How To Manufacture Desire. Editor’s Note: This guest post is written by Nir Eyal, a founder of two startups and an advisor to several Bay Area companies and incubators.
Nir blogs about technology and behavior engineering at nirandfar.com. Type the name of almost any successful consumer web company into your search bar and add the word “addict” after it. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Try “Facebook addict” or “Zynga addict” or even “Pinterest addict” and you’ll soon get a slew of results from hooked users and observers deriding the narcotic-like properties of these web sites. How is it that these companies, producing little more than bits of code displayed on a screen, can seemingly control users’ minds? We’re on the precipice of a new era of the web. A company that forms strong user habits enjoys several benefits to its bottom line.
But how do companies create the internal triggers needed to form habits? I created the desire engine in order to help others understand what is at the heart of habit-forming technology. Why Pinterest Is So Addictive. I would have written this article sooner, but I was busy on Pinterest. If you are still among the uninitiated, the social platform for collecting, sharing, and commenting on of photos of personal passions is uniquely engaging, absorbing, and addictive.
The human instinct to collect things--be it baseball cards, miniature spoons, or teacups--is as old as stuff itself. But it took Pinterest to perfect this process online. So no wonder it’s having a moment: comScore found that Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, who spend an average of 98 minutes a month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook.
It’s also driving more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn--combined, according to Shareaholic. But why would Pinterest, which has been around since 2008, be attracting such swarms of devotees now? Finding Your Happy Place and Sharing Your Ideal Self Dr. Perfecting the Art of Collecting Secret Sauce of Sharing. Pinterest Isn't Ready to Focus on Making Money.
Gamification – nuggets of wisdom or fool’s gold? Word of Mouth. Habits Are The New Viral: Why Startups Must Be Behavior Experts. Editor’s Note: This guest post is written by Nir Eyal, a founder of two startups and an advisor to several Bay Area incubators.
Nir blogs about technology and behavior design at nirandfar.com. Face it; you’re hooked. It’s your uncontrollable urge to check for email notifications on your phone. It’s your compulsion to visit Facebook or Twitter for just a few minutes, but somehow find yourself still scrolling after an hour. It’s the fact that if I recommended a book to purchase, your mind would flash “Amazon” like a gaudy neon sign. In an online world of ever-increasing distractions, habits matter. Turning Habits Into Cash Ever since the creation of the first online media companies at the dawn of Web 1.0, businesses have made money from their users’ behaviors. Such self-assurance left them vulnerable to attack from social media companies, which plundered their user base as the web evolved. Viral Is Nice, But Habits Are Required Relying too heavily on viral growth is also bad for business.
StackOverflow. I am a bit odd.
I will rarely if ever answer a question on StackOverflow (SO). If I do its because I didn’t have any other easy way of answering the question. This is entirely by design. StackOverflow is not a new business model. I was involved at one point with a company with a similar business model. At Experts-Exchange, users are awarded points for answering questions asked by other users or writing articles the general community values as resourceful. Employers and Brands Use Gaming to Gauge Engagement. Stephen P. Anderson's answer to Pinterest: What's special about Pinterest? Why do some people find the site maddeningly addictive.