Get the lowdown on the five most popular Facebook widgets and what this trend means for brands and marketers.
Facebook has upped the ante in its latest effort to gain supremacy over the social network scene. The website's creators opened up the applications setting on May 25, 2007 for users and companies alike to upload widgets that can be embedded in any user's profile. Currently there are over 3,400 applications available to users, ranging from slideshows to horoscopes to personal aquariums.
The widgets are designed to engage users for longer periods of time on the Facebook website by creating activities for people with similar interests. Essentially, Facebook's profiles have changed from a place where you just read about someone to a place where people can engage in activities. This change is effective in generating traffic for Facebook, as well as for the companies creating user apps, and has been termed the Facebook Effect.
The Facebook Effect is seen in the dramatic increase in web traffic to the top five company applications:
1.) Slide, Inc. has capitalized on the cornerstone of the social network sites -- picture sharing. With over 2.7 million active users daily, the company's Top Friends slideshow application is Facebook's most popular. Their widget, which is exceedingly simple, is available on every social network site, and reaches over 65 percent of all widget-users. Facebook is by far their largest patron and since the end of May has seen an increase of over 265 percent in daily unique visitors, according to Quantcast.
2.) Video by Facebook is the second most active application on the network. This tool comes on the heels of the success of YouTube and allows users to upload their own video content. Video has just below one million active users daily. Facebook's creators have seen the success of social media sites that employ user-generated video and harnessed this technology to generate more user activity on their site.
3.+4.) FunWall! and My Questions? are also in the top five, with a quarter of a million users daily. At a glance, they appear to be created by independent Facebook users. However, this application is funded by Slide, Inc.. The FunWall is a take on the basic wall feature in which users could post comments on each others' pages. It has replaced the basic wall because users can write graffiti and post movies or pictures, which has been a theme throughout social network sites. My Questions? allows users to ask all of their friends a generic question and see the responses on their page. Slide, Inc. has established that it is a heavyweight in the widget marketing platform by creating three out of the top five widgets.
5.) iLike, Inc. allows users to upload their favorite music and has seen its traffic double since the end of May. This reveals another possibility for the widget platform -- the diversification of the point of sale for companies. Record labels such as SNOCAP have made it possible to sell music anywhere that HTML can be embedded into a web page. This could spell success for artists and music companies.
The question, then, is how Facebook and companies such as Slide, Inc, and iLike plan to turn this popularity into financial success. As sites such as Nielsen have changed the way in which they rate websites by placing more emphasis on time spent on a website than on clicks, this could translate into ad success for Facebook. These applications keep users active on creators' respective pages as they take quizzes about their friends or play video games that are out of distribution. This will increase Facebook's rating on the Nielsen sale, and in turn increase the appeal for click advertisers.
At the end of April 2007 Facebook had 20 million users; since then they have increased their user base by more than 50 percent to over 31 million in less than six months. Their daily uniques have doubled as well. This is in stark contrast to MySpace, which still has the lead over Facebook, but has remained relatively stable in the amount of unique clicks it receives each day. Is Facebook's rapid growth a result of its application platform? Perhaps. Regardless, Facebook's growth is putting the pressure on MySpace.
In many ways these widgets, which are presented as interesting ways to spice up one's profile, act as advertisements. Applications display movie times, promote events in users' local areas, or create links to other websites. Secondly, any company can upload an application and generate interest without any fees paid to Facebook, meaning free advertisement for the company and increased activity for Facebook. Widgets are not only used on the Facebook platform, but on various other websites, too. However, Facebook has utilized the success of widgets by creating its own widgets on sites such as Google to direct the flow of traffic back to its website.
Marketers have limitless opportunities in using the Facebook platform. There is a large audience on the website, and information on their interests, geographical location, and age are widely available. This is information that advertising companies have taken years and spent countless dollars to gather; and Facebook has it all there without having had to spend a cent to get it. There is nothing new or different about this audience, rather, companies can direct their ad campaigns towards specific groups. For instance, by creating applications such as an itinerary generator STA travel was able to communicate with people planning on going on a trip soon.
Widgets have become the focus of companies and marketers as banner ads' effectiveness is questioned. The shift from banner ads to widgets is seemingly a logical one in that the application platform allows users to engage and use something that they find appealing. In the same way that one would glance at a billboard along the side of the road, banner ads provide for little interaction. A free application allows for interaction and thus an increased familiarity with a company and its products.
Conclusion
The applications feature on the Facebook website has gained popularity because of its ability to include the most popular features of the internet -- music, movies, photos, and common interest groups -- to name a few. Applications have increased the use of Facebook and have been instrumental in the influx of hits on the creators' websites. The number of users and the time spent on Facebook has had a marked increase -- and time will tell if that will translate into ad success on the website.
Brittany Lawson is an editorial intern, iMediaConnection. Read full bio.