I consult a niche daily deal site that implemented something similar.
In that case, it had a standard "email subscribe" nag screen (think Groupon or Living Social). There was a "No Thanks" link at the bottom. Of course most people clicked that.
We decided to give them a Like button option, too. We made the lightbox modal, and required that they either "Like" or fill-in their email address.
An email address would suppress the nag screen forever (cookie based version of 'forever', of course). A Like would suppress it for, I think, 1 week.
After a week, they'd have the same screen, but then a Tweet button.
We used the AddThis API, made it easy, we attached an OnSuccess callback to the LikeButton.
We ran 2 tests, twice. The first split the old version to the new version with the Share option. We found the Share option decreased subscribers, increased Likes, and decreased "No Thanks" clicks.
Then we ran a test between that Share version, and a version where we eliminated the "No Thanks" link. It increased both subscriptions AND like's significantly. Numbers are to this day somewhere like ~10% increase in subscriptions, and a substantial increase in likes. Sales were not immediately impacted -- and they're pretty confident in increased sales due to the increased value of their list and fan page.
We did end up doing one more tweak -- I suppose we added a door to the Share Wall. We added a 25 second SetTimeout that fades-in the "No Thanks" link. If they're in the middle of typing their email address or signing-into facebook or whatever, the set-timeout just resets itself. We don't want to cannibalize that social activity if they're in the middle of it. But there was just worry about AddThis or the Like button not working properly, etc. We wanted to give them another way at the content.
These are pretty interesting figures. If I've understood what you wrote correctly your conclusion would be that the screens that we love to hate really do work. Do you have any thoughts on situations that are particularly suited to such an ultimatum approach?
I don't think I'm enough of an expert in the technique to give that kind of guidance.
If somebody that was paying me asked that question, I'd try to figure out which of these "social cues" would work best for a sites demographic/customer base.
Then, define test cases. Think them through. Make them meaningful because if your site isn't VERY popular, you have to run these tests for a while to gather statistically meaningful data.
Then, TEST the heck out of these implementations. Use a service like BrowserShots. Make sure that whatever social mixins you've created work flawlessly. This will take more hardening than I'd usually do, past what I'd normally call "production ready." Remember, if there's a bug here, your site is just down for that user.
Finally, just test, test, test. And only trust the data.
In that case, it had a standard "email subscribe" nag screen (think Groupon or Living Social). There was a "No Thanks" link at the bottom. Of course most people clicked that.
We decided to give them a Like button option, too. We made the lightbox modal, and required that they either "Like" or fill-in their email address.
An email address would suppress the nag screen forever (cookie based version of 'forever', of course). A Like would suppress it for, I think, 1 week.
After a week, they'd have the same screen, but then a Tweet button.
We used the AddThis API, made it easy, we attached an OnSuccess callback to the LikeButton.
We ran 2 tests, twice. The first split the old version to the new version with the Share option. We found the Share option decreased subscribers, increased Likes, and decreased "No Thanks" clicks.
Then we ran a test between that Share version, and a version where we eliminated the "No Thanks" link. It increased both subscriptions AND like's significantly. Numbers are to this day somewhere like ~10% increase in subscriptions, and a substantial increase in likes. Sales were not immediately impacted -- and they're pretty confident in increased sales due to the increased value of their list and fan page.
We did end up doing one more tweak -- I suppose we added a door to the Share Wall. We added a 25 second SetTimeout that fades-in the "No Thanks" link. If they're in the middle of typing their email address or signing-into facebook or whatever, the set-timeout just resets itself. We don't want to cannibalize that social activity if they're in the middle of it. But there was just worry about AddThis or the Like button not working properly, etc. We wanted to give them another way at the content.