Building FacebookApplications<br />Pitfalls and Promotion.<br
/>@FederationMedia<br />

Why build a Facebookapplication?Lets Face
it.<br />Everybody loves tending pretend farms.<br />Everybody loves being poked, virtually.<br />Everybody loves getting sweet virtual gifts from Facebook friends.<br />

And if that's not enough
reason to start building.<br /><ul><li>Farmville has 60+ M MAU.

500 K active applications.

250 applications have more than
1 M users.

80 K websites use FacebookConnect.

60 M Facebook users use
FacebookConnect, monthly.

Zynga worth $3 B, has
recently received investment from Google.</li></ul>Sources: <br />www.digitalbuzzblog.com<br />www.gigaom.com<br />

Why would a brand build/use
an application?<br /><ul><li>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.</li></li></ul><li>The Tui Blond
Beer Shout<br />Built to support campaign to give away 30,000 beers.<br />200 Bars nationwide integrated with Pocket Voucher.<br />Application send beer voucher to mobile phone.<br />Vouchers redeemed via EFTPOS system.<br />

Making distinctions.<br />

Users must authorise application.<br />

User enters their mobile number.<br
/>

User chooses a bar and
a time to meet.<br />

User chooses a bunch of
friends to invite.<br />

We send the user a
PocketVoucherand their friends a Wall to wall post and/or Notification.<br />

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

The invited user invites their
Friends. ditto. ditto. ditto. ditto.<br />

So. How did it do?<br
/><ul><li>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.</li></li></ul><li>Facebook application building guidelines for brands.<br /><ul><li>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.</li></li></ul><li>Facebook application building guidelines for brands.<br /><ul><li>Reach people in their Stream - the Facebook Stream represents a potential for collective intentionality where social objects reside it is Facebook's social “Supersoul”.</li></ul>References: <br />The Collective Intentionality Group of researchers.<br />John Searle – Social Object Theory<br />http://www.labont.it/ferraris/SOMO/0503_Social_Objects.pdf<br />

A little about social objects.<br
/>Three keys to a 'good' social object are:<br /><ul><li>highly portable.

easily copied.

can be reformatted for distribution
on other digital media channels.</li></ul>Source: <br />Razorfish2009 Digital Outlook Report<br />

Application pitfalls.<br /><ul><li>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.</li></li></ul><li>Application pitfalls.<br /><ul><li>Legal
issues. Navigating Facebook's Terms and Conditions.</li></ul>FB Terms - http://www.facebook.com/terms.php<br />Promotions Guidelines - http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php<br />Advertising Guidelines - http://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php<br />Privacy Policy - http://www.facebook.com/policy.php<br />Developer Policys and Principles - http://developers.facebook.com/policy/<br />PR Policy’s - http://developers.facebook.com/policy/pr<br />Brand Permissions - http://www.facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.php<br />FB Pages Terms - http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php<br /> <br />

Legal issues. Navigating Facebook's Terms
and Conditions.<br />Prohibitions: (taken from 3 different documents)<br />"The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline"<br />"The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs;"<br /> <br />"You must not confuse, mislead, surprise, or defraud anyone."<br />"Liquor, beer, wine or other alcoholic beverages (unless the appropriate Demographic Restrictions are used), or sale of tobacco products, ammunition and/or firearms;"<br />

Application pitfalls.<br /><ul><li>Trust Issues not
trusting you or your brand not to be evil.</li></li></ul><li>Application pitfalls.<br />Broader Facebook issues:<br /><ul><li>Privacy problems.

Facebook fatigue - men and
teens.

Social Network 'half-life' - the
decline of social networks over time.</li></li></ul><li>Types of Facebook Application's <br /><ul><li>Broadly split into location and function.

Facebook platform is a set
of API's.</li></li></ul><li>Types of FacebookApplication's.<br />Facebook Canvas Applications. <br /><ul><li>What users think of as "Facebook Apps". eg Farmville, Mafia Wars, virtual gifts - hosted within Facebook.

FBML/FBJS Canvas applications.

IFRAME/XFBML Canvas applications.</li></ul>Facebook Connect -
websites/platforms (egiPhone) with elements of Facebook applications in them.<br />

Types of Facebook Application's <br />The
Facebook API. <br /><ul><li>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</li></ul> <br />

Types of Facebook Application's <br />Using
Third Party Applications. <br /><ul><li>You can add any canvas application to a Fan Page tab.

Static FBML Tab/Box.

Prebuilt applications

www.wildfireapp.com

www.appbistro.com</li></ul> <br />

Types of FacebookApplication's <br />Static FBML
Tab/Box. <br />

Prebuilt third party applications www.wildfireapp.comwww.appbistro.com<br
/> <br />

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

Statistics and Measurement.<br />http://statistics.allfacebook.com/<br />

Statistics and Measurement.<br />Facebook insights<br
/>

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

Reading/References/Resources.<br />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.htm<br />http://www.labont.it/ferraris/SOMO/0503_Social_Objects.pdf<br /> <br />