Paul Adams: The Foundation of (Online) Motivation

Facebook's Global Experience Manager (what a title!) Paul Adams was interviewed recently by O'Reilly Radar on the foundation of online motivation: what motivates people to interact or "like" a brand and what brands motivations should be when creating online experiences. The full article is well worth a read, but if you're stuck for time I've taken two quotes from this great summary by Waggen Eredstrom that somewhat sums up what Mr Adams talks about:

"It’s problematic that many businesses focus on existing and emerging technology, and not on social behavior. Thinking about platform integration first, like Twitter or Facebook, or technologies first, like what could be enabled by ‘mobile location’ or ‘real-time updates,’ is the wrong place to start. Often, businesses need to step back and consider what will motivate people to use what they are developing, above and beyond what exists today. Something that I’ve been saying for a while is that human behavior changes slowly, much slower than technology. By focusing on human behavior, not only are you much more likely to create something that people value and use, but you’re more likely to protect yourself from sudden changes in technology."

"We’re still seeing the fans and followers arms race — businesses trying to gather as many fans as possible. But I think that’s fundamentally wrong. It’s more important to focus on quality, not quantity, of connections.

For example, many brands run competitions on social media platforms. You have to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ that business to enter. So the question is whether they are making connections with advocates of their brand, or with people who simply love competitions. If it’s the latter, then they’re filling their social media interactions and data with noise.

As I mentioned earlier, people are often most influenced by their closest friends. So only make connections with true advocates of your brand, and market to the friends of those fans."

Thanks to Jane and Ed for the link.