Social Design is a product strategy model that places users at the core of an experience. It allows products and brands to scale by incorporating a user’s trusted communities, driving conversation and creates a strong sense of identity through the experience. This is a model that Facebook has popularized in the development of their own platform by thinking from the inside out.
So, how do we leverage similar modeling and incorporate it for brand marketing initiatives? In this post we are going to explore the strategic approach and thinking which takes place to make proper Social Design decisions for a social branded experience.
Marketers now have a tremendous and evolving opportunity to leverage communities such as Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms from the outside in. By developing experiences with this strategy users are still at the epicenter, however, marketers can now tap into the existing community users have already built to provide experiences on these platforms which nurtures the users identities even further through a social experience. When executed appropriately, this approach provides a valuable experience to the user, brands they engage with and the related social platforms.
Have you used Spotify, Nike+, Flipboard or TripAdvisor? If so, you have engaged with a product leveraging this model. Here’s a quick reason why:
Spotify is connecting friends around music. But why is it so successful? One of the key tenets to their product model is allowing users to feel more open to share and provide the tools to do so by connecting the experience directly to a user’s Facebook network. Immediately upon registration, as a user, you are surrounded by your friends and can engage immediately around your common musical interests. This all happens instantly based on the user’s existing social identity. Connections with the Facebook real-time ticker affords the application the opportunity to share users’ musical interests in a frictionless manner and further curate their identity and connections.
Nike+ has likely popped up in your news feed as you see a friend complete a staggering 7-mile run before (some of us) have even had our first coffee. In Nike’s product strategy there is a focus on providing users the opportunity to easily tell their story, aggregate and share experiences over time. Through charting, mapping and connecting users around their shared interest of exercise, it allows the user to continue to build their identity, share, and engage around a common activity.
At Stuzo | Dachis Group, when we engage on branded social experiences, we identify which projects will benefit from this outside in approach. Be sure to check out our post on Program Identify Design for more behind the scenes information on how we make some of these key decisions along the way.
Let’s take a look at a recent launch for the upcoming People’s Choice Awards where we can see in action the Program Identity Design framework. This will provide a tangible demonstration on how we executed on a Social Design plan. For this program, we engaged early on during the show’s planning to concept, design, develop and manage the social experience.
The Program Identity Design process began on day one during the discovery phase of this program. The ultimate goal was to provide an authentic user experience which would generate conversation, brand amplification and personalized engagements by incorporating key elements of social platforms. This frame and the strategic thinking helped us ensure we were meeting business metrics, one of them being driving total votes and engagements via social.
What took place during this phase included multiple sessions reviewing the Program Identity Design framework with our team, client and related stakeholders to ensure we executed an approach, which was social at the core. At the same time, it included detailed data and market analysis to make the critical decisions which would enable the program to succeed. This was done first and foremost, before proceeding on our deep dive into information architecture with our creative team. We often do this, because we understand a social approach requires a set framework, clear objectives and requirements collaboratively developed before we begin churning out creatives. You should be able to tell the story of this experience with your colleagues and client using this lens before opening Visio, PhotoShop or touching a line of code.
Let’s take a dive into some of these notable Social Design elements which were incorporated as part of the end product through this process…
Personalization that provides value – If users are going to authorize an application or take the time to connect the experience with their account on a social platform, give them a clear reason to. Ask yourself “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” If you know the movie I am referencing, it’s also a key question you can take into many aspects of your decision making criteria.
Personalization elements include:
- Facebook Interest Mapping: By connecting their account via Facebook, the application queries related content the user has associated with their identity on Facebook. This includes graph items such as celebrities, movies, music and related interests. Through the personalization lens into the experience, users are immediately able associate themselves with the brand and seamlessly cast votes for their favorites. We instantly help make the program identifiable to the user based on the social account they have already curated over time.
- Connected Relevance: Through their interactions users can see related interests and their friends’ activity in the experience. This provides the user an associated connection with the nominees and provides a transparent view into how this nominee may be connected through their network. It also provides validation and connection to the program by surfacing relevant friend activity. At times, this may give them the edge to place a vote for a particular nominee, perceive value, engage deeper or use the available social tools to introduce their friends to the experience.
Distribution and Conversation – Facebook is a key piece of the outside in approach in this example. Scale is further enabled by successfully connecting the experience across the web. Implementing the appropriate user options and connection points provides the link to transcend multiple communities, build conversation and drive engagement.
- Facebook Graph: The majority of users engaging on Facebook are able to see the deep connectedness they have with the nominees and the brand. Multiple streams of distribution are included through the Facebook platform to allow users to tell their story and drive activation from their network. This is performed through generating conversation around similar interests and sharing stories to the users and relevant friends’ walls. Private invitations are also an available sharing option.
- Increasing Stream Engagement (In-Stream App): We know from our identity mapping and related research during the discover phase, that many of the core users who personalize are vocal and open to sharing their brand experience. We wanted to give them the opportunity to broadcast their support even further. An in-stream application is included as part of the experience to allow brand page owners and Facebook users to syndicate the main voting experience for engagement directly in the stream.
- Twitter Voting and Conversation Drivers: Users are provided the option to tweet or retweet a vote on the Twitter platform to show their support for their favorite nominee. Directly in the Facebook experience they can also “Like” and “Follow” a nominee to connect with the artist. This extension also provides a valuable opportunity to leverage the star power of nominees and branded hashtags as they drive interactions from their own networks to support their nomination.
- Branded Extensions: People’s Choice Awards is a Procter & Gamble Production. Through a partnership with their portfolio of brands, the experience was customized and deployed for partnered brands on their Facebook pages. This provided all the same opportunities of the flagship experience with a branded tie-in to drive further engagement and conversation with their specific audience. Measurement and analytics were provided in a dashboard segmented by brands.
This article is a snapshot of some of the defining elements incorporated into the experience through Program Identity Design. To drive recurring engagement and tap into the users desire to be a part of the show, a few other notable additions were presented during the experience.
- Each vote by a user connected via Facebook and opted into the promotion contributes an additional entry to a sweepstakes, which includes tickets to the show. This is also connected to a Facebook Event which provides additional entries to win. This creates a compelling reason for sustained engagement and brand distribution.
- A user “Fan Awards” (UGC) contest is included to allow users to submit themselves or a friend who should be nominated for a special award called “Favorite Profile Pic.” Users can share their entry, post as their profile picture and drum up votes within the PCA experience to win special red carpet treatment at the show.
- Subsequent releases to the application (not shown in this post) are included to sustain engagement around the Award Show season and to drive viewership.
- Contextual prompts were shown to the user to allow them to opt-in to be a part of the on air broadcast. Secrecy is being kept with this feature, so tune in on January 11th!
To engage consumers effectively within social platforms, it requires a shift in the way we have traditionally thought about marketing and communications. A handy resource along the way of thinking outside in (and inside out) is the Facebook Developer video series which provides a library of videos and presentations on Facebook Platform engagement (drill down to the video on Social Design: A Definition). To learn more about Program Identity Design, check out the Stuzo | Dachis Group Program Identity Design Framework and feel free to contact me on Twitter @mark_spangler.