Men, women and success of Facebook apps

BANGALORE, INDIA: The gender game, weather we wish or not, is visible everywhere, even in the social networking platforms. The behavioral patterns and needs of men and women not only differ in the actual society but also in the networking platforms, says a study.

A survey conducted by the Dr Larry Neale and Associate Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett from the Queensland University of Technology reveals that the popularity of a Facebook application would largely depend on whether you are male or female, and if it meets the criteria of being "cool".

According to Professor Russell-Bennett, the success of social networking applications lies in the fact where women were able to express themselves and men enjoyed the thrill of social competition.

"Facebook users want to possess and share cool applications that enhance their standing within their network of friends. For women this is about self-expression, for men it is about who the best," Professor Russell-Bennett said.

The research studied a few popular application in Facebook such as 'Scrabble', 'Mousehunt' and 'Superpoke', with an objective of understanding how to develop a cool application and identify the features that would encourage people to recommend them to friends.

Professor Russell-Bennett further said that the goal for application developers was to get social networking site members to pass them on to their friends, and this only occurred when the application was considered to have "value".

Companies are spending a lot of money on applications but they aren't necessarily working, through understanding what motivated people to use and recommend applications, companies could better tap into the social networking market.

The results of the study titled, "What value do users derive from social networking applications?" will be presented at the UK Academy of Marketing conference in Leeds later this month, said the Queensland University of Technology website.