Game Mechanics is the New “Sticky:” How to Keep Users Tethered To Your Site
When Ev and Biz first realized that their baby, Twitter was actually going to work, they were surprised.
They weren’t surprised by the success. After all, they came from Google. They were backed by some of the most experienced VCs in SF and NYC.
What they were surprised about was why they started growing.
Users began to treat Twitter, intended to be a public utility, as a game. They started keeping track of their follower count as if it was a their “Call of Duty II” game score. Ev and Biz never expected this kind of usage.
Immediately, people began “gaming” Twitter. People began to follow hundreds of people a day and unfollowing they just as quickly. This is because Twitter sends each user an email when someone new follows them but Twitter does not send an email when someone quits following you.
Understandably, this created a “Game Mechanic.” Users logged into Twitter several times a day and began spending hours a day on it.
What they found so fun was that for every 100 people they followed, 43 followed them back. Then, of every 43 they unfollowed, only 7 were using “unfollow monitoring” software that let them mutually unfollow unfollowers.
I know. This sounds confusing.
Let’s just put it this way, the reason people became addicted to Twitter is not the conversation. The reason Twitter grew was not the news streams from celebrities. The reason Twitter became a global utility is because it let “gamers” build their follower/following numbers to resemble real celebrities.
Twitter gave it’s users the opportunity to be a Twitter Celebrity.
If you got a Tweet from someone with over 100,000 followers, even if you’d never heard of him, you’d pay attention. You might even wonder if you’re out of the loop.
The King is Dead. Content is Dethroned.
In the first generation of the web, content was king. The New York Times had the best content. It made the most advertising revenues.
Now, gaming is the new king. Websites must not only deliver information, they also deliver an engrossing and entertaining environment. Websites must actually double as a playground.
Foursquare, for example, was nothing more than a digital scrapbooking app. It had little appeal. The founder, Dennis Crowly’s vision was to simply offer coupons to frequent visitors. So the primary appeal for any user was to eventually earn a coupon.
What Dennis didn’t anticipate was how much more sexy popularity is than saving money.
When Dennis added a simple feature called “Mayor Badge,” the most frequent visitor, Bob Wan Kim, not only got recognition from the owner of his favorite deli, he began to get noticed by people throughout the restaurant. At bars, people would ask the bartender if that sharp dressed Asian man was Bob Wan Kim and send over a Sake.
In otherwords, given enought tools, your website user will figure out a way to extract far more value from your website than you originally intended to give them.
This is human nature.
You invite your best friend over for drinks. And if he stays around long enough, he cleans out your refrigerator, soils all your towels, and even your dog starts to like him more than you.
Give Your Users the Opportunity to Pull Far More Value From Your Site than You Intended
Give your users the opportunity to extract far more value from your website than you initially envisioned. Then they will return without you having to spend a penny to drive them to your site.
The Framework for Making Your Website Gameable
1. Keep Score
Facebook prominently displays how many friends you have and how many friends you have in common with others. Google+ is thriving because it keeps score. Tumblr is the fastest growing blogging platform because of it’s “tumblarity score.” Digg.com put it’s founder Kevin rose in Forbes and Fortune and the cover of Business Week Magazine because he let his user keep score of how popular their submissions were.
2. Offer Fame
Youtube grew huge because it produced home grown stars. Youtube produced stars because it essentially offered, structure the framework of your website as if it was an online version or “American Idol.”Youtubers the opportunity to be featured on the Home Page of Youtube.com. Digg has a team of editors who promote the highest scoring user generated submissions to the home page. If you make it to Digg.com’s home page, your website would crash from the flood of traffic. They even have a name for this, “the Digg Effect.”
3. Facilitate Gang Warfare
Digg.com did not allow personal messaging between members. So, almost by telepathy, the smartest users formed an underground coalition with an unspoken agreement. I give you a point for every one of your submissions no matter how disinterested I am, and all 25 of you give me a point back. And a spontaneous economy was born.
On TV, Survivor allows the same behavior.
If you allow gangs to develop within your site, the gangs will peer pressure each of their members to continue to return and chip in. You won’t have to spend a penny to drive traffic.
4. Ironically, Ban Many Members
Both Twitter and Digg’s biggest growth coincided with their highest volume of banning members.
5. Facilitate Corruption
Drop an Apple Tree in the Middle of the Garden. If you’re going to ban members, you’ve got to have a reason to ban them. So engineer a temptation in the middle of Paradise. Youtube bans users without warning if they subscribe to 25 channels within 5 minutes. Facebook locks your account if you add 20 friends rapidly. Try it.
There are seven other factors that fueled the viral growth of the biggest websites. To find out what they are, become a client. Call 310 598 1606 in the US and Canada. Call 82 010 5815 8806 in Asia
Posted via email from Social Media Marketing Strategies for the Closet Revolutionary | Comment »
