How well would “Facebook Connect” Connect?

Author: Business Beyond Reality

November 30, 2008: The day Facebook made their big press push for their Facebook Connect service, which was first announced on May 30th, 2008.

Source: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&year=2008&month=5

After the first version of the Facebook API in August 2006, enabling users to share their information with the third party websites and applications they choose and Facebook Platform in May 2007, which allowed third party developers to build rich social applications within Facebook, Facebook Connect, the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site was announced on May 2008. Facebook Connect will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook. Similair to OpenId (which was adopted by MySpace) third party developers can allow website visitors to login to their website using their Facebook ID. This “Passport” system (much like what Microsoft tried to do) will let members leave comments on third party sites –as well as identify their friends on these sites.

Source: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=108

Many Facebook Connect implementations have launched over the past several weeks. Some of the launch partners include CBS’ TheInsider.com, CNN’s the Forum, and Red Bull. Additionally, many sites have submitted their implementations, and have been approved for launch, including GlobalGrind, GovIt, and IndieGoGo.

Source: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=163

What ‘Facebook Connect’ Means for Corporate Websites

“Facebook Connect will allow corporate websites to allow users to authenticate, interact, and share with their Facebook network –all without leaving the corporate website”, says Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing who attended SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Facebook f8 Conference, July 23, 2008.

Brands that are already trying to reach the Facebook audience (white collar workers and college students) should plan on experimenting with Facebook Connect as it can bring additional social functionality to corporate websites.

Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/07/23/what-facebook-connect-means-for-corporations/

What the third party sites get out of these services

What the third party sites get out of these services: easy sign in for users, particularly new users. They can also use the profile data to help users create accounts at their site with little data input. The activity stream information published on the social networks includes links back to their sites. And one of the most interesting features, for Facebook Connect partners: sites can request friend lists from Facebook to help them make more connections on their own services.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113002453.html

Battle for partners:

The battle for partners is intense. MySpace announced Twitter as a launch partner, but rumor is that Twitter is actually integrating with Facebook first . MySpace also announced Yahoo and eBay as launch partners. To date, though, they’ve only launched with Flixster and Eventful.

This is just one more in a trend: OpenID now on MySpace, Google Friend Connect, LinkedIn’s ties with Businessweek and NYT are all examples of our social graphs (relationships) leaving the social network and spreading to third party sites.

Also, White label social network vendors (community platforms) should be thinking about how to integrate all of the above.

PagalGuy.Com Marketing Strategy – Missing Links

Author: Business Beyond Reality

 

If I had a free hand in the Marketing Department of PagalGuy.Com, following would be my unique contribution to the way Pagalguy.com markets itself:

1.      Ability to import the calendar available in Pagalguy.com in Google/Yahoo/MSN Calendar. This kind of personalization should have a good penetration. Along with the calendar entries, there would be a line advertisement of Pagalguy.com.

 2.      SMS Alerts of important notices and dates and regular reminders (80 Characters) followed by a single line advertisement (80 Characters).

 3.      A downloadable J2ME application for the JAVA/Symbian Mobile Handsets. The user should be able to read content of Pagalguy.com through a GPRS enabled mobile handset through that application. The application can also contain features like-a new word a day, a quant question a day etc. Every time a user opens the application, a relevant advertisement would be presented to the user.  

 4.      Seminars for MBA Aspirants. Free for last year high performers in CAT and a marginal entrée fee for the others. Having a free seminar would attract the high performers, and if advertised well, the presence of high performers would attract the weak students and newbies to spend money and add up to Pagalguy’s revenue.

 5.      Invited Video Seminar of last year’s MBA top performers, web-casted on Pagalguy.com website.

 6.      Representatives outside banks like Axis Bank or UTI Bank during the period they sell the coveted institute admission forms. These representatives would advertise Pagalguy.com to people coming to buy forms.

 7.      Start a 24 hours pre-recorded internet radio channel.

 8.      Advertising through SIFYs chain of cyber cafes. They advertise websites at the time of users logging in for a nominal charge.

Advantages of Internet Marketing over Conventional Media

Author: Business Beyond Reality

 

I would here like to highlight some of the benefits of Internet Marketing over Marketing through Conventional Media.

1. Online Marketing is more customizable to suit the interests of the targeted users. Example: When creating an email address, one is asked to select newsletters of interest. Or the customized advertisements in Gmail, which are related by semantics or a defined ontology with the content of the email. Online marketing if done with meticulous planning is likely to attract more attention from the targeted users . Permission Marketing has even more impact.

2. Online Marketing targets all those people who spend significant time on the internet. The internet has become a part of our life in different dimensions. Emails and Search Engines for professionals, Social Networking Websites for College goers, Matrimonial Websites for the older people, Internet today has a huge penetration.

3. Marketing through a website based on the Web 2.0 technology (And the Web 3.0 which according to Gartner would have a presence amongst 80% of the internet users worldwide by 2011), web is not anymore a means to broadcast information but also a platform for the content providers and the readers to interact.

4. Online Marketing has a global penetration. It is not restricted to a local zone or a country. An advertisement on Radio Mirchi or Times of India Newspaper (Hardcopy) would not be able to reach the audience in the US. This is a downside because through conventional media, we lose audience like the Non Residents who have a high probability to be interested in the products/services being offered in their home country. Banks in India have now the facility for NRIs to send money through moneyorders to their people in India, the request of which is taken from e-banking. This is supporting example showing the involvement of Non Residents with their home country.

5. RSS proves to be a good technique to pass information to the target audience.

6. Listing costs are extremely cheap and it is a great way to reach thousands of people in a short amount of time.