Fizzled Durham 2010: Social Media and Pikachu

Everything I needed to know about social media I learned from Pikachu. an illustrated chat with Rachel Nabors @CrowChick RacheltheGreat.com

Ubiquity All your friends are doing it.

If people we like use something, we're more likely to use it, too.

What can you do?
Help users find their friends.
Offer to scour their address book for friends already using the service.
Help them invite any friends they can't find.
Ask permission to alert their social web.

Availability Everyone can access it.

The more ways we have to access something, the more likely we are to use it. Would Twitter be so revolutionary if you could only use it from Twitter.com on a computer?

Of course not! How would you be able to tweet while driving? Thank goodness you can twitter with your mobile phone!

Participation All together now.

*Not that this ever actually happened...

What happened?
No one could "see" the interaction from the outside.
No incentive for new users to participate if they couldn't see the conversations that would have prompted them to join.
Having a conversation widget you could add to your site or Facebook with a "Join the Wave!" button might've helped get people talking.
But Google was trying to be private by using invites, so that was probably a no-go from the beginning. Pity.

Camaraderie Friends by default. People like to feel like they're a part of an exclusive group of users, even is said group of users is very large.

What can you do?
Market product as an experience for "people like you" can foster this sense of camaraderie.
However, you run the risk of alienating potential users who don't have a mental image of themselves that aligns with the one you're marketing for.

Summation The bonds that people form over a product are strengthened and exercised when they come together over it.

The iphone huddle. Look familiar?

What can you do?
It's not enough to stand alone.
Connect with users and in turn connect them with their social group.
Be available in multiple formats for multiple devices so no one gets left out ever.
Help users seek and find each other.
Help users broadcast and listen, see and be seen.
Foster a feeling of friendship and belonging.

Thank you! Rachel Nabors @CrowChick RacheltheGreat.com

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Fizzled Durham 2010: Social Media and Pikachu

by Rachel Nabors on Mar 07, 2010

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