Facebook is moving toward the seamless integration of apps on their platform with a combination of the News Ticker and the Timeline. The News Ticker is a live log of all user actions, while the Timeline is an archive of significant actions the user has taken, grouped by app. When a user takes an action on a third party site or within a third party app, Facebook would like to broadcast that action to the user’s friends. This increases the reach of each user action and provides opportunities for sponsored content. This deck gives an introduction to these changes, an example of what this new process looks like to a user, and best practices for marketers and advertisers to take advantage of these new opportunities.

1. TIMELINE UPDATE
Facebook Opens The App Floodgates

2. BACKGROUND
Facebook is moving toward the seamless integration of
apps on their platform. When a user takes an action on
a third party site or within a third party app, Facebook
would like to broadcast that action to the user’s friends.
This increases the reach of each user action and
provides opportunities for sponsored content.
Facebook is doing this with a combination of the News
Ticker and the Timeline. The News Ticker is a live log of
all user actions, while the Timeline is an archive of
significant actions the user has taken, grouped by app.

3. LAUNCH PARTNERS

4. PINTEREST EXAMPLE
To show you what this new experience looks like
through the eyes of a user, let’s walk through the
process of connecting Pinterest with a user’s account.

5. PINTEREST EXAMPLE
PART 1
First, I’m prompted to add Pinterest
to my Facebook Timeline. I confirm
by clicking Try It Out:
Now any new pins added by friends
on Pinterest automatically show up in
my News Ticker:

6. PINTEREST EXAMPLE
PART 2
My pins are grouped into the
Pinterest app, and displayed on my
Timeline:
But, I can turn this off at any time if I
think I’m spamming my friends, or
don’t see any added value:

7. DON’T SPAM
Because users can turn off the ability
for your app to update their profile
with a single change in their settings,
it’s important to choose the types of
updates that you broadcast carefully.
Sharing updates that aren’t relevant
to a user’s friends, or sharing updates
too frequently, will flood a user’s
Timeline with your updates, and
increases the chance that they decide
to disconnect from your app for good.

8. VERBS
As part of this transition, Facebook will allow
applications to define their own verbs.
Each update will take the form of
“[Username] is [Verb]”, such as:
Music - Cory is listening...
Gaming - Cory is playing...
News - Cory is reading...
Food - Cory is cooking...

9. CUSTOM VERBS
Apps can also define their own verbs that support their
branding, such as:
Pinterest - Cory pinned...
RunKeeper - Cory ran...
Gogobot - Cory wishlisted...
Foodspotting - Cory spotted...
Turntable.fm - Cory awesomed...

10. CUSTOM VERBS
Lastly, apps can create wacky and unusual verbs, as
long as they are reflective of the actions a user will take
on that site, and contain existing user action verbs.
For example, a news site called Wetpaint will allow
users to share when they “meh’d” or “eww’d” a story.

11. UPDATED PERMISSIONS
In order to provide deeper integration into a user’s
Timeline, Facebook has updated the app approval
process to make it more clear what data a user will be
sharing, and how that data will be seen by others:
First, users install the app and adjust Then, users approve or adjust
privacy settings: extended permissions:

12. UPDATED PERMISSIONS
But, the more permissions
that an app requests, the
more daunting it appears
for a user who is deciding
whether or not to approve.
In the minds of many
users, more permissions
equals more privacy
invasion, so keep these
requests to a minimum.

13. NOTES
Granular activities will sometimes skip the News
Feed and only show up in the News Ticker
Certain app categories, such as music apps, will have
additional social actions that can be taken from the
News Ticker

14. WHAT NOW?
Think on a top level about what actions you want
users to share with their friends
This is part of a long term change that Facebook is
implementing, so there’s no need to rush to be the
first out of the gate
Start by integrate these shared social actions into
existing applications

15. WHAT NOW?
Once you’re comfortable, you can develop new
applications to take advantage of these new verbs
You should also look for opportunities to generate
additional actions, including contests, games and
sweepstakes
Pay attention to trends in user behavior, as users will
adjust to these new actions and abilities over time