News Feed Optimization: Top App Developers Promoting Becoming a Fan

November 3rd, 2009

By Justin Smith

Facebook has changed the default News Feed for users back to an engagement-based algorithmic approach from the real-time fire-hose that had been in place since March. How should application developers adapt?

One thing developers should consider: how getting users to become a fan of their app’s about Page fits into an overall News Feed plan. Now that notifications are going away soon (see the full calendar of upcoming platform changes here), Page updates will become the only in-Facebook app-to-user communication channel. (Developers can still get email addresses and communicate with users more directly.)

This is something top Facebook app developers Zynga and Playfish are already doing. As you can see, Playfish has integrated a fan box widget through Facebook Connect, and Zynga has added a link to their about page, at the top of their canvas pages to get more fans:

Playfish’s Pet Society

Zynga’s Roller Coaster Kingdom

In general, this approach could reflect the theory on Playfish’s and Zynga’s parts that getting News Feed presence is going to be easier through Page updates than through explicit stream publishing. Why? Facebook announced last week that it will be implementing a new policy on stream publishing prompts, requiring them to only happen upon explicit user interaction (today, they automatically pop up in user flows often). That change could significantly decrease the number of stream stories published by users – making Page updates the best way to get into the stream.

“Fan pages for BIG games receive HUGE amounts of engagements. From likes to comments these stories may remain in a persons feed for hours,” as commenter Laurent Courtines of AOL Games said yesterday.

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6 Responses to “News Feed Optimization: Top App Developers Promoting Becoming a Fan”

Impact Of The New Homepage Redesign On Developers: Too Early To Tell Says:
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 am
[...] being made to adjust for the decreased visibility of user generated feed stories? One change (as noted by Justin Smith) is that developers are getting users to become fans of their pages. The reason is that large [...]
DL Stephens Says:
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Please have the applications run a quick tutorial or overview of the application instead of having to allow the application access to your information and then delete everything if the user decides not to use the application. This will save time adding allows and deleting applications from user profiles. There are a few applications that do this already. It helps me decide if it is an application I want to have on my profile. My two cents.
igniman Says:
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Hey thanks for pointing this out. I ‘ve just added the same button to my app
Laurent Courtines Says:
November 4th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Hey Justin, thank for the shout out! We’re covering at lot of these games on a day basis and the numbers of interactions per post is staggering for the large games. Again, I have to believe that devs are going to consciously use their fan pages.

Facebook has created a moving target with their feed and you have to zig when they zag.
Going to plug our blog if you want more info:
http://blog.games.com
Facebook Applications Says:
November 4th, 2009 at 6:38 am
If the stories published by friends are controled then it will be a great.
We will see the new creativity in Fan pages.
Impact Of The New Homepage Redesign On Developers: Too Early To Tell « facebooknews Says:
November 4th, 2009 at 6:47 am
[...] being made to adjust for the decreased visibility of user generated feed stories? One change (as noted by Justin Smith) is that developers are getting users to become fans of their pages. The reason is that large [...]