The Social Utility Of One
“We just need ten more people and then it’ll get fun” -doomed developer
Intro: The “Social” Death / Part 1: Build Around the FOMO
I almost called this article “Keep Social Second”, and you’ll see why soon. The general principle here is that at the beginning of your social app’s life, your app should have utility when only one other person is on it.
The final goal might be to have an all encompassing app that everyone will use to xyz with their friends, but until there are lots of people on it, keep it simple. Introducing hyper-social features would be detrimental to the app’s image.
“Social” isn’t a collection of features, it’s a PROGRESSION of an idea, knowing WHEN to build what.
Let’s take a look two examples:
Snapchat
- Only really need 1 other person to use the app.
- When power users began emerging, Snapchat introduced “My Story”, which allowed hundreds of people to interact with someone’s snaps.
- When that caught on, Snapchat began emphasizing browsing by compiling “My Story”s at the top of the contact list so that people can just scan through kind of like a newsfeed.
- When users began depending on Snapchat for communication, they introduced a messaging component.
- Prediction: if the messaging component goes well, Snapchat will introduce some sort of group messaging capability
- Prediction: now that snapchat has hundreds of millions of users, they’ll begin introducing a more social feed of “My Story”s to browse stories of famous people who you “follow”
Venmo
- Like Snapchat, you only really need 1 other friend to justify having Venmo on your phone.
- Once it caught on, Venmo started letting you know when your friends joined Venmo.
- Introduction of “Nearby” social feature
- Most recently: public feed shows how absurdly popular this app is around the world (people send transactions almost every second!)
- Prediction: Venmo actually doesn’t have to expand their social features because they rake in money without advertising. The next logical step for them would be to build on the commenting section (the fact that they require you to write a comment hints at this). This might include optimizing the feed so that popular venmos are highlighted. However, I don’t think they will do this because more attention to comments -> longer time spent thinking of a clever comment -> longer it takes for you to send a venmo. Imagine if you had to write a tweet whenever you sent a venmo. Some of those venmos you will just abandon because you can’t think of anything clever. So, part of Venmo’s success is due to them knowing how social they should be. That being said, I do think they will introduce photos/emojis as the primary comment option.
Takeaway
Social features are strategically introduced at a time that will build their FOMO. Imagine if Venmo came out with all these social features before it was big. The public page would be absolutely empty, which would discourage you from using an uncool, unused product. Imagine if snapchat tried to emphasize a My Story feed back in its infancy. It would either be filled with weird, creepy content, or be completely empty.
Don’t think about the end result, the strategy to get there is more important.
Read On (more about social apps)
part 3) Antisocial Beginnings (In Progress)
part 4) Push Annoyificiations (In Progress)
