Make your app social: 10 lessons from SlideShare Rashmi Sinha www.slideshare.net

Presentations are hard to share Large-scale sharing like pictures/video Office 2.0?

Large-scale sharing like pictures/video

Office 2.0?

on slideshare... Users drive navigation (tags, popularity) Embeds, RSS, simple urls Slides as microcontent Mash up slides with audio

Users drive navigation (tags, popularity)

Embeds, RSS, simple urls

Slides as microcontent

Mash up slides with audio

What people share... Cartoons Sermons Mother’s day cards Love Songs Talk slides Images of women Paintings Standalone lectures Activism Lesson plans Movie reviews Humor

SlideShare as an object-based social network

Social networks as a graph How it works People connect to each other Six degrees of separation “ Are you my friend” awkwardness 1) I am linked to -> -> to you --->You are linked to her -> -> to her…

How it works

People connect to each other

Six degrees of separation

“ Are you my friend” awkwardness

Object based social networks (conversations over objects, e.g., Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare) 1) I share my pics -> -> with you ---> -->You share your pics -> ---> with him How it works People share objects | watch others Connections through objects Social info streams: emergence of popular, interesting items

How it works

People share objects | watch others

Connections through objects

Social info streams: emergence of popular, interesting items

10 lessons about social design

Forget the ipod!

Give up control This is messy!

Plant seeds, let people connect

emergent social architecture

1. Make system personally useful solve ONE problem well Don’t count on altruism thrive on people’s selfishness

solve ONE problem well

Don’t count on altruism

thrive on people’s selfishness

online editing is going to take a generation Om Malik FOWA 07, Day One

Om Malik

FOWA 07, Day One

2. Embed it in the social context Individual contributions can be embedded, collected & mashed-up Simple, guessable URLs for everything Slideshows > by Events Music > by Playlists

Individual contributions

can be embedded, collected & mashed-up

Simple, guessable URLs for everything

Slideshows > by Events

Music > by Playlists

what kind of social do you want to be? a social space or a widget? own a piece of the social graph? play in the facebook playground?

a social space or a widget?

own a piece of the social graph?

play in the facebook playground?

3. Privacy is social Sharing is often in closed circles

Sharing is often in closed circles

Indexed by Google (everyone/everywhere) Only me My friends My groups Public Private Only in place

Porous boundary between public & private People will share for the right returns. Set defaults to public Privacy settings on Flickr

People will share for the right returns. Set defaults to public

4. levels of participation Everyone will not create! Implicit creation by consumption Remixing - adding value to others’ content Source: Bradley Horowitz’s weblog, Elatable, Feb. 17, 2006, “Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers”

Everyone will not create!

Implicit creation by consumption

Remixing - adding value to others’ content

5. Enable social navigation Help people connect Let them feel presence of others ways to browse: tags, popularity, virality

Help people connect

Let them feel presence of others

ways to browse: tags, popularity, virality

Popularity on SlideShare Keep it on your desktop Download Remember stuff, tell someone you like their stuff Favorite & tag Share with your friends Email Share on your blog Embed Watch it View Interact with others Comment Goal Metric

diff strokes for diff folks most viewed most favorited & tagged

most viewed

most favorited & tagged

Wisdom of crowds Cognitive Diversity Independence Decentralization Easy Aggregation

Cognitive Diversity

Independence

Decentralization

Easy Aggregation

6. Get into a conversation with users Answer emails personally Monitor blogs, subscribe to RSS Customer service as user research

Answer emails personally

Monitor blogs, subscribe to RSS

Customer service as user research

7. The beta as the market probe get feedback to the real thing the risk of failure

get feedback to the real thing

the risk of failure

social sites as complex systems

7. Launch first , refine later Avoid analysis - paralysis Look at best practices, take a guess Put it out there. Respond. Refine.

Avoid analysis - paralysis

Look at best practices, take a guess

Put it out there. Respond. Refine.

8. Be agile You don’t know the right answer Fail fast to get to the right answer Track metrics, adjust, change

You don’t know the right answer

Fail fast to get to the right answer

Track metrics, adjust, change

Feedback email Personal emails Blog posts Shadow App Web analytics Phone conversations User forum Slideshows about SlideShare Metrics Satisfaction

Feedback email

10. Most of all, allow for play

Finally slides at http://www.slideshare.net/group/future-of-web-applications find me at http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi

slides at

http://www.slideshare.net/group/future-of-web-applications

find me at

http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi