05.16.08
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media, Social Tools, Web Business at 9:22 am by Mosey
Recently every time I am pitching a social project the word “Facebook” comes up. Not surprising it is the social media tool of the year, until the next one comes along, and that site which is capturing the exact demographic most companies are looking for. It is “fun” or at least “more fun than Linkedin” as I am told.
The bonus is anyone with a budget can get a piece of the Facebook pie. In the genius of Facebook
they don’t have to do all the work and people still flock. I know people who showed up just to be on a certain app that they like to play. Cost to Facebook $0. Profit to Facebook, lots.
Of course not only can you promote your product through some widget, you can also make some cash if you have the right game set-up. It’s not easy and I haven’t seen any that are terribly profitable, but it can happen.
With that, here are 10 things about Facebook everyone should know:
1. A Facebook Application is not magical, it is like any other web application.
For that matter, web applications are not magical either. They are no different from a shopping cart or a filter on a datagrid. There is data, logic and display. The difference is in a Facebook Page, the display is fancy and the logic is something you would not normally do on a web page. You could easily take just about any mini-tool on your website and reconfigure it.
The main point of a Facebook app though is engagement in a vacuum, where on your website they are hunting and pecking for YOUR information. Your product catalog isn’t going to get anyone excited even though it is the same technology as “find a new friend based on 4 random letters.”
2. Facebook Applications can be programmed in any language
PHP is what Facebook’s own site is programmed, so the library you get as a developer comes in PHP. What this means is the script kiddies have a development advantage. However, as long as you use the FB API properly (and there is a library available for most any language) you can use whatever language you want. I do my Facebook apps in Coldfusion. I have seen them in .net, perl, even straight HTML/Javascript. If you can program you can probably program a Facebook App, it is just more syntax to learn. Which brings me to.
3. A Facebook application doesn’t need to “do” anything
A Facebook “Application” can be a single page. I have seen them as “I support” type pages, or an invite. Because when you add an application it tells your friends this can still be viral. It can still get word out to small circles well. No, it won’t be the next hot thing like Dogbook, but if you have a small local audience people will at least click and see what this application is. There is practically free advertising for hooking into the API. Really, there doesn’t have to be any “interaction” at all.
4. A Facebook Application can be as big or as small as you like.
You can create an entire virtual world in a Facebook application. It is hosted on your server, maintained by your people, so do with it what you want. Facebook development is as complicated as you make it. Most are three to five actions (buy, sell, invite, fight/compare, purchase) because those are small, addictive and easy to use. But you can create 70 action sites with their own sub-menus, economies, logins, etc. As much as you want to spend time and money you can make it that.
5. When Open Social gets rolling that Facebook Application can work other places with some tweaking
Google, of course, is leading the way and created Open Social. So far it hasn’t caught on, but it will. There are still some questions on security and so on but the idea is this, the App you created in Facebook will also use the Open Social API.
To un-tech that down a bit, if you are on Friendster and your buddy loves Hi5, you can still play the same game, and see their updates because OpenSocial talks to both networks at the same time. Now, Facebook has yet to sign onto Open Social because they have the lion’s share of the market, why should they? But the Open Social API will work a lot like the FBML language for Facebook, it won’t be a complete re-write to take that FB app and make it a myspace AND friendster AND Yahoo application.
6. Yes, you can display your logo on a Facebook Application
There is this rumor going around that you can’t brand your Facebook Application or have it link off Facebook. This is crap. What you can’t do on Facebook is use it as an adwords server, sell advertising to other companies, automatically link people to new pages, require downloads or “force” invite friends on install.
What you can do is, link to your site as an option, plaster your logo everywhere, suggest (and reward) invites of friends, say pretty much whatever you want and design it how you feel. Sure you can use it simply as a sales tool but that isn’t going to be popular. There should still be a fun “catch” some place.
7. Facebook Apps tell people’s friends when they are installed and used
This is really the biggest advantage of a Facebook Application. Jane Popular has 200 friends. When she installs your Application it gets listed as an update for her. The next time her 200 friends log on they see Jane installed your new toy. They get curious and some of them install it too, then their friends see the same message and so on.
Even better if Jane Popular likes your game, tracker, whatever, you can put an update on her newsfeed that a new level was reached, a trivia contest was passed a survey was taken, whatever (you can update a person’s profile 5 times a day as they use your product), that also is an alert friends see.
Plus, you get your own little ad space on their profile of their current rank, setting, whatever. Your application advertises itself in a big way.
8. Facebook shares user information with you
When someone installs a Facebook application they essentially login. Now, some information you don’t get, like direct email addresses, but some you do, like their city, zip code, political preference, and very important groups they are in and their friends list.
Whatever information they filled in you can get (and save to your own database!) Now, they get to choose if you ever get to send them email, or update their home page but most people let you do as you want and leave all the boxes checked when they install. You can base your logic off this, pre-set information for them or just horde it for yourself.
You can email them using the Facebook language so you don’t get direct emails but can still communicate to their inbox outside of Facebook. This is great for “remind me” applications.
Touching on that friends list a bit, you know how whenever you sell something you say “tell your friends” Well, that is a built in function to Facebook apps. You can highly encourage it. i.e. see advanced results after you invite 10 friends” or “double your play cash with each friend that signs up.” It is like networking gold!
9. Facebook Applications are at a premium but they shouldn’t be
On freelance job boards now I see e-commerce sites and web design going for half or less what it should on the open market. Yet, Facebook applications are “at price” which means they are a bit of a premium. I could sell a 5 page Facebook application for twice, or more what I sell an equally hard five page website for.
This premium is artificial because, remember all a Facebook application contains is the same programming your website can have (it is even on YOUR website). When that programmer says scary things like “FBML” and “Facebook talk-back” scoff and say if they have that hard a time learning it they might not be right for you anyway.
The premium is there because most people don’t realize how easy and simple some of these smaller applications are, and because they aren’t templated like a blog or a three column home page layout. There is still an illusion of expertise because Facebook applications are less than a year old and most marketing and PR firms are just now looking into how to use them.
10. Having a Facebook Application is not unlike any other “viral” tool
Most important, just like any other “viral ” tool, having a Facebook Application does not mean it will be successful. It can still suck, and no one will use it. Now, it can get a little help, and there is networking automatically in place, but really, if it is just your business card it won’t get talked about and spread. There should be a good idea behind it, there should be a cause, reason or fun item to do, otherwise, start a group Those are also advertised on update and profile pages, and FAR easier to do).
It is no different than putting a video on Youtube, it doesn’t mean anyone will see it unless it is entertaining in some way.
Hopefully this took some of the mystery and wonder out of Facebook Applications. Now, go think of that cool idea, diagram it and go make yourself popular.
Technorati Tags: facebook, Open Social, social networking
Permalink
05.08.08
Posted in Social Media, Social Tools, Web Business at 5:05 pm by Mosey
I keep reading about the death of Facebook. How people are sick of it, how people are tired of it, how people aren’t going to use it for applications. And yet, every company I know is looking to make an app, people who weren’t on Facebook a week ago are addicted now. Hell, Myspace is already not meeting projections and may be considered a drag on News Corp.
It is hard to remember that as social media early adapters we are onto the next big thing while the real big thing may still be getting hot. I am sure in six months we will be reading about how Twitter is all player out and some new gizmo is so much the rage. And then all my friends will finally get Twitter accounts, and four years after that my mom will want to know how you direct message.
I am not at all worried since the real power of social media is never going away now that we have it. Because social media is about friends, social networking is about talking to people.We are social, this is just a new medium. We always want to tell people what we think, I get twitter reviews of a restaurant during dinner, updates on shows in message boards as the live broadcast happens, you think that is going away? The tools may change just as we went from horse to car to plane, but we are still always on the move.
And if you are planning a new social media launch, David Alston, by way of Lee Odden talks about ten things to watch when launching a site. I think some of the tips are a bit… well if you are getting so much traffic you can watch that many people talk about that many items, then things are pretty good.
Permalink
05.01.08
Posted in Best Practices, Social Tools, Web Business at 10:51 am by Mosey
A few days ago I had an idea, a brilliant, can’t fail, idea no one has tried before… ok, maybe not, but it seemed like a good idea. Using the @zappos genius of twitter-marketing as a reference, I thought I saw a market opportunity.
Create a site that sells tweets. I know, sounds unethical but stick with me. People buy tweets, the followers can get deals. Offers of discount codes for 45 minutes or free things, etc. It is a micro-economy to a specialized group, but what it a few more tweets. When I don’t have people buying I’ll even donate or do good for non-profits based on replies or new follows.
There are rules, all sign ups are voluntary, no information (not even a sign up) is required to follow, and a limited number of tweets a day. On top of that, hold daily drawings for cash. You follow, you can win a few bucks. Simple enough.
For buyers, you get a captive, technology saavy audience who follows and recognizes good products who you can ask to take surveys, give things away to, promote discounts to, etc.
Simple model, I built the website. Welcome www.tweetbag.com Or I should say, 24 hours ago welcome tweetbag.com
Now, I knew that there is no way advertisers will pay to talk to 10 people, not at the prices I am asking for. I need people to follow, literally thousands of people. I figured that is tough, but not impossible at all. I am on some nice mailing lists, have friends, have twitter addicts following me, just tell them. I did a little social seeding on “deals” sites, and started a couple topics on twitter forums.
And.. sit back and wait for people to follow and tell others… still waiting…. still waiting…. damnit.
This launch was a failure. An utter and complete failure that fell down so hard I think I may need to take it to the emergency room.
Luckily I did this site as more of an experiment than a venture. Worst case it fails I am out a couple hundred bucks and some of my time.
It’s not dead yet! Since I am sure I am not the first person to fail on a site launch (people told me it is an “interesting idea”) let’s look what went wrong. Something obviously went wrong. Hopefully this will help you do things better.
Viral is needed:I know, it isn’t exactly a good business model something needs to become viral among thousands to work, however, if there is any place that could happen with some sort of relative success is a good idea on Twitter. It’s not just for twittervision you know. Twitters are obsessive, addictive and love new things. They recognize a good idea and don’t mind a little “noise” to learn or get something new. Still, making that your business model, not recommended.
No one uses Twitter: I use it, my friends use it, but more of my friends don’t. I am working in a medium which is used by a minority (last I heard about 10% of regular internet user are on Twitter). Everyone has email and a browser, so the deals site work well. But even when I get into those areas, I am still fighting that 90% of the readers say “what is Twitter?” with my social seeding to an audience that should have high interest.
Twitters didn’t notice: When I told people I got a few personal responses, but even friends didn’t really sign up. I bet with a little pressure they would since people sign up to things like @amazondeals and whatnot. Maybe it isn’t trendy, maybe it doesn’t seem real… not sure yet. This is the “mystery” to me, why are people who do know not following?
Takes money to make money: When uber-social guy and twitter’r @jowyang got back from vacation he got more hits and comments on his vacation photos than I get in, well maybe ever. My network isn’t nearly as big. Unless one of the super users of Twitter picks me up, I can only do so much. I can say it, say it again and if it fails, well that is it.
You can’t buy a jump start: You can’t buy twitter follows. There isn’t a mailing list that gets people to follow you. It has to be spam free, free will and on purpose. As far as I know there isn’t an auto script to get people to follow you (wouldn’t use it anyway). It isn’t a product launch that, for example, I can buy ads and hope traffic shows up. That isn’t the market, it isn’t the strategy.
Maybe the idea sucks: Possible. Not sure. Amazon only has a couple hundred people following. This is amazon.com, yeesh! Not that 3000, or 5000 users is impossible, it just needs to get out there. But, what if it gets out there and still no one cares? For the record I don’t think this is a cause but I have to consider it.
Can things still turn around? Sure, there can still be a viral bump some place (lend a bother a follow?) a little press a blog here and there and it could go big… but it will take some help, assuming the idea doesn’t suck.
Oh yeah, did I mention I am giving away $10 in cash every day to someone just for following 
Technorati Tags: twitter, marketing, social strategy
Permalink
04.26.08
Posted in Best Practices, Social Tools at 9:13 am by Mosey
Someone sent me a story last week or so on a guy who was banned from google. I know, people get banned every day so this had better be good.
Well, it is.
This particular gentleman had a great use of Facebook applications to drive traffic to his site (and improve his SEO). Make an app (I think it was a horoscope) and have a link to his site (it was a dating site). People add the app, Google picks up all these links back with good key phrases “best dating for free” and whatnot. Pretty smart cookie.
Here is the banned part. He started expanding the message and changed the link to a second business of his. Goggle got upset that he wasn’t linking to the serving site and was just “advertising.” Thus,they banned him for link-farming.
Now, we all know what a Google ban does for you. It is like having yourself blacklisted from using your thumbs every day. You can still survive but a lot of things get a lot harder.
Even when this guy changed the link back, Google said no. He even moved his apps to a new link and it is moving slowly, but he is being careful because he is on double-secret-probation from Google.
I found it interesting as a study in something really smart getting on the bad side of Google for changing the equation a bit. I am glad Google is watching but this guy sounds like he made amends and after his (admitted) mistake tried to make things better. But the Google god is a vengeful one and smite him good.
Be careful with your one-off brilliant ideas on your already established site. You don’t want to lose your thumbs.
For the life of me I can’t find this story any more. I remember the details but my google-fu is weak today and I can not find the story. If you have it, please link to it in the comments.
Technorati Tags: google banned, facebook applications, social media
Permalink
04.15.08
Posted in Social Tools at 8:24 am by Mosey
I touched on this a bit in my own post about “random” followers but, Seocracy.com has a good article on how one would properly spam twitter if one wanted to. Oh and if they were an unethical SOB. I do agree with him that even on the high end you aren’t talking OMG hit numbers (more on that in another post).
Don’t get me wrong, spamming on twitter isn’t the internet worst case scenario, however, it is annoying.
Yes, this is a couple day late but I was interviewing all day yesterday and also wanted to conduct a bit of an experiment (more on that later too).
Technorati Tags: twitter, SEM
Permalink
04.12.08
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media, Social Tools at 12:57 pm by Mosey
Yesterday around noon I got a tweet from @MichelleBB that @Zappos was holding a content. At the end of the day @Zappos (Zappos CEO Tony ) was going to pick one person following him to win a free pair of shoes. A couple hours later he also said he’d give a free pair of shoes to upto 10 followers of that winner who are also following.
A pair of shoes for Zappos is no big deal for sure. So this was a goodwill investment for Tony. As soon as I got the announcement (and followed!) I saw that his following count was a little over 200.
Three hours later as the word filtered through the internet his followed counted over 400. By the time he gave the shoes away to @rotkapchen there were over 1000 followers.
This morning the followers were back down to 966 but Tony will show those early leavers. He just a couple minutes ago announced:
I want to meet more customers. On Monday, I will select a random @zappos follower for free trip for 2 to Vegas for office tour & lunch w/ me
I really think this this twitter strategy is brilliant. Sure the plane tickets are a cost but he could have done this shoes give away could have been once a week and he would have thousands of people following.
What that really means is thousands of technophiles, glued to their computers most of the day listening to any “commercial” he has about a new feature, or a sale or anything. His cost a few hundred dollars a week.
Don’t think this is the last person to do this. It has been getting a lot of buzz on the blog circuit. As well, the winner blogged about her Zappos win as well as the friends winners.
If you have a e-commerce site and can afford a hundred bucks a week you too can harness some Twitter power and get a, fairly-rabid following in this form of simple, easy contests. Free baseball cards, I am there. Travel voucher, there. Magazine subscription, there. Free books, there… you get the idea. I am willing to read a couple of “commercial” twitters a week from someone for the random win once a year. Costs me nothing.
Costs the “advertiser” almost nothing and gets new customers, branding and messaging in front of people who would have ignored you and all the extra benefits of the buzz. Ignore @zappos has already one-upped the stakes with a trip to Vegas, this will become the next big thing on Twitter. Someone grab twitterdeals.com
Plus, hey, I could use a trip to Vegas, I have a ten year anniversary coming up with my wife.
Technorati Tags: twitter, social marketing, SMO
Permalink
04.10.08
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media, Social Tools, non-profit at 10:59 am by Mosey
The greatest quirk/design blogger in the universe posted this so I benchmarked it.
A guy attached a camera to a park bench and left a note:
Good afternoon,
I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I’ll be back later this evening to pick it up.
Love, Jay / The Plug
He posted the resulting photos on his site. Great idea and an even better reminder that social media doesn’t have to be online. This could be a huge idea for a brand (especially with a digital camera and a watermark) though I am guessing you need a uhhh editor if it is in a bar or something.
You are out, having a good time, grab the camera on the wall, point, click take Tommy’s photo and remember the URL. Next day (or so) go check it out. Send it to friends, branded, talked about, passed on.
Technorati Tags: social media, social marketing
Permalink
04.08.08
Posted in Social Tools at 8:46 am by Mosey
This morning I got one of those odd Twitter follows we all have. You don’t recognize the name and you aren’t sure who the person is, but they are following your Twitter. Now, this one happened to be a beautiful Italian woman,who talked about her family, not technical, or SEO or SMO or anything related to my hobbies.
The first question was why did she follow me, or what bot decided she should follow me if she is using a some tool.
My next thought, err, ok, third thought after I noticed she was a beautiful Italian woman, was that there is a strategy in this.
Most people are, frankly, overly social with their social media. Link them in, they link you back, add a friend, they return the favor. Even Twitter suffers from it, someone follows you, generally, most people follow them back*.
*statistic from the Department of Stuff not Proven
The strategy is this, and it isn’t a good one, and I don’t endorse it or even think it is ethical, but here it is.
It would be very easy to set up a twitter or 100 and put an attractive picture on the account, twitter up a hundred or so updates with “real” things, “going out to Pedros, love me some tacos” or “tanning in 10 minutes”… whatever.
From there, add people, bot style of course, follow and follow and follow, slowly until people follow you back. Most Twitter users haven’t grasped private messages which means there isn’t an easy way to go “who is this?”
At minimum if you get a follow most people look to see the profile in the email announce.
Still with me? Good… so your bot is adding people fast and furious, about twice or three times as fast as adds are back. You now have a few hundred (thousand?) followers of your cute photo and nonsensical tweets. I doubt anyone is really @tweeting your posts.
Now you switch, captive audience, large base new tweet “found this great site…” or “wtf [url]” which is of course placed. If you are subtle you get a good boost of traffic because all us twitterfolk love some links to click on. Plus, the tinyurl means you can’t see it is for http://hot-anal-action.be/freepreview.htm
Do it right and you probably have a two week lifespan of spamming your followers before they drop off. Of course if too many people do it Twitter will evolve and fix itself and people will invent tools to avoid that, but the first person to try it can get some cheap consulting results for their vix@gr∂ client or whoever thinks this is actually a good idea.
Again, not endorsing this idea, just saying I see it coming.
Technorati Tags: twitter, twitter tricks, spam
Permalink
04.03.08
Posted in Social Tools at 9:40 am by Mosey
I would be amiss to not give a shout out to my new favorite social/useful tool. StickK.com helps you keep track of goals by setting them up, adding followers and a referee, and it nags you when you are supposed to report in.
The best part, you can place a bounty on your meeting goals with money going to charity, or anti-charity if you like.
They have the common ones already set up (working out, losing weight, etc). I even use it to set up blog posts and work on my personal projects rather than watch the Food Network all night.
Technorati Tags: Social networking, Charity
Permalink
Follow me on Twitter