The Rise of Social Referrals Michael Tadlock Director Product Management – Y!OS

Social Referrals = More, Better, Leads “ For the 1st time ever, more people are finding my blog from Twitter and Facebook referrals than via Google . The total number of people coming to my blog is increasing” - Mark Cuban – Owner Dallas Mavericks & Internet Investor – 5/14/09 “ We have investments in about 25 portfolio companies… Google continued to be a dominant source of traffic (in referral trend analysis)… Facebook and Twitter (referrals) are growing at 30 to 40 percent per month … they’re getting close to 20% of Google… The combined power of Facebook & Twitter will surpass Google for many sites in the next year" - Fred Wilson - Flatiron Partners & Union Square Ventures – 5/22/09 “… page views increased 75% year-over-year, with individual page views per person going up 55% in the same time period . Internal data reveals page view increases were driven by an increase in users sharing and consuming content via social media tools like Twitter and Yahoo! Buzz.” - USAToday Press Release – 5/14/09

Social Referrals Produce Loyal Users http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/study-traffic-sources/

Social Referrals Drive Engagement Most traffic to Yahoo! Local comes from search and Yahoo.com Users from Yahoo! 360 were 50 times more likely to participate

Social Referrals vs. Search Search Referrals (paid + organic) Search Referrals (paid + organic) Social Referrals Quantity Value $ $$$$$ (loyalty and participation)

Today’s Social Referrals Are Mostly Link Shares

Link Shares Are The ‘Fast Food’ Of Social Referrals

Offer ‘Fast Food’ And ‘Fine Dining’ to Maximize Return + “ Mike shared foo link” + “ Mike rated foo” “ Mike commented on foo” “ Mike uploaded foo” “ Mike created foo” “ Mike is a fan of foo” Etc. Etc. Etc.

Fast Food And Fine Dining Are Both Important “ Interestingness” Of Update # of Users Consume Participate Produce Fast Food Fine Dining Click Through Rate

Fine Dining in Four Courses Distribution Consumption Production Conversion Failure in any course ruins the entire meal!

Production Distribution Consumption Production Conversion

Leverage Existing Participation Add Album Rating Answer Install Blog Comment Blog Post Buzz Up Bookmark Comment Connect Create Event Attend Favorite Follow Join Location Note Photo Upload Playlist Profile Update Rating Review We found more than 150 publishable ‘verbs’ on the Yahoo! Network

Give The User A Voice Fast food: Fine dining :

Include Meta Data

Distribution Distribution Consumption Production Conversion

Support Many Outlets. Promote Few. How to choose: Look at http referrers Log what Tom has used Tom

How to choose:

Look at http referrers

Log what Tom has used

Use Tools With Bundled Distribution

Know Which Users Offer The Highest Return Key metric: referrals per update produced

Consumption Distribution Consumption Production Conversion

Include Media, Especially Photos Updates with photos are clicked on 4.5 times more often than updates without photos.

Conversion Distribution Consumption Production Conversion

Show The User What They Expect To See Beware of Comment Pagination Consider A Public View Think through all four courses as the user will experience them

Acknowledge The Relationship

Four Course Recap Production Leverage existing user participation Give the user a voice Include relevant meta data Distribution Support many outlets. Promote the relevant few. Use tools with built-in distribution Identify your high value users Consumption Publish meta-data, especially images Conversion Show the user what they expect to see Acknowledge the relationship Round the corner

Production

Leverage existing user participation

Give the user a voice

Include relevant meta data

Distribution

Support many outlets. Promote the relevant few.

Use tools with built-in distribution

Identify your high value users

Consumption

Publish meta-data, especially images

Conversion

Show the user what they expect to see

Acknowledge the relationship

Round the corner

Three Key Take Aways Social referrals are growing and valuable + ‘ Fast food’ and ‘fine dining’ to maximize return Four important courses to ‘fine dining’

Social referrals are growing and valuable

‘ Fast food’ and ‘fine dining’ to maximize return

Four important courses to ‘fine dining’

And Now The Shameless Plug Yahoo! Updates will generate billions of social referrals in the next 12 months 120 MM Users 330 MM Users 300 MM Users The Yahoo! Updates platform is open. http://developer.yahoo.com/updates 3. How many referrals will lead users to your application?

Yahoo! Updates will generate billions of social referrals in the next 12 months

The Yahoo! Updates platform is open. http://developer.yahoo.com/updates

Thank you! – Ask A Yahoo! For Updates Handouts http://developer.yahoo.com/updates/ Mike Tadlock – mtadlock@yahoo-inc.com