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Spotting the Next Facebook: Why Emotions are Big Business

Great read, like most other articles by Nir! Really insightful :)

2:37 PM May 19 2012

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ifindkarmapangaeachrisdritlouise.donnellydaveyGulkinGazettedavtro

What strikes me about Facebook is that it doesn't provide the emotion -- its layouts are uncreative and its colors are dull.

Instead, Facebook's users provide the emotion through photos and chat.

When a person gets tagged in a photo, it creates a trigger reaction and feedback loop that brings the tagged person back to the site.

Users create emotion; the product just doesn't get in the way.

It turns out it's really, really hard to make a product that encourages users to provide the emotion without getting in the way.

That's why there's only one Facebook. (Well, that plus network effects...)

11:53 PM May 19 2012

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OccamsTaserchrisdritlouise.donnellydavey

Nir had another post recently that discussed emotional triggers:

Feedback loops and desire engines work best when users move quickly from trigger to action. The less time spent between feeling an urge and satisfying it, the stronger the habit.

Read more: http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/05/strange-sex-habits-of-silicon-valley.html

11:43 PM May 19 2012

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OccamsTaserchrisdrit

He's right. Just postponing increases willpower:

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/15-research-based-secrets-to-bulletproof-will

8:44 AM May 20 2012

Purely from a self-motivated standpoint, if I wanted to make PandaWhale more addictive I'd need to squash peoples' postponement and fuel their desire to return with positive feedback loops, right?

10:37 AM May 20 2012

Yeah. Throw in an intermittent reward system and create a leveling up system with unlockable bonuses/features and you're on your way.

11:08 PM May 23 2012

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