Virality is one of those big words used so much nowadays that it’s almost blaze. Clients demand it, marketers sought it, but it doesn’t have an effective study done to show how to obtain it. Of course there is some randomness to it – but it also involves some background and context.

Virality can be obtained via the following formula: Continue reading ‘Virality 101′

I recently received a link to see what type of lover I am. I jumped to the gun immediately, as expected. I mean, who isn’t curious about those big issues in life. So, after filling out an extensive 5 question quiz that comprehended issues such as my favorite time of the year, I submitted my answers and eagerly expected my answer. It was then that the application asked me to send the quiz to 15 friends in order to see my answer. And that’s what I did. It was only then that I realized that I received the quiz via the same mechanism - somebody wanted to see what type of lover they were and innocently forwarded the quiz to 15 unsuspecting victims.
The truth is that the Facebook system for applications is ground-breaking in many senses - it allows companies and individuals to create applications related to certain content and that engage with the users to a certain extent. But they only work if the users have an incentive to push the application onto others in their social network. Therefore there are two ways - either the application is that good or there is a mechanism that makes the user has to send an invitation. Continue reading ‘API Spam - or The API Virality Patterns’

If you browse most social bookmarking websites this moment, you will definitely find a lot of posts regarding Digg’s launch of its new feature – the Digg Images, as well as the Universal Taxonomy.
It is fascinating to see how a Social Bookmarking website is indeed analyzing the users interactions and applying it’s very own eCRM system – by observing behaviors and patterns in the users postings, Digg has been evolving constantly. If we take into account the timeline in Digg’s changes, we can definitely state that it’s always evolved towards the tendency of the users – be it requirements or just plain must-have functionalities. The truth is that, since Google, we hadn’t seen such a good example of eCRM on the online world.
Digg images now allows users to watch thumbnails instead of links for the posts. This quite a simple and expected add-on, but it is quite welcome if you take into account that most of the top links in Digg mostly relate to a single pic. Digg has proven that there is a pattern, such as the inverted structure for offline news information organization, in the user’s postings and subsequent digg rate. If a user uses keywords such as “Top X (10 for example)” or “Apple” or simply states that the link relates to a [PIC], then most users will definitely click on the link. This gives us a strong perception on how to grasp an user – spike up their curiosity.
Universal taxonomy allows users to now filter and display the links according to categories or type of media desired. Once again, by applying a simple tool to the user experience, Digg has enhanced the user experience once again. This proves a point in this article – sometimes the simplest solution is the most desired one. We worry about creating visual and stunning effects on websites, but by observing consumer interaction on websites and giving navigability its due importance, we are gaining a winning edge on user preference.
Digg has, by applying two simple, but well thought, functionalities, shown the upcoming (and present) tendency on the web – enhancing your consumers intuitive navigability on the website. Users sometime just want to be helped. So, going back to basics might be the best way to advance your website into the next step in the online world.