Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

The Mouse’s Revenge: The Psychology of Reach, Frequency, and Stickiness David C. Evans, Ph.D. Psychster Inc.

Formula for Total Page Views
Users/mo * Visits/user/mo * Page Views/user/mo = Total Page Views/mo
People * Checking * Clicking = Total
People Checking Clicking

Increasing Checking and Clicking is more important than increasing People.
1 additional visit per user increases total page views by 2.5 billion.
Why? Adding 1 to any column increases the total views by the product of the other 2 columns.
1 additional page view per visit increases total page views by 637 million.
1 additional MySpace user increases total page views by 464.
0:4:06 34,046 5.7 1.4 4,166,000 Reunion 0:10:56 148,817 9.1 2.5 6,456,000 LinkedIn 1:01:31 6,560,961 35.1 8.0 23, 346 ,000 Facebook 0:47:41 773,599 33.9 3.2 7,078,000 MyFamily 2:20:03 27,328,175 43.4 10.7 59,613,000 MySpace 0:08:21 50,160 6.8 4.5 1,624,000 Friendster 0:06:18 13,267 3.7 1.9 1 ,858 ,000 Tickle 0:09:25 119,707 5.2 2.9 8, 078 ,000 Evite 0:08:53 259,224 9.6 2.0 13,992,000 Classmates Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss) /month TOTAL Web Page Views (000) /month & CLICKING Web Pages Per Person Per Visit /month CHECKING Visits Per Person /month PEOPLE Unique Audience /month

How do we do it? Ask B.F. Skinner.

Design
“ Variable interval reinforcement schedule” (Skinner, 1939)
Unknown time until cool content appears
Outcome
Frequent anticipatory responses
Checking: More site visits
People * Checking * Clicking
Examples
Any UGC: Email, comments on profile, message boards
Breaking news
Netflix queues
Ebay bids
Email and alerts

People * Checking * Clicking Remember how often you used to hit “Send/Receive” before they implemented popup alerts? That’s because it was a variable interval reinforcement schedule.

People * Checking * Clicking People * Checking * Clicking
Design
“ Variable ratio reinforcement schedule” (Skinner, 1939)
Unknown actions until cool content appears
Outcome
Frequent responses without extinction
Clicking: More page views without tiring
Examples
Games of chance, sports
HotOrNot.com
MySpace FOAF
Realty, product browsing
YouTube video

People * Checking * Clicking Have you ever clicked dozens of YouTube videos to find one that’s funny? That’s because it’s on a variable ratio reinforcement schedule!

Metcalfe’s (1996) Law: The value of a network increases exponentially with the number of its members.
“ We have 80 million members!”
Some special human group sizes:
4 people – conformity group (Asch, 1949)
15 people – sympathy group
150 people – community group (Dunbar, 1992; see Gladwell, 2000)
Deindividuation (Zimbardo, 1969): The release from social norms that occurs when people are absolved of their identities. The Internet medium provides de-individuation. This is traded for content like an asset. Don’t ask for an email on the first page of a site. You must “buy” it with content or engagement. People * Checking * Clicking

Recommendations
More checking: Build in an unknown time interval
Add email, comments, or a message board.
Add an RSS feed.
Display new content at random intervals.
Minimize or eliminate email alerts except monthly.
More clicking: Add a slot machine
Display your database of content in a random rotation.
Don’t replace browse with search without due consideration & testing.
More people: Market to the small group not the society
Add four testimonials or recommendations.
Market virally. Tell people to join with friends, not the world.
Build the site to pivot around existing groups.
Build a business model where people register not for their own benefit but for the benefit of a close other.
Don’t ask for the email on the first page. Pony up something first.

About Psychster
Our mission is to leverage the theoretical views and experimental rigor of psychology to assist social media ventures.
Our-philosophy is that end-users are taking control of their media in a Web 2.0 world. The more you understand them the better.
Our people are Ph.D. trained social scientists with extensive business and publishing experience in social software and social media.
Our clients are publishers, advertisers, designers, academics and entrepreneurs with online investments.

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Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

by David Evans on Jan 06, 2009

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