I am a regular user of Social network like FaceBook,Orkut, LinkedIn.
Collaborative Knowledge Sharing Networks Like Wikipedia , WikiQuote,Del.icio.us
Q&A forums like USENET ,Linkedin Answer ,Yahoo Answers .
Media centric communities like Flickr,Slideshare,Youtube
I have noticed that most of the time some specific member of network are more Vocal , enthusiast and involved than others. these user keep the conversation alive . a study says 20 % of Linked In users are answering 80% of Q . Yahoo Answer have similar pattern .
In old product/ technology centric paradigm we often call them power user or early adopters . There is no immediate material /objective gain form Answering someone’s Q or solving a problem on someone’s behalf . still people do it .
someone told me that “It’s not Just Altruism which promotes these guys to do so . another factor is that it satisfy their Vanity “. he even suggested that whole notion of option source is driven more by Vanity than by altruism . [i neither agree nor disagree with him , i never thought of Open source n Free software in that way ,however thats besides the point ]
I think that these Vanity users are Key to any social networks adaptation and growth . Who are these guys who write wikipedia articles ? i know only one such guy . My question is How can a upcoming startup ensure that it gets attention of Vanity users ? what appeals to them ? how can you attract and [more importantly] retain them .
can it be done by
Design ? ie: Having specific feature which uplift user’s social presence [ Linked in Recommendation,Fave count in slideshare , Testimonial in orkut, flickr ]
By reward ? : some incentive ie Cool Quotient index or Giving Visibility ,Profile of the day ,most read profile , max number of connection ,Hot count in Hot or not , Feedback grade in E Bay )
By some grading system ? (FANs in Orkut and Domain Expert status in LinkedIn, Crush Count in Facebook ,Technorati Rating )
whats your thoughts on this
- Event Notification: 5th Meetup of Mobile Monday Delhi - December 21, 2007
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Please delete the above comment ^ – Accidental Submit
Why does not Venture Woods show the author name on the post page?
The vanity users are rare. I read somewhere that digg’s new submissions come from 1-2% of the total member base. I think there is no universal vanity member. You can’t buy/motivate vanity digg users to be vanity Orkut users. A user can be vanity user if there is something he/she is passionate about.
Moreover, a vanity user may not remain a vanity user forever. When I was studying, I used to be an passionate and active member on newly launched Orkut. With the scarcity of time and pollution on Orkut, I became a passive user who rarely checks his account. I am somewhat active on LinkedIn these days.
I think grading system and rewards work very well but it depends on what you (as the product developer) think an ideal grading system or a reward is. Your vision of reward might be profile of the day, but your users may not agree. It is important for you to get feedback from the users and then determine what they want. If you develop the product in the line of feedback (not entirely though) you’ll create vanity users. Users will believe that they are building the product and will have intrest vested in it.
Hi,
I am working for a website called sezwho.com that incentivizes participation on social media sites by a system of ratings. Right now this has been implemented for WordPress and MT and will be up on a number of other social media soon.
Thanks,
Nitin
Coincidence that like mohit, I also thought of the book “tipping point” when reflecting on alok’s queries. However, something else came to mind.. and that is the classification of people in that book… maven, salesmen, connectors, etc. Its possible that some people are doing it just because its in their nature to be a connector. etc.
Hi,
” There are alwayz few consumers of a particular service or product who instead of silently moving to better product prefer to voice there views/reviews/suggestions to producers…”
Nicely said Satpal. Reminds me of the book “The Tipping Point”. It talks about such user of the product/service who are the most active. It discusses some research related to how “hush puppies” – a type of shoes only worn by people in country side – became the most fashionable item in the 90s in US just because a vanity user ( here a fashion designer ) saw it while touring the countryside. Another example from the book tells how most of the shoppers in a mall wont double check wether during a sale the price has actually went down . But there are a few users ( again vanity ) who happen to be vocal and observing , they will make a noise if they find some foul play. Must read Book.
Nice post indeed.IMO this cocept of vanity users is not new and exist in every -consumer producer relationship.
There are alwayz few consumers of a particular service or product who instead of silently moving to better product prefer to voice there views/reviews/suggestions to producers.The underline motivation is feeling that heliping producer will result in better product/service from producers.
This is very important widow of opportunity for any service provider.Few services hav more pronounced effct of these few helping-you-to-help-me users which include SNs and blogs. Using these HUHM users is latest trend in consumer centric innovation termed as crowdsourcing.
Now coming to question of of attracting them.First thing we shud remember is that they are customers. It means like any other cutomer they are attracted to your service. Your product or service must serve their unique need.Secondly you must explicitly convey your willingness to co-create the product/service, which can be done by using all means u mention like by design,reward and grading.
I have neen such user for lot many SNs and Blogs and on thing i would like to tell you as HUHM ( I am not vanity user 🙂 ) is that your response to any such user should be loud and clear, quick. and if possible personal.Challenging task is to filter noise from voices from a hetrogeneous group and delivering quick reponse.