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How and When to Get on the. Neal Bhamre Principal Analyst, The Code Works Inc. Sean Shannon Principal Engineer, The Code Works Inc. Facebook Train. How and When to Get on the Facebook Train. Is the FB train arriving, departing or late leaving the station? What does it take to get on board?
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How and When to Get on the Neal BhamrePrincipal Analyst, The Code Works Inc. Sean ShannonPrincipal Engineer, The Code Works Inc. Facebook Train
How and When to Get on the Facebook Train • Is the FB train arriving, departing or late leaving the station? • What does it take to get on board? • Lessons Learned • Resources
Facebook Market Overview • Social networking growth • Facebook population breakdown • Facebook demographics shift • Facebook application growth
Social Networking Year over Year growth • In general social networking is expanding at 25% worldwide. The much larger existing base in North America makes such growth unlikely, but the sheer number of new registrants is astounding.
Facebook is the pacesetter among SN sites • Whilst there has been generally strong growth among all social networking sites, Facebook’s growth has been by far the greatest – outpacing the growth of the Internet itself year over year
Facebook Geographic Distribution • Facebook is growing all over the world. Whilst, the majority of users (new and old) are in the US and Canada, the pace of growth in Europe and Asia are an indicator of just how popular Facebook has become.
Facebook’s Demographic is Shifting • During the past year, the traditional demographic at Facebook has shifted dramatically in the US. Traditionally, Facebook targeted 18-25 year-old users. Whilst that group is still the largest demographic, the fastest growing segments is young to middle professionals (25-44 y.o.) • The 18-25 year old demographic will become less than half the US market for the first time by the end of this year (currently 51%) • Worldwide, the effect is less dramatic in that growth in the youth sector (13-25) is still the strongest due to new market penetrations outside of the US and Canada • The core 18-44 year old demographic (advertisers core market) is now 80% of the overall population
Facebook Current Age Breakdown Source: O’Reilly, Sept 08
Facebook’s Applications • The growth of available Facebook applications is also astounding • Since inception at least 7,000 applications have been built • This number is uncertain as the latest data is from June 08 • Some applications have been built, deployed and removed and are not included in the 7k • Over 100 new applications are made available each day • 80% of users have use at least one application built on the Facebook platform • …but 87% of the traffic goes to 2% of the applications Source: O’Reilly - Oct 07, Facebook - June 08
Facebook’s Marketing Opportunities • Advertising • Banner Ads • Contextual/NewsFeed/Flyer Ads • Marketing • Facebook Pages • Sponsored Groups/Functions • Word of Mouth/Interaction • Applications • “Fans” • Intelligence • Profiles and Network information • Public Groups Source: Facebook, June 08
Facebook’s Advertising • Facebook has gone heavy into advertising sales • The effectiveness of these ads is questionable: • Very low click-through rates • Poor targeting • Poor historic performance is at least in part due to their traditional demographic (which is changing) • The targeting system is largely self-service and allows users to make their own mistakes • …but questions remain in their audience tagging as it applies to advertising Source: Facebook, June 08
Self-service “Choose Audience” tools can segment by: • 30 Countries, States, Cities • Sex and Age Range • Keywords in Profile • Educational Status • Workplace Networks • Political Views • Relationship States • But there appear to be glitches in the system: • Ads for any goods or service including applications can somehow be misdirected Targeting the Right Audience Source: Facebook, June 08
In response to these issues, Facebook is about to a new advertising program called “Engagement Advertising” which they announced in August, 2008 • The goal of the program is take advantage of the social aspects of the system in promoting ads • Relies principally on word of mouth promotions: • Leaving comments which the user’s network can read • “Gifting” the ad to your network in order to receive some benefit • “Becoming a fan” of the underlying product or application • The goal is to fulfill the promise of the social network to their advertisers Some of this is in Flux Source: ComputerWorld, August 08
Recruiting on Facebook • Trends • Detailed examples
Trends • Facebook has long been a source of recruiting recent college grads • Ernst and Young were there in 2006 and has at least three different locations running simultaneously • Now, recruiters are targeting mid-career professionals as the demographics have changed • Individuals are taking advantage of the open network and its tools to get themselves recruited • The job boards are integrating their offerings with Facebook • Companies that recruit similar individuals (e.g., “I’d hire all of the Petroleum engineers I could find”) are creating and targeting networks of like-minded, like-educated members • Companies are using the system to keep in touch with former employees or prospective employees even as they avoid transactional “sales” to these potential candidates
Facebook App Dev Process Develop Facebook Killer Idea Define Goals DesignFacebookApp Code, Test & Deploy Publish Weekly Market to Engage Users
The Killer Idea • What’s a great idea? Something that… • Harnesses the viral aspect of Facebook – wider candidate base • Gets you a deeper knowledge of the candidate • Generates a new stream of revenue • It also has to be compelling in its content and offering to attract users • It should be guided by strategy (e.g., overall operational strategies and goals) • “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work. It needs to be effectively targeted and marketed. • Think of your first web sites (e.g., “brochure-ware”). Don’t make the same mistakes that firms did in the 90s – recognize that Facebook is an environment, not just a location
Defining Goals • Set your goals • Verbalize your goal • Can you explain it in a simple sentence? • Write down your goals. • Do they overlap? • Are there dependencies? • Are they consistent with company core values? • Sketch out wireframes for reference, expect many edits • Prioritize, Strategize • If you had to choose, which would be the first goal to accomplish? • Gain a large following, then herd them towards other goals
Design Facebook Application Review Facebook Basics Home Page, Profile Page, Lingo, Architecture Get Started with Smiley ;) Hone Design
Design Facebook Application:Facebook Lingo Home News Feed Notifications Requests Chat Inbox Applications Bookmarks Developer App Profile Wall Info Block Updates • Messaging • Inbox • Friends • Write on their wall • Send a message • Poke • Invite • Misc • For the social glossary of terms check out http://budurl.com/zr72 • Developer Application • Dev Wiki • Dev Forum • Dev Bugzilla • Platform • FBML • FBJS • API • FQL • Your Application • Allocations • About Page • Callback URL • Canvas
Design Facebook Application:Facebook Architecture (5000’ Level) Browser Client http request HTML Facebook.com API http FBML REST over http My Apache / PHP Server
Design Facebook Application:Get Started with Smiley Smiley is a sample app that showcases functionality of the new FB platform. Here’s how to get started: Sign-up as a FB Developer (any FB user can) http://developers.facebook.com/get_started.php?tab=tutorial Download the FB Sample App Deploy to Your Public Server Create Application instance on Facebook Dev App Create Test Users Experiment with page interactivity, profile updates and notifications to friends
Map functionality and components to your goals Identify application paths Determine click “integration points” Draft wireframes for your development & QA teams Design Facebook Application:Hone Design
Code, Test & Deploy Identify Required Skills Develop Project Plan Source Team Design Production Manager* Code Test Deploy Maintenance
Code, Test & Deploy:Identify Required Skills Languages, Frameworks, Platforms, IDEs HTML / FBML Javascript / FBJS PHP, Ruby, Java, more…, Apache, MySQL, Linux .Net, C# 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005+, IIS, Windows Server 2008 AJAX Industry Knowledge Multi-threading Large Scale Architecture Search Engine Optimization Search Marketing
Code, Test & Deploy:Develop Project Plan Design – coming up with a good idea is the hardest part Chunk the plan, A-B Strategies Development time: 2-12 weeks, $2k - $100k Marketing & promotions costs: $1k-$40k Ongoing development and marketing costs
Code, Test & Deploy:Sourcing Internal – train-up an existing resource Internal – new hires Internal + Consultants Internal + offshore Considerations Time to production Phase of development Design Marketing Maintenance Cycle
Code, Test & Deploy:Resources Jesse Stay’s book "FBML Essentials“ and blog http://staynalive.comwww.oreilly.com 30% off! coupon code: FM3DSApplies to FBML Essentials book or PDF Facebook Developer Forums & Wiki http://developers.facebook.com Codeplex Facebook Developer Toolkit http://www.codeplex.com/FacebookToolkit Facebook Developer Garage Silicon Valley - affiliated with SCVWB, can also find them on Facebook Blogroll: Seanconnect.com – developer blog Mashable.com - Social networking news Techcrunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/ Silicon Valley WebBuilder (SVWB) - http://www.svwebbuilder.com Bar Camp - http://barcamp.org/SvwbBarCamp
Weekly Cycle Deploy latest feature set Gather site metrics Repeat Cycle Weekly or Daily Make changes & test Analyze data & identify potential tweaks Decide changes
Sample Metrics Google Analytics Visits Page Visits Bounce Rate New Visits Global Reach Internal Analysis Click Path Effectiveness (A/B testing) Forum Participation Virality Goal Attainment
“Social Wine Club” Borrows from .com site Enhances social feature set Invites Toast! Share Wines Comments Messaging Ratings My Cellar .Net 2.0 MSSQL 2000 Shared data with existing web site Data integration with third party providers In-house design + Consultants Some offshore help Bottlenotes
Facebook Marketing Agencies Facebook Ads Ultra-popular Apps Feed Users To Yours RockYou! (.50 /user) http://www.rockyou.com http://www.facebookobserver.com/facebook-advertising/rockyou-selling-facebook-users-for-50/ Adonomics http://www.adonomics.com Slide http://www.slide.com Internal Product Placement
FB App Lessons Learned Follow Facebook App Guiding Principles Mirror the Facebook culture and conventions Pay attention to user experience design, including performance issues (e.g. too many roundtrips, time outs) Don’t build the whole app in one shot, start small and add new functionality weekly Request FB app directory listing asap – can take weeks/months Leverage built-in tools to promote your applications Be vigilant about embedding measurements into functionality Tweak the app weekly based on what’s working and what’s not Take emotion out of your analysis Focus on getting quality users not quantity – expect this to be an ongoing effort and budget for it
The Latest Facebook News Recent developments: The New Platform Larger canvas (now 800 pixels) Fewer layout issues More functionality (more FB tags) Facebook Connect (Beta started Summer 2008) Single Sign On (your FB users need only one login) App can reach in and update the user’s profile Access FB without having to be in FB Rumors: May not always be FREE to publish FB apps
Facebook Takes Over the World The Facebook O/S? Email Replacement? Facebook Connect
Contact Information Neal Bhamreneal.bhamre@thecodeworksinc.com 415.377.7246 Sean Shannonsean.shannon@thecodeworksinc.com 408.993.1770 ext.123