Grounded In Reality

Four weeks ago, Facebook, with 25 million users, launched a new strategy to be a technology platform where anyone can build applications for social computing–with one clever caveat, that all third-party applications, if approved, will be routed through Facebook’s servers. This, together with the carte blanche rights to monetize these applications through ad dollars, are good causes for businesses to revisit their social networking strategy.

Marc Andreessen has a brilliant analysis of the Facebook Platform. Here are my three cents concerning the business implications of Facebook applications:

1. Ease of use: It’s amazingly easy to add applications with a single click, and like widgets, applications serve a single, non-ambiguous purpose. Q: What campaign initiatives might be communicated in such a compact, eye-candy fashion?
2. Applications are intelligent: Because they have to be pre-approved by Facebook, my applications are linked to and have access (with my permission) to the information that I have previously shared. Q: How to build on this consumer behavioral data and design a targeted, personalized campaign?
3. Naturally viral: I am cued to new applications that my friends have added thanks to updates from the News Feed. (Think of News Feed as a wire service for what my friends are up to.) In other words, applications come recommended by “word of mouth” as friends observe each other. Q: What’s a meaningful, mention-worthy application that makes the user look good (think ‘Live Strong’ bracelet) among friends?

Additionally, having likely learned from MySpace, Facebook has provided easy-to-use privacy settings for all applications.