Understanding the nuances of new Facebook April 2010Prepared by: Marco Pacifico

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Overview

Open GraphWhat is it?

The Like ButtonIt drives everythingScenario 1 – a simple likeScenario 2 – Like + CommentScenario 3 – Like = FanPut it everywhere that…

Social PluginsWhat are they?Types of PluginsCool examples

Login RequirementsWhat has to happen for the plugins to work?

What ever happened to Facebook Connect?

A look at everything elseThe new API, Community Pages, and Special Partners

What’s changed

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Open GraphWhat is it?

The Open Graph is a new protocol that builds up and connects your online connections into one big social graph. Confusing? Read on.

First, the idea of the Social Graph: The Social Graph is a map of all the connections between you, your friends, and things you care about. Right now, Facebook has one piece of that puzzle: the connections between you and your friends. Other websites might have other pieces of that puzzle. For example, Yelp might have the connections between you and restaurants you like, and Pandora might have the connection between you and the bands you like.

Now, not only can you connect to people, but to any object (url) on the web – be it a movie or an NFL team or a pair of sneakers.

But how do they know what the object is? The Open Graph protocol requires the creator of that online object to define it as a real world object with meta data (ex: it’s a band, in California, genre Punk, formed 1979, etc..). So now when you connect to it (by liking it) it isn’t just a connection to a url, but a meaningful connection to a real-world object.

Essentially, the Open Graph allows Facebook to create a big list of all the connections between people and the things they care about. And it allows other websites and apps to access that data to make their web experience more personalized and relevant.

The power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.

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The Like ButtonIt drives everything

The Open Graph is fed by information the user creates when they go around the web liking things. The more things a user likes, the more information Facebook has on that user, and the more personalized a web experience can be.

For example, if you like a band on Pandora, that information can become part of the graph so that later if you visit a concert site, the site can tell you when the band you like is coming to your area.

While it seems simple, the Like button is actually pretty nuanced in the ways it can work.

There are three different scenarios, which will be discussed in the next three slides.

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The Like ButtonScenario 1 – a simple Like

The like button can be placed ANYWHERE and attached to a ANYTHING, using one line of html code.

With one click the user can Like an object.

When they do this, their Facebook is not visibly altered – no status update, no visible additions to their profile.

What does happen? Facebook now knows that you like the object. This lets the following happen:

1) If your friends show up and see the object (in any representation, anywhere on the web) they will now see that you have liked the object.

2) This data gets used in Social Plugins (more on these later) to personalize your web experiences based on your preferences, the preferences of your friends, and the preferences of the larger community.

(By the way, clicking on the Like button again causes you to Unlike the object.)

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The Like ButtonScenario 2 – Like + Comment

Ok, so you’ve clicked on the Like button. Depending on what the creator of the web property wants, they have the option of attaching a comment box to the Like button.

How does this work?

When the user moves their mouse over the Like button, a hover card appears that displays a comment box.

If you click in the text box, you can write a comment and then, with one click, post it to Facebook.

What happens?

Now, the fact that you liked the object, along with your comment, and some information on the object will appear as a status update in the user’s Facebook news stream, and the stream of their friends.

Friends can now comment on the comment, just like a regular status update.

Also, if other friends have already liked the same thing, it will be given priority in their news stream.

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The Like ButtonScenario 3 – Like = Fan

In certain cases, when you like an object on the web it is given fan-like status.

When does this happen?This happens when the object is considered by Facebook to have first-order significance. This happens when:1) The object contributes to defining the user as person. For

example, bands they like, movies they like, etc…2) And/or when it makes sense for the object to have ongoing

communication with the user.

What happens?When a user likes what is called a first-level object, two things happen:

3) It is added to their profile under the “Likes and Interests” section. For example, I liked the movie “How to Train Your Dragon.” It is now listed in my profile under Movies, with a link back to the original object (a movie page on IMDB). Now when my friends “creep my profile,” they can see this and click on it.

4) The object now has the ability to send my updates that will appear in my new stream – just like when you used to be able to fan something.

Subtlety: I do not have to directly like a brand for them to be able to communicate with me. However, communication can only be related to the object I liked. For example, I go to ESPN and like an athlete on their page. Now, ESPN can send me status updates, but only to news related to that athlete (i.e. he was just traded, etc..)

How does an object get first-order status?This all depends on the meta-data that is added to the object. If it is

tagged assomething that Facebook considers to be first order (movie,

celebrity, brand,etc..) then it will be given that status on Facebook.

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The Like ButtonPut it everywhere

Brands will want to put a Like button anywhere and everywhere that they want the following to happen:

1) They want people to send communication back to their Facebook network about their objects (via status update)

2) They want to use the social plugins to make their site social (more on this later)

3) They want to permission to send communication to the user (i.e. get fan-like status)

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Social PluginsAn instantly social experience with pieces of Facebook real estate all over the web

Information collected from people linking things all over the web can be used to drive Social Plugins.

What are they? Social Plugins are pieces of Facebook real estate that exist on other websites that allow those websites to personalize and socialize the experience for a each user.

SubtletiesThe plugins are hosted by Facebook. The data the plugins use lives on Facebook. The website that uses the plugins doesn’t get any of the user’s data. The user does not have to have previously visited the site to get a personalized experience.The user does not have to login to the site to get a personalized experience. (but they do have to be logged into Facebook)

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Social PluginsTypes

1) Activity Feed – shows users what their friends are doing on a brand’s site through likes and comments

2) Comments – lets users comment on any piece of content on a brand’s site3) Facepile – same as Login with Faces, less the login button4) Like Button – share pages from a brand’s site back to their Facebook profile with one

click5) Like Box – enables users to like a brand’s Facebook Page and view its stream directly

from the brand’s website6) Live Stream – share activity and comments in real-time & interact during a live event7) Login with Faces – shows profile pictures of the user's friends who have already

signed up for your site in addition to a login button8) Recommendations – gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they

might like

For a full explanation of each go to http://developers.facebook.com/plugins

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Social PluginsCool Examples

The like button will let a user see if and how many of their

friends have liked a given movie, article, shoe, celebrity, or any

other object on the web that has a like button attached to it.

Even a pair of pants, as in Levis this example.

See if your friends are already using a service or are signed up

for a website with the “Login with Faces” Plugin. Bret Taylor

talks about the Magic Five: if five of your friends are doing it, so

will you.

Comment on a product and post it to Facebook with one click.

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Social PluginsCool Examples

CNN.com is using the Activity Feed plugin to show user what

their friends and other people are liking, sharing, orcommenting on, on their site.

Yelp (one of the special partners) lets you see which of your

friends have recommended restaurants.

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Login RequirementsWhat does the user need to do to get a personalized, social experience?

All of the Social Plugins require you to AT LEAST be logged in to Facebook. Remember, think of the plugins as a piece of your Facebook page, transplanted to a site.

You can be logged in to Facebook anywhere, as long as it’s in the same browser session. You can even close the Facebook window, as long as your browser session is still going.

If you aren’t logged in, the Social Plugins remain, but are replaced with global Facebook data.

The other option is to login to the site itself using Facebook (essentially Facebook Connect). This logs you into both the site and Facebook. Functionally, the Social Plugins doesn’t change in this case.

So, to have active social plugins you need to:

OPTION 1: Be logged in to Facebook somewhere else in the browser session. In this case the user DOES NOT have to login to the site, nor do they even have to have previously visited the site.

OPTION 2: Login to the site using Facebook (essentially Facebook Connect). The next time a user visits the site AND are already logged into Facebook, they will automatically be logged into the site.

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What ever happened to Facebook Connect?Functionality remains, but streamlined

The “Login with Facebook” button is replacing Facebook Connect as a brand.

All the functionality remains, plus a some improvements.

1) You can now see how many of your friends have already signed up for a website or service, using the Facepile or Login with Faces plugins.

2) Friction for the user is reduced by making the permissions process a one-click process. The next time a user goes to the site, they are automatically logged in, as long as they have already logged into Facebook in the same browser session.

3) Development-wise, it’s much easier to implement the button on the site.

The New Process – pretty much like the old one

1) A call to action to login to the site (to receive a benefit or functionality)

2) The option to login withFacebook is presented

3) Permissions exchanged 4) Link the site account toFacebook for one click sign-ingoing forward

Special PartnersA glimpse of the future

Special partners, Microsoft, Yelp, and Pandora, get special permission to automatically log you in to their sites with Facebook.

IF you are already logged into Facebook in the same browser session.

What this means is that they can instantly provide you with a very personalized and social experience. And FRICTION APPROACHES ZERO.

This is Facebook’s vision: to “put people at the centre of the web” and to have “social be the default on the web”.

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Exciting PossibilitiesWith the Open Graph API

The Open Graph API lets developers easily read and write to the Open Graph.

For example, to get a list of the movies a user likes, simply type:

graph.facebook.com/userid/movies

This data can then be used in personalized & social applications on a brand’s site.

This possibilities for innovation here are endless.

Possible examples:

1) A user shows up on your site, and you pull all the movies they have liked (by typing graph.facebook.com/userid/movies). In theory, you can now you can present them with all the celebrities in that movie, and some info about them.

2) You pull all the places they’ve liked, and then present them with photos you’ve pulled off Flickr.

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Community PagesFacebook’s version of Wikipedia?

What are they? A new type of profile called Community Pages.

They were created to counter this problem: users have created Facebook Pages around topics that are decidedly not brands, like baseball or yoga.

Community pages are meant to be “the best collection of shared knowledge on

a topic”. At launch Facebook created over 6.5 million community pages, around

topics like Cooking, Cycling, and Hiking.

What’s on the page?

1) An ‘Info’ tab that has a brief description taken from Wikipedia2) Related posts that your friends and the global Facebook

community have created (it looks like Facebook is running a search query on the topic and showing the results).

3) There’s also a tab for ‘Wikipedia’, which contains the full entry if it’s available.

Things to Note:

Anyone can create a Community Page on any topic.

Potential Issue #1: This can (and is) creating issues for brands (like Coca-Cola)

who are seeing many pages being formed with variations of their name.

Potential Issue #2: Once these pages are created, Facebook generates a stream

of related posts (related to the topic name). Users (and potentially brands) could

find that they are showing up under an undesirable topic, simply by typing the

wrong keyword in a status update.

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SummaryWhat is the goal of this?To put people at the center of the web and make social the default on all sites. Build a map of peoples connections and interests

Is it something that we would benefit from incorporating into our site?Definitely. Friction for engagement is greatly reduced with the Like button. Also, you can use the plugins to personalize your site’s content for each user.

What is the difficulty of implementation?The plugins are one line of code. The Open Graph API is very simple. Some people have noticed conflicts between the old system of SDKs and Libraries.

How does this augment or detract from a social media strategy?It makes it easier for people to share and become engaged, so it definitely augments the strategy.

How are the changes to Facebook Connect going to affect the experiences that currently utilize this service? All of the functionality of Facebook Connect remains. The process for obtaining permissions has been streamlined (less friction to connect) and the implementation, development-wise, has been simplified.