Facebook - f8 Thoughts by Andre Woolery

If are not aware, last week Facebook expressed future plans at their f8 conference. Here is a relatively quick and easy synopsis of the major announcements:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1623277/crib-sheet-facebooks-f8-keynote

The most interesting announcement in my opinion is Open Graph.
Facebook’s success thus far can be attributed to many factors but the main element that makes it effective is the ease of socializing. Everything comes to you without much effort. You get tagged in photos, you see everyone’s status updates, you know when its someone’s bday, relationship changes... all achieved by just signing in. What Open Graph has the potential to do is make your web experience just as easy. Similar to how Twitter aggregates the conversations in real time, Facebook can now more holistically aggregate the content being recommended in real time and at a large scale while being socially relevant.

What does this mean for Facebook?
Crazy data. They will not only have the data of user behavior within their walls but also what you like outside of their network. This allows an interesting vantage point that ties social behavior, content consumption preferences, and how our social network interacts in the midst of all this. Imagine if you logged onto Facebook and there was an additional news feed that brought you web content that you behaviorally ‘liked’ ...it could make rss feeds, social sharing, and maybe even search less important.

What does this mean for consumers?
Your web experience may slowly be guided by your social networks recommendations. You will visit websites and see who and how many ‘like’ certain content (see attachment). Whether that’s good or bad is another debate.
You can visually see how this data can play it out with all the content your social network has ‘liked’ or ‘recommended’ here: http://likebutton.me/

What does this mean for your brands?
Implementing Facebook API’s into their site which may create more visibility for their content.
Potential behavioral targeting data that can offer stronger audiences.
Brands playing a stronger role in ‘recommending’ web content to their FB fanbase