I spoke with one of my social networking clients today about how to get their user participation up. My client mentioned that they saw people registering, but they just weren't
doing anything. I was thinking about the conversation on the way home from work today and wanted to blog out some thoughts.
What's In It For Your Users?
The first question I asked was "From your perspective, what does your site offer users? Why should they sign up, and why should they participate?" It's a good question to ask yourself about your site -- what's in it for your users? Do you have a good value proposition? Who is your target audience? Who is your competition and why are you better? Would you use your site? Do you use your own site, and how often? Are your needs unique? What do your friends and associates think? Do they use the site too?
It's easy enough to stick a survey from Zoomerang or PollDaddy on your site to collect some feedback, too. You need to understand the needs of your users and the value you provide -- you can't just build a site and wait for the content to roll in.
A Combination of Factors for User Participation
Getting user participation is a combination of a few things:
- There should be things drawing your users into the site
- There should be as few barriers as possible preventing them from participating
- To grow, you need more and more users
- Some percentage of users will do nothing
Draw Users Into Your Site
#1 begins with two standard fares: content and activities. Having lots of interesting content is great, but content isn't all you need -- this is an interactive site, not a book you just flip through and read. So give users a chance to
do something, too. Let them put their two cents in, compete against other users, show off their skills/photos/etc, win a prize, gain notoriety, ask a question. And give users instant feedback if possible. Let them see the results of their participation.
Important point:
Users need to know that if they do something, they will get a (positive) result. That's important to realize. That's why no one participates in forums with no posts -- why bother posting to an empty bulletin board, since no one will probably read and/or reply to what you said? There's a reason why forum moderators seed content and prune empty threads.
Another thing talked about is stickiness. Stickiness means getting users to come back. Maybe there's an activity that keeps them logging back in to check on stuff (e.g. checking your score or approving a friend request), or maybe your site emails them to tell them that "XYZ just happened on the site, click here to visit the site and check it out!" Make logging into the site worthwhile. If the content (text, photos, etc) is interesting, that could be reason enough to come back.
Think about the sites that you visit regularly -- why do you visit them? Now think about the sites you participate in regularly -- why do you participate, and are the reasons different from the sites you merely browse?
Lastly, make sure users know what your site has to offer. Laura G from Ning talks about
Welcome Centers -- does your site have a prominent area, preferably on the home page, welcoming new users, telling them what the site is about, and encouraging them to join in the fun?
Eliminate Barriers to Participation
Top of the list -- make registering as easy as possible, or eliminate it. Allow people to post comments, rate, & review things without registering at all. Then, allow registered users something extra as incentive (maybe they can gain reputation, or access special features, or not have to use the CAPTCHA all the time). Make registration quick & simple -- require as little as possible before they can participate. Don't make them wait 5-10 minutes for a confirmation email (*unless that kind of security is really necessary). Don't redirect them to the home page after registering so they have to remember what page they were on. Don't make them log in again, after they just told you what their username and password should be. People will register because they want to
do something, and the more hoops they have to jump through before they're able to do what they wanted to, the more their enthusiasm will wane.
A cumbersome registration process is part of a larger theme -- usability. A site needs to be easy to use, be responsive, be intuitive, work on all browsers, not require rebooting your computer to load a plugin, etc. If a site is simple and easy, then people enjoy using it, and they'll use it more often.
Granted, barriers can be higher if the reward to your users is higher. Lonely bachelors are more willing to put up with an involved registration process if it means they can browse pictures of pretty girls and find true love. But in general, don't make the barriers any higher than they need to be. If you start getting too much content, you can apply the brakes later.
Another good tip is to visit a non-technical friend (who's not a member), ask them to participate in your site, and
watch them use your site. And I mean physically sit behind them and observe. Watch what they do, see where they get caught up, and understand what might be frustrating your users.
Get More Users
I won't talk much about this, but obviously, you need to get as much of your target userbase to your site as you can. Note I said target userbase, not just any random set of users. That's because your site has some sort of theme, niche, or focus, and you want to reinforce that. Social sites' value and appeal increases with more users (and more user generated content), so make sure your site is something your users will share. Include standard "viral" elements in your site -- invite a friend, email this XYZ to a friend, import your Yahoo/Gmail/etc contacts. Give people a direct reason to include more people. Give them points, give them a "friend count", something. Make a facebook/OpenSocial app. Get some buzz. Get blogs to write about you. Do some SEO. Buy keywords. Acquire an existing social network.
Some Users Will Always Be Lame
After all your hard work, some users will always do nothing. Some might start participating after a while (especially if you email them from time to time to let them know about new and interesting features), but there will always be a percentage of users who register on your site but don't post anything, don't upload any photos, and never come back. First off -- that's normal, and that's totally ok. If your site is healthy, those inactive users will fall by the wayside as your active users fill in your content. Secondly, if it still bothers you, ask yourself "why did these users register in the first place, and why didn't they do anything else?" Make sure that your site's registration process is easy and leads people towards contributing. If it's a cumbersome process, you may find that after completing registration, users are too tired to do anything else.