Snap Notes: On Advertising in the Social App/Network Space

1) Text ads/banner ads might not be the best fit for this space. Need to get creative here about integrating advertising experience into the content experience more seamlessly. Examples include integrating a product or brand into the content itself to lower the intrusion level.

2) People generally aren’t looking for products on social networks. They’re too busy looking for other people. If users are clicking ads and navigate outside of the social platform, it could mean they are not engaging enough on the platform. In other words, more clicks on ads, less engagement on social networking, and vice versa.

3) More ads aren’t always going to be the answer. If you show users 50 ads over an hour, they will ignore them. If you show users only 4 ads over that time, they’re more likely to pay attention.

4) Along with this, you need to define “successful” advertising for yourself. If you value coverage, then velocity is an appropriate metric. If you value the amount of brain time a user spends on an ad, measure CTR x session time.

5) Give users a choice. For example, an online poker site allows users to purchase chips or get free chips if they agree to look at the advertising. Or give a user a quiz that he wants to take, and then offer ads at the ejavascript:void(0)
Save Nownd that directly cater to that quiz and the user’s interest at the time.

6) Monetize your most valuable users (not just as many people as possible). If you have a million users who each spend $100 on your site and a billion users who only spend $0.10 each, focus on those top million. Know what they are doing because to advertisers, they have a higher quality of attention. In general, the better you know what your users are doing, the better you can monetize it.

Snap Notes: On User Engagement

1) How invested is the user? How much pain does he feel if he leaves the site? Maybe take some points from game design – use points, leaderboards, prizes, virtual currencies, reward incentives. This works better in the short term.

2) Also along gaming lines, give people missions and goals. Example: Scrabulous is extremely popular on Facebook. The game itself is not new; it’s the competition that draws people’s attention.

3) The most successful apps are ones that users use constantly. “Productive” apps tend not to be ones that users will use every day.

4) CTR doesn’t seem to be the right metric for this environment. Numerous panel members cited “daily active users” as a necessary (but not sufficient) stat to keep an eye on. Other proposed metrics include: how deep do users go, how long does it take for user to get tired of the feature(s), session time, bounce rate, and number of uninstalls.

5) Any successful app needs to understand its user base. (This panel posited that the future lies in segmentation – general purpose networks may have more issues to contend with.)

6) Make it really easy to use an app – a max of 2 clicks, if possible. Design for lazy people.

7) All viral channels decay. All users inevitably get bored. Need to keep adding new features (duh). - Rapid product cycle: show your momentum, growth is not enough (i.e. TIVO).

8) Social distribution – Application must have social angle – credibility matters.

9) Launch winning apps is half arts, half science. It is an interaction of psychology and web analytics.

10) The general order of priorities for these apps has been: growth à depth (keeping users) à revenue.

11) There’s less room for error on mobile because a phone is much more personal to a user and they will not tolerate anything spam-like on it. It’s a very pristine channel.

Snap Notes: Social Interface Design – Some Suggested Guidelines

1) The personal value of a service precedes its network/social value. Is your service valuable even if a user’s friends don’t use it?

2) Tie behavior to identity (Examples: Amazon user reviews, Ebay seller feedback).

3) Give recognition (Example: Top Diggers). It’s better when the recognition is given by the group itself, and when the recognition isn’t permanent or cumulative, so new users/contributors aren’t disadvantaged.

4) Show causation – Let the user know what his/her action is doing (Example: Providing Netflix with ratings helps them make better recommendations for the user). Even experts want to be reminded of the “rules”.

5) Leverage reciprocity. People contribute/post comments not because they are purely altruistic, even if they say they are. In the end, they want their comments to be read - it’s all about “ME.” Be cognizant of that “give and take”. (Example: Yelp users later said they wanted to see how many people were reading their review/profile.)

Notes from SNAP summit

Some notes from the recent SNAP summit, notes were prepared by few colleagues of mine (Thanks James, Elsa and Tracy. These are on building social applications, I am breaking it into 3 posts...

SNAP is a summit that focussed on the business and design of social applications: how to attract users and keep them engaged, how to monetize and advertise, and what to watch out for in the future.

http://www.snapsummit.com/

Handsome Oldman

Saw Virudh today - little depressing movie, but Amitabh bachan gives another awesome performance. The amazing thing in the movie is how wonderfully traditional and modern have been blended.

One quote from the movie

Aadmi Bada nahin hota, badi hoti hain chunautiyan and aadmi mahan banta hai unhe sweekar kar

(There is nothing inherently great in any person, greatness comes by adopting great challenges.)

Wonderful Ghazal

Grabbed out of sujata's post

Tumko dekha to ye Khayaal aaya
Zindagii dhuup tum ghanaa saaya
Aaj phir dil ne ek tamannaakii
Aaj phir dil ko hamane samajhaaya
Tum chale jaaoge to sochenge
Humane kya khoya, hamane kyaa paaya....
Hum jise gun gunaa nahin sakate
Waqt ne aisaa geet kyun gaayaa...

reply to this

Jeevan ke safar me raahi,
Milte hai bichad jaane ko,
Aur de jaate hai yaadein,
Tanhai me tarpane ko.

another reply:

Alvida to ant hai,
Aur ant kisne dekha hai.
Ye judai hi milan hai,
Jo hamne dekha hai.
Yadon mein Aakar,
Tum yuhin gaate rehne.
Kabhi Alvida na kahna,
Kabhi Alvida na kahna.

Indian vs Rest : Research and PhDs

*R&D researchers per million: Less than 200, compared to about 400 in Brazil, 500 in Iran, over 600 in China, over 800 in Argentina, 7,300 in Finland, 5,000 in Japan and 4,500 in USA

*Number of PhDs per million: About 4, compared to 5 in China, 89 in USA, 75 in Japan and 52 in South Korea

*Articles in journals: About 300, compared to over 500 by China, 2 lakh by USA, over 50,000 by Japan and 40,000 by Germany

*Percentage of GDP spent on R&D:

About 0.8, compared to about 1 by Iran, 1.3 by China, nearly 3.5 by Finland, 3.1 by Japan and more than 2.5 by USA and Germany

*Per capita spend on R&D (in $):

About 550, compared to 978 by Japan, 705 by USA, 460 by UK and 15 by China

Contributions of Hindi to English

Officially called Hinglish, some of the hindi words are slowly creeping into the English language dictionaries. We have earlier known words like cot, jungle, bungalow, pundit that made into collins and oxford dictionaries; while other like chuddie, yaar, auntie, uncle, yaar, etc. are finding their place in the second such wave of adoption --- this one being more due to Popular Asian culture rather than colonial collision.

Be on the lookout, there are many more such words popular amongst the urbane youth in india or should I see there are hazaar such words waiting for their turn :)

Be Prepared

Good luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation.

Subliminal Advertising

Findings indicate that the emotional meaning of words can be accessed subliminally, occurring in the same brain region as conscious processing, wrote the researchers, Lionel Naccache and colleagues at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris.

"For instance, an advertiser might flash words such as “drink Coke” on a movie screen too briefly for conscious notice, with the result that cola sales go up at the popcorn counter."

A frequent claim by those who believe that advertisers use subliminal messages, is that advertisers hide sexual images or words in ice cubes within drink advertisements. This is supposedly part of a strategy to subconsciously associate the brand with pleasurable experiences. One book has cited the above advertisement as an example. Among other things, the word "sex" can supposedly be found in the ice cubes. The advertising industry has vigorously denied using such techniques.

Inspiring thoughts

Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.

You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future.

God always gives His best to thosewho leave the choice with Him.

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterdayand the worries of tomorrow,you have no today to be thankful for.

Take time to laugh, for it isthe music of the soul.

To get out of a difficulty,one usually must go through it.

We take for granted the thingsthat we should be giving thanks for

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Happiness is enhanced by othersbut does not depend upon others.