Three college students run a Wechat official account for half a year to make a profit from crowdfunding a cafe

In this era of "everyone is self-media", the threshold to create a Wechat official account is very low, almost zero cost. However, it is not easy to use the official account to make a profit and keep it going.

At Zhejiang normal University, three boys led a team to set up the official Wechat account, Pocket normal University, a campus life service, in March last year, which made a profit after six months of operation. Not only that, they also crowdfunded a coffee shop with the official account.

Set up the official account of Wechat

Make a profit in half a year

Check the grades, check the class schedule, order milk for takeout, sign up for driving, find a part-time job, and help roommates find a partner. Opening the official Wechat account of "Pocket normal University", the reporter found that the daily life needs of a college student can basically be accomplished by relying on the official account, which has 22000 followers. The Wechat official account, which currently has the largest number of followers in Zhejiang normal University, was originally founded by eight Zhejiang normal University students.

In March last year, Tang Zhonglin, a junior majoring in international trade at the Central African Business School of Zhejiang normal University, and seven partners founded Pocket normal University. At this time, on the campus of Zhejiang normal University, the competition for the same type of Wechat official account is also quite fierce.

Pocket normal University first focused on the delivery service, which also accumulated the first batch of fans for them. But the good times did not last long, as all kinds of social delivery APP entered the campus, the business volume of "Pocket normal University" obviously came down.

In order to absorb powder, Tang Zhonglin and his friends racked their brains and sought advice from a teacher in his own college who specializes in online marketing. "on the one hand, it is entertainment-oriented powder suction, such as roadshows and offline activities, and the other is to use services such as development and checking grades and class tables to attract powder with rigid demand." Tang Zhonglin said that they finally decided to adhere to the direction of "serving students" and continue to introduce new life service functions, such as delivering fruit, ordering milk, working with shops to launch shop membership cards, as well as driving school registration, part-time student services, and so on.

However, it takes a lot of time and effort to run a Wechat official account. Some people in the team have dropped out because of graduation, academic conflicts, and other reasons. Tang Zhonglin also admitted that when he is busy, he needs to spend five or six hours a day taking care of it. Today, only Tang Zhonglin, Chen Yi, a junior majoring in the same major, and Zhou Henghui, a senior majoring in urban planning at the College of Geography and Environment, are left in a small team of eight.

Fortunately, Pocket normal University has been profitable since September last year. Tang Zhonglin said that with a small portion of the profits, six students working on projects can basically maintain their monthly living expenses, as well as eight contributions to official accounts, while most of the profits will continue to be spent on the development of Pocket normal University.

And use Wechat.

Crowdfunded a coffee shop

In fact, they not only rely on the "Pocket normal University" to earn enough living expenses, but also use the platform and popularity of the official account to crowdfund a coffee shop.

On January 1 this year, a coffee shop was transferred on the campus of Zhejiang normal University. Tang Zhonglin, who had always dreamed of opening a shop, and his two friends immediately took over with the first bucket of gold from Pocket normal University and the support of their parents. Ten days later, the coffee shop opened, and three people were both bosses, cooks and waiters.

"opening a coffee shop is much more tiring than we thought, and it's hard to do both academic work, official account and coffee shop." Tang Zhonglin said that the three people who realized that they were gradually deviating from their original intention decided to start the crowdfunding model. To put it simply, the coffee shop is converted into 60 shares, 3000 yuan per share, so that shareholders can participate in the operation and management of the coffee shop. But unlike the traditional crowdfunding, this crowdfunding not only raises funds, but also raises partners.

They released the crowdfunding news in Pocket normal University, and it took only four days to raise the required 180000 yuan. Most of the 45 shareholders are students of all grades and majors of Zhejiang normal University, as well as graduates of Zhejiang normal University, boss of foreign trade companies, and so on.

"in this way, we have reduced our own input costs and have our own offline platform." Tang Zhonglin said that the official Wechat account is just a social platform, and if there are no cultural interactive activities offline, it will affect the enhancement of the platform's trust and fan stickiness.

And this move, also known by Tang Zhonglin and his friends as the "Internet +" application, that is, the transformation of the success achieved on the Internet in real life.

Although it is graduation season, Tang Zhonglin, Chen Yi and Zhou Henghui have no plans to find another job. "at present, the profit model of 'Pocket normal University' is not clear enough and the profit is not stable enough. next, we are going to refine our services and open O2O stores." Tang Zhonglin said that they have contacted several universities in Jinhua to expand the scope of service. "according to the idea, we will also extend it to the community and tap the profit points of the community."