In search of the perfect viral social app
Lately, I've been putting together a list of things that make social apps viral, mainly looking at the startups that inspire me most in that area (social). So this is loosely gathered from looking at Hashable, PlanCast, Quora, Foursquare, LikeALittle and the likes. It's just a candid look at those - and others in the same space - startups to extract what might have been part of the essence of their viral growth.
In other words : they all include some or all of the following points.
What this list is : my thoughts on the (killer) ingredients that can make your startup viral if you have the first mandatory ingredient : an interesting concept.
What this is list is not : a to do list if your startup is a social startup. It might guide, inspire, pin-point, but you'll need to adapt. Also, it's not about transactional businesses and eCommerce.
In search of the perfect social app
There's no such thing as a magic wand you wave over your ruby and heroku to make your app take off. But, by using the following techniques or approaches, it might just help. Again, your product should be around a key, simple and interesting concept to start with : broadcast your location to your friends, keep track of your interactions with your social graph, ask questions to a panel of experts, ... But once you've got that down, here's how it might take off.
Some features are critical : your product should have them. Some are important : it might help to include them. And the last ones are nice-to-have : if you still have time to code, well think about those.
Nothing breathtaking here, just some observation, listing and common sense.
Critical
- You have a unique & key feature that creates value for users
Your users use your product for one very clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this. There might be other features on your app, but there's a main one clearly defined. And by using this feature, they get value. It is simple, it is straightforward. What does value mean ? Value can be content (Quora answers). Value can be an action or reaction (check-in, "count me in" on a plancast). Value can mean earning or saving dollars.
- Your key feature is repeatable
You don't just check-in once. You check-in multiple times, each time creating value for you and others, because you share it.
- The key feature or action is sharable
Your application has integrated virality. It tweets your check-in. It shares your plans on Facebook. It alerts your network with a new answer on Quora. It tweets a new connection on Hashable. Your users actions have 600M+ ears (FB + Twitter) - speak to them.
- Your product uses the existing social graph of your users
By using your application, your users discover, inform, keep in touch, classify, meet, ... people they know (n), or people they might know (n+1). Give them the opportunity to discover friends already there, invite friends that haven't arrived at the party yet, and inform others by making their actions public (i.e. Hashable #intros on Twitter).
- It has instant utility and is different at each visit
The first time your users connect, they get value : they find interesting content on Quora, they see what they friends have planned on PlanCast. If they come back tomorrow, they'll find something new has happened : your app is real-time, or keeps track of my social graph actions on it.
- It's based on 1 of the 7 deadly sins
This one is an addon on Dave McClure's Startup Viagra presentation (slide #8). Your key feature should be adapted to 1+ of the 7 deadly sins: it should get your users fame (pride), sex (lust), money (greed), help them save time (sloth), give them info about people they know (curiosity). If you corner one of those, it's already a good start.
Important
- Users can follow or friends things
Follow a subject, follow a user, friend a member, ... Make it easy to do so. Each time such an action is taken, you get 1) a way to recontact the member and 2) an excuse to contact another member or potential member. Deeply linked to ...
- Your app sends notifications
Each time your users have a new friend request (Foursquare), a new followers (aaaarg Quora), a new comment (Facebook), they are invited to a plan (Plancast), they get intro'ed by someone (Hashable), they get a notification. Whether it's by email (best), on Twitter (good) or Facebook (ugly), they get it. If they don't visit, at least they are reminded you exist.
- You application is a platform based on platforms
Because it's deeply linked to/on other platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Plancast, ...), there is instant content once your users get in. Moreover, users don't even have to use your app or the platforms to benefit of you key feature : you post Hashable connections on twitter ; you twit your location from Foursquare. Also, thanks to your API, your very unique feature is usable anywhere else.
- You application is playful
It has game mechanics incorporated. By using your app, your users get made. They get points, badges, hashcred, connections, whatever make them feel better - and especially better in the eyes of their social graph since whatever you use to reward them is shared on twitter and Facebook.
Nice to have
- Charge from day 1
Whether it's a premium, or a specific addon product from your app, integrating PayPal is easy. Separate clearly what is free and what could be paid for, and set a price to it. I reckon this is not critical, but you could make some small revenue. And generating revenue, even small, is good. Really.
- Your app has links, other links and more links
People love to click. Never ever let them in front of a wall or dead-end street. Take a look at any Quora page vs any Facebook page: you'll find way more <a> tags on the Quora source code than on the Facebook one (around 30%+ on average). Links are important : people click on them.
- Your app powers its users, and plays with their pride
I answered x questions on Quora, I shared y plans on Plancast, I made z introductions on Hashable. I'm a heavy user. People see me being a heavy user. Deep inside, I'm proud of being that early adopter. If you make it easy for your users to feel this, they'll be happy to do it again.
All this feels very 2010, and I would have been famous if this had been my first post last year. But it's here, and here to stay.
So what's your take on it? What did I miss? How is the order? Tell me!
Comments 13 Comments
Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and more recent servives such as Quora (not to mention Pearltrees) all have different key features and uses. That's precisely what make them social. In real life, a group of people really interacts and become a team when they act differently toward each other, somehow when they find their position in the team.
If you take the exemple of Twitter, some people use it to advertise themselves, others to take information on what's happening, others just to have discussion. Very few people do all that stuff at the same time.
This is what's specifically "social" in a "social app" and what makes it different from a mere "tools". This is also why social apps are always more complicated than tools: just compare the huge complexity of Facebook and the apparent simplicity of Google...
In social, mixing up different uses and features is a requirement and a constant trade-off with simplicity... which why designing a great social app is so difficult!
Thx for your comment, good points.
But not sure I agree: Twitter, Facebook, Quora all have one single feature, or had at launch.
You go to twitter to tell people something. You have one box of 140 chars to do so. What you say will vary, of course, as you wrote above. But the single, key and core feature is there : a box of 140 chars where you can say what you want.
You go to Quora to ask or answer (expert) questions. There's nothing else to do on Quora, except all the features I list above (follows, alerts, invites, ...).
In 2004 you went to Facebook to spy (info, pictures) on your classmates. Period. You could comment, friend, discuss, ... but all those were the viral/social elements. But the key, identified feature was this.
And this key feature creates value for users : they get an answer to their question (Quora), they get to show-off social(graph)ly (Quora), they get to read good content (Twitter, Quora), they get lists of things happening in their town from people with same interest (Plancast), ...
As I see it, those features are addons to the key, unique functionality of those services.
Let's digg a little bit more in your Twitter exemple. The feature/benefit "a box of 140 chars where you can say what you want" does not make twitter, and to be fair, it does not even make a social servives. In fact, it makes a communication service called SMS...
To get, Twitter you need to add at least 2 features/benefit and get this minimal set:
1- A box of 140 chars where you can say what you want (indeed)
2- A single place where you see everything people you care about are saying (in fact, this "timeline" feature was Twitter's true innovation, and what made it immediately unique)
3- The ability to follow who you want (key differentiators with Facebook and other social media a couple of years ago)
1 and 2 are two separate features and two separate benefits, and without them, you just don't get the social interaction that make Twitter. In fact Twitter itself always had a hard time explaining it. Over the course of history, they chose to explain themselves with one or both of them, and they are still changing regularly!
Today, if you talk to someone who does not know Twitter - not so hard to find if he is not a geek- You will see that describing both is really needed to explain Twitter. If you let this person use it for the first time, you will see it takes him a while (at least 10 minutes) to get the differences between his timeline, other's timeline, and eventually to get the basics, not to mention understanding the benefits!
To be sure, all of this makes a single coherent experience, a single coherent experience held together by the social glue of the service... and a couple of clearly distinct benefits.
Ok, get your point, and we actually agree then.
I just put them on/under a different name and category, with different goals.
1) The 140 box where you say what you want = the unique key feature
2) The place where you see all twits = the value added (for you and others) by the key feature
3) The ability to follow = the viral / social effect
Which are all three included in my post above. But I just see 1 > 2 > 3, or maybe it makes more sense the other way around : 3 needs 2 needs 1. So we're on the same line actually.
Makes sense ?? :))
I do plan to include most of the features you describe into the site i'm working on, Affaires de Mômes, which will be a social market place dedicated to kid's products. I won't be able to include all of them for the first release, as the most important features for a market place are the ability to sell and buy (but as one says, you have to be ashamed of your first release right ? :-) )
Anyways, great sum up of key social features, though most of your readers might know them, it's always good to have that list at hand ! Will put your post on my friday's web review on my blog !
The 'Unique key feature' got me thinking that most (if not all) of the fastest-growing social apps take an existing behaviour like texting your friends your location, telling someone about your plan to attend conference X, looking at pics of someone's (hot) friends from their photo album, sharing an interesting link etc. and make it super simple + add some of the other viral features you mentioned. Sounds easy enough :)