Facebook connect gaining wide acceptance, doing wonders for publishers
Facebook connect seems to be doing really well in terms of growth and adaptation. Facebook connect’s success marks the ambitious expansion plans of Facebook to capture new waters in terms of future Ad network and as a potential payment gateway.
Effectiveness of Facebook connect as disclosed to SAI :
- Publishers using Facebook Connect as an alternative for account registration have seen a 30-200% increase in registration on their sites.
- Facebook connect powered sites see a 15-100% increase in reviews and other user generated content .
- Every story published on facebook sees 3 clicks(visitors) on an average, half of the stories published in the facebook Stream get clicks.
The user engagement seems to be touching new heights (as seen by above figures) with Facebook connect which may attract many more publishers in future to implement the solution on their portals. In many cases, the user stickiness is even higher than Google friend connect – which was largely perceived as a major threat to Facebook connect. Recently Twitter also made public the Twitter API Wiki on how to use OAuth for login credentials.
Facebook connect was always seen as a precursor to a Facebook owned Ad platform or a payment gateway by industry experts. Its success is vital to its future ambitions as winning publishers’ trust and gaining mass acceptance would really make things simple for its other social media related expansions.
All Social Media portals are currently focusing on getting a larger pie of connect based solutions as it helps them in reaching audiences like never before. This aids publishers as it helps them gain a jump in their subscriber base by providing users multiple login credentials. The viral nature of SNS is also exploited. Initiatives like opensocial are also a way to a standardized social media web.
These connect based solutions have become a de-facto standard for web and could also be seen as the next battleground for Social networking giants to slug it out for wider acceptance and visibility. At the same time it could be a cause of worry for publishers as it attracts a more disloyal audience which may or may not be their target group.
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I have to disagree, and I am a social media user of the highest level.
First off, Facebook is so full of so many distractions that I can’t even manage to hold the attention span of a 2 year old there, or on Twitter for that matter.
Second, I have over 60,000 social contacts and they are fresh, built in the last year. The traffic is poor and I see little conversion.
Third, Howie Schwartz said it best: Drag your social contacts out of social sites and into your own marketing. That is email.
Fourth, once I have taken a social surfer and turned them into a email subscriber the conversion is 100% to 200% better.
Fifth, Google Friend Connect Friends are REAL FRIENDS, note I am shouting here.
Facebook may generate an average of 3 clicks.
Google Friend Connect generates and average of 7 backlinks to every story I share in Google Reader.
Because these are people who know me, we have each others email address in Gmail and we chat in Gchat on Gmail we share a higher level of trust. I even publish my phone numbers and my Google Friend Connect friends call me…..
When I get even one link to my site that Google loves and raises me in Google Search results from Facebook, then I will sing the praises of Facebook Connect.
I also find it interesting that two of your social networks you suggest we find you on are Google properties and Twitter integrates highly with Google Friend Connect.
I subscribed to the comments here, am linking to your site and will gladly carry on the conversation if you care to respond. Disagreeing is a great thing. It is what makes life interesting.
@ Chris Lang
I agree with many of your points as they were not included in the post too.
point 1. facebook despite lot of distractions serves as a trusted source of news….due to mostly friends circle available.
2.Yes conversions are falling not just from Facebook but also from Twitter,but they still have a lot of potential if exploited in a correct way.
3.I agree and even implemented e-mail marketing as major tool for many of my projects.
One thing which You rightly pointed out was the Google love being absent in facebook connect feature,that would always remain a -ve for it.
Then what do I Disagree………
Facebook connect is really working well for many publishers including some well-known news sites……This post was more towards facebook connect’s growing audience rather than major comparison with Google and other connect solutions.
Kudos!! for your thoughts and nice to have readers like you.
Keep reading WATBlog.
Glad you not see my post as overtly negative, I am a get to the point kinda guy and disagreeing is a great thing. But I also wanted to make sure you see this video:
Before you believe all the Facebook Connect propaganda you may want to watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZQm2db2EqU
Also blame Microsoft for the Google Friend Connect / Facebook rift. That one has the hand of Steve Ballmer written all over it.
It would have been great to see Google and Facebook play well together but now it will never happen. Bad for us, bad for Google, bad for Facebook, good for Microsoft.
I will be glad when they (MS) go the way of IBM, i.e. The Old Evil Empire….
Have a good weekend!
Chris Lang
chris@keywebdata.com
@Chris Lang
Great Video analysis……
I agree with your facebook-microsft VS Google rift,But I only take facebook connect as a potent competitor not as big as giant-Google’s product.
Market would always be there for other connect services just like it is their for mid-level social media sites like sphinn,mixx etc cos publishers live on hope and hope is not that bad word after all.
Wishing you success in your social media quest!!