Wow, what a week or couple of weeks it has been for the hype around social networking. Please don’t get me wrong, I am a user of and believer in social networking/media serevices and sites. Plus, the wider trend in Social Media is one of the really useful and fun areas of Web 2.0 that definitely delievers something of value. I believe it is here to stay.
Namely we had the Google-MySpace OpenSocial announcement. Plus continued speculation and analysis around Facebook post the Microsoft investment and the OpenSocial stuff.
The Scoble Starfish is a great way to explain the space. Love it - so here it is again!
Here is my first crack, lets call it an alpha version, at Social Networking’s top 7 rules (please take note product managers and developers):
- People will only maintain a limited number of profiles (probably less than 5, avg. 3)
- Switching costs are moderate to big, more like email or a new website or moving a new laptop than web search
- There is a spectrum of needs (or use cases) in the Social Media space, see the ’starfish’, focus on one arm
- Metcalfe’s Law does not apply
- Usability that is either fun or delivers some value is key, make a great UI and it will grow the user base
- An open API for 3rd party developers is a must have
- Mobile use or access is still wide open for someone to set the bar
- Bonus: Get out of jail free - it is early days for Social Networking - let’s see how things play out as we move to Web 2.x
Please suggest additions! I want to expand this to 10 for the beta.
7 responses so far ↓
Edward Ross // 5 November 2007 at 10:33 am
Interesting post Dylan. Can you provide more details on point 4 - ‘Metcalfe’s Law does not apply’? I’m not sure I agree with this one.
dylanfuller // 5 November 2007 at 8:26 pm
Well, Metcalfe’s law of networks says in the simplest terms that as a network gets bigger the value grows by a factor of 10x. For example, the more faxes or mobile phones or the more PCs on the Internet we have the bigger the value of the network etc. Again, I am being very simplistic here. But the issue with social networks is that any given network can be dragged down by the lack of membership by people. For example: look at instant messaging or even SMS or probably better to look at professional networks. If someone or some group are not part of a network that brings the value down. People also tend to splinter and prefer smaller networks (we need an anthropology PhD or someone who know about tribalism to dive in now…
Plus check out the Groucho 2.0 rule on: http://tomglocer.com/blogs/sample_weblog/archive/2007/10/09/694.aspx
Edward Ross // 6 November 2007 at 1:06 am
For communication networks like SMS or instant messaging I think the standard idea that value is proportional to n squared definitely applies. Here the value is being able to contact someone.
I see your point for certain types of network that exclusivity is important. I think this argument is most likely to hold for business networks. Where people are viewing membership as ‘club’ membership rather than communication. Perhaps the facebook groups and sub-networks are designed to handle this desire for exclusivity?
I don’t think significant numbers of people would be put off joining facebook because there are too many people on it. I think people are usually glad to be able to find their friends on it.
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