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Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook testing ‘Want’ button plugin

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 06:17 PM PDT

Facebook appears to be testing a new “Want” button plugin similar to its popular Like button.

Developer Tom Waddington from Cut Out + Keep discovered that a Want button has been added to the Facebook Javascript SDK as an XFBML tag – <fb:wants>. The button is not publicly listed among the other social plugins on Facebook’s developer site. Waddington says the button will only work on Open Graph objects marked as “products.”

With Open Graph, developers have been able to create their own “want” actions, but users have to authorize a third-party app in order for those buttons to generate stories on Timeline and News Feed. If the Want button plugin works similarly to the Like button, users will not have to go through the step of authorizing an app. This means even more users will be likely to click it.

Just as the Like button allowed Facebook to collect massive amounts of data about users’ interests, the Want button could be a key way for the social network to collect desire-based data. A Want button plugin will make it easy for e-commerce and other sites to implement this type of Facebook functionality without having to build their own apps. Many of these sites are already using the Like button, but Liking a product could mean users already have it or that they are interested in getting it. Being able to distinguish between these groups of people and target ads to either one could be very powerful for advertisers and help make Facebook a stronger competitor to Google AdWords.

Although publishing “Want” actions is currently disabled by Facebook, Waddington was able to implement a version of the button on his own site. Clicking the Want button returns an error for now.

We’re waiting to hear back from Facebook for more details on when this might be rolled out and how exactly it will work.

‘See your ad here’ module encourages developers to promote their apps with Sponsored Stories

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 12:14 PM PDT

In an effort to pick up more advertisers, Facebook is testing a new module that gives developers a preview of what Sponsored Stories for their app might look like.

The modules, which tend to appear on app canvas pages, are eye-catching since they include the name and image from a developer or admin's own applications. These also might encourage developers to consider running Sponsored Stories instead of traditional Facebook ads with a headline, image and body copy.

Sponsored Stories tend to have higher clickthrough rates and lower costs per click than other Facebook ads. They are also the only type of ads that can be shown in News Feed or on mobile. These ads have smaller reach than traditional ads because they only target users who have friends that have used an app recently. Specifically, users’ app activity is eligible to be included in Sponsored Stories if they have used an app for at least four minutes in the last 14 days or if they have used the app twice ever with one of those times occurring in the last 14 days.

In addition to “app used” Sponsored Stories like the ones Facebook is currently promoting with the “See Your Ad Here” module, developers who have integrated Open Graph can pay to sponsor more specific actions that users take within their app. For example, a game could sponsor stories about users earning achievements, or a fitness app could sponsor stories about users tracking their workouts. Developers can preview these kinds of Sponsored Stories with the action spec demo tool.

Open Graph apps can now publish multiple photos and use third-party location data

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 11:11 AM PDT

Facebook now lets developers attach multiple photos to Open Graph actions and use their own location data for Open Graph actions and objects, according to a post on the company’s developer blog.

Previously developers could only include one photo along with Open Graph stories, and apps had to use Facebook place IDs in order for location information to be integrated into a user’s profile and News Feed. With the additional location support, developers can create their own place objects or use a third-party location service, like Foursquare, and still benefit from their stories appearing on a user’s Timeline map and in News Feed stories and aggregations.

These are key enhancements that build upon changes Facebook made in April to allow developers to create richer Open Graph stories, including changing its API to let Open Graph apps publish large user-generated photos and giving the option to add locations to actions users take within apps.

More technical information about implementing location tagging and multiple photos from Open Graph apps is available from the Facebook developer site.

Facebook reminds page owners which ‘voice’ they are using to post to their pages

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 09:20 AM PDT

Facebook has added a reminder above pages that users own to make it clear whether they are posting as themselves or on behalf of the page.

A light blue bar stretches across the top of the page telling page owners which “voice” they are using to post, Like and comment. There is an option to easily switch between the page and a user’s personal profile. The feature will help page owners avoid mistakenly posting or taking other actions as the wrong voice. However, it feels like a Band-Aid where the social network may need more of a product overhaul.

The new “voice” reminder does not integrate with the “use Facebook as a page” feature. When users switch between voices, they are not being logged in as a page. The actions they take on the page they own will come from the voice of the page, but once they navigate to another page, they are posting as themselves again. The voice reminder doesn’t follow users to other parts of the site and it doesn’t give page owners options to switch to using Facebook as a page or change their posting settings. Those two features were always buried and not explained particularly well. Now, Facebook has eliminated the “posting preferences” option from page settings. This means that users cannot set a default for whether they want to take action as themselves or as a page. When page owners visit their pages, the new feature defaults to the most recent “voice” used for that page, which may or not be helpful for different people.

“Use Facebook as a page” seemed like a game-changing feature for page owners when it came out in February 2011, but it’s unclear how many people use it for moderating their page and responding to posts on other pages across the site. Facebook hasn’t made any push to get page owners to use it, and it seemed neglected in the Timeline redesign. For example, the News Feed publisher box was left outdated for several months until last week. We wondered whether “use Facebook as a page” would be phased out, though Facebook told us in April that it would continue to support it.

When Facebook added the ability to view page notifications without having to switch to using Facebook as a page, “use Facebook as a page” became less necessary. And with many page owners now using third-party software for moderation and publishing, the type of advanced user who would use the feature no longer had need for it. However, a key aspect of “use Facebook as a page” is the ability to write on other pages on behalf of a brand or organization. Liking users’ comments or responding to their questions on other fan pages is important for page owners to build and maintain customer relationships. For now this is still available, but it’s unclear whether Facebook will move away from this completely or find another way to implement it through the new “voice” bar above pages.

fredag den 29. juni 2012 at 07.52