Sharing the results of ...

Welcome. I hope you are well.

Like most analysts I know ... I have a tendency to create structure.

So for me ... how people behave on-line can be roughly clustered in the behavioural categories I have described below.  

Most people operate well within these behavioural categories.  Many social websites operate all three.  

Websites tend to under perform when the website is placing an emphasis on the wrong behavioural category for the desired outcome of the site

 The behavioural categories are ... 

1. Follow. Here people follow leaders, experts, celebrities. This has an established hierarchy between the leader etc and the followers.  Examples include twitter but also blogging and news sites. Basically any website that disseminates the views of a few people to many people.
2. Connect. This is typically based on people finding each other to meet face to face ... often as equals ... often to have fun.  Examples include the befriending or connecting parts of facebook and Linkedin.  And a new player is foursquare
3. Share. This is based on people in similar situations helping each other by sharing experiences.  It feels like self-help.  Everyone is an expert in their own situation.  Nobody tells anyone what to do.  Examples include the group parts of LinkedIn and facebook

Each of these categories requires different functionality and separate sections in a website ... clearly illustrating that the expected behaviour has changed.

For example ... in category 1 people need a way of signing up to updates from the leaders etc they are following. In category 2 people need to know where people are located so that they can determine if, when and where to meet. In category 3 people need the ability to find others in similar situations to them.

So if your website is not doing what you want it to do ... the chances are that your site needs a few tweaks to align the behavioural emphasis with the sites intended outcome.

I hope that make sense.

Any comments are welcome

Kind regards

Jon