Here are some notes from today’s business school event.

9:30am: ANALYTICS

Analytics is about answering questions for developers. Who are my users? Where is my traffic coming from?

Analytics for social networks is different from regular analytics because there are new metrics that you get out of social media.

Virality is the big new metric.

Great breakdown of impressions converting -> click-throughs, converting -> installs. Need to track the activity of those users.

Break down life cycle using AARRR method. Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. Trick is to move as many people through the pipeline as possible.

Charles - suggests moving referral stage earlier in application
Ian - It’s all about “infecting” more users. The k factor.
Charles - Your seed group aren’t as important as sociographics of seed group. Measuring sex of users, does that make a difference. no. Most important trait is number of friends.
Charles - tested two apps with different seed groups and growth was drastically different.
Ian - UGC is essential to grabbing users and engaging
Hiten - Give users a good introduction to your application. Explain what your application does when users first get on. Welcome screen. Guide them toward the first action you want users to take.
Charles - Keep users confident in the next step to take. Speed to first action is a great indicator of user confidence. Tell users what to do and keep them aware of what task they’re doing and what the result will be. Users will click if you tell them to as long as you deliver on promises. Do A B testing. Track results of different viral channels.
Ian - Can measure user engagement on app, but in agreement with TOS.
Charles - Can’t pre-plan your app too much. You can’t necessarily cater toward demographic. By changing your application, you may change the mix that attracted your demo.
Ian - Engagement, impressions, and demographics are what matter.
Hiten - You should design toward a demographic.
Charles - Modifying an earlier point… You have to roll with the punches. A B testing is essential.
Open question to the audience - do you design with demographics in mind. Couple in the audience are designing with demographics in mind.

(more…)

Are you focused on turning your social app development activity into a sustainable revenue stream? Then we invite you to the first edition of SocialMedia Network’s Business School on 3rd at Pier 38 @ Embarcadero and Townsend.

When we asked the hundreds of developers in our network what would be most valuable to provide in an event, we kept hearing:

Help me turn my app into a real business. Provide me with real tools and data, and work with me to create a business model specific for my app that I can share with prospective employees and investors.

With that in mind, we have created a one-day seminar that steps developers through the five key courses of turning a promising application into a business plan: Analytics, Marketing, Brand Advertising, Performance Advertising, and Business Planning. Each class will feature a category specialist from the SocialMedia Networks team, as well industry experts to provide real world examples.

AGENDA

ADMISSION

Tickets are $75 on a first come, first serve basis. We will be limiting attendance to ensure that participants receive maximum educational value. You can order them directly at SocialMedia Business School

*if you are currently monetizing your app in our network, then email julia@socialmedia.com or nick@socialmedia.com for your complimentary pass

As many developers have already heard, MySpace has soft launched their platform. While developers are at a variety of different stages in getting on OpenSocial, we’d like to let you know that we’re there to help you monetize when you’re ready.

We have the Appsaholic application tracker ported on to MySpace (here) and will be making ads live this weekend. We’ve been tracking MySpace over the past two days. Here’s the top ten:

1: Project Playlist 9,951
2: Texas Hold’em Poker 3,401
3: DrinkingSocial 2,013
4: Top Pics 1,570
5: Pokey! 590
6: Honesty Box 589
7: Metaplace 534
8: PhotoFX 487
9: Shelfari books 455
10: Picnik 448

To get ads on your application, just get a SocialMedia account on our site. Adding ads to your MySpace application will be as easy as it was for Facebook. Just sign cut and paste the iframe ad code from your Appsaholic account into your application.

Happy developing!

We’re recently expanded by adding a new office in San Francisco’s Pier 38 (map). It’s spacious with a view and easy access to the ballpark and Gordon Biersch :).

I remember how hard getting workspace is from my time at TechCrunch. So, we’ve decided on an open door policy for SocialMedia developers. Feel free to stop by and lounge around the office coding while sipping on a beer or soda.

Here are some photos:

As if you needed another reason to grow your application… SocialMedia is giving you one anyway.

We’re launching a new Developer Rewards program that will give a 25% performance based bonus to developers for growing their existing apps. This is our way of rewarding developers for growing the network and making our advertising more valuable for developers.

The program will start March 15th and be based on your previous earnings and the percent increase in your traffic over the 30 days following (ending April 13th).

To sign up for the program, simply check the new “Developer Rewards” option in your Appsaholic profile settings. The deadline to sign up is midnight on March14th.

Details: The program will start March 15th. The 25% bonus will be based on multiplying your earnings over the previous 30 day by the percent increase in traffic over the next 30 days. For example, if you earned $20,000 over the 30 days prior to March 15th and increased your traffic by 50%, your bonus would be 25% X $20,000 X 0.5 = $2,500. This is on top of your increased earnings from growing your application.

Note, applications participating in the program must grow their application in accordance with our terms of service.

Developer Highlight

I’d also like to highlight a SocialMedia developer, Ankur Nagpal, who we recently helped highlight in a BusinessWeek article by Rachael King. Ankur is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley who has managed to create a very profitable part time business selling and monetizing applications through SocialMedia.

We frequently get press inquiries looking to interview top developers and we were happy to help highlight Ankur and his success. Think you have an interesting story fit for print? Let us know. Email Nick@SocialMedia.com with your success story.