social features turnover
I don't think you could reliably answer that question without
specifically targeting a single web site, its purpose, audience,
current metrics and what kind of social features you plan to
implement.
You might as well ask "how many new users can we expect if we
allowed people to create an account on our web site?" It's
impossible to answer without knowing a lot more about the application
in question.
"Social features" cover a wide array of technologies and tools, and
there are so many ways to implement them, both with many page views
per transaction, and almost negligibly to the end user. Think of a
well-designed blog where posts are submitted via ajax and new
articles continue loading without having to click through pages.
Such an implementation may not affect your page views much at all,
while only its content would dictate whether or how much people
extend their stays on your site.
On the other hand, I've seen social sites where every click reloaded
the page, sometimes unnecessarily. This kind of bandwidth throttling
and constant reloading may become tiresome for your users, who decide
to give it up for less cumbersome sites (having the opposite of the
desired effect, that is).
Perhaps the best answer is to be as general as the question:
"Executed well, page views and time-on-site will generally
increase." For any more accuracy, you'll need to know how and what
will be implemented.
If you're wondering, I've heard this question before, in previous
companies, so I wish you luck in your response =]
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Thanks Patrick and Bryan. Your responses do help.
I would like to clarify a bit. This site sell products, so the social
layer would probably be opinion based to help increase sales. But I've
also heard rumors about user submitted content such as articles,
multimedia etc that would serve as social objects to build
conversation onto. Stuff you would have to be a member to do but not
to view.
I would say the site would be in the segment area of crowdsourced
content (page views matter) / opinion based (sales matter) content in
an ecommerce setting ;)
So any numbers from those segments would probably prove to be most
helpful. I've looked around without any luck so far.
/J
On Oct 10, 2008, at 5:43 AM, Bryan Minihan wrote:
> I don't think you could reliably answer that question without
> specifically targeting a single web site, its purpose, audience,
> current metrics and what kind of social features you plan to
> implement.
>
> You might as well ask "how many new users can we expect if we
> allowed people to create an account on our web site?" It's
> impossible to answer without knowing a lot more about the application
> in question.
>
> "Social features" cover a wide array of technologies and tools, and
> there are so many ways to implement them, both with many page views
> per transaction, and almost negligibly to the end user. Think of a
> well-designed blog where posts are submitted via ajax and new
> articles continue loading without having to click through pages.
> Such an implementation may not affect your page views much at all,
> while only its content would dictate whether or how much people
> extend their stays on your site.
>
> On the other hand, I've seen social sites where every click reloaded
> the page, sometimes unnecessarily. This kind of bandwidth throttling
> and constant reloading may become tiresome for your users, who decide
> to give it up for less cumbersome sites (having the opposite of the
> desired effect, that is).
>
> Perhaps the best answer is to be as general as the question:
> "Executed well, page views and time-on-site will generally
> increase." For any more accuracy, you'll need to know how and what
> will be implemented.
>
> If you're wondering, I've heard this question before, in previous
> companies, so I wish you luck in your response =]
>
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> Posted from the new ixda.org
> http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=34125
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
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>
Here are a fewe articles that may help define "social" and metrics
for this particular site, audience and business goals.
blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2008/08/b2b-marketers-e.html
mashable.com/2008/07/31/measuring-social-media-roi-for-business/
www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/07/18/forrester-report-best-and-worst-o...
www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629296
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Posted from the new ixda.org
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It sounds like a bad idea, for two reasons I could think of right now.
One, adding features doesn't guarantee a better user experience, in the same
way that gaming page views doesn't accurately measure how people are using
the site. You could have all of the features in the world and still no one
would use them. Any gain from that would be nil. The most important part
about social anything isn't the tools, it's the network power. If you have
no social features now, your network power is zero. Once you're done
building all of these features, your power will still be zero, until users
start to adopt the technology. So again, just adding features doesn't
correlate to anything.
Two, it doesn't too well-thought out enough. Social network savvy users
already have their limited attention divided across so many other sites.
What makes your client think that their site is worthy enough to be in that
mix? What features are so compelling on your client's site that no other
social network already provides? Remember, these existing social networks
already have network power, inertia, and brand working in their favor, while
your client is starting from nothing.
My recommendation would be to investigate low-investment/high-yield
techniques, and relying heavily on existing networks, maybe through
applications or partnering. Otherwise, it will just look like one of the
many other non-social sites with social features that are vastly underused.
-Mark
On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 8:23 AM, Johan Sjöstrand <
johan.sjostrand at hyperisland.se> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I would need some help to reply to a clients request. He's asking veery
> generally how much turnover you could get on page views / time spent on site
> if you would to implement social features. What does social features would
> be is not clear. The site is very established. He's asking so he can prepair
> a business plan.
>
> I don't even know where to begin.. maybe through examples? "The site X
> improved their statistics by doing Y."
>
> Help me help him. Thanks..
>
> /Johan
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
>
>From eMarketer
"Asked about the effects of customer ratings on their Web sites,
over half of online retailers in the United Kingdom, the United
States and Europe said their overall conversion rates had gone up in
the past year, compared with only 9% who said they fell. Over
three-quarters said their site traffic had increased. Only 5% said it
had fallen. Average order values rose for 42% of the responding online
retailers, and only 6% said they had decreased."
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005226&src=article1_home
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Posted from the new ixda.org
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