Neal Bhamre Principal Analyst, The Code Works Inc' Sean Shannon Principal Engineer, The Code Works I

1
Neal BhamrePrincipal Analyst, The Code Works
Inc. Sean ShannonPrincipal Engineer, The Code
Works Inc.
How and When to Get on the
Facebook Train
2
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

3
Facebook Market Overview

• Social networking growth
• Facebook population breakdown
• Facebook demographics shift
• Facebook application growth

4
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.

5
Facebook is the pacesetter among SN sites

• Whilst there has been generally strong growth
  among all social networking sites, Facebooks
  growth has been by far the greatest outpacing
  the growth of the Internet itself year over year

6
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.

7
Facebooks 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

8
Facebook Current Age Breakdown
Source OReilly, Sept 08
9
Facebooks 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 OReilly - Oct 07, Facebook - June 08
10
Facebooks 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
11
Facebooks 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
12
Targeting the Right Audience

• 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

Source Facebook, June 08
13
Some of this is in Flux

• 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 users 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

Source ComputerWorld, August 08
14
Recruiting on Facebook

• Trends
• Detailed examples

15
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.,
  Id 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

16
Example Ernst and Young
17
Example Mid-Career
18
Example Managing My Career
19
Example CareerBuilder
20
Example Hewlett-Packard Alumni
21
Example CIA and MI6
22
Facebook App Dev Process
Develop Facebook Killer Idea
Define Goals
DesignFacebookApp
Code, Test Deploy
Publish Weekly
Market to Engage Users
23
The Killer Idea
?

• Whats 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 doesnt work.
  It needs to be effectively targeted and marketed.
• Think of your first web sites (e.g.,
  brochure-ware). Dont make the same mistakes
  that firms did in the 90s recognize that
  Facebook is an environment, not just a location

24
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

25
Design Facebook Application

• Review Facebook Basics
• Home Page, Profile Page, Lingo, Architecture
• Get Started with Smiley )
• Hone Design

26
Design Facebook ApplicationFacebook Home Page
27
Design Facebook ApplicationFacebook Profile
28
Design Facebook ApplicationFacebook Lingo

• Home
• News Feed
• Notifications
• Requests
• Chat
• Inbox
• Applications
• Bookmarks
• Developer App
• Profile
• Wall
• Info Block
• Updates

• Developer Application
• Dev Wiki
• Dev Forum
• Dev Bugzilla
• Platform
• FBML
• FBJS
• API
• FQL
• Your Application
• Allocations
• About Page
• Callback URL
• Canvas

• 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

29
Design Facebook ApplicationFacebook
Architecture (5000 Level)
Browser Client
?
?
http request
HTML
Facebook.com
API
?
?
?
?
http
FBML
REST over http
My Apache / PHP Server
30
Design Facebook ApplicationGet Started with
Smiley

• Smiley is a sample app that showcases
  functionality of the new FB platform. Heres 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

31
Design Facebook ApplicationHone Design

• Map functionality and components to your goals
• Identify application paths
• Determine click integration points
• Draft wireframes for your development QA teams

32
Code, Test Deploy

• Identify Required Skills
• Develop Project Plan
• Source Team
• Design
• Production Manager
• Code
• Test
• Deploy
• Maintenance

33
Code, Test DeployIdentify 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

34
Code, Test DeployDevelop 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

35
Code, Test DeploySourcing

• Internal train-up an existing resource
• Internal new hires
• Internal Consultants
• Internal offshore
• Considerations
• Time to production
• Phase of development
• Design
• Marketing
• Maintenance Cycle

36
Code, Test DeployResources

• Jesse Stays 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

37
Weekly Cycle
Deploy latest feature set
Gather site metrics
Repeat Cycle Weekly or Daily
Make changes test
Analyze data identify potential tweaks
Decide changes
38
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

39
Bottlenotes

• 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

40
Bottlenotes
41
Facebook Marketing Agencies

• Facebook Ads
• Ultra-popular Apps Feed Users To Yours
• RockYou! (.50 /user)
• http//www.rockyou.com
• http//www.facebookobserver.com/facebook-advertisi
  ng/rockyou-selling-facebook-users-for-50/
• Adonomics
• http//www.adonomics.com
• Slide
• http//www.slide.com
• Internal Product Placement

42
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)
• Dont 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 whats working and
  whats 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

43
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 users profile
• Access FB without having to be in FB
• Rumors
• May not always be FREE to publish FB apps

44
Facebook Takes Over the World

• The Facebook O/S?
• Email Replacement?
• Facebook Connect

45
Comments and QA
46
Contact Information

• Neal Bhamreneal.bhamre_at_thecodeworksinc.com
  415.377.7246
• Sean Shannonsean.shannon_at_thecodeworksinc.com
• 408.993.1770 ext.123