Facebook Connect for Publishers
Why should all publishers be looking at Facebook Connect?
There are a number of websites to find examples of the cool stuff you can do by implementing Facebook Connect (FBC) into your product. Razorfish’s Jesse Pickard posted an article for insidefacebook.com that outlined a number of interesting connected applications, AllFacebook.com has a list of the “top” Facebook Connect enabled sites, and The Facebook Developer wiki aspires to maintain an exhaustive list of connected sites. If you are a PowerPoint freak, here is a slideshow created by social media marketing agency bigMETHOD, laying down the FBC basics.
The Facebook Connect homepage lays out the key benefits:
Enable your users to…
* Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
* Connect and find their friends who also use your site
* Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook
Beyond that, they also claim:
“early results have shown that sites using Facebook Connect for login have seen as many as 2 out of 3 new registrations come via Facebook Connect, and those users have about 50% more engagement on sites.”
The enthusiasm for FBC and excitement about its potential is significant.
However, our clients (large media companies and brands) have been hesitant to adopt, or even experiment with FBC because of some early assumptions relating primarily to user data access.
I would like to try to address some of the questions I have been asked by these clients about Facebook Connect.
What user data do I get from Facebook?
What data can I keep?
What can I store in my CRM?
Will my community be limited to Facebook users?
