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Locking In The Eyeballs With Co-creative Platforms

In a world where there are over 700million blogs and new web services are launched every day no one would deny that gaining a critical mass of users/viewers is vital to online success. But once you’ve got people tuned in how do you keep them involved? Google does it through the integration of a wide number of free services, while Facebook and Twitter lock you in through social value. There are great lessons to be to be learnt from both of these methods of eyeball imprisonment.

Locking You In With Free Services

All to aware that it operates in the attention economy, Google has built a suite of over fifty services that are seamlessly integrated around Google search. But these services themselves are not what keeps me tied to Google, it’s the value of the documents, links, emails and other forms of information that I’ve created by using those services.

Am I always going to be a Google prisoner?

Even if a more impressive search engine was to come along, the build up of products that a Google fan-boy like myself uses means it’d be incredibly tough for me to switch. With all it’s wonderful gadgets and links I’d struggle to get rid of my igoogle home page, while the shear hassle of migrating my data out of Gmail would be enough to keep at least part of my searches with Google.

So unless someone else offers me a better deal on all 18 Google services that I use I may just be a Google prisoner for life.

I’m Locked Into My Social Screens Too

Facebook and Twitter would be worthless without us, and they know it. What Facebook and Twitter have done is provided co-creative platforms for you and I to connect and share. It’s the ever-growing value our connections and the information being shared that keep me (and no doubt many of you) Facebook slaves.

It’s a self perpetuating cycle of captivity. The more I connect with people the more alluring those connections become and less likely I am to leave these networks. To cancel my Facebook account would be to commit social suicide. Likewise to terminate my Twitter account would be to cut myself off from my most valuable source of social news and provocative business insight, not to mention all the great tweeps.

Happily Enslaved

The beauty of providing these co-creative platforms is that I’m actually happy to be a captive. I love the synergy between the different Google products, and the value of the the information that is housed under the one password is immeasurable.

As for Twitter and Facebook, even though I’m obsessed with trying new things I’ve only got so much time and mental energy. Because the built-up value of my online personality and profile is greatest within Twitter and Facebook I’m reluctant to leave all my hard fought social reputation behind and start building friends connections and reputation all over again.

What’s to be learnt from this?

Getting me to create social value, connections and reputation is a time intensive process and it is therefore unlikely that I’ll want to replicate it. If you can create a platform which I am able to project myself onto, you’re more likely to captivate my attention.

Likewise, by making it easier for me to create content and information using your tools, your service becomes more valuable to me and I’ll be likely to stick around longer. I might just stick with you forever if you provide me with multiple platforms upon which I can use that information.

On the flip side, if you’re trying to break into someone else’s captive audience then giving them a reason to switch and making the transfer of their built up value to your service as smooth and painless as possible is a must (e.g. allow me to import my FB or Twitter contacts, photo’s and links).

Are you a happy captive?