May 7th, 2007

Why invest in Social Features?

by Joshua Porter  |   5 Comments

For those of you not cross-subscribed, I recently wrote a piece on Brain Sparks (aka the UIEblog) that answers a pretty simple, yet under-addressed question:

Why invest in social features on your web site?

Here’s the quick version of why to invest in social features:

  1. Amplify Customer Opinion
  2. Data, Data, and more Data
  3. Reduce Support Costs
  4. Engender Trust

I think that social features are bigger than many people view them. They are a long-term strategy that takes lots of resources. You can’t simply bolt on a feature here or there (well, unless it’s article sharing or something super simple like that) and expect to realize the benefits of making a richer social experience for your users.

In addition, I’m seeing more and more evidence of a wave of companies getting into the social action. This is encouraging, and if you’re doing so please feel free to describe what you’re doing in the comments or drop me a line. I’ll be continuing to aggregate and regurgitate what I hear so we can all share what we know with each other.

Here’s the link: Why invest in social features on your web site?

Comments ( 5 Responses so far )

1.  Dennis on May 7th, 2007 (Comment) #

Great article. Selling social design solutions to clients is hard because the results aren’t always immediate.

2.  Bud Caddell on May 7th, 2007 (Comment) #

Thanks for pointing me to this story, it really helped me craft an entry on why the conversation is really so important.

Check it out and if you have a moment, please let me know what you think.

3.  Dharmesh Shah on May 8th, 2007 (Comment) #

As part of an internet marketing platform my software startup is building, we’ll be releasing a social voting application.

This can be used for things like social content (like digg/reddit), but also for other things like customer feedback management.

A sample can be viewed here:

DailyHub - Social Content for Business Geeks

This is a social content site targeted at business geeks (but the underlying software is flexible and can be used to support other things).

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ABOUT

Bokardo is the blog of Joshua Porter, a web designer/developer, researcher, and writer. I live in Newburyport, MA, USA.

WHAT IS SOCIAL DESIGN?

Social design is design that focuses on the social lives of users. It deals with the activities, behaviors, and motivations of people who work and play together through software interfaces. It is built on the observation that many of the decisions we make are greatly affected by those we surround ourselves with in our social lives: our family, friends, and colleagues. Exploring our motivations and how to design interfaces to support them is what the Bokardo blog is all about.

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