A blogger, Guy Kawasaki, has come up with a
top ten list (although there are actually fourteen, but we won't hold it against him) of simple mistakes that can hinder adoption of new products and services. All of these points are relevant, however, some of the simpler and more damaging mistakes that hold the power to strangle a viral campaign will be discussed here.
First, let's examine the issue of registration. One quality of a piece that is on track to go viral is its ease of access. If a person finds something humorous or relevant and forwards it to another party, the reciever needs to be able to access enough content to spark their interest before they are required to register or, for that matter, make any real effort beyond a few mouse clicks.
Even after they have passed that point, the interested party then needs to be able to complete the registration process quickly and painlessly. The less information that they need to enter, the more likely they will be to fill out and submit the form. If there are fields that are really not necessary, and you do not wish to remove them, why not consider making them optional?
Additionally, complicated authentication schemes to prove the validity of a user, such as displaying garbled text for that user to re-enter, can be just enough of an obstacle to cause that person to leave the site - and likely not return!
Next, or rather before, the sender needs to be able to transmit the link, and the reciever needs to be able make use of that link easily. As Guy points out in his blog, long URLs can be troublesome. Some email clients will cause them to jump to a second line and break the link. Many will not (or might not know how) to resolve this and will never view the content. And as for URLs that are not able to be copied and pasted to reproduce the same conent... well, they're just not a good idea to use here.
This issue can be resolved by offering a link to refer friends, however, this can have its disadvantages as well. The referral links usually include places to leave a personalized message, but they are often left blank. In that state, the sent message is not too much better than an unsolicited email. The personal aspect of a direct email from the sender (generally requiring some sort of textual input) is an important thing to consider when devising your referral link. Why not make a hybrid of the two? To make it easy, and also personal, why not require that the sender pick from a list of relevant, yet humorous subjects and/or texts? Why not challenge the sender to create something that will be included in the email to the receiving party?
Finally, be mindful with restrictions on users. If they are required to create usernames, why make unnecessary limits? As Guy points out, why not let them use the @ symbol and therefore be able to let their ID match their email address? Why make it case sensitive and impose password restrictions? These requirements change the commitment of the user from being able to recycle a username and password that they use elsewhere to having to be able to create a new identity. Many already have multiple logins that frustrate them, is it really logical to make them create another and put your site in
that category in their minds? The key here is ease of use.
The case of unnecessary restrictions does not end at the login page. Other arbitrary restrictions, such as how many friends or address book entries can also frustrate users. This is especially relevant when a comparison can be made to a similar service or medium. For instance, take the case of the
Yahoo!/Flickr migration. Users were required to move from one service to another, and were furious when certain restrictions were found. One person (obviously a heavy user who likely has invited countless others to enjoy the service) was outraged when they found a limit to the number of contacts he could then have. What possible sense could there be in restricting social networking on a social networking site?
There are other other important considerations to be made, such as what Internet browsers to work hard to guarantee support for, and none of them hold simple answers. Beta testing or trial-runs can prove useful, but only if done in an effective manner. The testers must be motivated to find and destroy these problems - but you'll have to figure out how to put a fire in their belly. To ensure a fumble-free delivery, your team must think like the audience - and be able to test that way too.
Labels: adoption, mistakes, referrals, viral marketing
