How to be more social

I’ve recently had numerous conversations with others about making apps and business models more social. Here are a few ideas and examples:

1) forced or inherently social: word with friends is a great example. The game requires you play against someone so the product (or in this case the game) is inherently social. Pretty simple. Sometimes, though, people try to make something social when it’s not e.g I don’t talk about my razor or shaving because no one else cares!

2) content creation drives sharing: sharing isn’t quite social but it potentially facilitates a social interaction. Facebook and Instagram are great examples.  You share content in an effort to inform, educate, engage, and interact with others.  Those that produce (in most cases) do it because they are looking for engagement, back & forth, and social interaction from others.

3) social engagement leads to personalization: If you like to read, you should check out goodreads.com. It takes the amazon.com “if you liked this, others like …” to the next level by making your social network have a bigger influence (vs. the broad crowd) on what’s recommended.  Its pretty addictive when you first get started especially if you have opinions about a typical genre of books.

4) community drives accountability: Weight Watchers online and offline use social pressure (and encouragement) to provide a person value … In this case help with weight management. Not a new idea but hard to execute well.

I’m sure there are more examples. What do others think?

Sonny

Power of Words: social and language innovation

Ted.com has many inspirational and educational videos.  I wish I could systematically tap into this at the right place, right time, and right situation …

Here’s one that is worth the time if you are interested in learning about:

1) how babies learn words and how language around them changes to facilitate this learning

2) how to visualize complex data in highly interesting ways

3) why social media and TV are creating a powerful loop of content creation, listening, and influence

Here is the link:  http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html

Sonny

Parking innovation

Here’s a great example of how mobile (and eventually Near Field Communication or NFC within your phone) is helping traditional business models — parking meters — become more innovative in our daily lives.  I was happy to pay the “processing fee” so that I didn’t have to bring 12 quarters with me.  I was also delighted from the text message I got telling me that the meter was about to run out and that I could re-up with a few simple taps.

Have you seen any innovation that has made a daily task from dreadful to delightful?

Costco – innovative business model

There is a lot written about Costco and their innovative business model within the retail space which I can’t possibly replicate.

But the numbers are staggering.  In fiscal year 2012, they had $97B in sales and had net income of $1.7B (just under 2%).  All of their profits come from the membership fees of which they collected $2.1B.  It works because their products are so well priced; they only have a 10% gross margin on the merchandise that they buy.

It seems to work well.  For the past three months, I have averaged $130 per trip.  I knew I couldn’t get out of there without spending $100.

What other innovative business models have you seen?

How much do you tip?

This “simple” innovation for servers, cab drivers, etc. is grounded in behavioral economics. When presented with three options you typically go with the middle option. If given two options, you would likely choose the lower option. This simple innovation has definitely influenced my behavior. How about you?