Begin Notes:
Jyri Engestrom gives the simple formula with examples of how to build a successful social networking site with real world examples of what works, what doesn't and why.
Building Sites around Social Objects
- Jyri Engestrom
facebook's popularity is not equivalent to new social sites being obselete.
remember?
firefly
sixdegrees.com
friendster
myspace
myspace.com - look at alexa numbers. pageviews trending down for myspace
social network - defintion: a map of the relationships between individuals
social network theory is food at representing links between people, but it doesn't explain what links these people together (the common interest or the bond between the two).
thesis:
People dont just connect to each other. They connect through a shared object.
when a service fails to offer a way for communities to build their own social objects, they will soon fail also.
good services allow people to create social object that add value.
ex:
Flickr did it to photos
youtube did it with videos
Step 1. - Define your object
flickr started with just a chat and a real time way to share photos. eventually they moved to static urls so that people could visit pictures and galleries via a static url, and that created our success.
point is to keep iterating and don't stop.
Step 2. - Define your verbs
ebay - first two links next to logo 'buy' and 'sell'
other examples 'upload photo/video', 'add tag', 'what are you doing now?'
Step 3. - Make objects sharable
emailable permalinks
actual files
thumbnails and widgets.
4. Turn invitations into gifts.
ex: skype headset - there is another one in the package was intended that you give to a friend.
ex: paypal - $5 in account once you send invitation to friend
5. Charge the publishers, not the spectators
those who want special real estate/ special rankings, etc..
quick checklist
1. what is your object?
2. what are the verbs?
3. how can people share objects?
4. what is the gift?
5. who are you charging?
What if all the brainpower was spent on objects?
Tripadvisor - turned hotels into social objects and has grown into flights, etc.. but they could have turned the trip itself into social objects.
ex: dopplr.com took those social objects (the trip itself).
ex: tripit.com - just forward your email confirmation to tripit and they create the trip object automatically.
Whenever you can automate it, what normally occurs manually, these are advantages.
dopplr and tripit are cannibalizing ta's audience. granted small, but keep an eye out for their market share to increase.
ebay and amazon turned products into social objects - recommendations, reviews, etc.. once the sale is done, the page disappears but the object is still there.
thinklink.com - now that you own this object (product) you go here and talk about the product, others with same product can comment on yours, you can connect with other around this product. Good example - rare star wars action figure. Will find others with like interests and will create soc net around that object.
-- Seeing what will happen next.
no awareness of other people's intentions = inability to make plans
sites that publish what people are doing - facebook, twitter, jaiku, etc...
but imagine a physical world where we have as much peripheral information at a site like world of warcraft.
Book Recommendation: 'The Daemon'
evolution of portal - browse - yahoo, search - google, share - facebook
hypothetical new algo maybe called 'facerank'? made up of social proximity (friends in common), physical proximity, shared tatste, shared objects, etc..
what is your objects
what are your verbs
what are your nodal points
look up 'facebook in reality' on youtube.com done by idiotsofants.com
and 'facebook infomercial parody' on youtube.com
