Best Practices for MySpace AppsJuly, 2009May X, 2009

OverviewThis document covers a number of best practices for developers building Apps for the MySpace Open Platform. It covers:Growing Your User BaseDriving EngagementDeveloper Guidelines

Growing Your AudienceInvitationsThe most effective channel for growing your user baseUp to 20 friends can be invited at onceMost companies create their own friend selector that passes the recipients to our Invite dialogWe recommend that you filter the friends list to only include:Users who do not have the App installedPut Top Friends and Online friends at the top of the listOnly include regular user profiles (no bands, comedians, etc.)Provide an option to select multiple friends, 20 friends or all friendsUser’s can add additional names in the To: barTest variations of the invite messageKeep in mind that user’s can block receiving invites from your App

Growing Your AudienceApp ActivitiesApp activities was recently expanded to show activities to all friends, thus creating a viral channelActivities must be previewed and published manually by the end user.Have a call-to-action to the viewers of your activities, which leads users to an OpenCanvas page that contains an add App buttonAn OpenCanvas page allows the developer to personalize based on the user’s ID, display name and public photosUse the OpenCanvas to further interest the user and have a clear call-to-action to add the AppParameters can be passed from the activity to the OpenCanvas that provide context to the AppStatus UpdatesUsing our server-to-server REST APIs allow you to update the user’s status with a link to the canvasIt must be clear to the user that they are updating their status

Growing Your AudienceYou don’t have to rely on our Add App link on a canvas.Provide your own Add App link that points to your canvas with the parameter autoInitiateInstall=true, which will bring up the Add App dialog

Growing Your AudienceUnlike other social networks, MySpace Apps can have a more persistent and upfront presence on the user profile with modulesWith OpenSocial you can differentiate between the userviewing the profile box or a visitor/friend viewing itHave different calls-to-actionPersonalizeIntegrate personalization and animation to make yourprofile box standout and be engagingFlash can be used on profile modulesMake sure your profile box does not have a significantnegative impact on profile page loadtime

Growing Your AudienceUsers can post to blogs, bulletins and profiles, which are one to many channels.Apps can also send one to one messages to the user’s inboxOnly one user can be mailed to at a timePosting to a comment is like sending a message to the user, but it’s publicly viewableUsers can set their comments to be approved before being displayedAll these options require user confirmation and are not available as server-to-server APIsBlogs, messages and bulletins can contain links to the canvas and Add App page, and can contain externally hosted images

Growing Your AudienceOnce your viral channels are ready, invest in sponsorship in the App gallery and other parts of the site to fully launch your AppLeverage our Hypertargeting and optimization capabilities to target the right audience with the right call-to-actionUse autoInitiateInstall=1 to shorten the add App processUse tracking parameters passed in the install callback to analyze conversion rates for various ad units

Driving EngagementApp to user notifications can be a powerful engagement channel. They can sent to any user that has the App installed.They can be invoked in the App via OpenSocial or from the server via REST APIs.REST must be used for bulk messaging.Notifications should have clear call-to-actions using action buttons. They can include a media item, such as a picture of any user that has the App installed to engage the user or a picture uploaded to an albumYou can upload pictures using to be released 0.9 REST APIs for photos

Driving EngagementThe user homepage (UHP) module is a great way to draw the user back into the AppInclude in the UHP module personalized and timely updates of what’s happening in the AppFlash can be used in the UHP module to make it more interactiveAlso make sure the UHP module does not negatively impact page load time

Developer GuidelinesUsing IFRAME versus OpenSocial for your surfacesIFRAME makes it easier to keep your App update, however there is more heavy lifting in terms of invoking OpenSocial methods for Invites and Activity Publishing and REST callsUse IFPC library for communicating to OpenSocial from your IFRAME AppOur SDKs cam simplify using the REST APIsFlash can either be uploaded to our CDN or served from your CDNWe now support the appropriate crossdomain.xml permissions for non-MySpace hosted Flash AppsLeverage install and uninstall callbacks to track acquisition and churnThe URL of the page from which the App was installed is passed as a parameter in the callbackLeverage appParams and appData to pass state from modules or canvas pages to other canvas pagesMake use of adjustHeight to dynamically adjust the IFRAME on canvas to fit your content.In the developer website, don’t login as the App and then try to create a new App

Getting SupportStay up to date with best practices at http://developer.myspace.comFollow our developer blog at http://developer.myspace.com/community/blogs/Email developerrelations@myspace-inc.comDocumentation: http://wiki.developer.myspace.comMySpaceID SDK’s: http://lnk.ms/00rb2Follow us on Twitter @myspacedevteam