Tag Archives for Social network
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Zynga, the company that brought Facebook users Farmville, spent $120 million on marketing in 2011, inside the world’s biggest self-service marketing platform.
Efferman Ezzel looks at why Zynga should be focused on why and how their users play social games and not on how to use more marketing dollars to keep them engaged. As new user retention numbers slip, Zynga has started spending $300 — or losing $150 — for every user to marketing costs.
I had asked him earlier this weekend, why would any company spend that much money per user, or any money at all, re-socializing the marketing in an already social system?
He writes:
Why is Zynga spending that much money to market a “social game”, and why are they spending that much money to market a “social game” on Facebook? I believe they’re doing it for two reasons: 1) because they don’t understand why new user retainment is falling (why user growth is plateauing, why there’s a low conversion rate of users who become paying customers, why new user engagement is shrinking), and 2) because they assume increasing Zynga’s market presence will assure new user retainment upon trying their games. As was said in the Edge Magazine article, “The really hardcore [players] are, perhaps, finding themselves trying FarmVille, Castle World and CityVille. The newer audiences are trying and finding that this is all the same and leaving”. It is obvious Zynga needs to redirect their focus from new user retainment to new useradaptability, because they appear to be approaching user retainment from the same understanding they had when user growth skyrocketed, and that was when it was attached to the rapid growth Facebook experienced.
Zynga was supposed to be a dramatic re-imagining of gaming. Social and baked into the world’s largest social graph platform, Zynga offerings seemed like a capstone on any problems that might have been created when a new gaming company had to tackle distribution.
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But the one constant thing about Facebook is that user expectations of what it does for them will change. And that’s without even factoring in that Facebook itself changes all the time.
A gaming company like Zynga that depends on Facebook is going to be out in the cold. And it looks like they have been.
Read more of Ezell’s post to find out what he thinks the company should be doing. Basically, find out what has changed for users. I would put a finer point on it. Find data, take down some narrative, and use the Jobs-to-be-done approach to find out what is causing non-consumption inside Facebook. Is there non-consumption within Facebook, in general?
Facebook Suscribe Button and the Rise of Streamed Feeds
My hunch is that Facebook users are becoming much more interested in using Facebook as a platform for understanding the real world and the world around them.
I have 18,646 subscribers to my public Facebook feed. Many of these people are people outside of the United States. They want a look into someone else’s life.
Facebook is moving away from a platform will you will have fun with friends. It’s trying to fashion itself into the place where each individual is a media hub for publishers and advertisers. It’s challenging every company it can think of, from Google and it’s Google+ offering, to Yahoo! Search and branded content.
As it moves in that direction, say goodbye to Farmville. That experience is way too static. It’s not real. And it doesn’t keep people interested or engaged in finding new people with different lives.
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Re-Wired Radio had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Sumaya Kazi, the California-based CEO and Founder of social connections platform Sumazi. We interviewed her yesterday as she was traveling between meetings in New York City.
Sumazi works on a fundamentally human principle: that we work graciously with people who help us get things done in our life. Sumazi is the platform that uses social algorithms and your human network to find those people, even if you don’t yet know them.
You can listen to the full radio interview here.
From the Sumazi website:
Sumazi intelligently connects you to the people and opportunities you don’t know, but should.
According to a 2010 Sumazi survey of 1,700 people, the average person makes only 4 new valuable connections per year.
While existing social networks reinforce connections with people you already know, Sumazi connects you with new people and opportunities that may be out of sight but not out of reach.
Sumazi leverages your personal and extended networks to intelligently discover, recommend and introduce you to the right people and opportunities at the right time.
By building on top of the Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter ecosystems, Sumazi is able to harness the untapped reach and potential of your networks and your networks’ network.
By minimizing missed opportunities, Sumazi maximizes serendipity, connecting you to the people you don’t know, but should.
Sumazi helps you make a request, and then your human network links you to people you need to know
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We often ask, what is the job that a consumer is asking the product to do for him?
Facebook should consider this kind of questioning. If you look at this infographic by WordStream that we first found at Mashable, you might get the impression, as I did, that Facebook’s executives seem to be thinking that Facebook should become the one place on the web where you do everything you do anywhere else on the web.
Has that worked for Facebook? Adding lists; launching daily deals; competing with Foursquare; and so on.
Here’s a list of failures that may suggest that it has not.
WordStream Shows that Facebook Has Racked Up a Lot of Social Media Faux Paus
