Building Facebook Applications

Pitfalls and Promotion.

@FederationMedia

Why build a Facebook application?

Lets Face it.

Everybody loves tending pretend farms.Everybody loves being poked, virtually.Everybody loves getting sweet virtual gifts from Facebook friends.

And if that's not enough reason to start building.• Farmville has 60+ M MAU.• 500 K active applications.• 250 applications have more than 1 M users.• 80 K websites use Facebook Connect. • 60 M Facebook users use Facebook

Connect, monthly.• Zynga worth $3 B, has recently received

investment from Google.

Sources: www.digitalbuzzblog.comwww.gigaom.com

Why would a brand build/use an application?• Social sharing - the brand as a social

object.• Leveraging application users Friends.• Brand social engagement.• Drive Fan base growth.• Drive traffic to website.• Support campaign, digital strategy, or social

media strategy objectives.• Get feedback on products and services.• Provide engagement content.

The Tui Blond Beer Shout

Built to support campaign to give away 30,000 beers.200 Bars nationwide integrated with Pocket Voucher.Application send beer voucher to mobile phone.Vouchers redeemed via EFTPOS system.

Making distinctions.

Users must authorise application.

User enters their mobile number.

User chooses a bar and a time to meet.

User chooses a bunch of friends to invite.

We send the user a PocketVoucher and their friends a Wall to wall post and/or Notification.

The invited user accepts the invitation and we send them a PocketVoucher. We send the user a Notification to let them know.

The invited user invites their Friends. ditto. ditto. ditto. ditto.

So.  How did it do?

• 30,000 beers were given away.• Social engagement was very high.• Numbers adding the application could have

been higher.• Uptake of invitations lower than expected.

Facebook application building guidelines for brands.• Application should have a social aspect.• Users will only share something they

perceive to be of value with others they believe will also value it. 

• Observe 'Social Object Theory'.• Be very clear what the social object is.• Make clear distinctions between real and

virtual social objects.• Promote your application heavily in both

Facebook and other channels.

Facebook application building guidelines for brands.• Reach people in their Stream - the Facebook

Stream represents a potential for collective intentionality where social objects reside it is Facebook's social “Supersoul”.

References: The Collective Intentionality Group of researchers.John Searle – Social Object Theoryhttp://www.labont.it/ferraris/SOMO/0503_Social_Objects.pdf

A little about social objects.

Three keys to a 'good' social object are:• highly portable.• easily copied.• can be reformatted for distribution on other

digital media channels.

Source: Razorfish 2009 Digital Outlook Report

Application pitfalls.• ROI Issues.  Build it and they will come.• Low social object value.• API issues, Facebooks ever changing and

deprecating environment.• Usability issues, API/SDK bugs.• Cutting through the Stream's social noise.• Virtual vs Reality distinction issues.• Interaction bucket limits.

Application pitfalls.• Legal issues.  Navigating Facebook's Terms

and Conditions.FB Terms - http://www.facebook.com/terms.phpPromotions Guidelines - http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.phpAdvertising Guidelines - http://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.phpPrivacy Policy - http://www.facebook.com/policy.phpDeveloper Policys and Principles - http://developers.facebook.com/policy/PR Policy’s - http://developers.facebook.com/policy/pr Brand Permissions - http://www.facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.phpFB Pages Terms - http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php

 

Legal issues.  Navigating Facebook's Terms and Conditions.

Prohibitions: (taken from 3 different documents)"The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline"

"The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs;" "You must not confuse, mislead, surprise, or defraud anyone."

"Liquor, beer, wine or other alcoholic beverages (unless the appropriate Demographic Restrictions are used), or sale of tobacco products, ammunition and/or firearms;"

Application pitfalls.• Trust Issues not trusting you or your brand

not to be evil.

Application pitfalls.Broader Facebook issues:• Privacy problems.• Facebook fatigue - men and teens.• Social Network 'half-life' - the decline of

social networks over time.

Types of Facebook Application's 

• Broadly split into location and function.• Facebook platform is a set of API's.

Types of Facebook Application's.

Facebook Canvas Applications. • What users think of as "Facebook Apps".

eg Farmville, Mafia Wars, virtual gifts - hosted within Facebook.

• FBML/FBJS Canvas applications.• IFRAME/XFBML Canvas applications.

Facebook Connect - websites/platforms (eg iPhone) with elements of Facebook applications in them.

Types of Facebook Application's 

The Facebook API.  • API - you can always use this• FBML - Canvas apps only• XFBML - Facebook Connect/IFRAME apps• FQL - you can always use this• FBJS - mostly canvas apps, some Connect

functionality 

Types of Facebook Application's 

Using Third Party Applications.  

• You can add any canvas application to a Fan Page tab.

• Static FBML Tab/Box.• Prebuilt applications• www.wildfireapp.com• www.appbistro.com

 

Types of Facebook Application's Static FBML Tab/Box. 

Prebuilt third party applications www.wildfireapp.comwww.appbistro.com

 

Development platforms/libraries.PHP 5 (Facebook)Facebook iPhone SDK (Facebook) ActionScript 3.0 Library (Adobe) Microsoft SDK for Facebook (Microsoft) Force.com for Facebook (salesforce.com)

Statistics and Measurement.http://statistics.allfacebook.com/

Statistics and Measurement.Facebook insights

Conclusions.It's fun building social stuff.Plan your application well.Define the social objects, do they have value?Build an html prototype.The FB platform can be a very challenging development environment.Choose the right development platform.Look at lots of other applications.Use FBML/XFBML where you can.Don't be evil.Be realistic about engagement targets.

@FederationMedia

Reading/References/Resources.FB Developer Applicationhttp://developers.facebook.com/Anaotomy of a FB Applicationhttp://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Anatomy_of_a_Facebook_AppA much better Anatomyhttp://www.ccheever.com/blog/?tag=facebook-connectFB Developer Policys and Termshttp://developers.facebook.com/policy/FB client libraryshttp://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User:Client_LibrariesFB Toolkit (AKA Mircrosoft FB SDK, .NET)http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee388574.aspxSocial Pluginshttp://developers.facebook.com/plugins?footer=1Statisticshttp://statistics.allfacebook.com/applicationsSecurityhttp://www.owasp.org/index.php/Facebook#Application_canvasRed Bull Roshambullhttp://apps.facebook.com/redbullroshambull/ Social Graph/Social Object Theoryhttp://www.devcomments.com/Facebook-s-Open-Graph-Protocol-from-a-Web-Developer-s-Perspective-i26105.htmhttp://www.labont.it/ferraris/SOMO/0503_Social_Objects.pdf