Kingsley Joseph provides social design patterns for retaining users and achieving virality for mobile apps. He recommends using social proof by encouraging existing users to try the app through positive peer pressure. He also suggests using activity feeds and timelines to keep users engaged and coming back daily, as well as rewarding loyal users and providing incentives for referrals to gain new users through viral growth.

1. SOCIAL DESIGN PATTERNS
Kingsley Joseph
PetalFlame

2. KINGSLEY PETALFLAME
• Product guy • Stealth product startup
• 13 years designing/ • Making Android social
managing products
from within
• Ex salesforce.com (SaaS),
Digital Chocolate (social • Late prototype stage
games), Bank of New York
(financial systems) •4 people
• love social, mobile, and • Looking for seed funding
helping others be early next year
awesome :)

3. User

4. Tr
sie
User
App

5. Tr
sie
User
Returns
loyal User App

6. Tr
s
ie
fer
s
User
Re
Returns
loyal User App

7. Tr
s
ie
fer
s
User
Re
Returns
loyal User App

8. TRIALS
Get users to try your app

9. SOCIAL PROOF
The idea that people will pretty much try anything, if all their
friends are also doing it.

10. IF ALL YOUR FRIENDS JUMP OFF A CLIFF ...

11. IF ALL YOUR FRIENDS JUMP OFF A CLIFF ...
the answer is YES!

12. Pure Popularity
Reviews & Ratings

13. Social Discovery in
Android Market is
Inevitable

14. BEG FOR S NOW!

15. METHODS & MADNESS
• Just Ask!
• Nag. I mean, don’t piss your users off, but.
• Lock up some stuff that can be unlocked by +1ing.
• Make something work better if the user has +1d.

16. RETENTION
Keeping users coming back

17. MAKE SOMETHING
USERS WANT TO
RETURN TO, DUH.

18. TIMELINES/FEEDS

19. WHY TIMELINES/FEEDS?

21. DON’T WANNA MISS A THING ;)

22. • Thinkof things that are limited-time only - deals,
events, sales.
• Think of things where it’s socially expected to react
quickly or not-at-all - life events, serendipitous
meetings etc.
• Think
of ways to increase the speed of the stream
without diluting it.
• Findsomething predictable that you can give the
user every day, like a joke or pic.

23. ACTIVITY & ENGAGEMENT

24. IN A DAY, 26% OF FACEBOOK
USERS LIKE A STATUS MESSAGE.

25. IN A DAY, 26% OF FACEBOOK
USERS LIKE A STATUS MESSAGE.
CUZ IT’S EASY

26. REWARD THE 1%
Courtesy http://www.useit.com

27. • Send reminders - email/sms/push notifications
• Createreasons for coming back. Eg “Your crops will
be ready tomorrow”
• Incentivize
repeat usage. Eg “Visit 3 days in a row,
and get this special feature”
• Utility
apps - try to detect contexts where user will
find app useful

28. REFERRALS
Key to Virality

29. MAKE FRIENDS EASY TO FIND

30. • Offer incentives for inviting friends
• Lock content as only available if you have N friends
using the app (mob gating)
• Make your app do something that gets better if
friends use it.

31. RECAP
• Trials: Ask for +1s, start NOW
• Retention:
• Build an app worth revisiting
• Build a great feed/timeline
• Remind users
• Reward repeat users
• Referrals
• Make it easy to find friends

32. Q&A