Found this presentation over on the Frith'sters rantbase. ;)
To date, most Facebook Connect sites make very limited us of the Social Graph information available. So in the presentation above, the authors ask if the real value of something like FB Connect is in its being the window into things like collaborative commerce.
What if we logged into a retailer and reviews from our friends or our friends' friends were listed at the top? It's one of the reasons I love services like GigPark because I'm able to get reviews from people I trust. I'm quite fed up with reading highly emotional reviews that turn out to be bogus or misleading. Something tells me I'm not alone.
We are all building trusted networks online. The question is how to tap into these. Perhaps its less about how many clicks a person takes to get to a product and rather how many clicks it takes them to find out from THEIR network just how good or bad a product is.
I've long been interested in social shopping and while there have been a few attempts by some retailers to move into this area, they were hindered by the fact that your friends were likely not participating in the site. So adoption became a significant barrier to entry.
As we move down the road of Facebook Connect microsites and promotions, it would do us all good to start thinking of this as a new opportunity for connecting everyday tasks with the uniqueness of our social connections. In other words, to make the sites we visit far more relevant, helpful and of use.
In principle, sure. But what will make a website successful is not just that is sociable, but that it is social-worthy and social-relevant. Early movers with FB Connect and the like, will experience growth, but users will tire of the incessant noise over time and become more picky.
Success in social isn't about technology. It's about technology enabling something great. Take out either the technology, or the something great/remarkable and you aren't social.
Posted by: Jonathan Burg | July 02, 2009 at 06:28 AM
Couldn't agree more, Jonathan.
It seems to me that the majority of FB Connect stuff I've seen is totally missing the point.
Why I turned to GigPark is that it better enabled a truly social function - getting recommendations from people I already trust (my existing networks).
It struck me that any site that is attempting to provide recommendations should consider that maybe I don't want to be treated like everyone else who happened to buy that particular book or that particular shirt.
Posted by: Sean Howard | July 03, 2009 at 07:28 AM
A friend of mine recently posted a photo album of hairstyles she was considering trying out on FaceBook and asked for people’s opinions. I’m not sure if there are sites currently doing this, but I would think people would take advantage of the ability to post multiple images to elicit feedback from friends on purchases they are considering. For example, a car manufacturer site that offered an application where you could post images of various models or colors on FaceBook and get your friends’ votes.
Posted by: AliSwi | July 03, 2009 at 08:51 AM
I know what my graph is listening to because of Last.fm and Blip. I know what they're buying from GDGT. Book recommendations live on GoodReads, and movies on Netflix. When I go somewhere to buy something or engage with content, there's usually some social element in play. If there's not, and I want one, I tweet, it pings across friendfeed and facebook, and feedback comes back pretty quickly.
Facebook connect doesn't create anything new, it just joins disparate functions and makes them a lot less of a pain in the ass. Your take on the situation is spot-on: this is all about reducing the number of clicks between where we are and where we want to be.
Posted by: Account Deleted | July 05, 2009 at 08:12 PM