musestorm top10 widget and social application mistakes

Company Private & ConfidentialCopyright © 2008, MuseStorm, Inc. All rights reserved. www.musestorm.com

September 20, 2007

Copyright © 2008, MuseStorm, Inc. All rights reserved. www.musestorm.com

MuseStorm Top 10 Widget & Social Application Mistakes

The Professional Way to Widget™

Company Private & ConfidentialCopyright © 2008, MuseStorm, Inc. All rights reserved. www.musestorm.comCopyright © 2008, MuseStorm, Inc. All rights reserved. www.musestorm.com

This session

Fast, furious, fun!

• "Hands On Workshop: The Top 10 Widget Mistakes.”

• Both widgets and social applications

• Actionable knowledge you can start applying Wednesday morning!


Case #1

Breaking Bad

AMC Original

• Designed for cross over appeal with a 40-something protagonist chemistry teacher

• Teams up with one of his 20-something students to cook meth

• “Black humor”


Mistakes Made

Breaking Bad

• 60M people on Facebook but only 19 of them use this widget each day

Multiple problems

• Mismatch demographics

• Game does not take advantage of social graph


Lessons Learned

• DO measure/optimize engagement value of your content

• DON’T overinvest in custom content before you know what works


Case #2

Free Rice (633K uniques)

Ideal fit with demographics

• 4M high school students on Facebook as of May 2007

• Majority college bound

• Third-world causes strongly resonate with this age group


Mistakes Made

• 90 active users for “bumper sticker” implementation

• Re-mixed as a true Facebook application – but with only ~1000 active users today


20 grains vs. 10 grains


Lessons learned

• DO pay attention to naming of your application particularly if there are multiple apps or widgets that do the same thing

• DO look at your reward structure and make sure it is competitive with offerings elsewhere on the web


Case #3

Blockbuster Movie Clique

• Collaborative filtering recommendation engine for films


Mistakes Made

When it comes to widgets, it’s content that rules, not the brand

• Application is just not all that compelling when compared with Flixster – an application built from the ground up for film lovers

• Difference shows in the numbers – Blockbuster 238 daily active users versus 439,699 for Flixster


Lessons Learned

• DO a competitive analysis of your category before you develop your widget or social application

• DON’T bet the farm on a single social network – consider going where your competition isn’t

• DO provide content that is useful, entertaining, and energizing to your audience – versus self serving

• DO remember why people post/share your widget or social application – it’s the content


Case #4

Electronic Arts

• My Need for Speed

• An electronic racing game


Mistakes Made

Not refreshing content prior to game launch

• Initially this application was a dud

• Application came back from the dead after the game launched

• Perfect fit with the FB demographic

• Provides a natural vehicle for self expression


Lessons Learned

Build success quickly on the back of mistake

• Widgets and social applications are by definition new media

• Experiment now – but make sure what you are doing is measurable

• Respond, react, and iterate

• Your audience will tolerate mistakes so long as you are responsive to their needs


Summary Mistakes

Breaking Bad Case

• Bad fit with demographics

• Failing to test content with target users

Free Rice Case

• Not integrating into the social graph/bumper stickers

• Not naming your widget in a distinctive way

• Lack of alignment in reward structure

Movie Clique vs. Flixster

• Forgetting that content is king and queen

• Relying on a single social network to carry the day


Additional Mistakes

• Electronic Arts Case

• Over relying on generic content

• Focusing on business objectives to the exclusion of audience needs

• General Widget mistakes we see every day

• Letting your widget go stale over time

• Forgetting to make your widget search able


MuseStorm

Professional solution for agencies and marketers

• Cross-platform widgets

• Engaging content with a set of dynamic components

• Accountability across all touchpoints

• Convenience and control right down to the pixel

• Proven with blue-chip agencies and marketers

musestorm top10 widget and social application mistakes

Business

general widget mistakes

social application dont

content dont

generic content

custom content

summary mistakes

dud application

brand application