Something’s brewing behind all the social networking on Facebook, and if you’re one of the many users who do a lot of stuff on this site then it may interest you to know of the latest developments. No, we’re not talking about Timeline; that’s over a month old now. What we mean are Facebook open graph actions that enable third-party applications to share in your activities. Although this has been announced earlier this month, we really don’t know the big picture of it all. There’s quite a buzz, however, among online marketers who believe in the potentials of this feature.
The open graph applications come from developers outside Facebook and the talk of the town is that these are heavy on the marketing side of businesses. Being something new, however, it’s hard to tell at this time if the apps can really boost a business that’s using the social media for its promotional efforts. One big reason for this is that the apps have to be approved by a user inasmuch as privacy is a concern and that plenty of users really use Facebook only to get in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. Yes, online marketing has been on Facebook for quite some time now, yet there are users who prefer not to be inundated with sales pitches.
From tech-savvy reviewers of Facebook and other social networking sites we know that the open graph applications can enter into most actions a user does on his or her account, including reading and listening. Even liking something on the news feed can be shared by an app. Now, this could look like Facebook turning into an online marketing site instead of a social media but our bet is that limits would be imposed. This means the developers, who will surely be competing against each other, would need to come up with really useful apps that can entice a large number of users to try them out.
Facebook open graph actions are coming soon, no doubt about this, but it’s up to the millions of users if the apps succeed or not. We should know when the smoke clears. In the meantime, get yourself prepared to learn something new again on Facebook as you did with the recent Timeline profile. Will you have use for these open graph applications or would you have no interest at all and never allow them on your account?