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How Facebook Makes You Feel Good and Layering Psychological Cues in Tech

Image source: http://images.sussexpublishers.netdna-cdn.com/article-top/blogs/30297/2013/02/117159-115153.jpg
If you’ve been following me for a little while, you know of my interest in psychology as well as technology. Some may call the interest a passion. Others may call it an obsession… not many. Anyways, I was on Psychology Today the other day, and found a really interesting article – “The Human Psychology Behind Facebook’s Success”. I remember immediately being piqued about learning more on why I keep clicking on that damn site so many times a day.
The article starts by talking about how Facebook allows us to “not only connect with loved ones, but with our fundamental human needs”. Intriguing. Go on. Facebook is the “daily destination […] to meet our need for psychological fulfillment”. Okay, I’m in. Let’s get into the rest of the article.
The article breaks Facebook into addressing four key psychological needs.

Self-esteem

This is a strong determinant of our psychology well-being, and Facebook allows us to build our self-esteem via purposeful construction of our self-schema. “Self-schema?” you ask. Let me explain.
Our self-schema is how we model ourselves in terms of what we think about, care about, and spend our time and energy on. Essentially, it gives us the notion of what’s important to us, and what isn’t so that if we were to, say, be ranked lowly in an area we care little about, it doesn’t affect us (i.e. coming in the last quartile of a race we care little about running in).
Facebook profiles are reflections of our self-schema… reflections that we pick and choose what we want – pictures, hobbies, levels of education, etc. Thus, we boost our self-esteem by creating the profile representative of what we like most about ourselves. Meanwhile, we can mitigate negative hits to our self-esteem by limiting those who may otherwise “troll” our profiles.
Like what I wrote up about online dating profiles, our profiles are, unsurprisingly, carefully curated reflections of us – see “Practicing Biz Dev Whenever, Wherever… For Instance On Match.com”.
Kinda funny… kinda appropriate. Image source: http://harrissocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/facebook-meme-ecard.png

Impression management. 

Facebook allows users to have more control over what we say, show, and do. How often do we want to hit the “undo” or “rewind” button?
Facebook gives us the opportunity to manage what we say and what others see by preparing thoughtful status updates, wall posts, messages, etc. All the while, nonverbal behavior goes out the window online that may otherwise create negative impressions.
We can draw both explicit and implicit cues from user behavior, too, on Facebook. We can see explicitlymeasureable cues including number of friends, education level, etc. While implicitly, we infer things including how often a user posts and shares updates may point to levels of extroversion. Frequent relationship updates may point to a high degree of instability.
With Facebook, we influence our self-esteem with these impression management levers. Not only are we influencing how others may perceive us, but we also influence how we perceive OURSELVES. *mind blown*

Need to Belong. 

The article cites a study performed in 1995 by Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary. They argue that “the need to belong is a fundamental human need to form and maintain at least a minimum amount of lasting, positive, and (significant) interpersonal relationships. Satisfying this need requires (a) frequent, positive interactions with the same individuals, and (b) engaging in these interactions within a long-term framework…” In today’s world, social networks like Facebook fills this need.
Facebook even leverages existing word associations to trigger deeper emotional ties. For example, the use of the word “friends” to link users on Facebook builds on our earlier understanding of the word and feeling of belonging. It’s a term with a strong cognitive, emotionally-charged association. We even joke at times that we’re not really friends till its official on Facebook. (We = some of us…)
Another example: “photo album”. Pre-Facebook, photo albums were largely compiled by families and close friends. With Facebook, photo albums are building on this association of “belonging” and “closeness”.

Facebook Enables Our Personality Traits. 

Facebook gives us the ability to vent and share our needs and obsessions without fear of repercussions that would otherwise “violate” social norms. Take the example from the article – an extrovert who loves to share pictures. In real-life, it would be unacceptable for him to pull out pictures and ask everyone to look at them. However, on Facebook, it’s perfectly acceptable to post the pictures online and let everyone look at them. It’s normal here.
Heck, it allows gawkers to… well… gawk at other individuals without getting evil eyes. If that isn’t weird to think about already…

So where am I going with all this?

Well, for one, this was an interesting read. I enjoyed the psychology aspects and how it’s layered in Facebook (and many other social networks). For me, the most interesting piece of the Psychology Today article is the notion of the self-schema.
I wrote an article a while ago about “Your Personal Brand: You’re a Walking, Talking Billboard”. Everything about what you wear, what you say, etc. is an advertisement for yourself in addition to any brands you’re actually wearing. Whether you’re conscious of the content you share or how you’re “managing impressions” on Facebook, you may want to. We’ve heard it long ago how recruiters will check Facebook accounts for any red flags. But that’s just from a professional setting. There’s the impact from a social setting amongst your family, friends, etc. as well.
The other aspect that is interesting to this article was how Facebook leveraged ingrained associations in its product. Whether Zuckerberg and Co. overtly used the words based on the psychological aspect or not, it’s turned out for better. TechCrunchpublished an article on the viral dating app Tinder– “Tinder and Evolutionary Psychology” – which talks about what psychological aspects Tinder, too, leverages to build its success.
As we enter a world with more and more data, everyone’s fighting for our attentions and our hard earned dollars. It’s becoming more critical to build campaigns, technologies, etc. to the masses on a personal level. To do that, ingraining psychological levers seems like a smart way to go.
What are your thoughts of what’s made Facebook so viral? How have other techs built on psychological cues to influence your engagement?
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At The End of My 2.5-Year Startup Roller Coaster: 21 Rough Lessons Learned from Failure

Yowza, starting a startup from nothing is wicked hard. After 2.5 years at Body Boss, my team and I have been riding the startup roller coaster with high highs and low lows. Our ride has been one of the most frustrating, stressful, challenging, and rewarding experiences of our lives. A ride that sadly stops here.
We aimed at curing time-consuming spreadsheet madness and bringing intelligence into a world where technology feared to go before – the gyms of high schools, colleges, and the like. We made pivots to our dream, but sadly, we won’t be continuing further. Our market is incredibly young, and though growing, does not provide a sustainable operation for the foreseeable future. So as it stands, we’ll be supporting Body Boss as it is today, but unless/ until the market matures, we won’t be building out new features or spending heavy resources on marketing at this time. 
As they say, you learn more from failure than success. And boy have we learned… If you’re looking to start your own venture, the below list of 21 lessons we’ve learned should help plot out your course and watch out for traps. Or in the least, these lessons can save you from punching helpless pillows or picking up all the papers you threw in the air from frustration:
  1. Have customer-PARTNERS at the beginning. Partners at the beginning give you momentum coming out of the gate to not only build the product, but also to sell the product. Social motivation is a powerful tool.
  2. Research should weigh heavily on building your product/ service WITH your customer-PARTNERS. Engaging your customer-partners early and often (in an effective way) will mitigate risks you’re building something that they don’t want, need, or it’s just too far outside the process. The first versions of your product/ service will need refining, and communicative partners will tell you how to improve.
  3. Dedication to the startup is clutch to iterate. I’ve said it in a post before that speed is one of the critical elements of a winning startup strategy. With speed, you can iterate through ideas and test them with your customers. The best way to do this is to work full-time on the startup and have high quality engineers/ developers. Quality builders can implement changes quickly and mitigate against the risks of glaring bugs.
  4. For a tech startup these days, design is the second part of the winning strategy.If it isn’t quick to understand and navigate, users will likely not give you the time of day to figure it out.
  5. Quick set-up is the catalyst for early success. Apps these days that sign up and login with Facebook, or have API implementation with big platforms like Salesforce.com can help customers get set up quick. It turns out to be a turn-key solution. Most people don’t want to take precious time to learn or set up a program, especially when they have an existing, albeit weaker, solution.
  6. Establish an effective method and rhythm to reach prospects. With social media, many people believe it’s the best way to reach new customers. But it’s not necessarily. You should know how your target market absorbs new ideas/ products. Do they read magazines? Do they read blogs? Are they social media users? Your marketing strategy may not make sense.
  7. Don’t believe you’ve made a sale till days after a check clears. Can’t tell you how many prospects said they’d buy only to go cold a day later. And even when someone gives you his/ her credit card information, wait for the amount to clear your bank account before you celebrate that new signing.
  8. Establish roles be it with titles or equity. It’s amazing what happens when everyone is equal and everyone has different ideas – wheels spin but you’re going nowhere. I applaud those avant-garde companies trying out flat orgs with “no titles”, but that’s not for me. In Body Boss, we had 4 Co-Founders — equal shares, no hierarchy… just friends. To have a single, clear vision to fall back on when consensus isn’t there is a beautiful thing.
  9. Treat your startup like a real company. Your startup is not a hobby. It can’t be a “project” if you want it to be something greater. It’s a company. Take it seriously. Everyday you aren’t improving your company, everyday you’re not making your product or service better, you’re wasting your company’s talent and resources. Sadly and ironically, that happens to be your own.
  10. Market like a king with a blacksmith’s earnings. If you’re going to spend any money on marketing like attending trade shows, make sure you standout. We once sponsored a dinner for an event thinking it’d be a great way for us to reach prospects, except it didn’t. Everyone just ate and barely heard our message. That’s a good bit of money down the drain. If your hard-earned dollar isn’t going to WOW and prompt your prospect to the call to action (CTA), don’t bother.
  11. Be ready to pitch anytime and everytime you walk outside. It’s an amazingly small world, and you will run into potential customers, investors, or just everyday people who can connect you. Be ready to pitch.
  12. All about the team. To have diversity in a team is incredibly frustrating. However, it’s beautiful. It’s needed. For success, you need people to debate productively. If you don’t debate new, fresh ideas from your team (not just customers), you may be potentially paddling down a waterfall in unison. Diversity forces you to sometimes build only what’s necessary, and cut out the fat unless there’s true value. That, or you may never get those new, fresh ideas at all.
  13. New sales are good, but recurring sales are better. One issue that we found at Body Boss was many customers subscribed and bought in, but then, didn’t re-subscribe. After talking to many, there were various reasons why it didn’t work out including glaring product-related issues that we weren’t aware of. If they don’t sign back up, find out why because marketing a product that loses customers later can crush your business. Existing customers can be powerful advocates, and word-of-mouth marketing is the best type of marketing.
  14. Solve a real problem. Definitely don’t introduce a new one. So much of the above can also be addressed if you solve a real problem. With a real problem, you’ll get the buy-in from prospects to buy what you’re selling, or work with you because in the end, IT’S A PROBLEM!
  15. Pick an industry where you have LOADS of experience can go a really long way. Not only to give yourself and your startup credibility, but it’s a great way to network and find your initial customer-partners. I think one of our struggles at Body Boss has been because we approached professional strength and conditioning within an institutional setting – a setting none of us have had much experience. Thus, we didn’t understand our customers as well as we should’ve to build and sell our product.
  16. Know your limitations, and when to break them. Not all of your customers will buy into what you’re selling. Not all of your team members can work full-time. You might not have the skills to pick up the keyboard and start coding. However, all of these challenges end up being opportunities to build a greater startup, a better product, and a better service. If you pay attention to those limitations, you may be able to find creative solutions around (or through) them.
  17. Know when to stay rigid, when to flex, and when to break on your ideals. We start companies with the confidence that we can do things better. By that very nature, we enter with ideals. Know when your ideals should stick or when they should take a back seat for the growth of your company.
  18. Don’t make excuses. Just sell. My main role in Body Boss is to sell. I catch myself sometimes saying, “oh, it’s hard because of timing” or “they’re not answering their phones, so… yeah”. It’s admittedly poor. If you feel an inkling like you didn’t bust your @$$, then you probably didn’t. Find the value. Convert.
  19. Measure everything you can within reason. Use Google Analytics to track your website traffic. Analyze user engagement data (effectively, not analysis paralysis). Track by device, by user, what is your customer doing? With data comes the ability to draw patterns and make actionable changes. “What gets measured gets improved.” (That’s actually a Trademark we have.)
  20. It’s your company so choose who to hear and who to listen to. Everyone has ideas. Everyone will give you advice whether you want it or not. Know which ones make sense. It’s your company. You have to make the calls.
  21. SALES IS HARD! At the end of the day, companies, teams, etc. are made of people. And because you’re selling to people, it only makes sense that not everyone will be seeking the same values out of your product. It’s best to learn quickly about your prospect when selling, and catering your value prop accordingly. A couple tips: (1) the international language and what everyone wants more of: money. Help them pull and push the lever to add revenue and/ or cut costs. (2) You have two ears and one mouth. Let your prospects do the talking so you can assess what he/ she needs, and they’ll be bought in. (3) In-person goes farther than phone or email. Also, emails suck. Too easy for customers to delete/ not read.

Are you ready for the ride? Have you perhaps fallen victim to any of these hard lessons? What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?

(Also, how fitting is it that I’m petrified of roller coasters? They freak me out.)
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Who’s poised to profit in this fragmented, online dating world of startups?

If you’re single and ready to mingle, chances are good you have a number of “online dating” apps on your phone. They’re everywhere — the usual suspects of Match.com, eHarmony, OkCupid (a Match company now actually), Plenty of Fish, etc. are joined by the swipe-addicting Tinder, Hinge, Twine, and so many more. Most of those apps and companies didn’t exist three years ago. However, this post isn’t about dating apps.

Looking across different industries, you see the same explosive growth in companies. From travel, you’ve got Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire, Kayak, and Booking.com with more recent newcomers including Airbnb, Hipmunk, SafelyStay, etc. Even in the CRM space you had SAP, Oracle, etc. with their own solutions and then Salesforce has pretty much taken over, but you have to add in the SugarCRM, Zoho, and so many more. Now, let’s also add in the explosion of wearable technologies to be spearheaded by Google’s announcement of a designated OS called Android Wear. Yowza.
A couple posts ago, I shared some recent trends I had been seeing and perhaps not explicitly said, it’s apparent the suppliers of markets are growing — refer to “Trends for Startups and Ideas to Build the Future“. Each company with its own take on how to do “it” better. So what does this all mean? Where are we headed with all this fragmentation?
  • APIs are a great way for especially software and hardware players to integrate into existing platforms, and enable customers to get set up quickly.
  • The big players are establishing themselves as the common integration point creating another sustainability point with added revenue-stream implications — you can definitely see this in Apple’s App Store, SalesForce’s App Exchange, Facebook‘s ubiquitous login option, and even NCR’s Cloud Services.
  • Smaller startup players will have a frantic fight over the next years to stay in the game and relevant. Switching costs for customers are becoming much lower meaning the power is virtually all in the customers’ hands.
  • Hardware manufacturers are getting in on the exact with APIs such as Thalmic Labs’ Myo Band, Atlas Wearables, Jawbone Up, Logitech peripherals, etc.
  • There will likely be much consolidation in the markets over the next few years as the smaller players get gobbled up by other startups or by the big platform companies themselves. And of course, there will be the natural attrition of startups who just peter out.
  • There’s still significant opportunity for markets where there isn’t an established platform whereby large swaths of companies plug into. Or, you can be an integrator/ middleware connector by which startups connector through you to platforms
In the end, the the power lays largely with the buyers/ customers in many of these markets as suppliers are so vast. However, it also creates some stumbling blocks for customers to pick the right cloud platform. In the B2C market, for example, fragmentation creates an annoyance for many users where there may be, especially, a social aspect and communities are split. But in the end, customers do win with more innovative solutions in a competitive market. This time of market frenzy will last a few years, I believe, before the consolidations really take place. And at that time, the cycle will restart where startups will sprout up again creating opportunity.
What are your thoughts on today’s growth of companies and solutions? How do you think the markets will play out? 
And perhaps more for fun, what dating app are you on? 😉
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Companies are Icebergs: Why Copycats Don’t Equal Instant Success

My buddy just sent me this article from The Next Web about the potential costs to build some of today’s big players in “startups” including Twitter, Instragram, Facebook, Uber, etc (see “How much does it cost to build the world’s hottest startups?“).  They’re not really startups anymore, though, I’d argue.  But of course, they used to be.  Here are some of the highlights:

  • Twitter:  May not take long to build the core — 10 hours and a good $160 Ruby on Rails course.  But to really get to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) you have to pour in about $50K-$250K for processes, infrastructure, and the like.
  • Facebook: One expert quoted $500K (min) and 9 months of development and design team.  The real costs, however, is the support.  The expert estimates a monthly burn-rate of $30MM just for its infrastructure so we can Like, Share, and watch videos of kittens!
  • Uber: Uber “scrapped by” with $50MM to build what the service is now, and then Google and Benchmark rammed another $258MM since August.  Artem Fishman (VP of Huge) estimates an MVP would have cost about $1.0-1.5MM to develop.  However, beyond the app itself, there is lots of costs to navigate local legislations and permits to think about.
  • There are several other hot “startups” on the list including Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.  Check out the article to read more.  
What made this interesting for me also coincided with the notion of building a startup and a recent post on David Cumming’s blog post “Can’t the Software Just be Knocked Off“.  It’s also a notion people have asked me in regards to Body Boss.  The question makes many people think about keeping their ideas quiet, or even gives people a notion that they can just copy another program and have the same success or even better.  Some personal thoughts:
  • A company is an iceberg.  What you see in a front-end either in an app or even marketing material is just the tip of the iceberg.  Beneath the water is a whole lot of you-don’t-know-what that really makes a business a business.  Costs to build an app is oftentimes (especially in the long-run) the tiniest line item compared to everything else it costs to maintain a successful app.
  • It’s about the experience.  I’m not an Apple fan, but they have customer service down in ways Microsoft has really never been able to copy.  Just watch Microsoft Stores vs. an Apple store.  The culture ingrained in Apple just oozes a satisfying customer experience.  With apps, making a simple, easy-to-use experience is not simple.  It’s also what makes things like Tinder blow up (with users).
  • You don’t know what you don’t know.  Companies and their products/ services get refined iteration after iteration.  Through customer usage, interviews, and just being in the space, they learn what makes products and customers tick and tock.  Similar to the iceberg analogy above, a startup who has learned and iterated knows things that knockoffs may struggle with because they haven’t experienced it.
  • Value of an App?  $500K.  Value of Your Network?  Priceless. I’m trying to be clever here with a reference to Mastercard commercials (here’s a good one), but the point is that many times, what can make or break a product/ service is the company’s network (connections).  I know there’s a suggestion somewhere about suggested network size for B2B startups, but I can’t figure it out or find it.  If someone knows it, let me know.  Essentially, have a large, quality network in the market you’re approaching.
  • Cost of Entry is Low.  With so many frameworks and Software Development Kits (SDK) available, it’s pretty easy to have a copycat program ready to go and live in a short amount of time.  And because of that, almost anyone can do it.  (My friends and I’s first foray into entrepreneurship, we used a framework based off of fmylife.com and created abigeffu.com where users could dish “A Big Eff U” to… anything or anyone.  It’s since shutdown and is being squatted on.)  What’s difficult is getting repeat users/ customers because they’re being inundated with like-products.  Instead, standing out is the hardest part.  If you’re going to build a similar product/ offering, you need to add elements that will “wow” users of existing products to woo them onto yours.
  • Don’t be Shy to Share.  Lastly, the notion of someone copying your idea or product is valid, but not all that probable from the get-go.  Everyone is pretty busy as it stands.  I mean, when was the last time you heard a great idea like Uber or some social app, and you started building one?  Sharing your idea with others allows you to iterate and discover who your customers are and what they want before potentially ever writing a single line of code.  There is so much more to building a startup from an idea creating a big hurdle from just anyone copying you — expertise, grit, and those things outlined above.
So what are your take-aways or thoughts about building copy cat products/ services?  How would you go about building a similar product, but tackling the market with a new twist?
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