Do you need Facebook Connect Integration?
WHAT DOES FACEBOOK CONNECT OFFER?
1. Identity
Facebook has a reputation for requiring
actual user identities during registration and
also maintaining the identities during site
usage. This has enabled Facebook build a social utility that is founded on
responsible usage because users are responsible for actions they perform on
the site. With the integration of Facebook Connect to your site, first time
visitors who are Facebook users can log into your site using their Facebook log
in credentials without registering on your site! General site analytics have
shown that visitors on a site that require registration do not register on the site if
there is no strong interest because of the registration time and the fear of
submitting personal information all over the internet. With the integration, users
have no risk and reluctance to log in is low because they can achieve that with
a single click. Once logged in, users can see their Facebook profile picture and
name, reassuring them they are connected via Facebook. Facebook Connect
makes your site have 100+ million potential registrants ready for retention on
your site.
2. Facebook friends on your site
Facebook Connect allows users to invite their Facebook friends to use your
website. This will dramatically increase the amount of traffic to your site and more
importantly, interested traffic because most users will invite friends they feel have a
shared interest in the site. Users can also see friends they did not invite but who
are already using the site. The more friend circles you attract to your site, the more
your site becomes a mini social portal built around the purpose of your site.
3. Share information and content from site to Facebook
Facebook Connect allows users to share and publish information back to
Facebook. For example, if your site has an article comment feature, users can
share comments by publishing it to their Facebook walls, which becomes
immediately available/viewable to the users friends. Users can even share media
content such as pictures, music and videos. This means an exponential
proliferation rate for your content. With advanced programming and
implementation, sites can dynamically interact with Facebook in varying
dimensions to maximize the user participation and revisits to your site.
4. Privacy. Bring dynamic privacy to your site using XFBML
Because users will be employing Facebook’s trusted log in protocol to access your
site, they can bring their privacy settings with them. Essentially, every Facebook
user will travel to sites with their unique settings, which will be honored on your site
once they are logged in. This makes users very comfortable logging in to your site
because they know their privacy will not be compromised. Users can select from the different privacy options on Facebook ranging from picture visibility to profile
information access.
ANATOMY OF A FACEBOOK CONNECT SITE
(You can access to the link http://www.joost.com/ to see the interface of the one more example)
Facebook Connect Button
The Facebook Connect button is typically placed either on the home page or login page of a site. It is also sometimes run as an ad, or can be available via Account Settings.
Facebook Presence Indicator
When a user logs in to a site, it is important to let them know what happened and if the site is actually connected to Facebook. With Facebook Connect, users can be assured they are acting in the context of Facebook by seeing their real name and Facebook profile picture icon embedded in the corner of the picture.
Facebook Presence Indicator
When a user is browsing your site, they can see how many friends are already members of your site. Site owners can place links to invite friends to perform a specific action on your site, which can dramatically increase engagement of your existing users by drawing them back to your site. For example, if your site allows users to see their daily caloric intake based on food eaten, a user can invite friends already using the site to take theirs so he/she can compare results for that day.
Friends Page
friend’s page will normally display all the site user’s friends on page with respect to a function on the site. For example, the caloric intake calculation site, the user can see their friends performance for the day, month etc for a value added user experience.
Custom features
Using the help of a knowledgeable Facebook applications developer, site owners can craft interesting features on their site that integrate well with Facebook’s features. The possibilities are only matched by what Facebook normally offers to its already growing applications.
DO I NEED FACEBOOK CONNECT?
If you have a member-enabled site of any type, then you will benefit immensely from Facebook Connect. It allows users to market your site for you and ride on the potent nature of viral communications. Apart from the marketing benefit, it makes you look for opportunities to grow your site in a bid to better service your visitors by offering features that are compatible with Facebook and encourage cross-user interaction. It introduces effortless connection to your site by first time visitors making them more likely to go beyond the first layer on your site. Lastly, it separates your site from other sites as a site that encourages responsible usage, a major movement in the Internet world.
