the "tool", I should make better use of this "tool" to get more "Tao"; for example, I can meet more seniors or friends in social elements, Learning from them is also helpful to the growth of my personal "tool".
This is my personal thinking on how to add social elements to tool products. So let me give a simple example to illustrate this concept.
2. Give a simple example of a small case to illustrate
Starting from the concept of Didi Taxi, I imagine a product called "Didi Foreign Language", which is mainly a tool attribute (to help users practice oral English), and then add social elements (such as communication and interaction in small language circles, etc.) . Let me talk about some of my specific ideas: (Because the concept of Didi Taxi is already well known, so the following explanation will be as concise as possible, and some concepts will be briefly mentioned.)
1. Hypothetical pain points
Many users who learn foreign languages find it difficult to find an effective learning method in speaking, and their progress is not obvious. They are eager to find a way to quickly improve their speaking ability.
2. Solutions
If you want to improve your spoken English, you must move your mouth more and communicate with people who are good at speaking a foreign language, especially those who are native speakers of a foreign language and have pure pronunciation. But for ordinary users, it is not so easy to find a suitable person to communicate with, so we need to help these users find friends who can communicate with him orally in a foreign language quickly and easily. "Match with people who provide oral communication" to help users quickly find friends who can communicate with them in foreign language. (Corresponding to Didi Taxi, in fact, people who learn foreign languages are those who need to take a taxi, and people who speak foreign languages are drivers).
3. Core requirements
People who want to learn a foreign language can always find someone who is willing to communicate with him (foreign students, foreigners, people who are better at foreign languages), so as to improve their speaking ability, but they need to pay some money; , other people who are good at speaking foreign languages) can receive part-time private jobs teaching foreign language speaking through the platform at any time, so as to earn some extra money.
4. User roles
Users (students) who need to improve their oral English + users (teachers or teachers) who are excellent in oral English. (Users who need to improve their spoken English can obtain the ability to improve their spoken English by paying; users who are excellent at speaking foreign languages get money in return by spending their time, and some foreigners can also learn Chinese)
5. Tool side
The user registers as a student and publishes his needs (language, requirements for teachers, bids, time, topics he wants to talk about, etc.);
Users register as lecturers or teachers (need to apply for certification to obtain teaching qualifications), and give their own requirements and qualifications (language, oral level, price requirements, time requirements, topics they are good at, etc.).
The students send out demand orders——the system matches the students’ needs with the teacher’s——the teacher receives the orders that meet the conditions—makes oral communication—ends the communication—collects payments and makes evaluations.
PS: There may be a problem of private docking across the platform after the students communicate with the teacher. Because it is an idea stage, it has not been considered in depth. What I think of temporarily is that if the two parties connect through the platform, whether it is for students or teachers, there will be better guarantees in terms of safety and down payment. At the same time, due to the advantages of the platform, the price advantage can be brought into full play. In addition, for students, through the platform, they can contact more different teachers and communicate on different topics. Moreover, for both parties, the time is free, controllable, and fragmented. It does not require relatively concentrated time like other platforms or offline learning, and the degree of freedom is high.
6. Tools + Social
So the above is actually the tool attribute of the product "Didi Foreign Language", which can help users quickly improve their oral English level, which belongs to the category of "tools". We can see that the current tool end fulfills the basic tool requirements, and the main problems are: users can’t form stickiness when they run out, users can’t get a sense of identity or accomplishment on the platform, and users can’t harvest on the platform. Your own circle of friends or like-minded study partners, etc. These problems need to be solved by social elements, which is the problem of "Tao", so it is necessary to further extend the "Tao" on top of the "device" to solve these problems.
So at this time, how should social elements be added? According to the previous concept, at this time we need to find the integration point, and this integration point is the social value that the tool can bring to users. Well, in fact, the social value brought by oral communication tools, from the perspective of students, is most directly reflected in reality, which is to make users' oral English better, thereby improving personal ability, social identity, self-confidence, and professional skills. level etc. In other words, what we have to do now is to find a way to transfer these benefits in reality to our platform and present them in the form of social products. The value generated by these social products can in turn promote the use of tools, so that the value of tools can be better utilized.
(1) For example, to show the social value of students' social identity or self-confidence, then we can set up an activity section, often hold some online oral English competitions for students, and set competition rewards and ranking rankings. For outstanding students, the leaderboard is equivalent to an honor, which can bring him more spiritual value. At the same time, it can also encourage more users to improve their speaking ability, which will increase the frequency of users using tools, extending from "Tao" to "device".
(2) For another example, on the tool side, the teacher obtains praise through continuous teaching, and wins honors such as gold teacher. If this honor itself is just an honor and is not carried by social functions, then it is just a show, a psychological satisfaction. And if this honor is extended to the social category, adding high-quality teacher rankings, high-quality language partners, etc., then this honor will not only bring about the improvement of "Tao", but also bring more benefits to teachers on the tool side. Multiple orders. This actually extends from "vessel" to "Tao", and "Tao" feeds back "vegetable".
(3) For example, introduce the concept of circles, establish some "small language" circles, and help these circles promote some online and offline activities. This is to satisfy users' social value in terms of making friends. (For example, Gudong has such a concept, there are many running circles)
PS: This case is just a simple personal idea, just to better explain the problem. As for the feasibility of this case, etc., I have not thought deeply about it, so please forgive me.
To sum up, if we want to add social elements to tool products, we must find a way to find the combination of "tools" and "social", that is, the combination of "device" and "Tao". And this combination point refers to: what kind of social value this tool can bring to users. Find this social value, and then find a way to implement it into a specific product form, and better combine it with tool products.