What Facebook Holds in Store: Comments on Facebook Applications
Posted by Guillame Foutry @ June 1st, 2009 in 77Interview
I had a chat with Joshua March (@joshuamarch) and Dan Lester (@danlester), founders of The iPlatform, a company which builds technology platforms to take brands into social networks, such as Facebook. Joshua is also the chairman of the Facebook Developer Garage London and Producer of Techfluff.tv. We talked mainly about Facebook, but Friendfeed and Twitter invited themselves into the conversation.
Guillaume Foutry: Facebook has launched a verified application certification system in order to make it easier for users to find the applications they are looking for. As developers, what do you think of it?
Joshua March: In the short term this creates a nice way to find good application but in the long run I doubt this is going to make a difference. Of course users will be happy to find hacker safe applications, but in terms of choice, you are more likely to get an application because some of your friends used it and you received an invitation.
Dan Lester: The thing is that Facebook has a heavy handed approach on this topic as developers that have helped to develop the platform do not have sometimes the financial resources to pay for this certification ($375), so all these people that have contributed to the growth of Facebook are understandably disappointed.
GF: It is not really convenient to look for an application on Facebook at the moment, especially when it is for a company. What do you think of the idea of Facebook providing a fan page application kit for business, which would be a selection of applications (RSS feed, Video, etc)?
Joshua March: That is what we are working on at the moment! [laugh] Well, Facebook wants to be the unique platform for your social activities on the web, so they would be happy if someone came up with a solution like this.
Dan Lester: Yes a self-service version would surely be a plus.
GF: Users have expressed their dislike of advertisement on their profiles, groups and fan pages. What is your opinion on advertising on Facebook in general?
Joshua March: I would advise people not to advertise on Facebook on a CPM basis but rather on a CPC basis as the CTR is pretty low anyway. The advantage of Facebook is that you can target very specific people and then tailor your ad regarding your targeting. But in general when you advertise on Facebook you should engage with people. Use engagement ads, such as videos. When a user leaves a comment all his/her network is informed, which increases the reach of the ad and nurtures interactions.
Dan Lester: I agree with Josh. Advertising on Facebook without being social is not the right thing, except maybe when you are a big brand that people might probably know.
GF: Do you think cross-integration is the future of social media, as we can already see some applications or campaigns used on several platforms?
Joshua March: Not all the social networks will become mainstream or are mainstream. I might be proven wrong, but I do not see the average person using Twitter as it might be hard for her/him to see the advantage of it. Twitter can become a mainstream tool at it provides the ability to search information on it or to follow celebrities, but it will not be the platform of reference.
Dan Lester: I would add that people might prefer to follow celebrities on a Facebook Fan page as it offers a lot more interaction than Twitter than it is still a fairly limited tool.
G.F: As we are talking about integration on social media and platforms, what about Friendfeed? This network has recently seen an increase in its activities. Do you think it could be the big thing in 2010?
Joshua March: First, Friendfeed is gaining some momentum because they have made it really easy to follow people by letting users to check if his/her Facebook/Twitter/Gmail contacts are already on the platform.
Secondly, I find that there is too much information on Friendfeed. Plus, you are more likely to tweet about something they find interesting than put it on Friendfeed. And I have already enough links/blogs/websites to look at! [laugh]. However, I would not dismiss the CEO of this company ( Bret Taylor, former Google Product manager, creator of Google Map), as he could push the service further on.
Dan Lester: Friendfeed is nice, but today you can do pretty much everything on Facebook, so it is hard to see this platform becoming mainstream.
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