Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

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The Psychology of Reach, Frequency, and Stickiness David C. Evans, Ph.D. Psychster Inc.

description

Presentation from Psychster Inc., a research firm dedicated to the psychology of social media, to the Puget Sound Research Forum in 2006 on the psychology of reach, frequency, and stickiness.

Transcript of Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

Page 1: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

The Psychology of

Reach, Frequency, and

Stickiness

David C. Evans, Ph.D.Psychster Inc.

Page 2: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

Total Page Views

Users/mo * Visits/user/mo * Page Views/user/mo = Total Page Views/mo

People * Checking * Clicking = Total

People

Checking

Clicking

Page 3: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

Increasing Checking and Clicking increases page views more than increasing members.

• 1 additional visit increases total monthly page views by 819 million.

Adding 1 to any column increases the total views by the product of the other 2 columns.

• 1 additional page view per visit increases total page views by 186 million.

• 1 additional Facebook user increases total monthly page views by 281.

PEOPLEUnique

Audience/month

CHECKINGVisitsPer

Person /month

& CLICKINGWeb PagesPer Person

Per Visit/month

TOTALWeb Page Views

(000)/month

TimePer Person(hh:mm:ss)

/month

Facebook 23,346,000 8.0 35.1 6,560,961 1:01:31

Page 4: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

Psychology/Design• “Variable interval reinforcement

schedule” (Skinner, 1939)

• Unknown time until cool content appears

Outcome• Frequent anticipatory responses

• Checking: More site visits

Examples• Concert tickets; American Idol• Any UGC: Email, comments on

profile, message boards • Breaking news• Netflix queues• Ebay bids• Email and alerts

How do we increase Checking?

Page 5: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

Psychology/Design• “Variable ratio reinforcement

schedule” (Skinner, 1939)

• Unknown actions until cool content appears

Outcome• Frequent responses without

extinction

• Clicking: More page views without tiring

Examples• Games of chance, sports• HotOrNot.com• MySpace FOAF• Realty, product browsing• YouTube video

How do we increase Clicking?

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Recommendations• More checking: Build in an unknown time interval

o Add email, comments, or a message board.o Add an RSS feed.o Display new content at random intervals.o Minimize or eliminate email alerts except monthly.

• More clicking: Add a casual game.o Display your database of content in a random rotation.

Page 7: Psychology Of Frequency And Stickiness

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