Don’t worry about Facebook lock in
I’m noticing some concern from bloggers about Facebook’s platform as a strategy to lock in companies. (I’d post more links if Google reader would just let me search my feeds. Ironic, isn’t it.) On the surface, that would seem to be true.
But wait – there is a way out. Bonus – it works with any social network that lets you programmatically get a user’s friend list, like Facebook does.
The way out requires 3 steps.
1. Build a compelling application that gets even more compelling if the user registers with your web site. (Really, this should always be step 1, no matter what you are trying to do.)
2. When the user registers, record their social network user ID.
3. See if any of that user’s friends have already installed your application. If so, invite them to connect on your site.
The linchpin is, of course, nailing step 1. Once you’ve got that one down, make your #1 metric application adoption. The more adoption of your application, the more times you can ask your users to connect with their friends.
Message them with something like this: “We’ve just discovered that your friend Joe is a Foo.com customer/user/member. We know this because you are friends with Joe on Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn. Would you like to connect with Joe?”
Now you’re on your way to building a modified copy of that user’s social network on your site – modified in that the connections she chooses to create are relevant to her experience on your site. Plus, it works for any site, not just Facebook, so the more sites that offer what Facebook offers, the better off you are.