Lessons Learned from Growing a Social Network

Over the weekend, I added Tumblr and Instagram to the social networks which I use. 

I've tried and left Myspace, been through the many privacy concerns of Facebook, learned to condense my thoughts to 140 characters for Twitter, surfed the many channels of YouTube, and participate in the so-called ghost-town of Google+.

Throughout all of this, I've learned a lot about how each social network functions, the target audiences for each, and most importantly to those young executives running these companies, how to make a social network – well – work.

At least from a user’s point of view. I’m not a programmer, and I have no idea how to make a social network. But making a social network extremely intuitive, and user-friendly makes it more likely to be used, and in turn grow.

Just look at Myspace as it struggles to re-build and re-brand itself after losing over 75% of it’s original user-base.

So listen up Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of you that run social networks – here are my top five user peeves.

Not Everyone Wants to Login Using Facebook

One of my biggest peeves while searching for social networks, are ones that only let you join using your Facebook credentials. With all the privacy issues which Facebook has had, the shear mention of credentials and facebook sends shivers up many spines. Facebook has been known on more than several occasions to change their privacy policies seemingly without letting its users know until after the fact, forcing people to log in and turn off a “feature.” 

Aside from privacy concerns, not everyone wants to share their facebook profile with another social network. I use Facebook for keeping in touch with people I know and see in real-time, while my preferred social network for everyone else is Google+. So I don’t want to share my facebook credentials with all my social networks, because I don’t add everyone to facebook.

We all know that facebook makes arrangements with other social networks and mobile apps to share data so they can make money off us. But social networks that only let you sign up and in using your facebook profile aren’t to lose a lot of potential members, that don’t want to share that info. 

Interoperability with Similar Networks

I did my homework and joined Tumblr and Instagram because they are in the top 10 of most popular social networks in North America.

They are partially in the top ten because they are seamlessly integrated with other similar social networks. When I post to Tumblr, I can instantly share the post with my Facebook and Twitter followers. And when I upload a picture to Instagram, it shares it with Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter.

Cross-posting is big in terms of social networking. It allows you to share your content with all your followers, fans and friends, everywhere, regardless of which social network they are on. And the more you share, the more likely your content will be shared by others.

Social networks that make it hard to share content across multiple platforms – like the original Myspace, or don’t even provide the option, make it harder for their users to grow their social networks, so guess what? It makes it hard for the social network to grow itself to as a business.

Now, when social networks start adding Google+ more to their sharing options I’ll be happier than a pig in you know what. 

Mobile Apps that Make You Use the Website to do Key Tasks

It’s great to be able to access your social networks from anywhere, using a mobile app. What really sucks is when the mobile app lacks key functions, forcing you to log into the app on your mobile web browser, instead of using the app.

Klout’s app has improved greatly over time, it used to only show you your Klout score, rendering it almost useless. It’s a lot better now, but it still missing key functions which force me to check in on the web version at least once a week. I can only see my top influencers on the app, to see everyone else, I have to log onto the web version.

YouTube’s new app for IOS allows doesn't let you delete a video you uploaded. This was available in the previous version, when the app was native to IOS 5 and earlier. But since Apple didn't make it a native app (pre-installed app), the new YouTube app doesn't have this key feature.

Facebook’s app has come a long way too – used to take forever to load, and occasionally crash on my iPhone. The new and improved app is awesome, but how come I can’t change all my profile and account settings in the app? I have to go to the website to do that.

The mobile version of any social network should let you do everything you can do on the web version, only streamlined for mobile devices and bandwidths. 

Enforcement of Mobile and Web Standards

Here’s an odd one which isn't all that common, but stumped me for the longest time, and prevented me from having my Windows Live Hotmail on my iPhone for almost two-years.

For the past two-years, I've been without Hotmail on my iPhone, because every time I tried to set it up, it wouldn't authenticate.

I finally figured it out – Windows Live Hotmail only allows fewer than 20 character passwords. When you enter a password on their website, it automatically truncates it, so any characters you enter past the 20 character limit are ignored, and you gain access to your account.

However, on the iPhone app – and possibly other mobile devices – any characters you enter past 20 are included, you get an authentication error, and eventually locked out of your account, upon successive attempts.

Grrr ... for those of us trying to make our passwords strong enough to prevent problems, Microsoft certainly created a big problem for me!

It would have been nice if the iPhone app truncated characters like the web version, or at the very least, just not let you type in more characters than were accepted.

(I know 20 characters is a lot, but I’m nutty about security.) 

Announcements that Scare You

Another rare one, but still it happens – when you get a pop-up on your phone or on the website which looks like an error message, but is just an announcement, message or alert about a new post or friend.

Fear may move people, but if you scare your users too much, just like crying wolf, your users will soon stop reading these things. And if people don’t read the posts, what good is the social network?