Make it easy for users to let others know how awesome they are

I recently got an email from Amy of Blogged.com, as many of you probably have about how she rated your blog. The editorial list seems pretty spot on, as she did her homework. However, I think it would have been more useful if the listing was filterable by the different criteria that she used to rank the blogs, such as quality of updates, frequency of posts, etc.

This blog got an 8.1, as I don't post all that often. I try to post only when I have something to say. But in reality, while 8.1 might sound hot, it puts me way back at beyond page 10 of her list, which I'm sure no one really looks at.

But this got me thinking about how word of mouth might work. I suppose one way is to tell people how awesome they are, and encourage them to tell other people how awesome you think they are. In essence, I guess that's what great products do, right? They let you get stuff done, quickly, easily, and with a bit of fun, so that you feel like you're awesome. If you're awesome, you'd like to tell other people how awesome you are.

This this limited scope, I think something similar for mobtropolis would make a lot of sense. One way for people to feel awesome using mobtropolis is if they've had a sense of accomplishment by completing something. Or, they get a validation of that accomplishment simply by friends commenting on it. I need to make it easier for this to happen, and I suspect the more it does, the more people will feel good about themselves.

What about your product or app? For any particular application, and especially if it's a tool, if you can make a user feel awesome, make it easy for them to let others know how awesome they are. It can be stats on their accomplishment, or a limited feature only they can access. Either way, it has to be limited and unique to them, and yet publicly accessible to others.