Michael Tadlock
Director Product Management – Y!OS
The Rise of Social Referrals
Social Referrals = More, Better, Leads
“For the 1st time ever, more people are finding my blog from Twitter and Facebook referrals than via Google. The total number of people coming to my blog is increasing”
- Mark Cuban – Owner Dallas Mavericks & Internet Investor – 5/14/09
“We have investments in about 25 portfolio companies… Google continued to be a dominant source of traffic (in referral trend analysis)… Facebook and Twitter (referrals) are growing at 30 to 40 percent per month… they’re getting close to 20% of Google… The combined power of Facebook & Twitter will surpass Google for many sites in the next year"
- Fred Wilson - Flatiron Partners & Union Square Ventures – 5/22/09
“…page views increased 75% year-over-year, with individual page views per person going up 55% in the same time period. Internal data reveals page view increases were driven by an increase in users sharing and consuming content via social media tools like Twitter and Yahoo! Buzz.”
- USAToday Press Release – 5/14/09
Social Referrals Produce Loyal Users
http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/study-traffic-sources/
Social Referrals Drive Engagement
Most traffic to Yahoo! Local comes from search and Yahoo.com
Users from Yahoo! 360 were 50 times more likely to participate
Search Referrals
(paid + organic)
Social Referrals vs. Search
Search Referrals
(paid + organic)
Social R
eferrals
Quantity Value
$
$$$$$(loyalty and
participation)
Today’s Social Referrals Are Mostly Link Shares
Link Shares Are The ‘Fast Food’ Of Social Referrals
Offer ‘Fast Food’ And ‘Fine Dining’ to Maximize Return
+
“Mike shared foo link” +
“Mike rated foo”
“Mike commented on foo”
“Mike uploaded foo”
“Mike created foo”
“Mike is a fan of foo”
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Fast Food And Fine Dining Are Both Important“In
teresting
ness”
Of U
pd
ate# o
f U
sers
Consume Participate Produce
Fast Food Fine Dining
Click Through Rate
Fine Dining in Four Courses
Distribution
Consumption
Production
Conversion
Failure in any course ruins the entire meal!
Production
Distribution
Consumption
Production
Conversion
Leverage Existing Participation
Add
Album Rating
Answer
Install
Blog Comment
Blog Post
Buzz Up
Bookmark
Comment
Connect
Create
Event Attend
Favorite
Follow
Join
Location
Note
Photo Upload
Playlist
Profile Update
Rating
Review
We found more than 150 publishable ‘verbs’ on the Yahoo! Network
Give The User A Voice
Fast food:
Fine dining :
Include Meta Data
Distribution
Distribution
Consumption
Production
Conversion
Support Many Outlets. Promote Few.
How to choose:
1) Look at http referrers2) Log what Tom has used
Tom
Use Tools With Bundled Distribution
Key metric: referrals per update produced
Know Which Users Offer The Highest Return
Consumption
Distribution
Consumption
Production
Conversion
Include Media, Especially Photos
Updates with photos are clicked on 4.5 times more often than updates without photos.
Conversion
Distribution
Consumption
Production
Conversion
Show The User What They Expect To See
Beware of Comment Pagination
Consider A Public View
Think through all four coursesas the user will experience them
Acknowledge The Relationship
Four Course Recap
1. Production– Leverage existing user participation
– Give the user a voice
– Include relevant meta data
2. Distribution– Support many outlets. Promote the relevant few.
– Use tools with built-in distribution
– Identify your high value users
3. Consumption– Publish meta-data, especially images
4. Conversion– Show the user what they expect to see
– Acknowledge the relationship
– Round the corner
Three Key Take Aways
1. Social referrals are growing and valuable
+
2. ‘Fast food’ and ‘fine dining’ to maximize return
3. Four important courses to ‘fine dining’
And Now The Shameless Plug
1. Yahoo! Updates will generate billions of social referrals in the next 12 months
120 MM Users 330 MM Users 300 MM Users
2. The Yahoo! Updates platform is open. http://developer.yahoo.com/updates
3. How many referrals will lead users to your application?
Thank you! – Ask A Yahoo! For Updates Handouts
http://developer.yahoo.com/updates/
Mike Tadlock – [email protected]