Infusing psychology theories in creating and marketing social applications (Facebook Apps)

Infusing Psychology Theories in Creating and Marketing Social Applications
keith@socialico.com

Psychology: Study of the Human Behavior

Wikipedia says,“.. allow user to interact and share data”Scott Currier says,“.. an updatable resource that exposes categorized content discoverable by network members”“Social Application can be anything, as long as it: - Is discoverable - Is updatable - Publically exposes categorized information - Participates in a social network”

Why Create A Social Application that is Social, Useful, Expressive & Engaging?
Why does it matter to you?

You want to engage Generation Y audience
Brand Engagement
Effective & Low Cost Data Mining/ Research
Monetizing from paying users and advertising merchants

How to create & market a social app for..
#1: Brand Engagement
#2: Effective & Low Cost Data Mining/ Research
#3: Monetizing from paying users and advertising merchants

#1. Future of Brand Engagement
Interests alone can enable a community, but,
what if your brand does not interest them enough?

Gaming can establish that community and later that conformity to stick to the community

Hybridization of Reality and Gaming
Engage the Gen Y with gaming elements
A fun-to-play game is no longer viable
Preferably, a MMOG in a Virtual World
Appeal on Inferior Complexity and Primitive Competitive Behavior
Virtual Rewards and Bragging rights

Hybridization can be durable if one can provide new content, which can be natural
Hybridization enables differentiation
Play4Squares & Loopt

Too Expensive? Leech on existing games for “top of mind recall” engagement. Samples:
Energy Points (AP)

#2. Effective & Low Cost Research
Create a Social Application that rides on Social Network & Tap on Wisdom of Crowd and Collective Intelligence

But, you should do it without them knowing you are after their collective intelligence

Naturally, People do not give information if they know you can benefit but they do not
Unless, you already have a great community
Starbucks, AirAsia
Or, your community is your 1,000s of employees who cannot reject like consumers
Microsoft, Google
Key is therefore in incentivizing the community at low cost to you

Recall Hybridizing with Gaming, and Inferior Complex/Competitive theory from #1
Possible to incentivize at low cost, with bragging rights and virtual items
Opinions can be more accurate if users are rewarded for accuracy and shrewd allocation of finite resources

If you can mainstream a prediction market social application, you can get good data
Mainstreamingwill be best facilitated by hybridizing reality and gaming
Important to incentivize by entertainment, community, bragging rights and virtual possessions

#3. Monetizing from paying users and advertisers
Gaming Perspective: Create that Cult Effect. For Asians, Boost Ego. For Non-Asians, Boost Customization
Service Perspective: Solves problems, if possible, the two biggest problems in the world – Dating and Weight Loss

Move on & Go To Market

Marketing: Media Integration

Marketing: Persuasive Enhancements

Role of Visual and Gender in Marketing is critical
Somewhat facilitating dating and flirting can help create a community
Research shows real life photos are still more effective than illustrations in attracting users
Fame League
Personality stocks with visually pleasing female pictures have higher stock prices
No difference even if player is obviously male

However, Men and Women have very different sense of visual pleasure
Also, Asians and Caucasians do not have the same preferences
Depending on your target market
But, what if your target market is not fixated or very dispersed?
Paradox: If male users make up most of your numbers, but female users are most viral, who would you target?

The Universal Choice
Use Babies. Reference to David Ogilvy’s Confession of an Advertising Man
Men and Women have great, similar attractions to babies
Race Independent

More Tips from David Ogilvy
Serif Fonts are easy to read for long copies
Use words like “NEW”, “FREE”, “INTRODUCE”
Facts about your products help. Especially numbers

Wrapping Up. Common Pitfalls
Defining your target audience too early.
Overestimating the cognitive abilities of your users
Building a great, beautiful is nice, but don’t forget your copy
Never outsource your PR, Marketing because you know your application 1000 folds better than those consultants
Making your application too coupled with your platform

Start Creating and Marketing that Kickass Social App today!
Twitter/ Linkedin/ Facebook/ Slideshare: Keizng

Infusing psychology theories in creating and marketing social applications (Facebook Apps)

by Keith Ng on Sep 23, 2009

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Infusing psychology theories in creating and marketing social applications (Facebook Apps) — Presentation Transcript