Spotify allows you to listen to the playlists your social media friends create and share. While this can save you time when you aren’t sure what you want to listen to, it also allows you to get to know a person better. Music can be as personal as religion. Knowing what kind of music a person likes helps you to understand that person on a different level.
B2B business case for social sharing
Spotify uses social sharing as a way to both increase its user base and the usefulness of the service. I’d much rather listen to a friend’s playlist than some of the music the iTunes genius picks for me.
Yet when I look at our ColorMetrix color verification service, ProofPass, I wonder how we could leverage social sharing as a business tool. Obviously, all we can do is provide the enabling technology such as a “share this” button in appropriate places on the site. After that, it’s up to our users, friends and fans to share something. The question is: What will they share?
I’m not sure what the relevance would be for the person doing the sharing or with whom they are sharing. How does one make a site like ProofPass relevant and sharable in the social media universe? Do we model Spotify and let them share the results of a proof or press sheet analysis? That information resides behind our login page, so users would need to decide how much of their data should be viewable by friends or even made public, much like a Spotify playlist.
A Spotify playlist allows me to learn more about you and your musical tastes. Armed with that information, I may even suggest a song I think you’d like. While looking different on the surface, sharing ProofPass color verification results could become equally useful. Say you are having a problem achieving the color balance you need. Share the results with a group of friends and let them see your data. It’s likely one of your friends can point you in the right direction to find a solution to your problems. Social sharing could increase the usefulness of the service in this manner.
It’s about the what and why, not the how
Don’t get caught up on the technology of social sharing. Relatively speaking, that’s the easy part. Ask yourself this question: What would my audience share with their friends and why? If you can answer those two questions, you’ll be well on your way to increasing site traffic. Once you’ve got the traffic, it’s time to evaluate the effectiveness of your conversion engine. Before you can have enough conversions to matter, you need to have enough traffic for the numbers game to work.
Social sharing can be a powerful tool to boost your site traffic but first you must answer the what and why questions.
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