Old Facebook died, New Facebook got a life

Today I want to discuss what Facebook has been doing for the whole year, what changes it made with the Facebook look, how many apps have been uploaded, we heard about many people didn’t like the new Facebook, what forced them to think that way and bla bla bla,

Let’s start with Facebook new interface, it has been designed in various technical means. They played with header to footer to different navigation tabs. Old Facebook had limited access while the new one is more cleaner and easy to use, infact the old one was too cluttered in a single home page, so that was the problem SEO were facing. Initially, many users were not ready to digest the new or upgraded version of Facebook because they were quite used to of the old one. Against new Facebook, several petitions by thousands of people has been signed and sent to the respective department but ultimately they couldn’t have the permanent way to get back their old friend. However, the perception has changed over the time and they start understanding the fact that the old Facebook was too much mess and needed to be upgraded.

New Facebook————————————Old Facebook

Statistics

General Growth

By the end of 2008, Facebook has over 140 million active users around the globe, and interestingly they are college graduate and of age 25 years old and older.

User Engagement

It has been observed that single Facebook user has 100 friends on his/her profile on average and this rate is getting increased day by day. Infact I was so chocked that 2.6 billions minutes are spent on Facebook and 13 million users update their status atleast once everyday. Ohh God!! This is so true, I even update my status atleast one time a day.

Applications

If I tell you the numbers of pictures, videos, content and event etc that have been uploaded for the sake of fun or business, whatever, you will be shocked. It is more than 700 million photos, 4 million videos, 15 million pieces of content have been uploaded and 2 millions events have been created for distinct purposes.

More than 5200 applications are available and 19 million active users groups are busy in their gossips. Whoa! Amazingly amazing.

Being on Facebook, its fun to be with old friends and find new, expand your business with the customized applications available. More than 660,000 developers from 180 countries are roaming here and there and bring new, technological and innovative apps each day.

I hope this year we will be writing triple times counting in each department, be it applications or active users, they are going to beat the count, very soon.

What’s new in New Year? Let’s dig it out,
http://facebookster.com/beta/

This is new Facebook look that has been redesigned in various means, from header to footer to navigation to pages to content, completely changed interface you will see. Old color scheme blue and black converted into blue and white with the shade of grey in home page, it brings entirely fresh and lively feel looking at it. Different navigation tabs have also been added in the header and several links in the footer for easy and prompt access.

The vital change that separates Beta version Facebookster from old one is introducing other social media networks e.g. My Space, Bebo, Friendster, Linked in, iphone etc in the Facebook lane. This strategy was applied after completion of over 400 apps because Facebookster has commonly known by developing Facebook apps but there are quite hundreds of apps which are successfully running on the mentioned networks. Therefore, for client’s convenience and crystal clarity new Facebookster introduced One-shop-For-All-Solution strategy where people may have exposure to multiple networks simultaneously.

Also, they introduced an up-to-date News program which will help people to be well informed about the latest happenings in the Facebookster world. People would have opportunity to know about the new apps release, what’s in the pipe line and everything they will like to know.If you are looking for somebody who can enlarge your marketing program not only on the Facebook world but on others’ network as well then TRY NOT to experience the UN-experienced ones. Check out our case studies, portfolio and running apps. You will have your required answer.

I will get back to you with something new next time, till then you enjoy the double treat of year 2009. And yeah, I would love to read your comments, suggestions and critics.

Interestingly, its not the only application, gladly serving the coke-fans, infact, there are more than 100 coca-cola applications are being played with huge fan-falling.
In such applications, users have option to send their favorite flavors of fuzzy coke drinks on special occasions to their friends or even the time when they think of them, randomly. There are some policies as well that if you send these drinks to some specific number of your friends, let’s say 10, then you will be able to unlock the other drinks as well which may be your most favorite.

In real world, tough competition with Pepsi is going faster on the virtual world of Facebook. There are quite few Pepsi applications which are constantly growing with its active users and I wonder how far this advertising-war will go and till when? because this online-war is getting more influencing and powerful as per research and is crystal clear why. Most of the people’s time is spent on the virtual communities and youth of every region is fond of these fuzzy-soda drinks which are the 70% who use this technological spider for webbing-connecting-sharing.

The main purpose of these applications is engaging users and the product with stories and new happenings at the larger scale to keep old and attract more customers.
So all the big fishes are busy in doing so, before leaving, I would suggest startups and small sized companies to have a deep thought about these low-budget marketing campaigns that will boost your business with speed and incite your customers vigorously.
Till then stay connected with your business apps, I will get back to you next time.

The best way to socialize your business starts with a social application. The social application has served as the best technique to market you business or to get traffic to your web and this technique really aided small business industry. If you already got a social application and want to boost it then you should start working on the following techniques:

1. Optimize your application according to the latest trends that attracts people towards your app.
2. A good application should be interactive with the users but it is not necessary. For example, you are selling a soup, ask the users about their favorite fluorescence and provide the product with the same.
3. Participate in relevant forums as much as you can and provide links to your app in your posts.
4. Do some social bookmarking for your application on social bookmarking websites.
5. Create Groups and Fan Pages for your business application on social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut etc.
6. Join related business discussion boards on social sites.
7. Viral networking can also assist you in making your app popular. Facebook provides you a free viral networking.
8. Publicize your business application on local circle; tell your friends and people around you about your application and ask them to participate.

There is no doubt that Web 2.0 is cool. It works and it gets the job done for everyone that knows a little bit about the online world. But perhaps what isn’t highlighted enough is just what a robust springboard this virtual world really is. What does that mean? Think of the Web as the human genome. Depending on who interacts with it, the features and characteristics of the developers with the cool ideas and the relevant technical expertise can add on molecules and bonds, allowing the user to have a very rich experience.

Marketing doesn’t have to be ‘in-your-face’ all the time. Have you considered how a software or web developer actually markets their brand or name? By creating products that people want to use to make their lives more comfortable, companies able to not just create the right product, but trigger the right demand. How many times have you used an application and thought to yourself, “hmmm… how did I survive before this came into my life?!” That’s the demand trigger. And we have a lot of young companies who do simply this: target and identify how specific applications can be developed so the Web becomes a more intrinsic part of you.
Salsoft is just one such company we came across. Amongst other apps, Salsoft has a service known as Facebookster through which they stake a claim to their niche? Developing applications for Facebook which enable you to have a more enriched Facebook experience. Salman Ghaznavi, the President of Salsoft took some time out of the virtual world, to speak to us about some of the opportunities, scope and risks involved in running the business they way do.

Their work at Facebookster.com speaks for itself and it is really the best example of the company’s own viral marketing. Their work might be diverse within the niche itself however their motto is simple: they are the ultimate insiders of social media application development. If you want to read how Application development for social networks can be integrated into your marketing plan, read on!
ence to our client. Hence remuneration depends on the scope of the project and how our client wishes to work with us.
What’s the response been like to some of your apps? Could you name the apps and discuss the number of installations?
The response has been fabulous! We had an exhilarating experience as we increased in strength. We have opened offices in the US and in other cities of Pakistan. We have appointed representative in far corners of the world and plan to open offices in other markets soon.
We do consistently well and continue to strive for stronger footing in the market. There is a long list of successful applications that we have developed. Some of these include;
— BlockStar (Tetris Game)- this gets more than 250,000 users each month,
— Snapdollars- more than 3000 users,
— MightofMany- more than 45,000 users.

These are dozens more successful applications but NDAs disable us from mentioning them.
What are some trends in apps development for social networking sites? What kind of people have which kinds of apps created?
Every application is unique, just like every song is different from the other, but you have to keep a few things in mind during the development process. It is these considerations that will make the difference between the success or failure of the application. Ensure the app is user friendly, social and viral and has an organic connection to Facebook’s intrinsic environment. We design applications as per clients needs and use your vast experience to polish their ideas to deliver a satisfactory consumer experience. Every application is different and is developed accordingly.

The application you develop, at the end of the day, can only be as robust or dynamic as the environment it is in. Is Facebook’s fabric really that flexible and powerful?
Of course it is. If it wasn’t, it would not survive and thrive among hundreds of social networks. Facebook only recently overtook its longtime rival MySpace in membership and affinity. Facebook is unique and perhaps the new platform to do everything you want to do online.
A common problem (which you seem to have also address in this blog entry: http://facebookster.com/blog/2008/08/20/good-bad-news-about-facebook-applications/) is that there is so much going on with every user, a cool application will be installed but seldom used. How would you ensure that the users actually USE the developed application on a regular basis?
Once again, applications are like songs - you have your favorites but you always like new ones. We keep a record of our application users. Every time the users use the application, it is monitored at our end and we keep a track of the number of users using our applications on a daily basis. For this we use Google Analytics -the best in class. We can build viral hooks, news feeds and user other tools to keep the interest alive.

Would you recommend a company advertise their product or service through a custom-made app instead of placing an ad on Facebook?
We are in the brave new world of 21st century communication. Just like the last century, new media vehicles are forming whereas old ways to reach consumers and old media is being pushed aside. Consumers are spending stupendous amount of quality time on interactive social media. My question is, can a manufacturer or a service provider ignore such a growing tide like social media, at its peril. Applications are the new message carrier in line with other content and information that is being brought to consumers. They offer tremendous opportunities to brands to promote in an interactive and entertaining fashion. If you place a simple banner ad people would just have a look at it but if you develop an application, things would go a few steps further.
For more details about the article click at http://ciopakistan.com/2008/12/apps-that-%E2%80%98ad%E2%80%99-value/

I usually get invitations like people exhibiting clothes, some cultural festival, book mania, rock concert, educational workshops, movie night, theatre or as I am found suffering from patriotism-disorder-disease so my event invitations area is flowing out with some social-activist communities which I am asked to share 1% of my energies with, for the betterment of my country.
Well, whether I go there or not, still I can talk about if the clothes were good? How was the price range? Concert was rocking but it didn’t blast like the past ones, who were the guest speakers? What they contributed? … I can comment as I was there (wink’). Yeah, in daily interaction with business icons, media correspondents and even with friends you really need to have a bulk of gossips to expand your present circle and here your PR enlarging phase comes.

And, If we see on the marketing perspective, it’s a cost effective medium where you can voice-up to your targeted audience and they are ready to hear you, which is the best part because why everyone is screaming that e-world is becoming the influential medium these days and answer is that nobody has such spare hours to watch TV, tune into radio but people keep checking their facebook invitations which are expectedly beneficial for them.
So if you are an event planner, selling tickets, promoting sports event, exhibiting your creativity or hosting a fundraising night. This is the best app you can stick to your profile and easily gather your targeted crowd at your place.

Back to the story, the problem was no secure process, everybody was allowed to poke his nose in my profile, writing in my area and commenting anything they want to (even I did it couple of times too, but not in any unethical way and that is for sure. Things we do for fun often become depressing situation for others, I realized)
Anyway, you will agree that in teen-aging phase, everybody tries to be a hero, a punster so I was, wink’. Commenting became a proper fight and I didn’t realize the situation until my photographs got hacked… sigh’

Long story short, that phase was extremely bad, mental torture, depression, handling norms and values which are again an asset of eastern person I went through…But, after some time things got solved and I decided to go somewhere I don’t have to concern about the security issues of my personal stuff, where nobody is allowed to read my gossips until I allow, where I can easily upload my friend’s get together, last days in college and birthday parties photos without giving a second thought to it.. Without social-fear and…

I am thousand times thankful to Facebook where I found these easy-to-use and hard-to-cheat apps and Now I am much relaxed, though bad time reminds me some bitter memories but on other hand I have learnt how to tackle road bumps and fight back with the bang;)
That was a true story of my friend whom I liked to share it with you guys and a little advice for you people, from now onwards be careful while throwing your personal stuff on such social-connecting web sites, as precautions are must dear.

My God!! No any marketing campaigns have been done and it made me feel as I will be the only one who would be attending this so called Grand event, because nobody knows about it.
(You might be wondering why the hell a university student is not focusing on studies instead of arranging events huh? My dear fellows, Business administration’s students are obliged to conduct such events for future prospects).

Well, anyway I called one of my friends and discussed my deadly situation with her and begged her to do something about it. She was like come on you have a week time which is not bad. She promised me for a miracle, at least for me it was.

Next morning, when I logged in my facebook account, I received an invitation by my invitation. Err… what’s that? Who did it? And my friend clever face appeared in my mind. Ohh I see so that’s the miracle she was talking about.

My event details are properly mentioned and my friend’s writing skills made it double appealing. She sent this invitation to her entire contacts’ list, I did the same so my other friends.

Within two days I got such an overwhelming response from people. They are not my friends only but a friend of friend or may be my friend’s cousin etc. So that time I realized that how FACEBOOK and FACEBOOKSTER like apps can make a huge difference in your business and social interaction.

I am going to have a blast this Monday, where I won’t only be meeting my friends only but many new faces which is again very significantly helpful from my PR prospective.
Hope to see you someday with some exciting experiences.
Till then, be loud and stay Excited.

Bitten by a Zombie? Become a pirate? Take the 80s music quiz?

Some of them may be annoying but Facebook’s applications have played a large part in the site’s success.

The free plug-ins are created by amateur and professional software developers.

They allow users to customise their personal pages.

Among the most popular are “Causes” which lets members to show their support for a campaign, “Hug me”, a way of expressing electronic affection, and “Super Poke” which involves throwing sheep at other people.

Now a change in the way applications are promoted has caused a row.

Facebook is offering to “verify” applications for a $375 (£250) annual fee.

After going through a testing process, successful apps will be given a badge, showing they meet certain standards.

Verified applications will also receive heavier online promotion.

Users’ anger

The system will effectively create trusted applications which users could rely on to be virus-free and which protect their personal data.

However, the move has been greeted with scepticism and anger on Facebook’s own developers’ blog.

Users have left comments including: “Is this a joke?”

I think it will increase the quality of applications but traffic will decrease Facebook application developer, Hakim Sadik, on the change

One member, cyMall, posted: “This is only going to take away from new apps wanting to launch.

“I don’t know of many new apps that have $375 (£250) to throw away to start up on a platform that has always been free.”

Facebook has defended the scheme. Platform program manager, Sandra Liu Huang, said the verification program was designed to “…provide your applications with a way to stand out and reassure users that they will provide a good experience.”

Application creators can make money by embedding advertising within their apps.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, 24, is worth $1.5bn

Approved status will give them increased prominence on the site.

Some developers fear that verification may affect Facebook’s popularity.

Hakim Sadik is co-founder of Facebookster, which develops applications for companies that want to exploit the commercial possibilities of social networking.

He said: “If you look, at the time Facebook traffic picked up it was when the API (application development tool) was opened up to developers.

“I think it will increase the quality of applications but traffic will decrease.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7739000/7739173.stm

© MMVIII

Phelps has the honor of winning record numbers of gold medals at a single Olympics after he won 8 medals at the Olympics 2008. This huge achievement made the super star surpass Mark Spitz, who was also a swimmer and had held the previous gold medal total with the seven that he won’t at 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

After the Olympics 2008 people were mad after this sports super star. Thousands of people wanted to see a glimpse of him and speak to him. His fans were crazy after him and wanted to reach the star and know him better. But obviously being a sports star busy schedules practice timings and a lot more happenings other than personal life creates a big time constraint for these stars to manage their fans.

But now since Michael Phelps has joined Facebook its a lot easier for him to keep in touch with the thousands of fans he has world wide. It’s pretty easy for his fans to now get on his page and read latest news about their favorite star and read his profile view pictures and videos he has on his page and read his personal messages for his fans. Facebook is not only increasing his fans interaction but its also increasing his fan following. Now people not only from USA but his fans from around the world can reach their favorite sports celebrity and interact with him. Michael Phelp’s Facebook application is highly sought by many people. Millions are interested in Michael Phelp’s Facebook account and to be on this fans list. Facebook has made it easy for both the star and the fans to interact with each other and have given both a single platform to share their feelings.