Social Landscape (mental vomit)

These are just some thoughts i wanted to get out somewhere. I did not edit this post, so you may contract ADD by reading it. Consume at your own risk.

Social networks face problems

Signal to noise ratio.

There is no way (easy) to filter data on your needs. I assume facebook is heading in this direction based on their recent classification of all things on their website, but twitter still relies on their archaic text search, which forces the user to consciously decided what they like (every time they look to be entertained), and search for it. They build a way to create lists (predefined ways to sort data) but seriously, who uses these? The solve for this problem would be to predict what the user enjoy (not just what bands they like, but what interests them on a core level, ie: extroverted, or introverted personality types?) which poses a different problem; how do you categorize all human interest? If you apply scope to the interest (ie music) you can classify the data (music) itself, and deliver content based on what they enjoy such as the pandora model, but even pandora requires the user to train the system. The golden ticket is to develop a system in which the users navigation and every day usage defines their interest dataset. After all, our actions are based entirely on our interests.


Interface for input.

A sale is nothing more than convincing someone your item/service is worth the exchange of their effort (be it effort as work, turned in to money, or effort in buying the item itself). I recently spent a great deal of effort (time, energy, and money) on a house. It is something that I clearly use every day, and enjoy very much. It was worth it. When purchasing an item thats worth very little (an mp3 or trinket costing less than $3), we're working on such a small scale that the money doesn't really enter in to it. The effort of filling out personal information and clicking through a payment system is tedious, and will drive people away (unless you compensate with a lower price, ie: a $0.25 mp3, which is what a lot of websites will do, however this only works on a small cross-section of people that consider that effort to be worth $2). The resolution for this is an easy checkout. Systems like Amazon and iTunes have this down to one click, which is why they are wildly popular. These websites sell a direct item or service, but a social network is no different. Instead of working with a monetary value, social networks ask for effort in its purest of forms. Currently, these systems have multiple, relatively easy methods for direct user input, however it seems they have reached their limit.

The golden ticket here, is increased payout (currency or effort) to the user. Foursquare is a system that requires users to "check in" to their location via a mobile phone application. The trade off for this effort is gaining badges (a virtual, solid asset currency) and alerting friends of their location. This system is in contrast to google latitude, which is a completely passive system (zero currency, zero effort) which rewards your user very little. There is no gain of virtual currency such as badges or points or even archival data (which can be trended, offering the user a log of places they have been, ie: effort). Another danger lesson to learn from this example is: you must have both sides of the scale. Creating a system that is 100% free (zero currency, zero effort) does not offer a sale. A trade must take place for the user to feel achievement. In summation, the trick is to create a trade, in which a users effort is worth less than the value of the item/service/data.


How to Capitalize

The goal for the company should be to make money over time, by increasing payout (virtual rewards) while attempting to charge the user a monetary value. Facebook attempts this by allowing the user to purchase virtual gifts for their friends. That reward isnt all that great, so its not a very big success. Online games such as Gunbound have been offering a free game model with purchasable shortcuts (ie: weapons that can be obtained in the game) for years. This model has not only proven itself useful, but is beginning to bleed over in to the larger markets, where games such as World of Warcraft offer special pets or items that are only available for purchase for a $10-$15 fee. Even Console games such as Modern Warfare allow users to purchase new maps to play, or even clothes that they can wear in the game. In both cases, these items do not offer a strategic advancement, yet offer a social clout or bragging rights (ie: attention).

Standing on the shoulders of giants.

To the new developer, social networking sites should be viewed as content delivery networks based on a scale of real-time to archival.

Build a system that takes advantage of the lacking in some systems. A service that archives tweets, and provides badges base on keywords, retweets, or application usage. The badges and or point system would be the reward, but the input is passive, which is 100% free. This poses a problem. We need to create a small amount of work so we have a sale. We can force our users to work (farmville: your plants are dieing), nag our users into working based on new users (mafiawars: your friend needs your help in a mob fight), or create a environment in which your rewards are not just a horde of collected trinkets, but a full currency in which they can be traded. The only problem with that is you are offering your users a get rich quick scheme (by retweeting over and over to gain points).

(this is where i began to teeter off, and get bored of my own post)

Twitter = real-time
Facebook = text:real-time, pictures:real-time/archival

Value to the user:

Attention:
- twitter
- facebook feed
- facebook photo tags

Productivity:
- Farmville: productivity (viewable as a farm) achieved through effort
- Mafiawars: productivity (viewable as stats) achieved through effort
- Online gambling: productivity achieved through risk and ability

Monetary:
- A few websites have tried to pay users for their content in the past, but no names come to mind. (mostly because they failed due to the payout being less than the effort to generate the content)