Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Roundup: Stock, Vietnam, Oregon Datacenter, Adaptly, Questions, Pixable, Cars and More
- Facebook Canvas Apps Vs Facebook Connect for Websites: A Quick Guide to What’s Best for You
- Facebook Ads Can Now Include or Exclude Existing Fans in “Friends of Connections” Target
- Video, Photos, Orkut, Connect, Quizzes and Roses on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps
| Facebook Roundup: Stock, Vietnam, Oregon Datacenter, Adaptly, Questions, Pixable, Cars and More Posted: 22 Apr 2011 10:00 PM PDT Facebook Unblocked in Vietnam? – Vietnam's telecom company, FPT, signed a partnership with Facebook this week wherein the company will help promote and sell ads, as well as consulting developing Vietnamese apps for Facebook. The news was reported in PC World Vietnam, which hints that Facebook may be unblocked in that country soon. Facebook Considers Censorship – Responding to questions about how Facebook sees working in countries that restrict free speech, aspokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that ”Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others. We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before.” Facebook, like Google and other tech companies, do censor some information in specific interests (Nazi propaganda in Germany being an easy example, or hate speech), but have so far resisted widespread censorship of users over political or cultural issues. Uganda Set to Block Facebook – Facebook is increasingly a target for blocking among governments, regardless of how it handles its service — the free-wheeling nature of the communication medium is what some fear. The government of Uganda is set to order ISPs there to block Twitter and Facebook in the face of widespread protests in the face of high food and fuel prices. Facebook Increases Lobbying Spending in DC — Although not by much. Spending is up to $230,00 in the first quarter of this year from $41,000 a year before. Other companies and organizations spend many millions of dollars per quarter.
Winklevoss Twins Are Back in Court, Again – Although last week we reported that the Winklevoss twins had lost their latest challenge in an ongoing series of lawsuits against Facebook, they're back. This time, the twins and another UConnect co-founder Divya Narendra, claim that Facebook hid instant messages that could have aided their cause during the course of their lawsuit (the newly-produced emails from a separate case against founder Mark Zuckerberg, from Paul Ceglia). One User's Question Goes Viral With 4M Votes – A random Facebook user, Heather Marie Hollingsworth, recently posted a question to her friends that ended up getting 4.11 million votes. AllThingsD reports that the virality designed into Facebook's Questions product was likely responsible, as Hollingsworth simply asked her network whether they wanted to stay on her friends list as she began to clean it out. Facebook Glitch Resets Email Notifications – Facebook reported it fixed a glitch that affected the amount of emails users receive from the social network, which users adjust in their account settings. All told users may receive email notifications for up to 73 different actions, such as being tagged in a photo.
FormSpring Names Former RockYou Executive as COO - Ro Choy, a former business executive at the social developer, is now the chief operating officer of the question and answer site that makes heavy use of Facebook features. Compete: Financial Services Ok on Facebook – Compete studied the state of financial services firms on Facebook and found that State Farm, Capital One, Progressive beat out iTunes and Ford. Pixable Raises $3.6M – Pixable, which created the Photofeed app that helps people discover their friends' photos, raised $3.6 million this week in a second round funding.
Which Green Cars Capture the Most Chatter? – Social media analytics company Infegy ran an analysis of which "green" vehicles captured the most social chatter. Their analysis found that the Chevy Volt, then Audi A3 Diesel and Ford Fusion Hybrid were the top three midsize cars, whereas compacts were the Toyota Prius, Mini E Electric and the Nissan Leaf. American Express Holds Small Business Contest – American Express Open and Facebook are partnering to hold a contest for small business owners to get a "small business makeover" at Facebook's headquarters. The contest will award 5 business owners an all-expense paid trip to Palo Alto, California for a two-day, one-on-one business makeover, along with $20,000 to revamp their business' social media strategy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Canvas Apps Vs Facebook Connect for Websites: A Quick Guide to What’s Best for You Posted: 22 Apr 2011 04:12 PM PDT
Facebook offers two parts of its platforms for developers, brands, and media publishers to build on. One is the Facebook canvas — the pages on Facebook.com where apps are located — and the other is Facebook Connect, the catch-all name for a variety of ways to integrate Facebook off the site. We’ve written out a brief guide below for marketers and developers who are thinking about where to build, with advice for specific goals like gaining widespread visibility or directly monetizing users. Note that while Facebook itself stopped using the “Connect” term in 2010, it’s still commonly used inside and outside the company to refer to non-canvas options, mainly the Graph API and the Open Graph protocol, but also Instant Personalization on third-party websites, “Facebook for Wesbsites”(which are Facebook social plugins), as well as other features, like its single sign-on service for Facebook-integrated mobile apps. For reference, Facebook Canvas apps are built in HTML iframes on Facebook.com as their own properties or as tabs on Facebook Pages. Connect sites are typically standard websites that have been augmented with Facebook functionality through embedded plugins and calls to Facebook’s APIs.
AccessibilityCanvas Apps are readily accessible to Facebook’s enormous user base, though all their users must have a Facebook account. They can quickly navigate to them via search, through posts mentioning them in their news feed, or through their Facebook bookmarks in the site’s left sidebar Since roughly half of all Facebook users return to the site each day, these bookmarks may receive a lot of impressions. Canvas apps are not accessible from mobile devices (although some developers create mobile apps that closely pattern themselves after canvas apps). Giving an app extended permissions feels like a more natural part of the Facebook experience when on Canvas. Apps that don’t require any private information or access can instantly use a Facebook user’s public information without requiring any log in or permissions since users are already logged in. Canvas apps are best for developers looking to target users who likely to already be Facebook users. Connect Sites don’t require users to have a Facebook account if the app can function without a user’s Facebook information, making them accessible to the entire internet. They can be accessed from mobile devices. Users can use traditional browser bookmarks to find their way back to Connect sites. Connect Sites are best for sites that would benefit from Facebook information but don’t require it, and that are targeted at demographics that may be less likely to have Facebook accounts, such as seniors and those from developing countries. Growth and ViralityCanvas Apps have a “built in audience” or can quickly convert Facebook users into their own users. Users may feel more comfortable publishing content to Facebook from Canvas Apps since they’re already on Facebook and in a sharing mindset. When users install a Canvas app, it may generate an App Discovery news feed story, informing their friends of the install and bringing new users to the app. Users can @ mention Canvas apps in their posts.
Content and AppearanceCanvas Apps must live within Facebook’s user interface, and therefore are somewhat restricted in the overall aesthetic experience they present. In terms of content, it may be more difficult to pull data streams from third-party sites and social networks such as Twitter into Canvas apps. Users are accustomed to rapidly clicking around Facebook and switching from one Page to the next, so Canvas apps are best kept simple and punchy, or should be designed with mechanisms to keep users engaged or frequently revisiting. Connect Sites have complete freedom over the look of their apps, outside of using the standard Facebook Connect buttons. It’s easy to pull in outside data streams, and sites may have more leeway in terms of showing objectionable content on their Connect site than in a Canvas app. With a less frantic browsing pace than Facebook, Connect works better for content heavy sites where the user may need to do some digging before having the experience they desire. Direct MonetizationCanvas Apps can use Facebook Credits as their payment method (and all games must do so as of July 1st, 2011), making payments more accessible, as users may already have a balance of Credits However, Credits come with a 30% tax that goes to Facebook. Non-games can process payments however they want, and do not need to pay Facebook’s tax.
Connect Sites cannot use Facebook Credits, although Facebook has done some off-site testing. Instead the must process payments directly or use an intermediary such as PayPal. Connect games do not have to pay a 30% tax to Facebook. Some users may feel more comfortable entering their payment details outside of Facebook. Advertising SpaceCanvas Apps may only use advertising providers that have been approved by Facebook. Facebook’s own ads are shown in the right sidebar, which may clutter a Canvas app’s experience without earning its developer any money. Connect Sites may use any advertising provider they want, or choose not to show any ads at all. Both Canvas and Connect sites can user Facebook’s social context and Sponsored Stories ad units. Implementation, Documentation, and AnalyticsCanvas Apps have existed for longer, so there are more documentation articles and forum discussions, as well as a more robust developer community available to help guide you. Facebook has also made a commitment to improving communication with Canvas developers, so they may receive more advance notice of changes than Connect developers. Connect Sites are designed to be easy to create, with many of Facebook’s social plugins only requiring a few code insertions to get running. However, the Connect Platform is younger, so there are less available resources. Both Canvas apps and Connect sites can use Facebook’s native analytics tool Insights to track their growth and traffic. Conclusion: Canvas for Growth, Connect for Flexibility and More ReferralsCanvas apps hav become a familiar part of the Facebook experience. With sharing seeming natural, several automatic viral distribution channels, and hundreds of millions of users just clicks away, apps looking for rapid growth may be best suited for Facebook Canvas. “Connect” is quickly becoming a crucial social layer for existing websites, and is also facilitating the creation of new sites that require personal information. Apps with a wide appeal that can function without Facebook information, but that provide the most valuable experience when a user provides their social data are best developed as Facebook Connect sites. Light implementations like the Like button can also serve to boost referral traffic with minimal coding work. For in-depth information about specific Facebook for Websites products, here are a list of other Facebook Marketing Bible articles. You can access all of them through joining the service, details about which you can find here.
In addition, check out these articles from Inside Facebook:
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| Facebook Ads Can Now Include or Exclude Existing Fans in “Friends of Connections” Target Posted: 22 Apr 2011 11:04 AM PDT In Facebook’s latest monthly Facebook Ads Newsletter, it announced that advertisers now have the option to include or exclude existing fans of their Page, users of their app, or attendees of their Event in ads targeted to “Friends of Connections” — friends of existing fans, users, or attendees. Previously, those already connected to an advertiser’s Facebook property were automatically excluded. The change allows advertisers to gain new connections and re-engage their existing connections with a single ad, or specifically target ads to those who are connected and have friends who are connected as well. The change has been applied retroactively, so any ongoing Friends of Connections ad campaigns will now appear to existing connections unless they’re explicitly excluded.
Launched in November 2009, Friends of Connections ads show social context, or the names of a viewer’s friends who are already connected to the Facebook Page, app, or Event being advertised. This social context creates an implicit recommendation for the ad’s destination by a friend, increasing trust and click-through rates. Now the “Connections on Facebook” targeting section of the ads creator shows a check box to activate Friends of Connections targeting for the destination of the ad. Radio buttons allow advertisers to refine Friends of Connections targeting to “Anyone” — connections and non-connections alike, only people who are connected, or only people who are not connected. Advertisers can click the “Advanced connection targeting” button to reveal options to include or exclude connections to other Facebook properties they control.
In some cases, advertisers may only be seeking to generate new connections not re-engage existing connections. They would then want to check the Friends of Connections box, and set their radio button to “Only people who are not fans/using/attending”. Meanwhile, apps or Pages that depend on network effect can now choose to only target existing connections with friends that are connected too. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Video, Photos, Orkut, Connect, Quizzes and Roses on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps Posted: 22 Apr 2011 08:02 AM PDT
Videos, as well as Facebook Live video stream app, photos, Orkut, Page tab apps, Connect apps, a German rose app and and Italian quiz app made our list of emerging Facebook applications by monthly active users this week. The apps on the list this week gained between 111,200 and 400,500 MAU. The list of top 20 emerging apps was compiled based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook and covers apps that grew the most in the past week, ending at between 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users. Top Gainers This Week
Komedi Kral is a Turkish video app that topped our list with 400,500 MAU; the app allows users to watch, Like and share videos on Facebook. Then there was Facebook Live, Facebook's official live streaming channel from the company's Palo Alto, California headquarters. The app grew 221,500 MAU this week, mostly in the U.S., and President Barack Obama's Wednesday town hall meeting held there may have been a part of this app's growth. A couple Page tab applications were on the list. FMBL Tab Maker added 352,100 MAU and My Tab 119,900. Both apps allow Page administrators to create customized Page tabs.
Photos made an appearance on the list in several forms. 60 Photos pulls photos from your friends' Facebook albums and allows you to either click "nice" or "pass." Each time you click "nice" the app publishes a story to your friends' Wall. The app grew about 294,000 MAU. MigraKut is an interesting app out of Brazil that appears to signal that Orkut users are migrating to Facebook is large numbers. The app grew 166,500 MAU and promises to help users migrate their Orkut photos to Facebook in a few simple clicks. Finally there was Banner de perfil en espagnol, which grew by 142,200 MAU and is a profile banner app that appears to be aimed at teenagers, based on the alternating raunchy and depressing photo themes. But the app has grown quickly probably in part because a total of 3 feed stories are generated when using it. First the app publishes a feed story, then a story is published that the user has created a new photo album, then a story that the user was tagged in this album is published.
A few Connect apps. MyPad for iPad added 268,200 MAU this week; the app is a Facebook for iPad app. Then the LiveProfile smartphone messenger service had a Connect app that grew by 209,800 MAU this week. Wrapping it up was Verschenke eine Rose, a German app allowing users to send their friends virtual roses, publishing a feed story in the process. The app grew by 163,300 MAU. An Italian app, Adevar sau Provocare, grew by 116,000 MAU; the app is something of a quiz app of a user's friends, posting answers to the Walls of their friends when a question is answered about them. But what's interesting is, when this feed story is generated, the app creates a comment from the user asking their friend to "Send me a challenge or respond to a question." Come back next Monday when we’ll look at the top 20 Facebook apps by MAU. |
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