

Ask HN: What elements can I add to my website to make it more social? - herman

I launched a website a few weeks ago that allows you to search socially shared photos across various sharing services (like Instagram, PicPlz, Snapr and Steply) and also gives you a combined timeline if you signup and link your accounts.<p>Traffic to the site has been good, but it seems to have gone flat over the past couple of days. I suspect one of the reasons is that people visit the site and then don't have an easy way of participating or sharing the experience (or maybe that's just what I'm hoping the issue is).<p>Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?<p>PS. The link to the website is: http://snapfinch.com if you want to check it out.
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revorad
Your site is beautiful, the kind of site I would share with my friends because
I want to.

But a lot of the things I tried don't work properly. For example, I tried to
heart a photo but clicking on the heart icon didn't do anything. So, I
realised maybe I need to sign in first. I connected with my Twitter account,
but then instead of taking me back to the photo I was looking at, I got a page
asking me to share the site with my friends. Anyway I went back to the photo,
but I still could not heart it.

Then I saw a few comments on a photo and wanted to add mine. But it said sign
in to comment. But I thought I just signed in with Twitter. So I click on sign
in anyway. And it turns out just connecting to Twitter does not sign me in.
There's another step involved. Why is that?

I think you need to focus on the user experience and make it smoonth, simple
and enjoyable. Then people will share it automatically.

~~~
herman
Thanks for the feedback.

The first sign in is just to sign you into Snapfinch. From here you need to
link your Instagram, PicPlz, etc. accounts to be able to comment and like the
photos. So if you haven't linked an Instagram account, you won't be able to
comment on Instagram photos for example.

But I agree with you, I think I need to make that clearer so people understand
exactly how it works.

And maybe allow people to add "snapfinch only" type comments to photos that
won't show up in the sharing apps, but only on the website?

~~~
revorad
Yeah, you should post the comments on snapfinch itself by default and then ask
the user if they want to share the same comment on other services. So, if I
logged in with Twitter, let me post a comment first and then ask me if I want
to tweet it with a link back to the snapfinch page. So, you make it more
social without making me jump through extra hoops.

Social is not about all these services; there will be ten new photo sharing
apps tomorrow. It's about the people. Make it fun for us and and make us look
cool and interesting to our friends.

~~~
herman
Seriously thanks for the great feedback. Should have asked this question on HN
awhile ago.

Looks like I've still got a bit of work to do, luckily it's fun "work".

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arkitaip
May I suggest that you challenge your assumptions? Maybe the problem isn't
sharability but something entirely different. Having said that, here are some
general suggestions:

1\. Make a widget creator that allows members to easily display photos on
their site. Offer this as a service to (news) blogs.

2\. Maybe you could offer a suite of commercial services? I can imagine some
companies wanting to analyze their social photography presence. What about
alerts a la google?

3\. Are you working on an android/iphone app? I think you should be working on
an android/ihpone app!

4\. Any gamification you can throw in? How about battle between two photos
where members can vote on the best/funniest/most touching one? How about score
boards with people with the most comments, views, uploads, etc. There is so
much fun to do in this space <http://gamification.org/wiki/Encyclopedia>

~~~
herman
Thanks. These are awesome ideas.

I've already got number 1 covered with another website I created,
<http://badgeplz.com> that provides widgets like that. But I think I need to
incorporate that into the site as well.

2 - I want to try and aim it at companies organizing events so they can get
all photos from the event (taken by real people attending) grouped together
easily.

3 - Not yet, not sure if it would make sense though?

4 - Nice! Thanks for the link. I'll definitely be looking into this.

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mcorrientes
your site looks really great, but I miss the feeling of (social) activity on
the front page.

Sorting pictures by the last disovery or most liked photos with a small "time
ago" field could give it a feeling of a more active community.

~~~
herman
Thanks, I like this idea and it's a pretty quick win since all the data is
already available.

Edit: The tag categories on the front page is actually already sorted by date,
just need to add the time ago portion.

------
herman
Clickable link: <http://snapfinch.com>

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dster
I see you've already got sharing buttons. Maybe some sort of chat / forum?

~~~
herman
Sounds like a good idea. I was thinking of adding chat functionality similar
to Facebook and Gmail with the bar at the bottom. Could be cool if you can
chat to the people you follow and follow you on Instagram etc.

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Mz
The site is amazingly beautiful. But I don't immediately get what the point
is. I do have a MySpace and Facebook account but rarely log in. I don't have a
twitter account. So maybe I am just not the target audience. But I am
wondering if some kind of info (on the front page) about what you can do with
this would help? (Or maybe I'm the only twit who just can't figure it out -- I
also had difficulty adjusting to the spare design of HN and your site is
similarly clean-lined and elegant-looking.)

~~~
herman
From the feedback I've got so far it looks like you're not the only one. I'll
definitely be addin some better info on the front page to let people know what
it's about and how to sign up etc.

And perhaps a Snapfinch sign up for people without other social accounts?

~~~
Mz
Yes, a Snapfinch sign up would be great. I would be more likely to sign up for
it if I don't have to first do some other social account. It's not like I
haven't tried others out, but they just don't seem to click with me.

