With the phenomenal growth of Facebook and Twitter in the recent past, making the Internet based applications and products more ‘social’ has become the buzzword of the day. Does integrating your product with classical UGC (User Generated Content) tools like bulletin boards, groups, photos, ratings, and reviews means that your product is ‘social’? Is creating a Twitter or Facebook account for your product good enough? How much money and development resources do you need to spend? Before answering, let’s understand the ‘social features’ that rare relevant for an Internet product.
In fact, forget Internet for a moment and talk about the neighborhood gym that offers the latest imported training equipments, fresh towels, a free sauna, and is situated two miles away from your home. Every day you go, do your bit of training and come back very satisfied. Six months down the lane, another gym offering exactly the same services opens closer to your house. Would you switch?
May be yes, but what about the following things you can do in the previous gym:
* You have access to the ‘expert’ trainer whose advice you ‘follow’? He gives consultation advice only if you are a member of that particular gym.
* You regularly meet two other blokes who work on the same training regime as yours and you ‘exchange’ tips and ‘discuss’ the effectiveness and results among yourselves.