Since we published The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook in December, interest from marketers and developers has been great. From Hollywood to Helsinki, new media marketing professionals, application developers, and even corporate and university staff have been asking for more a more detailed understanding of strategic options and tactical recommendations on how to implement Facebook campaigns to achieve their goals.

The Facebook Marketing Bible contains three key parts: Tools for Guerilla Marketers, Tools for Advertisers, and Tools for Application Developers. Each part outlines the best available channels for reaching your audience inside Facebook.

The February 2008 edition includes updates on the following topics:

• Facebook in your language: Facebook’s foray into international markets, the launch of Facebook’s Translations, and what this means for application developers and marketers
• New rules for News Feed Optimization: no more “passive” feed items, Facebook blocking feed items with the word “message” (and why Facebook will ban other words in the future), News Feed ranking changes for templated feed items for users without the app (and what this could mean for Facebook’s application philosophy in the future)
• New rules for Invitation Optimization: Facebook’s new dynamic limits on invitations and notifications, and the new “Clear All Invitations” button
• The implications of Facebook’s new profile box cleanup tool
• The launch of Facebook’s JavaScript Client Library, and the potential for new kinds of Platform applications

For those interested in learning more, click the purchase link to right. The price is $49, or $59 with three months of updates emailed directly to your inbox. As always, please make suggestions if you’d like to see more attention paid to any topic!

New Inside Facebook Top Jobs for February 20:

• Software Engineer (Lookery / Remote though Boston, MA preferred)
  

Although most of what we remember as America Online has gradually disappeared over the last decade, AIM, AOL’s instant messenger client, remains a dominant communication platform with tens of millions of active users. New Silicon Valley startup social.im hopes to take advantage of the current disruption happening on the social web due to newly open social networking application platforms by establishing a new IM network more deeply embedded into the social networking experience.

It’s for that reason that I think social.im is one of the bigger ideas to emerge on the Facebook Platform yet. I recently sat down with Yanda Erlich, Founder and CEO of social.im, to talk more about the company’s vision and the future of IM.

IF: So Yanda, how did you get motivated to create social.im?

YE: I’ve increasingly found that the first thing I want to do when I es-establish connections with old friends on Facebook is have a conversation. IM is really a synchronous communication extension to managing your friends. It’s a little weird that people still use AIM because up to date contact lists are in social networking platforms.

IF: What’s the history of the company?

YE: Social.im grew out of Mogad, which I co-founded with Lucas Ryan and Blake Commagere. Blake has since focused on his Monsters apps, and Lucas and I have focused on Social.im. Right now, it’s just Lucas and me, but we’re going to hire 3 more people soon. We originally raised an angel round for the Mogad idea (passive social discovery) from Aydin Senkut (of Google and now Felicis Ventures), Georges Harik (also of Google), and Peter Thiel. Social.im has largely been inspired by MySpace IM (which went from 0 to 17 million installs in a year) and Tencent (230 million active users in China, and interestingly uses IM as a gaming and avatar platform).

IF: How do you think IM will enhance the social networking experience?

YE: Many ways. IM can now be used as a clever conduit for notifications to the user… Apps that have been popular on social networks – self expression and communication – can be enhanced a lot more when they become synchronous. For example, most of the time I play Scrabulous, I’ve scheduled a time to play with my friends, and most of the time I want it to go faster. Having presence awareness helps a lot, and having higher quality graphics on the local machine (since it’s a download) helps a lot too. It’s also nice that there’s no configuration – we just plug right into your friend list, not just on Facebook but soon on other social networks as well.

IF: Why did you make social.im a download and not a plug-in?

YE: We found that plug-ins are still just too hard for many people to understand. It’s just as a hard as a download for many people, but with less benefits.

IF: How has growth been so far?

YE: We’re seeing several thousand new users per day, and engagement has been very high too – users who log in send on average 40-50 messages a day.

IF: Will social.im integrate with other IM networks?

YE: Yes, we will add multi-network functionality to help users migrate from legacy networks.

IF: Are you worried about Facebook competing with you?

YE: We think Facebook is primarily worried about acquiring users to expand their network and validating their monetization model. IM is at its core about engagement, not acquisition. If they’re working on it now, I’d be concerned, but we’ll roll with the punches – Facebook is not the only social network on the planet.

In what could be the start of a bigger trend, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has launched a class focused on the development of applications for the Facebook Platform.

CS3216: Software Development on Evolving Platforms, taught by Ben Leong, an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing with 3 degrees from MIT, is just the second class to ever be offered on the topic after the Stanford Facebook app class last fall.

In CS3216, which just started a few weeks ago, NUS students learn principles of Platform application web development and are graded on three class projects and one final assignment. The class’s Facebook group contains several videos from recent lectures.

I spoke with Assistant Prof. Leong about his reasons for starting the class, the reception it’s received, and the experiences he’s had with the students so far.

IF: Why did you decide to create CS 3216?

BL: There are two major reasons:

a. CS3216 was inspired mainly by Randy Paush’s Last Lecture that I watched online early last semester. In his lecture, Randy talked about his class called “Creating Virtual Worlds” and I thought to myself, “Hey, that’s a really cool idea. Can we do that at NUS too? Perhaps we can put a bunch of smart and talented kids from the various majors together and see what they can do?”. Unfortunately, I am not an animation guy and I wasn’t quite enamoured with the idea of starting a new course based on Alice, so that idea was just sitting there in my head….

b. Next, I happened to be talking to folks from industry to understand their needs and I realized that one of the attributes that is important for Computer Science graduates when they get out there to the workforce is the ability to pick up new skills and abilities on-the-fly. The feedback from industry was not altogether positive. Apparently many of our local graduates are not comfortable having do stuff they had never done before in school.

So the question came up: how do we address this issue and better equip our students for the *REAL* world? It was also around at this time that I started getting Super-Poked and the popularity of Facebook application started to take off. Then it occured to me: hey, I have no idea how to write Facebook applications – if I make students write Facebook apps, it will replicate the situation of being thrown into the deep end.

The other attraction of Facebook is that many students like it and find it cool. Like Randy says, in the business of education, we’re like salesmen. We sell ideas to the students. If the students are already sold even before we start, then half the battle is already won.

IF: How would you describe the students’ response to and participation in your course?

BL: We had 80+ applicants for the course, but because we have limited teaching resources, we only offered places to 55 students. The response of the students have been overwhelmingly positive and I believe I am fortunate to have the privilege of teaching the most creative and talented class of students I have ever seen at NUS.

The quality of the apps created by the students for their one-week class assignments has far exceeded my expectations. You can find links to them at the course website and see for yourself. So far they have only completed two assignments, but by the end of next week, the third assignment will also be done and the students will be into their last lap — the Final Project.

IF: How was your class approach and curriculum influenced by the Stanford course taught by BJ Fogg and Dave McClure? How is your approach different from the Stanford course?

BL: I took a quick peek at the approach and curriculum of the Stanford course when I started designing my course. My impression is that the focus of the Stanford course is to teach students how to write apps that capture the maximum number of eyeballs (or what they call persuasive apps).

The focus of my course is quite different because our needs here are different. Classes are not created because of hype. There has to be sound pedagogical value. My goal is to train students to (i) pick up new technology quickly; (ii) work in inter-disciplinary teams; (iii) express their creativity; and (iv) pick up some industry contacts/experience. In many ways, CS3216 is probably closer to Randy Paush’s “Creating Virtual Worlds” than to the Stanford Facebook Course, even though Facebook is the common medium.

This is also reflected in the structure of the course. My understanding is that the students do two projects at Stanford. For CS3216, the students do three short 1-2 week assignments at the beginning to “get into” Facebook. Thereafter, they are allowed to do literally anything (as long as it is not illegal) for their Final Projects. I’ve brought in a bunch of folks from the industry to pitch their ideas on what they’d like to see as Facebook apps earlier in the semester — and the students are allowed to work with them. In particular, ScanScout has offered their API and up to $10k for the development of an app that meets their needs. The possibilities are limitless.

Sure, the students will get a good grade for the class if they create an app that captures a million eyeballs (‘cos that would be quite a feat in view of the current FB application fatigue), but that’s not the key focus of the class. The motto for the class is “get out there and make a difference”. How will my students do that? I leave it to them. From what I have seen so far, they are more than capable and I’m waiting to be pleasantly surprised at the end of the semester.

IF: Is Facebook the dominant social platform in Singapore? Which other platforms are students interested in developing for?

BL: Yeah, I believe so. Some people probably have Friendster and LinkedIn accounts as well, but Facebook is likely to be the dominant player here. While I do not have the statistics in terms of membership – and it is perfectly plausible that Friendster has more registered users local since it has been around longer – in terms of the current level of activity, interest, and/or participation, Facebook is quite certainly the in-thing.

Every Facebook developer is familiar with Facebook’s development languages: Facebook Platform runs on FBML, FQL, and FBJS, and developers learn those languages in order to create great apps. But while developers comb Facebook’s Wiki in order to figure out how to use the fb:photo tag, they rarely take the time to build up other parts of their operations critical to their success. Remembering customer service, however, can be just as important as remembering a semi-colon at the end of a line of code.

Facebook has consistently provided strong customer service for its users. While recent conflicts between customer service and advertising options have grabbed headlines (see Facebook’s controversial ad program “Beacon”), Facebook typically responds closely to user interests. A look at former Facebooker Karel Baloun’s book shows that Facebook devoted early manpower and dollars to its customer service team. That meant listening to users in order to improve the product.

This is an issue that frequently affects app developers. Developers expect to release their app, receive acclaim, and then watch the checks roll in. Real maintenance is a lot more difficult and time consuming. Just as Facebook has a customer service team, developers need to dedicate their own resources to monitoring the application directory listings and email support addresses for their apps. It can be the difference between success and failure on Facebook Platform.

The application “About” page is the most important place to monitor what users are thinking. It’s important to closely watch user discussion, and then respond appropriately. Users appreciate active developers. Keeping an eye on the About page can entail everything from answering user questions to deleting spam and competititors’ reviews. It’s not a heavy job, but it is a consistent one – one bad review can be detrimental to an app for a day, so keeping watch is crucial. After spending hours writing code, it makes sense to spend at least a few minutes listening to users.

Recent changes in Facebook’s Application directory have made customer service more important than ever. Developers need to become especially active due to the new compulsory “Reviews” board, which lets users leave any review they like. More positively, Facebook has allowed users to become “Fans” of applications. The ability to update fans on an app could raise daily active user rates and give a boost to applications. More fans means more publicity for an app. Customer Service pays real dividends.

And that’s why Facebook has always put an emphasis on listening to users. Developers should too. Like Facebook, developers face conflicts between service and business: look at the rampant spread of user-abusing forced invitations. However, it’s important for any developer to recognize the role that customer service plays in their app’s success. Code is obviously crucial, but it should definitely be supplemented by a conversation with users, even after the last file has been pushed.

Phil Edwards is Director of Business Development at Lonely CEO Media, a Facebook application development and consulting firm

In order to make it easier for Facebook developers and those in need of their services to find each other, Facebook a couple of weeks ago launched the Developer Marketplace. Facebook added a special category to its more general Marketplace app and displays listings inside the Facebook Developers app.

The Developer Marketplace allows development companies and independent developers to post their resumes/credentials. Companies like Face It!, Techlightenment, and FBFactory have sprung up to build Facebook applications for firms ready to make the leap into the Facebook world and establish a more powerful Facebook presence.

The Developer Marketplace is also an effective place for freelance developers to find work. Those currently using freelance marketplaces like oDesk and eLance are now be able to tie their resumes to their Facebook profiles, adding more trust to the traditionally hit-or-miss freelance marketplace. Developers interested in finding work can directly respond to “Wanted” ads using Facebook messages.

From the Developer News blog, to the Platform Status blog, to the Developer Wiki, and now the Developer Marketplace, the Facebook Platform team has been doing a great job getting information into the hands of the Developer community and supporting the cultivation of the developer ecosystem. Developers should offer a big “thank you” to Dave Morin and the entire Platform team!

Following last week’s change to notification limits from a fixed to a fluctuating limit based on user spamminess ratings, Facebook announced tonight that invitations, a mainstay of viral growth for Facebook apps, will soon be following suit. Starting next week, applications will no longer be limited to 20 invitations per user per day, but instead the daily invitation limit will depend on a formula including the following factors:

• Your historical invitation acceptance rate
• Whether your application overrides the user’s choice to invite no friends, but instead forces users to invite friends
•  Additional undisclosed factors that “reflect the affinity users show for the application as a whole”

Facebook Platform’s Tom Whitnah said, “Our hope is that requests will be better aligned with a user’s intention to share a good experience with an application and engage with friends in ways their friends will appreciate, not just with how frequently an application requests users invite friends.” Facebook will be adding invitation limits and metrics to developers’ app Insights pages, just as they did with notifications.

Earlier today, Facebook sent warning to developers whose apps forced users to invite friends in order to use the app, turning off invitations altogether for those apps until that behavior was corrected. This was a major user experience problem that now should exist no more.

In the long run, these viral channel rule changes should better align developer and Facebook goals. So far, there has not been much outcry from the developer community about the effects of last week’s changes to notification limits. Assuming Facebook’s invitation limits are not on average significantly lower than the current fixed limit of 20, I imagine developers of quality applications will accept these changes similarly. Ultimately, they should keep invitation conversion rates higher than if the invitation channel were to become increasingly dominated by spam.

In an effort to consolidate Facebook Platform policies (which are quickly becoming about as long as the US tax code for many marketers and developers – click here for help), the Facebook Platform team has created two new pages on the Developer Wiki that are a must read for anyone who wants to succeed on the Facebook Platform.

First, the Thou Shalt Nots:

Facebook has created the Platform Policy page which describes Facebook’s philosophy on user experience, enumerates the rules developers must follow (quoted below), and explains the possible punitive actions Facebook may take against rule breaking developers (and how to correspond with Facebook if Facebook notifies you about a potential problem).

Here’s the list of things apps are not allowed to do:

1. Generate any notification, request, invitation, News Feed story, Mini-Feed story, profile box content, or message on behalf of a user that misrepresents that user’s activity in any way. All representations of action taken by a user must correspond to actions a user has initiated within your application.
2. Represent themselves or any features of the application as Facebook, such as using Facebook product terms like “wall” or “message” to refer to something other than Facebook’s functionality of the same name, unless there is an agreement in writing to the contrary.
3. Express or imply any affiliation or relationship with or endorsement by Facebook.
4. Contain anything designed to mislead, confuse, or defraud the user in any way.
5. Present a user with a subsequent friend invite page if the user has already clicked a Facebook-rendered Skip, Cancel, or Skip This Step button, unless the user explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than just the friend invite option. If the application presents the user with a friend invite page that does not include a Facebook-rendered Skip, Cancel, or Skip This Step button, the application must offer some navigation option to leave the friend invite process, and the application must not present the user with a subsequent friend invite page unless the user explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than that single option.
6. Include JavaScript actions pretending to be user actions.
7. Track visits to a user’s profile, whether aggregated anonymously or identified individually.
8. Contain functionality that exceeds the dimensions of the canvas page.
9. Publish stories in which the user is a passive actor. The user must be the person performing the action in order to generate a story about that user. In technical terms, this means the feed.publishTemplatizedAction API method ignores the actor_id parameter and uses the session key to generate the feed story.
10. Promote other applications in notifications in order to pool notifications together and work around the limit of 20 notifications per user per application each day.
11. Put links into feed stories and notifications that trick users into installing another application.
12. Tag images, nor encourage users to tag images, when the tag does not accurately label what is depicted in the image.
13. Store API data about a user unless the the application clearly gives the user the choice to submit the data, and the user agrees. It must be made clear to the user prior to submission that this data will be stored by the application/developer, and not by Facebook.
14. Use another user’s session key when making a call to the Facebook Platform API. You must use the session key of a user who is actively using the application.

And now, the Thou Shalls:

Facebook has created the Best Practices page, offering Facebook’s guidance for architecting, designing, branding, cross promoting, and monetizing your apps. For details on each of these topics, check out:

• Facebook Platform Basics
• Engineering Best Practices — Technical Tips
• Engineering Best Practices — Design Tips
• Monetization Best Practices
• Promoting your Application
• Branding your Application

Most of these are pretty fundamental. I found Facebook’s tips for monetizing your app interesting:

1. Advertising: this generally amounts to delivering advertising impressions to users engaged with your application canvas pages. The model is simple, and so are Facebook’s rules:
   • Your application, including any embedded advertising, can’t contain any adult content or illegal content, gambling, promotion or sale of alcohol / tobacco / firearms, or generate spam.
   • Your application cannot place any advertising on a user’s profile page.
     You can find more specific details in the Facebook Platform Applications Guidelines, part of the Facebook Developer Terms of Service.
     Several third-party ad networks already offer support for advertising inside Facebook applications, which you can take advantage of to quickly start monetizing.
2. Partnering with brand advertisers: You can work directly with a brand advertiser to incorporate sponsored elements inside your application or even build a full branded application.
3. Commission / subscription fees: Some application developers collect a commission or transaction fee on activities such as e-commerce or transferring money, or a subscription fee for content or access to functionality.
4. Using your application for cross-promotion: If your application has access to a large number of users, other application developers may want to embed advertising content for their own application inside yours.
5. External investment: And, of course, there’s investment from third parties, whether seed funding or full venture capital funding. The funding market is starting to heat up, and we’re excited to see Facebook applications successfully receive investments from external sources.
   • Two of Facebook’s early investors, Accel and Founders Fund, have established fbFund, a grant program designed to encourage as many developers as possible to write innovative new Facebook applications and enable an even broader class of developers to become entrepreneurs. For more information or to apply for a grant, see the fbFund page.

Funny that raising external investment is a recommended monetization option :)

New Inside Facebook Top Jobs for February 13:

• Software Engineer, Social Network Applications (Gratis Internet / Northern California or Remote)
  
• Social Platform Developer (NetHooks / San Francisco Bay Area)
  

A couple of weeks ago at Yahoo’s January Brickhouse event, Facebook’s head of data and analytics, Jeff Hammerbacher, gave a good presentation about Facebook’s philosophy, challenges, and goals. Thanks to the Yahoo Developer Network team, that talk, and an interview with Jeremy Zawodny, have been posted online (below). In addition, Jeff has shared his slides from the day (see bottom).

In his talk, Jeff describes what it’s like to manage very high volumes of rapidly changing and sensitive Facebook user data, what tools Facebook uses to store user data, and Facebook’s intention to release many of the tools they’ve developed under open source licenses.

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