Facebook Goes Corporate
November 6th, 2007 | by jeff | | Post to NewsCloud »Facebook isn’t just for people anymore. Facebook launched profile pages for businesses today:
Just like a Facebook user, businesses can start with a blank canvas and add all the information and content they want, including photos, videos, music and Facebook Platform applications. Outside developers have created a range of applications to enhance Facebook Pages, such as booking reservations or providing reviews of restaurant pages, buying tickets on a movie page or creating a custom t-shirt. Companies launching applications for Pages include Fandango, iLike, Musictoday LLC, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, Zagat Survey LLC and Zazzle.
Isn’t this sort of like the Internet but inside Facebook? Facebook pages can also be used by celebrities.
But Facebook is also launching a new advertising mechanism for friends to refer each other to their favorite business page:
Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends.
Key takeaway: Be careful before you click on that ad for penile enlargement, your friends may read about it in their Facebook feeds. See some sample screenshots here via Slashdot.
Facebook Pages are also integrated into its existing developer platform:
Developers can create all-new business-focused applications, partner with businesses to build applications, or simply make the applications they’ve already built for users available for Facebook Pages. The same apps can work on both Facebook user profiles and Facebook Pages, meaning that developers don’t need to do extra work to support Facebook Pages.
Facebook links to information on their new social ads program don’t seem to work yet. But, apparently they are promising a way for developers to advertise their applications to each other:
Facebook Social Ads reach more than 50 million people with advanced targeting, content integration, and flexible pricing. As a developer, you can take advantage of Social Ads to boost the speed of distribution for your application.
Last week, Google’s Open Social leaked widely via its partners about 48 hours before the Website for its API launched. I guess these days, F.U.D. doesn’t require a live Web link.
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