Building Awesome Social Products

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04, September 2011 pj | [email protected] | www.beingpractical.com © image: flickr.com/ marfis75 Building Awesome Social Products!

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How to do about building awesome social products. Full blog post available on www.beingpractical.com

Transcript of Building Awesome Social Products

Page 1: Building Awesome Social Products

04, September 2011

pj | [email protected] | www.beingpractical.com

© image: flickr.com/ marfis75

Building Awesome Social Products!

Page 2: Building Awesome Social Products

Building Awesome Social Products – PJ Read full blog post on www.beingpractical.com Copyright: beingpractical.com

#1 There are Social Graphs around us!

Facebook – Social networking for friends & family! Users with whom you have interacted in real life.

Twitter – Loose connections; people you know or are acquaintances. Typically a celebrity; subject matter or domain expertise; known professional

LinkedIn – Professional & Business contacts

Contacts – People with whom you have/had conversations

And others….

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#2 Social Platforms have Social Mindsets & Product Norms

Social Platforms – no matter how big, users have own strong mindsets.

• Can share status, updates, photos, videos with “known friends”.• Social Mindset – Informal, Between Friends, Close group communication

• Follow like minded people, domain experts & celebrities• Social Mindset – Open Conversations & thoughts expected by followers

• Strictly Business & Professional• Social Mindset – Professional or Company updates; Industry news & views

• Private Communication Channel• Social Mindset – Communication with people you know or may not know.

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#3 It is extremely difficult to break such Mindsets

• Facebook has 750Mn+ users but not able to scale up Places; while 4SQ did• Questions (Polls) not making any impact.

• Twitter has 200Mn+ users, not able to find usability behind lists.• Users added people to lists; but not following them.

• LinkedIn has 115Mn+ users• Struggled to find adoption for LinkedIn Answers – while Quora scaled.

• Google launched Google+ through Gmail• Struggling with keep continued engagement & adoption of Google+

Because Social Mindsets & Product Norms are so difficult to break

Products that leverage Social Graphs outside them become Successful!

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#4 Some Perfect Examples of Social Products

social graph on

Facebook

social graph on

Facebook & Twitter

social graph on

Facebook & Twitter

Social Gaming

Location based Check-ins

Asking Questions

So how to get right approach for building such Social Products?

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Page 6: Building Awesome Social Products

#5 The 6 Basic Principles of Building Social Products

Social Graphs are already established.

a. Most social products are built with this intention – sharing content & more traffic.

b. Existing Social Graphs are powerful & already allow sharing of content to drive viral traffic.

Do not reinvent and try to build social graphs again from scratch on your product.

a. Over years - Users have made friends on Facebook; added professional contacts on LinkedIn or followed people over Twitter.

b. It will take loads of time, effort & patience if you try to build them again. Google+ is attempting this – we can wait and watch.

Social Graphs get built over a period of time.

Don’t build Social Products for sharing content & additional traffic.

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Page 7: Building Awesome Social Products

#5 The 6 Basic Principles of Building Social Products

Build Social Products that add value to Users.

Rome was not built in one day! And so is the case with Social Graphs. Leverage them.Choose the one that fits most with your product use case.

While existing Social Graphs are established, users have a “Usage Mindset” about them.There are many tasks or products that can be built outside them which can add value to end users.

a. With social platforms like Facebook & Twitter – there is immense value in integrating directly.

b. Don’t try to arbitrage this value – users (if B2C product) or merchants / publishers (if B2B product) will at some point of time realize this and abandon your product

Don’t arbitrage value through your product.

Don’t build – But Leverage Social Graphs!

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Page 8: Building Awesome Social Products

#6 Building your Perfect Social Product

Leverage Existing Social Graphs in your Product!

Social Gaming

Location Check-ins

Asking Questions

EstablishedSocial Graphs

Such integration makes Product Scale Up Virally

a. Viral User Acquisition

b. Introduce your product to already existing social graphs!

c. User activity generates updates for Social Graph, contextual marketing.

Social Kiss

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Page 9: Building Awesome Social Products

#7 Chicken & Egg problem: The First User’s Experience

Every user who will join your Social Product – will have his own social graph

User

User’s Social Graph

First User of this Social Graph

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Page 10: Building Awesome Social Products

#7 Chicken & Egg problem: The First User’s Experience

And every Social Graph will have its first user

Social Products don’t have not one; but multiple first users!

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Page 11: Building Awesome Social Products

#7 Chicken & Egg problem: The First User’s Experience

Solve the First User Problem – This makes or breaks your Social Product

Whom do I add as Friend? Who will see my wall-post?

What did the First User on these platforms / products think?

Who will read my Tweet? Whom should I follow?

Who will answer my Question?

Where should I check-in? Why should I Check-in?

Should I play CityVille alone? How will my City grow?

Building Awesome Social Products – PJ Read full blog post on www.beingpractical.com Copyright: beingpractical.com

Page 12: Building Awesome Social Products

#8 Validation Cycle for Social Products

Take example of Quora -

Validation is getting answers from people with best knowledge about it.

The Question

People with best knowledge

about this Question

Product Managers should define Validation Cycle and work towards reducing it!

Have Patience. Validation will be slow and takes time in initial days of adoption.

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#9 Application on Facebook v/s Destination

a. Your product idea or concept or product use case should deliver real value. Not just a feature on Facebook.

Remember of the Social Mindsets & Product Norms on Facebook.

If your product requires to explore Social Graph and is outside the Social Norms of Facebook – it can be a destination!

b. There are Social Graphs outside of Facebook that you want to explore.

c. Facebook would want people to interact with people; not with applications.

d. Product or Business case qualifies it to be a destination website outside Facebook – like a Quora or Foursquare.

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Page 14: Building Awesome Social Products

#10 Key Questions before getting started

The task your product is planning to solve – do people do it in real world socially?

Social Products are reflections of user behavior in real world. If people don’t do such task in real world – they will not do it on a Social Product as well.

a

Is it a feature on Facebook or Twitter or any Social Platform?

Feature products don’t last. Identify if your product can be a feature on Facebook or Twitter.

b

If B2C product – Is there a value to do this task outside of Facebook?

Check and check again on previous slide. Is your product idea meant to be a application or destination.

c

If B2B product – Is sharing & driving traffic to merchants / publishers key aim?

Social platforms by default allow this. Make sure this is not your only value proposition to your clients.

d

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Page 15: Building Awesome Social Products

#11 Things to keep in Mind!

People drive Social Platforms & Products. Not Features!

Features are how you want users to drive your product. But it is always people who drive it!

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Engagement should be People to People.

People don’t login to Facebook everyday cause it is Facebook. It is cause their friends are there.

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Don’t arbitrage on user value.

Consumers (B2C) and Businesses (B2B) will eventually figure it out. Don’t do it in first place.

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Don’t be Evil.

People love their Friends & Social Circle / Connections than then love any product. Don’t mess with them. Don’t spam. Don’t be Evil.

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Building Awesome Social Products – PJ Read full blog post on www.beingpractical.com Copyright: beingpractical.com

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