My presentation for Barcamp Auckland 4

1. Building FacebookApplications Pitfalls and Promotion. @FederationMedia

2. Why build a Facebookapplication?Lets Face it. Everybody loves tending pretend farms. Everybody loves being poked, virtually. Everybody loves getting sweet virtual gifts from Facebook friends.

4. 500 K active applications.

5. 250 applications have more than 1 M users.

6. 80 K websites use FacebookConnect.

7. 60 M Facebook users use FacebookConnect, monthly.

8. Zynga worth $3 B, has recently received investment from Google.Sources: www.digitalbuzzblog.com www.gigaom.com

10. Leveraging application users Friends.

11. Brand social engagement.

12. Drive Fan base growth.

13. Drive traffic to website.

14. Support campaign, digital strategy, or social media strategy objectives.

15. Get feedback on products and services.

17. Making distinctions.

18. Users must authorise application.

19. User enters their mobile number.

20. User chooses a bar and a time to meet.

21. User chooses a bunch of friends to invite.

22. We send the user a PocketVoucherand their friends a Wall to wall post and/or Notification.

23. The invited user accepts the invitation and we send them a PocketVoucher. We send the user a Notification to let them know.

24. The invited user invites their Friends. ditto. ditto. ditto. ditto.

26. Social engagement was very high.

27. Numbers adding the application could have been higher.

29. Users will only share something they perceive to be of value with others they believe will also value it.

30. Observe 'Social Object Theory'.

31. Be very clear what the social object is.

32. Make clear distinctions between real and virtual social objects.

35. easily copied.

36. can be reformatted for distribution on other digital media channels.Source: Razorfish2009 Digital Outlook Report

38. Low social object value.

39. API issues, Facebooks ever changing and deprecating environment.

40. Usability issues, API/SDK bugs.

41. Cutting through the Stream's social noise.

42. Virtual vs Reality distinction issues.

44. Legal issues. Navigating Facebook's Terms and Conditions. Prohibitions: (taken from 3 different documents) "The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline" "The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs;" "You must not confuse, mislead, surprise, or defraud anyone." "Liquor, beer, wine or other alcoholic beverages (unless the appropriate Demographic Restrictions are used), or sale of tobacco products, ammunition and/or firearms;"

46. Facebook fatigue - men and teens.

49. FBML/FBJS Canvas applications.

50. IFRAME/XFBML Canvas applications.Facebook Connect - websites/platforms (egiPhone) with elements of Facebook applications in them.

52. FBML - Canvas apps only

53. XFBML - Facebook Connect/IFRAME apps

54. FQL - you can always use this

55. FBJS - mostly canvas apps, some Connect functionality

57. Static FBML Tab/Box.

58. Prebuilt applications

59. www.wildfireapp.com

60. www.appbistro.com

61. Types of FacebookApplication's Static FBML Tab/Box.

62. Prebuilt third party applications www.wildfireapp.comwww.appbistro.com

63. Development platforms/libraries. PHP 5 (Facebook)FacebookiPhone SDK (Facebook) ActionScript 3.0 Library (Adobe) Microsoft SDK for Facebook (Microsoft) Force.com for Facebook (salesforce.com)

64. Statistics and Measurement. http://statistics.allfacebook.com/

65. Statistics and Measurement. Facebook insights

66. Conclusions. It's fun building social stuff. Plan your application well. Define the social objects, do they have value? Build an html prototype. The FB platform can be a very challenging development environment. Choose the right development platform. Look at lots of other applications. Use FBML/XFBML where you can. Don't be evil. Be realistic about engagement targets. @FederationMedia

67. Reading/References/Resources. FB Developer Applicationhttp://developers.facebook.com/Anaotomy of a FB Applicationhttp://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Anatomy_of_a_Facebook_AppA much better Anatomyhttp://www.ccheever.com/blog/?tag=facebook-connectFB Developer Policys and Termshttp://developers.facebook.com/policy/FB client libraryshttp://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User:Client_LibrariesFB Toolkit (AKA Mircrosoft FB SDK, .NET)http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee388574.aspxSocial Pluginshttp://developers.facebook.com/plugins?footer=1Statisticshttp://statistics.allfacebook.com/applicationsSecurityhttp://www.owasp.org/index.php/Facebook#Application_canvasRed Bull Roshambullhttp://apps.facebook.com/redbullroshambull/ Social Graph/Social Object Theoryhttp://www.devcomments.com/Facebook-s-Open-Graph-Protocol-from-a-Web-Developer-s-Perspective-i26105.htm http://www.labont.it/ferraris/SOMO/0503_Social_Objects.pdf