Comments on: Facebook connect gaining wide acceptance, doing wonders for publishers

By: Raghav Soni

Raghav Soni — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:38:51 +0000

@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!!

By: Chris Lang

Chris Lang — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:27:00 +0000

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

By: Raghav Soni

Raghav Soni — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:13:25 +0000

@ 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.

By: Chris Lang

Chris Lang — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:09:00 +0000

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.

By: Chris Lang

Chris Lang — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:06:05 +0000

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.