Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Platform Update: PHP SDK 3.0.0 Arrives, Client-Side Re-Authentication, & More
- USA Network’s Chatter Aggregates Conversations About TV Shows From Facebook and More
- Featured Facebook Campaigns: Lancôme, Nivea, Cost Plus World Market, Allstate, Budweiser and Axe
- Pages, Music, Badoo, Videos and More on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by MAU
| Platform Update: PHP SDK 3.0.0 Arrives, Client-Side Re-Authentication, & More Posted: 23 May 2011 04:44 PM PDT In the most significant update for developers from last week, Facebook pushed out the latest version of its PHP SDK late last week, well ahead of its self-imposed deadline of July 1st. The move is part of the company’s wider effort to increase security around users and their data, in the face of evidence showing data leaks. The new PHP SDK, version 3.0.0, improves from the previous 2.2.x version by using the industry-standard OAuth authentication standard over Facebook’s prior flow. It delineates between two classes of data, one for most data, and a separate class for handling user IDs and access tokens — IDs and tokens have at various points been reported to be leaking out of applications, potentially allowing third parties to gather data and access users without the proper permissions. Facebook is telling developers who only use the PHP SDK to update now; those using the Javascript SDK should wait four weeks, until Facebook introduces that updated version as well. The timeline, via the Facebook developer blog post on the topic (which you should also check for coding examples and more detail on the transition).
On a related note, Facebook reiterated developers in its weekly update last Friday that they should run through a check-list of causes if they discover that user access tokens have expired. Some offline mode tokens were leaking, security firm Symantec discovered recently. Facebook said in the post that among other reasons, it could invalidate access tokens for security reasons — the reminder could be due in part to Facebook expiring tokens that it believes were compromised. The weekly post included a few other notable items, too. Facebook recently introduced a server-side method for developers to require users to re-authenticate passwords to confirm identities, such as when they are clicking to complete a purchase on a shared computer; now it is also introducing a client-side method to do the same. And, as of tomorrow, Facebook will remove the old version of the Insights dashboard, as it rolls out the new version. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| USA Network’s Chatter Aggregates Conversations About TV Shows From Facebook and More Posted: 23 May 2011 11:20 AM PDT Cable television’s USA Network recently launched an app called Chatter that allows a specific TV show’s viewers to converse with fellow fans and engage with a streams of official content aggregated from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Flickr, live chat and forums. Chatter’s synced web and Facebook apps provides a destination for real-time conversation and auxiliary content consumption around TV shows that can increase participation and live viewership.
USA Digital first launched the HTML5 web version of Chatter in October for its shows Burn Notice and Psych. Chatter features three streams: a feed of “All” user and official content; a “Curated” feed of just content from official accounts, writers, actors, and producers; and a “Live” feed which displays uStream question and answer sessions with talent from the shows when available. Chatter posts from users may also be shown on a ticker during the broadcast of TV shows, adding an extra incentive to participate. It launched the iframe Facebook Page tab app version at the beginning of May for the pro wrestling show Tough Enough and it inspired a 10% increase in user wall posts to the show’s Page. Users can invite their friends using an invite button (which actually produces a share dialog). As the web and Facebook versions of the app are synced versions of the app are hosted on the show’s site and Facebook Page, there are multiple access points for the aggregated content. Without Chatter, fans would have to bounce between bounce between all of a show’s different branded content channels. This friction leads to drop-off, and prevents cross-channel conversation where users might read a tweet or a view a YouTube video but could reply through Facebook. It also limits the reach of content posted to any one channel. Jesse Redniss, vice president of digital for USA Network, tells us that giving added exposure to user generated content through Chatter “makes the fan environment more inviting because it’s not a blackhole.” Early response to the Chatter has been positive. It has reached a peak of 25,000 concurrent users and 250,000 unique users to date, with an average of 20% of users actively submitting content. Redniss explained that it was essential for the app to live on Facebook and pull in data from the social network because Facebook is more conversational, whereas it wasn’t seeing as high a rate of replies to its Twitter accounts. On Twitter there is “less of an overall community response. On Facebook a piece of content might get 600 Likes. That has a large impact that we haven’t seen from Twitter.”
In June, Chatter will be rolled out on Pages for all of USA’s shows. The development team hopes to add private fan-to-fan chat, and it is working with Facebook to offer exclusive content to those that invite their friends in a manner that doesn’t violate policy. The team should also consider allowing users to opt to cross-post what they write in Chatter to Facebook and Twitter to increase virality. Chatter centralizes conversations and auxiliary official content to create a real-time secondary form of entertainment that encourages users to post show-related content to their networks by giving it additional visibility to other serious fans. The conversation also incentivizes users to experience live television broadcasts. This should make the Chatter concept appeal to all TV studios and networks as they see their audiences drift towards piracy, watching through a DVR where they can skip commercials, or through an online streaming service which generate fewer ad dollars and cross-promotion opportunities. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Featured Facebook Campaigns: Lancôme, Nivea, Cost Plus World Market, Allstate, Budweiser and Axe Posted: 23 May 2011 09:00 AM PDT Brands made some good use of leveraging Facebook's platform this week. Lancôme used photos to show users how good they could look with its makeup products, Nivea leveraged its sponsorship of a Rihanna concert to grow its Page and Cost Plus used a sweepstakes to simultaneously bulk up its email marketing list. Allstate, Budweiser and Axe also had interesting ways of engaging fans and growing Pages this week. We've excerpted two of the 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.
Lancôme's House of Color Makeup AppGoal: Page Growth, Network Exposure, Brand Loyalty, Product Purchase, Engagement Core Mechanic: An app that allows users to try out Lancôme's latest brand of eye shadow products on their own photo on Facebook. Method: The House of Color app on the Lancôme Page asks a user to select a photo either from Facebook or upload one, choose the shape of your eye, then apply the makeup to your photo. Once you do so, you can either download the photo, or share it to Facebook, Twitter or email. Also, users may click on "Shop" to purchase the eye shadow in question on the Lancôme website. The app is not only an original use of Facebook photos, but very tightly woven into the Facebook photo interface. Lancôme here uses Facebook at every stage of the app to sell its products. Impact: Currently the Lancôme Page counts about 357,300 Likes.
Nivea's Rihanna Live SweepstakesGoal: Page Growth, Brand Loyalty, Network Exposure, Engagement Core Mechanic: A sweepstakes sponsored by Nivea where users can enter to win either tickets to a Rihanna concert or a grand prize of meeting Rihanna. Method: Nivea is one of the sponsors of Rihanna's current tour and so is sponsoring the Rihanna Live sweepstakes, where Nivea Facebook fans may win tickets to the singer's North American LOUD Tour this summer. The company is giving out a pair of tickets to about a dozen stops on Rihanna's tour with a grand prize of a trip to New Jersey with airfare, hotel and a meet and greet. Because the promotion is Like-gated and because Rihanna's much more sizable fan base also sees Nivea's products there are several opportunities to grow Nivea’s Page here. Additionally, because Rihanna is, like many pop stars, also something of a fashion and beauty icon, her partnership with Nivea allows the company to reach her millions of female fans with her implicit endorsement. Impact: Nivea's Facebook Page has 196,400 Likes on Facebook and Rihanna's Page, which promotes Nivea's products also has 33.4 million Likes. 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pages, Music, Badoo, Videos and More on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by MAU Posted: 23 May 2011 08:08 AM PDT
Top Gainers This Week
The Page tab apps on our list all basically allow users to create customized Page tabs of the iframe, FBML or HTML variety. Static HTML: iframe tabs grew by 5.9 million MAU, Profile HTML grew by about 1.3 million MAU, HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa grew by 1 million MAU and Welcome Tab for Pages by 851,900 MAU.
BandPage by RootMusic grew by 951,900 MAU this week while VEVO for Artists, which places music videos on a tab on a Facebook Page, and grew by 555,100 MAU. These two apps have been growing consistently on Facebook over the past few months and weeks. The 60 Photos app grew by 2.9 million MAU; the app allowing users to click "nice" or "pass" on the photos of their Facebook friends, then posts the answer to their Wall. Badoo grew by 2.4 million MAU and asks users questions about their friends' dating and friendship habits, then posts the answer to their Wall.
Daily Horoscope is a Turkish app that grew by 1.9 million MAU, allowing users to see their daily horoscopes, offering them the chance to share the app with their friends who have the same sign and posting daily to a user's Wall. Videohane is another Turkish app with 1.2 million new MAU this week that's also a video app. Last but not least the friend.ly app grew by 678,300 MAU. All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday. |
Page tab applications were big on our list of top 20 Facebook applications by monthly active users this week, there were also a few music-related apps that are growing, as well as dating, horoscope, video and the friend.ly app. Apps on our list grew from between 494,000 and 5.9 million MAU during the past week. The list is compiled using 
| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |