SOCIAL DESIGN PATTERNSKingsley Joseph

PetalFlame

KINGSLEY

• Product guy

• 13 years designing/managing products

• Ex salesforce.com (SaaS), Digital Chocolate (social games), Bank of New York (financial systems)

• love social, mobile, and helping others be awesome :)

PETALFLAME

• Stealth product startup

• Making Android social from within

• Late prototype stage

• 4 people

• Looking for seed funding early next year

User

Tries

App

User

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App

User

Returns

loyal User

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App

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Returns

loyal User

Refer

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Tries

App

User

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loyal User

TRIALSGet users to try your app

SOCIAL PROOFThe idea that people will pretty much try anything, if all their

friends are also doing it.

IF ALL YOUR FRIENDS JUMP OFF A CLIFF ...

IF ALL YOUR FRIENDS JUMP OFF A CLIFF ...

the answer is YES!

Pure PopularityReviews & Ratings

Social Discovery in Android Market is

Inevitable

BEG FOR S NOW!

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.

RETENTIONKeeping users coming back

MAKE SOMETHING USERS WANT TO RETURN TO, DUH.

TIMELINES/FEEDS

WHY TIMELINES/FEEDS?

DON’T WANNA MISS A THING ;)

•Think of 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.

•Find something predictable that you can give the user every day, like a joke or pic.

ACTIVITY & ENGAGEMENT

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

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

CUZ IT’S EASY

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

•Send reminders - email/sms/push notifications

•Create reasons 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

REFERRALSKey to Virality

MAKE FRIENDS EASY TO FIND

•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.

• 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

RECAP

Q&A