Bojan the Top7 Dog

Its been 3 weeks since my last post, and what a momentous 3 weeks they have been!  Somehow the humans at Top7 seem to have hit on a winning formula, and people are starting to rank in the large numbers we hoped for. In the last few weeks a whopping 25,000 people installed our Facebook application (which is just one of the widgets we plan to produce). The LeBron James topic sparked such mayhem that, at times, we had a rank every 5 seconds! That meant that every minute 12 people, from around the globe, were connecting to Top7, and ranking a topic. Frankly, our systems were overwhelmed, and we have been prompted to build a more robust infrastructure so that we can handle these surges in ranking activity.

But all this ranking got me thinking. What is it that makes concepts successful on Facebook? Why is it that some applications succeed, whilst others flop? Why do some posts disappear into the ether, whilst others become super viral?

Clearly there are many answers to this question, but one in particular has hit me recently. The key to success is to appeal to humans’ basic instincts. In particular: Vanity

You see, the key to Facebook is the capacity to share.  And to do that, you have to have a product or idea that people want to share with their friends. You might design the coolest app, or write the most interesting article on dealing with emotional insecurity. People might read it and find it incredible… but they wouldn’t share it! Why? Because it’s personal! If they have emotional insecurities this is not something they want to publicize on their Facebook wall.

What people want to publicize is a cool image that boosts their image, and makes them look trendy, funny or cute. Most of all, make it egotistical – people love to share something that says something about them. And if it’s something positive about them, even better! (remember those online IQ tests where people publicized their results on Facebook?).  This is why the idea of “Facebook Badges” has caught on, and the concept of “liking” something. When a user clicks “like”, are they really trying to help their friends out by educating them with an article? No! They are doing it because they want other people to see they “like” it. They want people to know that they read the article and that they liked it. It’s all about vanity…

As a good example, check out our Top7 Family Guy Characters above. The topic has been hugely successful on Facebook because it was publicized under the slogan “What Family Guy Character are You?!” Users could install the app, rank their favorite characters.  But the kicker was in the rate that people wanted to share this topic with their friends. Over 95% posted their results onto their Facebook wall, because they wanted their friends to see which Family Guy character they associated with. They wanted their friends to know they were cool, and watched a funny TV show.

This is a powerful message for all those trying to market their ideas and products on Facebook. When you add viral features just remember; It’s all about vanity