Building Awesome Social Products

Building Awesome Social Products!
© image: flickr.com/ marfis75
04, September 2011
pj | pj@beingpractical.com | www.beingpractical.com

#1 There are Social Graphs around us!
Facebook – Social networking for friends & family!
Users with whom you have interacted in real life.
Twitter – Loose connections; people you know or are acquaintances. Typically a celebrity; subject matter or domain expertise; known professional
LinkedIn – Professional & Business contacts
Contacts – People with whom you have/had conversations
And others….
Building Awesome Social Products – PJ Read full blog post on www.beingpractical.com Copyright: beingpractical.com

#2 Social Platforms have Social Mindsets & Product Norms
Social Platforms – no matter how big, users have own strong mindsets.
Can share status, updates, photos, videos with “known friends”.
Social Mindset – Informal, Between Friends, Close group communication
Follow like minded people, domain experts & celebrities
Social Mindset – Open Conversations & thoughts expected by followers
Strictly Business & Professional
Social Mindset – Professional or Company updates; Industry news & views
Private Communication Channel
Social Mindset – Communication with people you know or may not know.

#3 It is extremely difficult to break such Mindsets
Facebook has 750Mn+ users but not able to scale up Places; while 4SQ did
Questions (Polls) not making any impact.
Twitter has 200Mn+ users, not able to find usability behind lists.
Users added people to lists; but not following them.
LinkedIn has 115Mn+ users
Struggled to find adoption for LinkedIn Answers – while Quora scaled.
Google launched Google+ through Gmail
Struggling with keep continued engagement & adoption of Google+
Because Social Mindsets & Product Norms are so difficult to break
Products that leverage Social Graphs outside them become Successful!

#4 Some Perfect Examples of Social Products
social graph on
Facebook
Social Gaming
social graph on
Facebook & Twitter
Location based Check-ins
social graph on
Facebook & Twitter
Asking Questions
So how to get right approach for building such Social Products?

#5 The 6 Basic Principles of Building Social Products
1
Social Graphs are already established.
Do not reinvent and try to build social graphs again from scratch on your product.
2
Social Graphs get built over a period of time.
a. Over years - Users have made friends on Facebook; added professional contacts on LinkedIn or followed people over Twitter.
b. It will take loads of time, effort & patience if you try to build them again. Google+ is attempting this – we can wait and watch.
3
Don’t build Social Products for sharing content & additional traffic.
a. Most social products are built with this intention – sharing content & more traffic.
b. Existing Social Graphs are powerful & already allow sharing of content to drive viral traffic.

#5 The 6 Basic Principles of Building Social Products
4
Build Social Products that add value to Users.
While existing Social Graphs are established, users have a “Usage Mindset” about them.
There are many tasks or products that can be built outside them which can add value to end users.
5
Don’t arbitrage value through your product.
a. With social platforms like Facebook & Twitter – there is immense value in integrating directly.
b. Don’t try to arbitrage this value – users (if B2C product) or merchants / publishers (if B2B product) will at some point of time realize this and abandon your product
6
Don’t build – But Leverage Social Graphs!
Rome was not built in one day! And so is the case with Social Graphs. Leverage them.
Choose the one that fits most with your product use case.

#6 Building your Perfect Social Product
Leverage Existing Social Graphs in your Product!
Social Gaming
LocationCheck-ins
Established
Social Graphs
Asking Questions
Social Kiss
Such integration makes Product Scale Up Virally
a. Viral User Acquisitionb. Introduce your product to already existing social graphs!
c. User activity generates updates for Social Graph, contextual marketing.

#7 Chicken & Egg problem: The First User’s Experience
Every user who will join your Social Product – will have his own social graph
First User of this Social Graph
User
User’s Social Graph

And every Social Graph will have its first user
Social Products don’t have not one; but multiple first users!

What did the First User on these platforms / products think?
Whom do I add as Friend? Who will see my wall-post?
Who will read my Tweet? Whom should I follow?
Who will answer my Question?
Where should I check-in? Why should I Check-in?
Should I play CityVille alone? How will my City grow?
Solve the First User Problem – This makes or breaks your Social Product

#8 Validation Cycle for Social Products
Take example of Quora -
Validation is getting answers from people with best knowledge about it.
The Question
People with
best knowledge about this Question
Product Managers should define Validation Cycle and work towards reducing it!
Have Patience. Validation will be slow and takes time in initial days of adoption.

#9 Application on Facebook v/s Destination
a. Your product idea or concept or product use case should deliver real value. Not just a feature on Facebook.
b. There are Social Graphs outside of Facebook that you want to explore.
c. Facebook would want people to interact with people; not with applications.
d. Product or Business case qualifies it to be a destination website outside Facebook – like a Quora or Foursquare.
Remember of the Social Mindsets & Product Norms on Facebook.
If your product requires to explore Social Graph and is outside the Social Norms of Facebook – it can be a destination!

#10 Key Questions before getting started
a
The task your product is planning to solve – do people do it in real world socially?
Social Products are reflections of user behavior in real world. If people don’t do such task in real world – they will not do it on a Social Product as well.
b
Is it a feature on Facebook or Twitter or any Social Platform?
Feature products don’t last. Identify if your product can be a feature on Facebook or Twitter.
c
If B2C product – Is there a value to do this task outside of Facebook?
Check and check again on previous slide. Is your product idea meant to be a application or destination.
d
If B2B product – Is sharing & driving traffic to merchants / publishers key aim?
Social platforms by default allow this. Make sure this is not your only value proposition to your clients.

#11 Things to keep in Mind!
1
People drive Social Platforms & Products. Not Features!
Features are how you want users to drive your product. But it is always people who drive it!
2
Engagement should be People to People.
People don’t login to Facebook everyday cause it is Facebook. It is cause their friends are there.
3
Don’t arbitrage on user value.
Consumers (B2C) and Businesses (B2B) will eventually figure it out. Don’t do it in first place.
4
Don’t be Evil.
People love their Friends & Social Circle / Connections than then love any product.
Don’t mess with them. Don’t spam. Don’t be Evil.

Thank You!
Follow me: on twitter.com/beingpractical
Write to me: pj@beingpractical.com
Note: All thoughts, concepts mentioned and views expressed are made in personal capacity.
All brands mentioned here owned by respective owners.
www.beingpractical.com pj@beingpractical.com

http://www.beingpractical.com	2276
http://www.pluggd.in	695
http://pulkitarora.wordpress.com	72
http://feeds.feedburner.com	37
http://ganeshkedari.tumblr.com	23
http://www.brijj.com	12
http://www.functionals.org	1
http://twitter.com	1
http://lfvsfcp10100.dn.net	1
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1

Building Awesome Social Products

by P J on Sep 05, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

11 Embeds 3,120

Statistics

Building Awesome Social Products — Presentation Transcript