Facebook’s ‘Open Graph’ vision

: Image via CrunchBase

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the social network‘s new ‘Open Graph’ concept during the annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco.

Zuckerberg told delegates: “We think what we have to show you today will be one of the most transformative things we’ve ever done for the web.”

Their plan is to aggregate all your activity on other social sites on to Facebook. Theoretically, with the Open Graph, your comments on a Trade Me message board and restaurant review on Dine Out could be posted to your Facebook profile instantly.

A key change is the addition of a ‘Like’ button, effectively replacing ‘become a fan of’. Every time a consumer will click ‘Like’ on a third-party website, that information will be published back to the user’s Facebook news feed and profile and will appear in search results.”

The result will allow instantly personalised experiences for users when they visit a company’s website and offer easier share options for companies and better engagement with its users.

Taking the NZ Herald as an example you might have a personalised homepage based on your interests and you could see who of your friends have read an article, signed up for RSS feeds and see their comments on specific articles.

If you are shopping for clothes on Platform then you could effectively take your friend’s with you as you browse the site.

Open Graph replaces Facebook Connect which essentially enabled users to log on to a website using their Facebook id. In order for the new functionality to work users will need to be logged in to Facebook so we suspect Connect will exist in some form.

What does Open Graph mean for businesses?

Here are two good quotes:

“The social plug-ins Facebook launched will infuse third-party websites with the personalized social context and social functionality of Facebook, such as commenting, liking, sharing and posting. For the first time, news feeds of social activity will live not just on Facebook, but will be extended to third-party websites.”

“The common Facebook user has an average of 150 friends and each ‘Like’ will increase a brand’s exposure to the friends of that user, ultimately increasing the number of connections the brand has.”

Facebook’s New Social Plugins >>

Need help with Facebook? Call Steer – Social Media Marketing Agency, Auckland