hyperempowered

Keep the entry points simple.

That's my advice for creating a successful online community or social network. Keep the entry points simple, elegant, and uncluttered. 

One thing that I've learned while developing community sites for our clients is that the best social networks are the ones that pull the visitor into the community by inviting them to answer a single - very simple - question. 

Where do you want to go today?

What do you want to do?

Reebok launched an online running community this week. Your entry point? 

A single question. Where do you want to run?

The best online communities start out very simple.  It's only after you get drawn into the community that you see all of the different areas to explore.  Like pealing back an onion, the community opens up as you go deeper into it.  The key is to make sure that you don't inundate the first time visitor with a million things to see, do and learn as soon as they get there. 

Here's two examples of terrific communities that have a ton of great features and tools, but at the same time, have very simple entry points:

There's a lot going on in Flickr once you begin uploading photos. But when you first get there, here's what you see:

Linkedin has become extremely robust in the tools you can use to connect with others. But when you first register for Linkedin, here's what you see:

The best online communities - simple entry points.

"Surprise and Delight" and Social Networking

If you work in the hospitality industry, then you've probably heard the phrase "surprise and delight" and you know that it's one of the key drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

But did you know that "surprise and delight" is also one of the key factors behind the success of the current crop of high-profile Web2.0 companies that include Google, Flickr and LinkedIn?

So what exactly is "surprise and delight"?

It's when you give your customer something - that little gift or "extra mile" - that they didn't expect. Surprise and delight is that small benevolent act that shows that you put the customer first, and that you're willing to make their experience special.  Surprise and delight is not something that you write a press release about.  It's those little things that you do on a personal level because you know your customer will enjoy it.

Google, Flickr, and LinkedIn have become masters at the art of surprise and delight.  Rather than wait for scheduled upgrades and timed new releases, on an ongoing basis they continue to add cool new features that make the service better and more valuable. Often they don't even tell you that they made the change at all.  They let you discover it for yourself, and because of this, it makes the experience all the most special.  And when they do tell you about it, they make it personal to you. 

To put it bluntly, in the tech sector - surprise and delight is what separates the Googles from the Microsofts.

So why should you care about surprise and delight? 

Because as more and more brands begin to inject social networking into their websites, the successful ones will be those that not only understand and leverage surprise and delight, but make it a cornerstone of their project.   

On a practical level, surprise and delight means holding back new features, allowing the community to grow, and then over time giving those loyal users new tools that they didn't expect that make their experience better, more fun, and more enjoyable.

So if you haven't thought about surprise and delight before, you may want to now.  Ask yourself (and your team):

What ways can we bring the concepts of surprise and delight into our projects?