Open Graph applications allow third party developers to create frictionless apps that automatically share engagement of a user with the app on Facebook, after permission has been given once. These apps may appear similar to apps like Hulu and Spotify that have been moving around Facebook for last few months.
The launch
In September 2011, at the F8 Conference, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is planning to develop a ‘frictionless’ experience across the web through a series of applications. In a press meet held on January 18, 2012, Facebook launched 60 applications from vendors like Trip Advisor, Living Social, Pinterest, Runkeeper, UrbanSpoon are few of them. Good news for developers! They can now add anything they like to their timeline and Facebook will approve them in wholesale! The activity of the app will be monitored at the end of a month.
Why Open Graph?
The idea behind Open Graph is to combine actions of the users in different websites and applications and tag them with Facebook. If you are listening to a song on Spotify (while signed in with Facebook) and your friends watch it in the Ticker or News Feed then they can also listen to the song by just clicking it.
This is what Zuckerberg referred as ‘frictionless’ experience. However, this won’t happen automatically. A Facebook user should opt to share from his selected site. After giving consent, all his activities on that site will be shred with all his friends on Facebook until he decides to turn off the app. The shared content is likely to appear in the Timeline of a Facebook user rather than in their news feed. Currently, Timeline is opt-in option but all Facebook accounts are likely to transit to Timeline in near future.
Advantages of Open Graph
If you are a Facebook user you may be delighted with such expansion plans and new features offered by the largest social networking site. However, in addition to delivering amazing user experience, Open Graph is expected to open up tons of opportunities for developers and marketers. If you are involved in internet marketing, own e commerce or blog site then this can be a great opportunity. Let us have a quick look at the advantages offered by Open Graph of Facebook.
You can create an app that can enable fans and customers to share testimonials about various services and products of your business. In this way your news about your products and business get shared among similar interest groups.
If your business offers a free trial then create a Facebook app that allows tapping in more Facebook users via Open Graph action. Ricky just signed in to try this amazing widget free for 30 days? How about you? If Ricky happens to be a peer you may feel interested to give a try.
Content providers can reap in profit from Open Graph apps. If you have a huge bank of content then consider creating an app that appears like Content Library. When Facebook users download content from your site their friends can see the story and get interested to visit your library.
Conclusion
Facebook is confident of increasing number of active users with launch of Open Graph. As of developers, this is a great opportunity to tap the huge marketing potential of Facebook. It is also expected to revolutionize the experience of user experience and bring in a new dimension in social networking.
This was a guest post by Sara Parker, who is a Freelance and Staff writer writing informative & creative articles on Television and Technology for various technology related companies including broadband expert. Her expertises are in writing articles related to internet providers, Satellite TV deals, Att Internet Deals, etc. You can write a guest post too!