How To: Use Open Graph Apps for Marketing on Facebook
At f8 , Facebook introduced three major changes to the site: Open Graph applications, the home page Ticker, and the profile Timeline.
Open Graph Apps
Facebook allows developers to create “Open Graph applications” — Facebook.com apps and Facebook-integrated websites that can ask users for permission to publish activity to Facebook whenever they take an in-app action without having to prompt the user to share each time.
Once users grant and app or website persistent publishing permission, their activity is published to the Tickers of friends and their own Timeline. Developers choose a verb and a noun which are used in the published activity stories.
Along with publishing individual activity stories, Open Graph apps can publish “Reports” or summaries of a user’s activity.Marketers can use Open Graph apps to gain more users for their apps by publishing user activity stories and compelling Reports that the friends of their users will want to click through.
Ticker
Ticker is a secondary news feed shown in the Facebook home page’s right sidebar that displays to users short, simple text activity stories about the people they’re friends with and the Pages they Like.
The Ticker’s main impact on marketers is that by creating applications with Open Graph functionality and getting users to interact with them, they gain exposure in the Ticker for activity stories that contain links to their applications. This helps their applications gain more users.
Timeline
Facebook has redesigned the profile into what it calls Timeline. Timeline lets users “feature” specific activity stories, expanding them to appear larger on their profile. Timeline also automatically displays “Recent Activity” sections for music apps, news reader apps, and video apps, as well as a general section of activity in other apps. By getting users to use your apps, you can gain viral exposure in these sections.
Strategies for Marketing Through Open Graph Apps
Turn Wall Posts into Activity Stories
Fundamentally, the introduction of Open Graph apps mean marketers need to get their users to give them persistent publishing permission and complete actions that can be automatically shared, rather than explicitly asking them to share individual actions.
Source: “ How to Use Facebook Open Graph Apps for Marketing Through the Ticker and Timeline “, Inside Facebook
