Socially Awkward? Try Facebook Connect.

Is your company struggling with its Social Media strategy? Ironically if you’ve been searching for an answer your lethargy might actually help you leapfrog the competition. The rest of this article deals with the benefits of socially integrating your site with Facebook Connect. Afterwards I’ll offer up a quick and easy referral strategy for your eCommerce site.

Theoretically there’s a war that’s being waged right now over your online entity. The main players are Facebook Connect, OAuth (Google) and OpenID (decentralized). While these giants battle it out for supremacy, let me save you a whole bunch of time, effort and energy. The war is over. The king is dead. Long live the new king, Facebook Connect.

Technologically all three services are fairly similar. Basically your user authentication is handled by a third party and a validation cookie is sent back to you the instigating site. OpenID is slightly different insofar as that anyone can run their own authenticating server. In the case of Facebook Connect and OAuth, Facebook and Google handle the validation respectively.

Technology aside, where Facebook enjoys a massive competitive advantage is in the underlying social network that’s intrinsically built into the site. When a user connects to your site via Facebook Connect you as the site owner can use the FacebookRestClient to not only pull all of the demographic information that Facebook maintains on that specific user but additionally (and more importantly) you can also instantly pull all the demographic information on all of that user’s friends as well. This data used properly can be a huge boon for your company as I’ll explain later.

Some of the other features that Facebook Connect  offers are the ability to publish to the user’s newsfeed, tag friends, upload pictures, share links and change their status remotely (a la Twitter). That’s right, users on your site can publish directly to Facebook without leaving your site. There’s a whole host of other features that you can learn about from the Facebook Connect documentation page.

Ultimately what does this all mean for you? Let’s have a quick look of the competitive advantages to you, the online business owner:

1. Trusted Authentication – The trust actually runs two ways in this case: First your internal technology department can basically outsource all your authentication management system to a huge company (fewer headaches for you, less liability). Secondly, your end user gets peace of mind that a reputable ID management system is in place (much like the VeriSign GoldSeal, it promotes consumer confidence)
2. Simplify Signup – I know if I fill out my personal information on yet another social media site I’m going to snap and I know I’m not the only one out there who suffers from Social Profile Fatigue. Facebook Connect offers a simple and streamlined method for users to join your site without filling out a large form while still providing your eCommerce site with all the demographic information you want and need. Oh and by the way, since your users will spend less time signing up for your product or service, they can spend more time doing what you want them to (like buying stuff!).
3. Word of Mouth Accelerator – One of the least expensive and most powerful customer acquisition methodologies is word-of-mouth (‘free’ has a certain ring to it). By allowing your users to instantly and seamlessly publish information to your site as well as their own Facebook account you gain instant access to their entire social circle. Smart brands will learn that the key to getting content into Facebook is about providing a meaningful value exchange for each Facebook Connect interaction, prompting their users to naturally want to post to Facebook at every turn.
4. Business Information – Even if you’re planning on starting your site tomorrow, you can quickly and easily tap into years of demographic information that Facebook has been collecting. The value of each signup suddenly gets multiplied by a hundred fold each time someone signs up to your site (the average Facebook user has 124 friends).
5. Increase Traffic – According to Bob Buch, VP, Business Development at Digg.com: “..social community sites using the Facebook Connect API have seen their traffic increase from 30 -100%”
6. Instant Targeted Marketing – Upon logging in, the Facebook-powered profile can inform a much more relevant, targeted experience. A retailer can feature merchandise based on profile details like location, age, relationship status or even brands that the user has “fanned.”
7. Influencers – For anyone who’s read The Tipping Point you’ll instantly recognize and value the “Connectors”.  Facebook Connect makes it quick and easy for your company to recognize which users have the biggest social circle and your company can act accordingly (for example you can offer free samples to anyone who signs up for your service and has over 1,000 Facebook Friends).
8. Easy Implementation – One of the best features of Facebook Connect is that it is by far and away the easiest of the three libraries to implement. Basically drop their Javascript library onto your page and you’re ready to rock (there are other methods but this one is the easiest).

Quick and Dirty Viral Marketing

Few online businesses stand to gain as much from Facebook Connect as eCommerce websites. Ecommerce sites typically have a lot of users but little or no viral promotion. One simple type of promotion that becomes easier with Facebook Connect is a simple product recommendation system that has some sort of reward associated with it. For example earn a 5% discount off of all your purchases every time you refer product (x) through your newsfeed. Another simple Facebook Connect strategy is to offer a $20 gift certificate for every Facebook Friend referral.

What are your experiences with Facebook Connect? How are you using Facebook Connect, OAuth or OpenID to improve your site’s stickiness?

As always using music to inspire my programming. Here’s what’s in my iPod right now: La Roux – Bulletproof (Zinc Remix)

@alenauthority

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