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.

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).

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

PS. The link to the website is: http://snapfinch.com if you want to check it out.

[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 → revorad]

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 → herman]

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 → revorad]

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".

[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 → arkitaip]

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.

[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 → Mz]

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 → herman]

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.

[herman]

Clickable link: http://snapfinch.com

[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 → mcorrientes]

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.

[dster]

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

[herman → dster]

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.