Facebook for Marketers

A Technology Primer

Saket Vaidya, Sep 2010

Why?

Blah...

* 12 million users, 20 million pageviews as of July 2010

Blah...

facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
Ofcial word from Facebook

facebakers.com
Up-to-date statistics with detailed demographic data

website-monitoring.com/blog/

...more blahness.

A tasty infographic

So what options does a marketer or an agency have to promote a brand or website through Facebook?

 Social Plugins Groups Pages Applications

You Like?

Social Plugins

Stand-alone tools which can be embedded on Websites Promote socially relevant information about the site to the users Do not require the user to be logged in to Facebook. Do not communicate any user information to the website. Extremely simple to implement and only require:

A single line of code placed on a static page Said code to be integrated into the template in case of a dynamic page

The Like Button

Lets a user share web
content with friends on Facebook.

Story appears in the user's

friends' News Feed with a link back to the website.

Can choose to Share a

story after Liking it to post a more detailed blurb to news feed.

The Like Box

Just like the Like Button Instead of specic stories, it enables, liking a pre-existing Brand Page on Facebook. Displays latest updates and Fan mugshots.

Integrating Like with User Interests

If the primary content of your page is a socially relevant object like a Movie, Book, Celebrity, etc an optional piece of code may be used to make the your page appear in the appropriate section under the users Likes and Interests on his prole e.g. Liking an IMDB movie page automatically places the movie under the Movies section of the users prole Objects which can be semantically tagged:

Activity, Sport, Bar, Company, Cafe, Hotel, Restaurant, Cause, Sports League, Sports Team, Band, Government, Non Prot, School, University, Actor, Athlete, Author, Director, Musician, Politician, Public Figure, City, Country, Landmark, State, Album, Book, Drink, Food, Game, Product, Song, Movie,TV Show, Blog,Website, Article

Activity Feed

Box displaying content from a website which has been recently liked or shared. Will display likes or shares by friends if the user is signed in. Displays content only from the same domain e.g. an activity box on foo.com will not display content from bar.foo.com

Recommendations

Similar to the Activity Feed box Stories appearing in the box are magically recommended to the user and are tailored to the users prole data and existing likes

Commenting

Allows people to post comments to a web page with the option of crossposting the comment to their Proles. Requires the user to have existing Application on Facebook beforehand A little harder to implement on static pages, compared to other plugins. Can more easily implemented via readymade plugins for Wordpress, Drupal, etc.

Live Stream

Similar to the Comments Box, Messages posted are published real time, Posting the message as a status update is not optional Message can be optionally visible to everyone posting in the box, even non friends Works best with Live Streaming videos, Webinars and Online Games

Groups

Groups are private or public communities created by individuals, to have a discussions and interactions around common interests. Groups allow for granularity on who can join. Groups can be public, invite only, or secret. Groups have Administrators who can appoint Ofcers for maintaining the Group Members can post Photos,Videos and Links to a Group, or participate in the Discussion Forum with no extensibility in terms of adding Third Party Applications.

* A Facebook Page about Facebook Pages. Bring on the Meta.

Pages

Pages are special proles, used by brands, organizations, celebrities, etc to allow interaction with ordinary users without requiring a two-way Friendship A Page may be liked by a user, who becomes a Fan of the page. Fans can freely interact with the Page through Wall, Photo,Video postings, Comments and Likes on Posts Can be enhanced using third party Applications

Comparing Pages & Groups

Pages Brands Public Updates No Event Invites Message Targeting Applications Advertising Statistics Vanity URLs Groups Personal Communities Semi Private Email Event Invites No Message Targeting No Applications No Advertising No Statistics No Vanity URLs

Basic Page Customization

* Bio for the Jaago Re page on Facebook

Bio

Body 520 px

Prole Pic 200 px

Dimensions

Vanity URI

facebook.com/pagename vs <unmentionable horribility> Requires a minimum of 25 Fans

* Added the Alootechie Page as a Favorite of the Webchutney Page

Favorite other pages to create a network of Pages

Set Default Tab

Communicating via Facebook Page

Default Applications

Status Updates Links Photos Videos Notes

Facebook Questions

Beta feature allows engaging with fans by asking them questions,Yahoo Answers style Possible Questions:

Text Photo/Video Polls

Extra features Tagging Categorization Follow a Question

Send Updates

* apps.facebook.com/promotionshq

Paid Promotions

 Facebook Advertising partnered with

Wildre to launch an Ofcial Promotions channel.

Types of Commercial Promotions available: - Contests (Photo,Video, Essay) - Sweepstakes - Special Deals - Coupons - Gifts

Third Party Applications

 Adding New Tabs Posting Custom Content

Static FBML

Add Custom Tabs

Youtube Video Box

Showcase Youtube Videos

Social RSS

Show Blog/News In A Separate Tab

Poll

Twitter

Build your own

Applications

 Software implementations which are

on an independent domain

integrated with Facebooks social ecosystem

Can exist as a part of Facebook.com, reside Hosted independently Mobile and RIA implementations do not
require a server

Made possible by a diverse set of APIs

So what do you need to build a Facebook Application?

An Idea

Creative Assets

Images

Application Icon (16x16) Logo Image (75x75) Application Description (250 Chars) Help Page (optional) Privacy Page (optional) Terms of Service (URL) Developer Names Email Address

Copy

Information

Technology Platform
Server Based Applications PHP C# Python Flex/Air Silverlight/WinForms iPhone Android

RIA Applications

Mobile Applications

Server Applications
Canvas Connect+Canvas
* RIA/Mobile Apps are not covered.

+
Application Canvas Application Page

Canvas Application

 Old school Facebook Applications which

server and is called via iframe, and uses URL masking, e.g.:
foo.com/app apps.facebook.com/foo

can be accessed on the apps.facebook.com domain

The actual application resides on a separate

foo.com/app/bar apps.facebook.com/foo/bar

Key features of a Canvas Application are the main Canvas Area where all the action takes place The application may have any number of tabs which can complement each other, e.g. A tab with a game, another tab for redeeming in-game points, and a third one which servers as a user leaderboard. In addition to internal tabs, you may dene a Prole Tab for the application which users can optionally add to their proles or Pages. Since the application is exclusive to Facebook, it comes with a Application Page which resides on the site. The Application Page behaves like an ordinary Facebook Page

+
Connect Enabled Website jaagore.com Canvas Application apps.facebook.com/jaagorefbg

Connect+Canvas Application

 Connect Applications consist of an API

Facebook credentials of a user with an internal username, or do away with an internal registration system altogether.

enabled website which may use Facebooks Authentication in lieu of its own

The application may choose to associate

A Key aspect of a Connect Application is the design freedom available, since the application is an independent website. The Connect Application is supplemented by an Additional Canvas application which one may choose to use to offer a more complete experience. The additional Canvas application can prove to be useful for engagement when the user is on Facebook.com and does not visit the website URI regularly.

Login Button

The login button is a Social Plugin available exclusively to Connect Websites which enables a Login Widget to be placed at any spot in the Website Login button can also show faces of the users friends who have already signed up for the Website

Facepile

Unlike the Login button, the Facepile only displays details of the users friends who have signed up for a Connect Website

What was that API thing again?

API stands for Application Programming Interface Loosely, an API is a set of web based services provided by a popular website which enables third party applications to read and write information in a raw form and deliver an experience which, in some way, complements the original website. Examples

TweetDeck delivers a complete Twitter experience outside of the main website by using an API Pictures from your Flickr account can be displayed on your blog with the aid of a plugin or embed code XML JSON SOAP/WSDL/REST

Popular Technologies used to deliver APIs

Facebook API Technologies

Name Graph API JavaScript SDK REST API FBML/XFBML FQL FBJS Purpose Authentication and Data Retrieval Data Manipulation and Display Authentication and Data Retrieval Data Display Data Manipulation Data Display Technology OAuth 2.0/JSON JavaScript OAuth 1.0/REST Proprietary Proprietary JavaScript Application Connect Connect Canvas/Connect Canvas/Connect Canvas/Connect Canvas/Connect

Why So Many APIs?

Facebook is currently in the midst of an API transition and intends to completely replace all other APIs exclusively with the new Graph+JavaScript SDK APIs Graph+JavaScript SDK APIs are a lot more open and easier to implement as compared to the previous proprietary APIs, but are still incomplete The Graph+JavaScript SDK APIs cannot be used to build Canvas Applications, and to do so one must still use Old APIs By the end of 2010, all applications will use the Graph +JavaScript SDK API

Roadmap

Roadmap

API Features
Basic Permissions Extended Permissions

Basic Permissions

Name Prole Picture Names of Friends Status Updates

Extended Permissions

Extended Bio Publishing Online Presence Ofine Access Events Groups Notes Pages Photos

Tagged Photos Videos Places Inbox Chats Requests News Feed Ads Insights

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/permissions

Information Unavailable

Friends Emails Friends Friend Lists

Facebook Insights

 New service launched to offer marketers Requires minimum 30 Fans For more detailed metrics, Requires
Facebook account to be veried

metrics around their Applications and Pages

Metrics Available

Pages
Users Interactions

Users

Active Users & Likes

Demographics

Activity

Interactions

* Not available for unveried accounts.

Per Post Feedback

Activity

Applications
Users Sharing Performance Diagnostics

Users

Active Users & Installs

Demographics

Activity: Canvas Visitors, Installs

Activity: Permissions, Blocks

Sharing

Sharing: Content Shared, Feedback

Sharing: Hides, Requests

Performance
Request Time Render Time Errors Returned

Diagnostics
API Errors Restrictions Throttling Throttle Warnings

Webtrends webtrends.com/products/analytics/facebook

Adonomics adonomics.com

Third Party

And we are done.