1. POV: New Facebook Open Graph: Action Applications
Prepared: January 24, 2012
The Purpose of this POV:
The purpose of this POV is to 1) examine the release of the new Facebook open graph and action apps and 2)
make recommendations on how brands can take advantage of the new open graph on Facebook to help drive
real time consumer engagement.
Summary:
With the new open graph, Facebook wants everything a user does either on the web or in real life to be
broadcast on Facebook. Many brands have been using the open graph since 2008 when the “LIKE” button
debuted. This button, which could be embedded across the web, allowed for users to endorse particular content
with a one-click solution. When a user liked something, this was broadcast to their social news feed for their
friends to see.
Facebook called this a passive endorsement and wanted to transform the platform into a real time action engine
where users would have a digital timeline of their activity. Thus, they showcased the New Open Graph in
September of 2011 with Ticker, Timeline and Actions acting as the three cornerstone pieces of the platform.
How does the new Facebook Open Graph work?
The old open graph consisted of
• The “LIKE” button
• The button could be placed anywhere on the web
• Mainly used to build an earned community
The new open graph consists of three elements
• TIMELINE
• TICKER
• ACTIONS
ACTIONS!
• You can think of this as the new LIKE button
• Actions are instead used to document the behaviors you take elsewhere on the
web that are amplified on Facebook
• They are defined by developers and you’ll see them in your TIMELINE, TICKER
and NEWS FEED

2. When you visit Facebook
When you visit Facebook there are four main areas that are message centers. Please see images below
each description. These areas include:
Newsfeed: This is unchanged and is still the main area a user lands on when logging in. Note that
action applications will NOT be amplified in this area.
Ticker: This is a live real time scrolling dashboard located to the right of your news feed. This is the
main area where action applications will be amplified so friends can discover what real time actions
their network is exploring, discovering, doing, etc.

3. Timeline: This is now the new user profile. All action application usage will be embedded here for
archivist purposes.
Actions: Any application used is now amplified on the ticker and embedded on the timeline. In this
example the user is using the Washington Post Reader and The Guardian Reader applications and
his actions are being imprinted into his digital timeline for archivist purposes. This activity is also
displayed in real time on his Ticker.

4. How Action Applications Work
The premise behind action applications is the idea of “frictionless sharing.” This terminology means once you
sign up for apps on the web or Facebook, they'll automatically share your activity through Facebook.
Action applications now number 60 on the Facebook platform with various partners. All revolve around an action
verb. Some of the subject categories and partners in which apps now exist are listed below.
All apps are searchable on Facebook. Each Open Graph app gets its own "verb" like ran, listened, cooked,
watched or read. These verbs show friends how a user is interacting with something in their digital life.
Essentially, a user will be able to share nearly any type of information or activity online (that they want to based
on their privacy settings) without actually having to visit Facebook — once the action apps are installed by the
user.
Facebook will begin approving any application that wants to integrate with Facebook’s Timeline via Open Graph
starting immediately.
Some of the new action app categories and partners include:
Travel
Gogobot
Airbnb
TripAdvisor
Food
Foodspotting
Cookpad
Snooth (wine)

5. Urbanspoon
Yummly
Foodily
Shopping/Fashion
Pose
Pinterest
Polyvore
Oodle
Fab.com
eBay
Giftrocket
Payvment
Livingsocial
Fitness
MapMyRun
Runkeeper
Entertainment
Rotten Tomatoes
Dailymotion (French video site)
Cinemur (French video site)
Metacafe (videos)
Wooga (Bubble Island, Diamond Dash)
OMGPOP (Draw My Thing)
Zynga (Words with Friends, Castleville)
Giving
Causes
Fundrazr
Artez.com
Others
BranchOut (job search)
Monster (job search)
Color (photo and video sharing)
Courserank (education)
Grockit (education)
Foursquare (location)
Goodreads (books)
Kobo (books)
StubHub (ticketing)
Ticketmaster (ticketing)
Ticketfly (ticketing)
ScoreBig (ticketing)
Appsfire (app discovery)
Artfinder (art)
Autotrader (cars)
Location
Foursquare

6. When a user downloads an application and begins using it, their action is fed to the Ticker and their Timeline.
Apps will not require permission in the new open graph. Once a user clicks on that app, they are using it. An
example of what the developer’s platform for action apps will look like:
Facebook Action Application FAQ
How does my brand build an application?
Begin by researching the developer platform at: https://developers.facebook.com/
The biggest opportunity for your brand to enter the conversation of advocates is now through a combined
program involving community/content strategy, content sharing strategy and application creation and
deployment. Consult your Ogilvy representative for your best course of action depending on your desired goals.
What do I do if my strategy to date involved building Likes?
The Like button is not going away. It is still part of the open graph and still essential to building community.
Although we recommend continuing to build your community in helping increase members to amplify messaging,
the new open graph puts an emphasis on an engagement strategy. This is where all brands must turn their
attention to in order to create engaging customer experiences and to build a data mining engine in the form of an
application that collects user feedback. This user feedback in real time, will in turn, help plot your brand’s future
marketing strategy and communications.
What if I don’t have budget for an application right now?
Don’t be concerned. The platform was just announced in September of 2011. Many brands will need to build a
good story of user engagement and experience with their social agency partner. Please make sure that your
brand doesn’t simply look at this as only a Facebook application. Because of the power of the open graph, an
application should be approached as a 360 degree, multi-channel user experience tool that can be leveraged
across the web, social and mobile. As a result, this requires a long tail outlook for your consumer engagement

7. strategy. Please consult your Ogilvy partner contact for additional details on building an action application
strategy and development costs in designing an application.
I see that my user profile page has converted to Timeline. What about my brand page?
Facebook hasn’t announced changes to brand pages yet, but we do expect a conversion in the next few months
to the Timeline format. This change will require a separate POV from the social team at Ogilvy on how your
brand can best adapt to the changes and new features surely to come with the update.
I don’t like Timeline. Can I just opt-out?
No. Everyone will be switched over by the end of January. Facebook will start requiring users to migrate to the
new design since it is the platform that was designed to harbor the full open graph experience. Because open
graph and Timeline go hand in hand; the idea is for each user’s activity across various websites and apps, both
on and off Facebook, to be aggregated as a visual living record of their life.
Can I really build an application around any action verb?
Yes, but as long as it’s within reason. Your app must publish actions that are simple, genuine and non-
abusive.
Simple. Actions must correspond to single verbs and objects must correspond to single nouns.
Facebook will reject apps that corrupt the structure of graph by adding poorly named actions and objects
as well as apps publishing activity that appear to be requests.
Genuine. Your app must publish open graph actions that are based on actions that users take in your
app.
Non-abusive. Do not mislead, confuse, or surprise users with unexpected posts. Action and objects
must be well-formed and not violate content policies.
I want to get started today on building an application. What do I do?
The social team at Ogilvy can set up time to brainstorm application ideas, strategize about action engagement
and walk you through the steps to develop the application. These include:
Building, testing and publishing your first open graph app. We can help you build a sample app to get an idea of
how users can publish action items on behalf of your brand. The steps to build an open graph application are as
follows:
Step 1: Create a Facebook app
Step 2: Authenticate users with the Add to Timeline plug-in
Step 3: Define initial action, object, and aggregation in the Dev App
Step 4: Publish Actions for your users
Step 5: Add social plug-ins to your app: Facepile plug-in, Activity plug-in and Recommendations plug-in
Step 6: Submit Your Actions or approval to Facebook
Want to get started immediately? Your Social@Ogilvy team can set up time with you to brainstorm ideas,
strategize with you and walk you through the process to develop an application and build a timeline.
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