Microsoft Socl, nice try, but not quite right.

Posted on by Billy Tucker

SOCL

I still have a soft spot for the Bellevue Behemoth, I enjoy a Windows Phone 7 after all! Yet I can’t hide my disappointment with their new G+/Pinterest competitor So.cl having logged in for the first time today.

There was a time only a few years back when a Consumer Preview or Beta could be rough-as-guts bad – and early adopters would still evangelise the intent even though they had to cut the execution some slack!

However I think the world has moved on. Looking at innovation through a Lean Startup lens it feels appropriate to cut features in favour of capability when time to market is important. Yet what Microsoft have done with So.cl is enabled 100% of the product features at the expense of capability, in fact, I get errors at pretty much every turn!

In such a competitive market, when trial, adoption and subsequent user engagement/feedback is so critical, I think Microsoft are about the blow the advocacy available from that first wave of geek-adopters as a result of their surprisingly poor execution, a potentially fatal blow for a Network-effects dependent platform.

As an innovator the formula to success seems straightforward, annoy fewer customers than you delight and your advocacy will grow.

Sadly, Microsoft are engaging on a very dangerous battlefield with So.cl, I imagine their their enemies are moving in for the kill already. Another Wave anyone?

Social Media Landscape

Posted on by Billy Tucker

Fascinating landscape from LumaScape, the full size version is here with a few others…

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Profiting from the fundamentals of Group Buying: Part 4… Group Think

Posted on by Billy Tucker

Group Think is a very effective mechanic used in Group Buying that is perfectly suited for use elsewhere, other than where exclusivity is important of course!

By publishing the number of items that have been sold, consumers are comforted at the prospect of being part of a crowd and are more willing to buy, assured that many others have thought long and hard before deciding to make the purchase negating the need for protracted consideration!

The effectiveness of this this mechanic will peter out when availability concerns emerge, but until that point the strategy is sound.

Where access to specific purchase data is problematic, manually updating the Offer to state “more than 1,000 sold to date” works well…

As well as “number sold”, “people who bought X, bought Y” is an example of Group Think. Again these can be manually programmed where automation is not an option.