Commentary

Why Facebook Applications Will Soon Be History

by Joe Marchese , November 24, 2009

Last week, I got a lot of grief for saying that "The Widget is Dead," so this should be interesting: I am willing to bet it won't be long until Facebook, and other social networking "applications" join widgets in the marketer's "toolkit graveyard." Why? Because using Facebook Connect offers marketers more flexibility to develop more immersive experiences for application developers. Want "canary in the coal mine" proof? Consider that Zynga, the largest and most successful application on Facebook (by nearly all measures), has developed and launched its Facebook Connect powered stand alone site for Farmville, one of its most popular application games

Facebook isn't shedding tears over this, and neither should marketers. Facebook is encouraging people to leverage Facebook Connect, for lots of reasons, including the "secret race for permission" that generated much discussion two weeks ago.

For marketers, and for agencies leading social media strategies, the opportunity will be to leverage the lessons learned in the application environment about engagement, interaction and virality to best using Facebook Connect in their marketing efforts. The best practices learned by top application developers will be instrumental in leveraging Facebook Connect for marketers, because a lot of the functionality will be similar -- namely, the ability to include people's social graph and publish feeds.

What will be different? The biggest difference will be where the socially connected portion of marketer's campaigns will live. More and more, marketers will simply consider how all of their consumer touch points best leverage Facebook Connect, or MySpace ID, or Google's Friend Connect, rather than considering the development of an "application" as a separate marketing initiative. This change will allow digital efforts to be more integrated; no more "digital strategy" and then a separate "social media strategy." I cannot tell you how happy this is going to make me, and anyone else who has to talk about "social media" as something different than "digital media" -- but not for long.

In Twitter fashion, here it is in 140 characters for sharing: FB apps will soon be history! FB connect means no more separate "digital strategy" and "social strategy" http://bit.ly/5PPZbV @joemarchese

What do you think? Leave a comment to add to the conversation, and watch me take shots on Twitter http://twitter.com/joemarchese.

commentary, social media

6 comments about "Why Facebook Applications Will Soon Be History".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Mike Patterson from WIP, Inc., November 24, 2009 at 1:37 p.m.
The Facebook App is Dead! Long live the Facebook App. Agree completely. It's no longer about the Facebook App but how a site's core functionality interfaces with Facebook as a part of the digital marketing loop. All of these ecosystems will be connected and a functionality like FB Connect allows the ecosystems to integrate more seamlessly. Web 2.0 was about individuals creating and sharing content, maybe part of Web 3.0 is about interconnected-ness of ALL platforms' distinct functionality forming one seamless ecosystem.
Reply

Joe Marchese, November 24, 2009 at 1:41 p.m.

Well said Mike. I am bubbling up a lot of thoughts on what will be the definition of Web 3.0. Feeds and portable social graph lead the characteristics so far.

Mike Patterson from WIP, Inc., November 24, 2009 at 3:39 p.m.

Sounds good Joe, let me know if you ever want to bounce some ideas around RE: Web 3.0/4.0, it's a bit of an obsession for me! You can ping me at mpattyfly@gmail.com or @mpattyfly on Twitter. Be good.

Joe Hoyle from Open, November 24, 2009 at 6:52 p.m.

What happened to Web 2.1?

I think the best way way to predict what's going to happen next is to actually start doing something about it. There are far too many theorists creating and clicking infinite networks of tiny URLs. There will always be a human desire to immerse in something rich that feels good – whether it's distributed media or not – and that will drive innovation.

We'll have to ask Zynga, but I'm sure their decision to launch Farmville on their own "farmville.com" domain has something to do with the fact that they want to make the most of the Farmville 'brand' whilst making the most of Facebook Connect. They are symbiotic and can feed off each other.

I don't think Zynga are going to sacrifice one for the other when they can have both working very powerfully together. Some will use Facebook and some will go to farmville.com and by the way, Facebook is a good, cheap way to sart your app and community!

Joe Hoyle from Open, November 24, 2009 at 7:04 p.m.

One more thing, Zynga wont have to be entirely tied to Facebooks strict policies on offers and credit purchasing. They will be in control of their own inventory and purchase platform.

Margaret Morris from CritSend, November 25, 2009 at 12:22 p.m.

Facebook Connect is just one way FB is enhancing its experience for greater marketing capabilities. With the release of Facebook's Roadmap last month came news that Facebook App developers will soon be able to ask for users email addresses. Of course this was not without some grumbling from the app developer community, as it also means FB is shifting app-to-user messaging from FB notifications to Stream and email. But most also realise that this access to email addresses presents them with fresh marketing opportunities as well.