Going forward (in the short term) application tabs will be the only way applications can integrate into profiles and Facebook Pages. We will remove profile boxes, application info sections, and the Boxes tab. We are exploring additional ways to enable developers to integrate into profiles and Pages.

Yes, Facebook is planning on removing support for boxes that sit on Pages and User Profiles.  They updated the Roadmap on December 3rd 2009 and plan to have it in place before the end of the year or early 2010.  Merry Christmas, eh?

Here is why we like boxes: they are small, they deliver bite-sized information, and they are unobtrusive.  Stuff I Like is a great widget because we show just 5 things that a user likes.  We don’t need a full canvas page or a full Tab to display this information to a user’s friend.  Instead, we package it in a neat box and place it on the user’s profile.  We want to augment that profile’s information and the box approach allows us to do that.  We respect the user’s profile and only add meaningful content that the user has selected.

Removing boxes is a drastic change.  This means that within the context of Facebook, the only place for users to have exposure to your application without going to a canvas page is to use the tab feature.  In our experience, users know how tabs work but do not generally navigate through them.  Application developers must redevelop their application to fit in a tab or become invisible.

Users are in a tough position too.  Assuming that all application adopt the Tab approach, they will still have to chose which tabs to feature at the top of their page.  There isn’t much room on a user profile for tabs so the majority of applications will become even more buried.

What is also interesting is that there is no “Add To Tab” button like there is for the boxes functionality.  This feature is on their road map but it appears to be timed for after the boxes removal takes place.

Complicating the fact is that the majority of users will never read this post or Facebook’s Roadmap.  This change will catch most people off guard.  One day, all of their content will be stripped from their page with little notice given.

All of the comes just days after Facebook re-engineered the feed stories to support only one image.  It seems clear that they are trying to homogenize all content across their site.  I understand not wanting to look like MySpace did 4 years ago but users value the personalization aspect of the site. With all feed stories now the same and with all boxes about to be removed from the profile, not much will be left to customize.  I don’t know how users will react to it.

This cannot simply be a reaction to spamming applications.  Facebook has done a good job cracking down on spam applications and hiding the feed stories they publish.  Boxes never have really presented a means for spam as Flash cannot be loaded without user initiation and the input is sanitized to prevent pop ups and other annoying tricks.  Users have to proactively add a box to their profile so consequently, boxes have been relatively safe for Facebook.

Brands are in a similar position.  Best Buy, for example, relies on several boxes on their fan page to deliver content to their community.  While they and most other brands use Tabs to add additional functionality, losing a communication channel is still frustrating.

So what does a brand do?  Contact us and we can help you come up with a long term strategy that utilizes the new Facebook changes as well as diversifies your message across multiple platforms.

More information is on the Facebook Roadmap and from the Profile Page Wiki.

Minneapolis—December 1, 2009—Rovrr, Inc. announced today that it will open its patent pending social media monetization platform to a select group of developers to create new marketing applications.

By using the Rovrr social marketing platform to build and maintain the Stuff I Like™ application, Rovrr has validated market demand for its social marketing and monetization strategy. Based on the success of Stuff I Like™, Rovrr is now able to open up the platform to third party content providers to help brands generate new revenue and build measureable awareness.

Titled “Monetizing a Brands Facebook Presence,” Rovrr’s whitepaper outlines how social marketing differs from traditional marketing and introduces the tools and approaches that lead to success. The document may be downloaded from http://blog.rovrr.com

Rovrr was developed in 2006 with a mission to be a win/win for its users, advertisers, the host media platform and Rovrr. The Rovrr social marketing platform works simply by enabling end users to discuss brands and products within an existing social context. Users can discover new products, see what their friends like, or see what Rovrr suggests.

The Rovrr social marketing platform is beneficial for all because it generates consistent, meaningful and trackable actions and revenue for the advertisers and the platform users. Since it is a success-based revenue model, users are significantly more likely to use one of the Rovrr tools when sharing what they already like with their friends and community.

People already share what they like and Rovrr fits naturally in the conversation.

“This platform is a pure win/win model for the monetization of social media. To date, very few companies have figured out how to actually make money in this space because they are so focused on mass. Rovrr is different – we are truly focused on relevance and letting the market dictate what it wants rather than displaying ads to people in a hit or miss way,” says Brian R. Stuckey, President and co-founder of Rovrr, Inc.

ABOUT ROVRR, INC.

Rovrr, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offers advanced marketing solutions and proven methodologies to deliver successful social media monetization applications with high user acceptance. Through a marketing partnership with AOI marketing (www.aoimarketing.com), a premier provider of travel and loyalty programs, Rovrr has launched several successful tools to prove its platform monetization model.

http://www.Rovrr.com

http://www.InstallRovrr.com

Contact Information
Amanda Axvig
612.372.7002
aaxvig@aoimarketing.com

Download the print resolution Rovrr logo

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When Microsoft invested in Facebook back in 2007, about the only thing they got (in addition to their 5% stake) was Live Search added to the Facebook search options.  Now, it seems like search and real-time news/updates are a real priority.  Clearly, with a nearly 350,000,000 user base, they can have some pull on the internet.  Is this their way of hedging their bets against Google?  Against Twitter becoming the real-time-news-king?  We’ll have to wait to see.

via Mashable

In the meantime, here is a brief summary of why you should add your products to our platform:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brian R. Stuckey

Click here to view the embedded video.

All of the instructions in the video apply to any application that can be placed on a fan page.  I’ve tailored them specifically to our application but the same principals can use used for nearly any other application.

Brian R. Stuckey

YouTube Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I apologize for the sound quality.  The microphone wasn’t working properly which makes the sounds a little difficult to hear at points.

Presentation Slides:

James J. Hill Library

Yesterday, I gave a presentation at the James J. Hill Library in St. Paul, MN on how to build a Fan Page on Facebook as well as best-practices that we’ve created along the way.  I’ve had several requests for the slides so I have uploaded them to SlideShare and embedded them here.  Videos from the presentation will follow shortly.

Brian R. Stuckey