Getting love from the Facebook Platform

http://apps.facebook.com/facebook_success

THE F8 STORYhttp://apps.facebook.com/treys_f8_story

The F8 Invite

• Random invite must have been an accident

• Allowing individuals to develop applications before you launch is a good idea (hint hint, impending platform launches).

The F8 Event

• Somewhat predictable announcement, but still awesome

• From a developer’s POV, this is a great way to rapidly gain a user base

• From the user’s POV…

The F8 User “Possibilities”

• From the user’s POV…

The F8 User Possibilities

• Access to cool, unheard-of web applications from outside of Facebook

• Additions to Facebook itself that the company never implemented

The F8 Idea

• Really the first time we’ve seen such third-party integration to a major site

• Pretty successful

• Other companies attempting to emulate its success

• Individual platforms are the future?

The F8 Apps

• All alone• Coded hardcore for a few

hours• Went on family vacation• Had to work from dial-up

= tragic• Sold to SideStep

– Their current app was a true utility

• Fun summer internship with them in Silicon Valley

The F8 Lesson

• Listen to your fellow developers. Maybe they’ve got a good idea. Maybe it’ll pay off later.

• Love Facebook.

CREATING A KILLER APP

http://apps.facebook.com/creating_a_killer_app(Introducing the <fb:killer-app /> tag)

General tips: start now

• Get in early

– App fatigue

– Flooded directory

– No more good URLs (minor but annoying)

• Concentrate on your idea

– Make it unique

– The longer you wait, the more likely it’ll be done

General tips: start now

• Don’t spend too much time developing before launching

– User feedback will guide you (if it’s successful)

– Prepare to respond to it while your app is still somewhat small (a few thousand users)

• Make the app sticky

Facebook approach

• How to use requests• How to use notifications

– “Zombies” was blocked when its developer left for 9 hours to go play Frisbee. The reason? He was using notifications instead of requests to tell people they had been bitten. Now he uses them appropriately and actually sees better results.

• Don’t go in just for money– leads to spam apps

• Don’t take things so seriously– It’s all experimental– Monetization? Ehh… Although some

apps are claiming 100k/year (which is interesting because it’s only been open five months), monetization is really hard.

– One really useful effect of applications is building name recognition

Different types of apps• Utilities and games

– Useful inside and outside of Facebook– Well developed because they’re

feature-filled– Facebook <3s utilities and games, builds

around them• New metrics• Preventing abuse• Games are gaining• FBFund• Dave @ Facebook talking about good

apps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8KggY3LhSw

• Facebook extensions– Wall apps– Gifts apps– Poking apps– Extended Info

• Fads and seasonal applications– Zombies– Quotes

Define “success”

• Total users?• Active users?• Niche users?• Users in a specific demographic?• Happy users

– measure this by looking at groups. Try searching Facebook for ‘Funwall’ and clicking the groups tab at the top. Then, try ‘Extended Info.’

• What happens next?– Sell the app

• To who?– Bidder with the highest price so

you can sit around reading Valleywag all day?

– Best bidder for your users?

– Take it out of Facebook– Try to maintain it independently

Demographics

• Changing fast on Facebook

• Most are not students anymore

• Most are at least 25• More females• Is your app targeting all

the people it could be?• Mostly English speaking

users, for now…– Get in early on multi-

lingual apps

Execution

• Prepare to scale

– You host the most

– Facebook app = Facebook traffic

– Tyler’s “Coping with success”

• Keep up that growth

– Deceleration = bad news

• Prepare for Tuesday night pushes. Seriously.

Metrics

• Think about it before you launch

• Google analytics/urchin has its own FBML tag

• More advanced analytics means you’ll be able to tell from the beginning what viral methods work and what don’t

• Maybe we’ll have more advanced analytics soon

Growth

• #1 tip: make it social• Organic growth

– Verified by latest stats– News feed

• Use images for more visibility• Call to action = cheesy• Now templatized! More users = more

likely to appear in news feed

– Directory• Often forgotten: think about your icon,

app name, and add a screenshot to your ‘About’ page

• Abuse (aka spam)– Don’t use notifications in the beginning.

They have a tendency to be marked as spam then.

• Advertising– Free indie ads from Tyler/Slide

(unethicalblogger.com)– Facebook app ad networks like

Slide/RockYou/Cubics/several others– Submit your app to review/news sites

Example App

• “The Wall, Lah”– Translates wall posts to Singlish

– “omg haven’t talked to you in a while” might turn into“alamak! long time no talk lah!”

• Who does this target?

• Will it catch on? Is it sticky?

• How does it spread?

• Can it monetize?

Next up

• I’ve talked about:– The idea– Planning– Executing

• So what’s left?– World domination– Monetization– (cue next speech)

• The best applications, the ones that drive Facebook, are supposed to come from developers, so get to work tonight