Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Comments Box Plugin Now Accepts AOL for Login
- Facebook’s Discover New Games Module Shows Users What Their Friends Play
- As Facebook Plans for More Deals, It Hires Google Corp Dev Leader Amin Zoufonoun
- Featured Facebook Campaigns: Kool-Aid, Ford, Jackson Hewitt and 5 Gum
- Dating, Horoscopes, Quizzes and Profile Banners on the Top 20 Growing Facebook Apps by MAU
| Facebook Comments Box Plugin Now Accepts AOL for Login Posted: 14 Mar 2011 05:46 PM PDT The recently released version of Facebook’s Comments Box social plugin for third-party websites now accepts AOL accounts for login. Initially the plugin only allowed Facebook and Yahoo! for login, though we discovered there was live code for Twitter and Google logins present but inactive. The additional login option will make the Comments Box accessible to a larger user base, but some might say that AOL’s willingness to be a login option is a signal that is has accepted its fate as a second-tier identity provider.
It appears that Facebook is reaching Comments Box login agreements with sites who have reciprocated by allowing Facebook as a login option on their sites or services. AOL allows users to sign in to it’s AIM instant messaging and some other service with Facebook, and Yahoo! recently enabled Facebook as a login and account registration option across its properties.
The Comments Box has brought up a difficult question for the web’s largest services and social networks. By refusing to be a Comments Box login option, they force their users to employ another service provider’s credential in order to comment, but they in turn don’t have to permit Facebook as a login option. This allows them to own the registration information of anyone benefiting from their services. On the other hand, by agreeing to Facebook’s terms and becoming a Comments Box login option, their users won’t have to choose another’s service credentials, but they usually must permit Facebook to colonize their site with its own login buttons. Facebook is winning the identity game, and Yahoo! and AOL both now seem to have folded. The question remains whether Google or Twitter will concede to Facebook’s terms, work out a more evenhanded deal, or if they’ll continue to stay autonomous and try to themselves become the premier online ID. [Thanks to David Sanger for the tip.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook’s Discover New Games Module Shows Users What Their Friends Play Posted: 14 Mar 2011 04:10 PM PDT Facebook is a testing a “Discover New Games” sidebar module that shows several of a user’s friends who play a specific game. This new, free discovery channel could make up for some of the lost virality that resulted from Facebook closing several viral channels this year. Therefore, it could potentially help to slightly reduce the reliance of developers on marketing spend to grow their games.
The module displays the names and faces of the viewer’s friends who play a game the viewer has yet to install. The name of the game, its thumbnail icon, and a “Play Now” link appear below the facepile. When users see this implicit social recommendation by friends, they assume their must be some entertainment value in the displayed game, and may choose to click and install it. Modules have been displayed in Facebook’s right sidebar since as early as 2008, showing “People You May Know” to help users find new friends. Recently, the site began urging users to complete the demographic information in their profile with a “Which city do you live in?” module. Facebook has shown third-party content in the form of official Pages via the the “Recommended Pages” module, but now game developers can also benefit from the modules.
Developers have been requesting additional viral, communication, and discovery channels from Facebook since it has taken other steps to limit the organic viral growth of applications over the last year. Previously when a gamer published a story about an in-game occurence, such as winning a virtual good or leveling up, it could be seen by all their friends, generating fresh leads to the game. But in September Facebook changed the news feed to only show these stories to a user’s friends who already play that game, limiting their worth to re-engaging users, not scoring new ones. Facebook has since began publishing “Discovery” news feed stories when a user first installs a game, and now offers featured placement in the Games Dashboard as an incentive to developers who use Facebook Credits as their exclusive payment platform. Discover New Games won’t fully restore organic growth rates, but will augment other viral and marketing efforts of developers. The module will also reveal to non-gamers that more of their friends are gamers than they might have thought, legitimizing game play. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As Facebook Plans for More Deals, It Hires Google Corp Dev Leader Amin Zoufonoun Posted: 14 Mar 2011 12:44 PM PDT
Having been at Google since 2003, Zoufonoun has led major acquisitions including On2, Grandcentral (Google Voice), Metaweb, Widevine, Feedburner, and Simplify Media, according to his LinkedIn profile. His title will continue to be director of corporate development once he starts at Facebook next week. He’ll report to Vaughan Smith, who oversees all of Facebook’s corporate development efforts, Facebook has confirmed with us, and will be overseeing all mergers and acquisitions, according to Reuters. To date, Facebook has largely bought companies for the teams, moving people to other projects and either shuttering the existing products or putting them on life support (as was the case with FriendFeed). With its latest acquisition, mobile messaging service Beluga, last week, Facebook said it would also be using the technology. Going forward, especially given the attractiveness of its equity and the amount of cash it has on hand, Facebook may choose to go after larger, more product-focused deals. For example, some reports have in recent months named Facebook as a possible acquirer of Twitter (a company which itself has hundreds of employees and is valued in the billions). [Image via LinkedIn.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Featured Facebook Campaigns: Kool-Aid, Ford, Jackson Hewitt and 5 Gum Posted: 14 Mar 2011 08:40 AM PDT Sweepstakes were an especially common feature in our roundup of Facebook campaigns this week, especially user-generated content sweepstakes. Kool-Aid is running a sweepstakes for consumer electronics, Ford's electric vehicles division is asking people to identify with their green values, Jackson Hewitt wants people to talk about winning with their tax returns in video form and 5 Gum is using Facebook Connect to promote its new flavors and Coachella partnership. We've excerpted two campaigns below. You can see the full week's coverage in the Facebook Marketing Bible, which also includes detailed breakdowns of dozens of other featured campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook.
Kool-Aid Win Back Family Night SweepstakesGoal: Page Growth, Network Exposure, Product Purchase, Email Marketing, Engagement Core Mechanic: Ongoing daily sweepstakes to win electronics. Method: Kool-Aid's Win Back Family Night sweepstakes runs February 26 through June 17 and allows fans that Like the Kool-Aid Page to enter to win a series of prizes daily. After Liking the Page users are asked to enter an email, then address, to see if they've won; after doing so the sweepstakes apps automatically tells you if you're a winner. Even if you don't win one of the daily prizes of a Panasonic Blu-ray disc player, you are still entered to win a weekly grand prize of a Panasonic HDTV, Panasonic home theatre system or disc player. Finally, after entering the user may either share the contest to the stream or print out a 50 cent off coupon for Kool-Aid packets. Users may enter to win daily. Impact: The Page has more than 734,500 Likes and seems to be popular; when the sweepstakes is mentioned on the Page there are hundreds of Likes and dozens of comments.
Jackson Hewitt's The Big Check ContestGoal: Network Exposure, Engagement, Product Purchase Core Mechanic: Jackson Hewitt income tax preparers are sponsoring a user-generated media contest, The Big Check, asking users to generate videos about how customers can win with the company. Then Facebook users vote on the top 20 videos and Jackson Hewitt selects the final winner on tax day, April 18. Method: We've written previously about the drawbacks of user-generated video contests. The upshot is that these types of contests require a lot on the part of users, and the Jackson Hewitt contest is no exception. Essentially the contest runs from February 25 to April 15; at stake are two checks for $10,000, one for the winner and one for a friend the winner selects. Users generate videos that feature a "Win Win" Jackson Hewitt flyer that users print out via the app and then ask their network to vote for their video. The videos are short, 3-20 seconds. Impact: The Big Check Page has about 6,800 fans, but Jackson Hewitt made this contest Page separate from its own Page, which only has about 5,300 Likes. So, Jackson Hewitt won't be able to reap the benefits of these 6,800 fans once the contest is over on its own Page. Thus far there are only 10 entries. How are top brands in the industry designing their Facebook marketing campaigns? See the Facebook Marketing Bible for detailed breakdowns of dozens of Featured Campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dating, Horoscopes, Quizzes and Profile Banners on the Top 20 Growing Facebook Apps by MAU Posted: 14 Mar 2011 07:46 AM PDT
Top Gainers This Week
Badoo continued the huge growth we've been seeing in the app since December this week by adding a whopping 5.5 million MAU, mostly from Mexico, France and Italy. Cupid, another Facebook dating app, is still far behind with only 452,000 MAU this week, but seems to be taking a cue from Badoo by incorporating the embarassing questions quizzes that Badoo has used to huge success. Basically, the app asks you strange questions about your Facebook friends, you click yes or no, and is actually quite engaging. You have the option with Cupid to publish your answer to a friend's Wall.
Two apps on the list are called Daily Horoscope. One Daily Horoscope came in second place with 2.1 million MAU this week and growth in the U.S., Philippines and France. This app asks you upon delivering your horoscope if you would like to have it delivered daily to your Wall, exponentially increasing the viral potential. The other Daily Horscope was seventh and saw 637,500 MAU this week; it allows you to see your horoscope, share it to your Wall, and then suggests you send it to all your friends with the same sign. Birthday Cards grew in the U.S., Indonesia and Canada to a total of 578,800 MAU this week; the app tells you which friends are currently having birthdays and you can send one card to dozens of people at one time. BandPage by RootMusic continued to grow, seeing 478,600 MAU this week, just after the company received an influx of cash.
There were two intelligence quizzes. The Thai การวิเคราะห์สมอง claims to analyze friends' brains and added 463,100 MAU; the app posts photos to your stream and tags your friends after you use it. Then, Intelligent Elite which grew by 371,100 MAU, has an interesting viral feature we've written about. The app forces you to tag about 20 people before you finish it, posting a story to the stream every time. Profile banners were also on the list, as they have been recently. Profile Top Banner saw more than 1 million MAU this week. Profilbanner auf Deutsch saw 340,400. Both do the same thing, publishing photo albums to your stream while displaying them as your profile banner. My Friend map, which saw 291,800 MAU this week, also publishes an album with a photo of a map of your Facebook friend network. Finally, two Asian language apps were on the list. Japanese 開心探寶 (treasure game) saw 280,200 MAU and 德州撲克(中文版) (Chinese Texas Hold'em poker) saw 391,500 MAU. The appearance of these apps hints at Asian growth which Facebook has been focusing on especially the past few months. |
Facebook bought ten companies last year, and 
There were some interesting new viral features on some of the applications on our list this week. The top 20 growing Facebook apps by monthly active users this week included dating apps Badoo and Cupid, several horoscope apps, birthday cards, BandPage, IQ quizzes, profile banner apps and a few Asian language apps. Our list is compiled using 
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