As Facebook states, “Apps bring your Timeline to life.” Two of the first frictionless Timeline apps I experimented with were Spotify and the Washington Post Reader. These apps, with my approval upon installation, automatically sent updates that share with friends what I was listening to or reading. For example, “Brian Solis is listening to ‘Love will tear us apart’ on Spotify” or “Brian Solis is reading ‘Talking with Aung San Suu Kyi’ on Washington Post Reader.” These updates are designed to pique curiosity and motivate people to either click through to the source and ultimately, install the app for themselves.

With the new Open Graph platform, Facebook is going live with over 60 Timeline App partners including, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, RunKeeper, among others. These apps will extend the interests, activities, and accomplishments of people beyond the moment, to create a more engaged ecosystem around you and your interests.

The Achilles Heel of any social network is the state of engagement among users. In-network sharing and interaction combined with external integration between outside sites, Facebook, and the people who share and engage, are critical to the sustenance and growth any network, especially one that is approaching one billion users. The Like button is far too limiting to fuel ongoing discovery and interaction in a maturing social economy. Expectations grow as complacency perpetually looms.

Frictionless experiences are merely the beginning. Facebook is empowering developers to think beyond the Like button. Yes, you read that correctly. Actions are now going to open up a new genre of buttons that share your accomplishments and desires with your network. Initially, developers will introduce action buttons on their Websites to alert friends to a greater variety of interests and achievements.

In the example below, you can see how Recipe Box is experimenting with two words, “Cooked” and “Want.” Clicking either one connects the Website with Facebook, distributing the action, intention and the destination to the Timeline, News Feed and Ticker. Before, a visitor would simply “Like” the recipe, which might invite a reaction back on Facebook. Certainly, it would require a much more manual approach for someone sharing it to say, “I want to try this.” Now it’s as easy a clicking a button.

As a developer or as a brand manager or marketer, this is your time to rethink not only web design, but the entire click path and experience. It’s not just the button that will trigger shares, it is the page, the design, the words, and consideration of the psychology of sharing. Why would someone want to take this click to action? What will the thread of engagement look like? Those who think it through will find greater engagement, reach, and ultimately adoption of the app. Here are additional insights into the Open Graph platform for developers.

Facebook’s Open Graph invests in what I refer to as the Egosystem, a network in which each person is at the center of their own universe. Each app now extends the persona of each individual, where they tell their story through updates and actions and tailor engagement based on what they do and say. Facebook is simplifying the sharing process for doing so. The idea is that we strengthen relationships through interests and foster conversations based on our actions and intentions. As such, Facebook is investing in the quality of our relationships through technology where the social graph, people we know, slowly transforms into an interest graph, people with whom we share common interests.

Surely our timelines will be riddled with irrelevant updates for a short while until we are compelled to experiment with filters. Of course privacy concerns will one again percolate as people learn how to master their settings. There is physical work required in the migration from social to interest graphs. But, the reward is an improved Timeline, Ticker, and News Feed that matters to you and those who orbit your Egosystem. Here are some tips to get you started via AllFacebook.

This is a positive move for Facebook, developers, and also for brands that hope to invest in consumer engagement and experiences. Effective engagement is an art and science. Those who introduce apps based on the Open Graph platform must be mindful of what it is that is shared frictionlessly and also manually and how it adds value to:

1) The individual sharing and experience,

2) The interest graph, and

3) The developer.

A thoughtful approach inspires meaningful interaction. This comes down to what I refer to as A.R.T. of engagement, it must prompt Actions, Reactions, or Transactions. Each contribute to the quality and caliber of engagement and when designed accordingly, encourages people to share experiences that foster productivity. These should be viewed as pillars for application development. The goal isn’t to trigger frictionless updates. The objective is to inspire noteworthy responses and experiences…or significant actions, reactions and transactions.

Think about this for a moment. Facebook and social media in general is powered by shared experiences. The Open Graph is an invitation to develop applications that stimulate engagement and can and should influence outcomes. This is only the beginning however.  The Open Graph will increase and improve discovery and interaction. Over time, it will also help users refine relationships and the interactions between them.

I have to say with all puns intended, I do like Facebook’s new direction.

Here is an organized list of the initial Open Graph applications courtesy of TheVerge.com:

Travel

Gogobot
Airbnb
TripAdvisor​
Wipolo
Where I’ve Been

Food

Foodspotting
Cookpad

Snooth (wine)
Urbanspoon
Yummly
​Foodily

Shopping / Fashion

Pose
Pinterest
Polyvore
Oodle

Fab.com
eBay
Giftrocket
Payvment
Livingsocial

Fitness

MapMyRun
Runkeeper

Entertainment

Rotten Tomatoes
Dailymotion (French video site)
Cinemur (French video site)
Metacafe (videos)
Ford (game)
Wooga (Bubble Island, Diamond Dash)
OMGPOP (Draw My Thing)
Zynga (Words with Friends, Castleville

Giving

Causes
Fundrazr
Artez.com

Additional Open Graph Apps

BranchOut (job search)
Monster (job search)
Color (photo and video sharing)
Courserank (education)
Grockit (education)

Foursquare (location)
Goodreads (books)
Kobo (books)
StubHub (ticketing)
Ticketmaster (ticketing)
Ticketfly (ticketing)
ScoreBig (ticketing)
Appsfire (app discovery)
Artfinder (art)

Autotrader (cars)

Please see other perspectives of the significance of Facebook’s news by my Altimeter colleagues:

Lora Cecere: A New Technology that should Push Your Buttons

Susan Etlinger: Facebook Apps for Timeline: Three Implications for Business
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Google Personal Results

In an effort to make results more personal to a user, Google will now integrate Google+ and Picasa content into the search results.  This means users will now see Google+ posts and images that they’ve posted and those their friends have posted when they are searching for something. The green arrow below shows how users will be able to toggle between this new view and the old view, however this new “Search Plus Your World” view, is likely to be default for most users.

This Google+ integration raises an interesting opportunity for marketers, and an interesting dilemma for Google+ as a social network.  For instance, if I’m a large travel brand – it’s more beneficial for me to update Google+ with travel tips from my blog that I’d like those in my Circles to find when they are searching.  The serendipity from a marketer’s perspective is that even if someone Circled my brand but isn’t engaging with my brand frequently, I still can reach them in search with a link back to my website or blog.  So my content strategy as a marketer on Google+ changes from updating content that users are likely to engage in to updating content that users are likely to search.  The dilemma for Google+ becomes how to encourage more user engagement so that search results are actually affected, and how to make sure advertiser’s still try to engage fans on the network.

Google Profiles in Search

Google+ also announced that when you search for a person on Google,  auto complete will suggest your friends first, with a short profile with links to their Google+ page.  As an end user, this really doesn’t add much to my overall experience on the web, since I’m much more likely to be searching people I’m not connected with than those who I’m close with.

This being said, it feels like Google is starting to solve for this by allowing users to search authors in their “authorship pilot program“.  So users will be able to search for specific authors in this program that they aren’t friends with,  and be shown their profile and the opportunity to add the author to a circle on Google+.  See the screenshot below for an example of this.

While this is good news for authors in the program, the obvious opportunity for other brands would be if Google+ expands this functionality to brands with pages.  Advertisers could then begin to grow their presence on Google+ as users naturally search for their brand in search results.

You can also search with ‘+’ company name ( +coke ) to find that company name on Google

Blending People and Pages Into Google Search

In order to grow the Google+ community further, Google will now recommend people and pages to follow on Google+ that are related to your search query.  Search music?  You may be enticed to add Snoop Dogg to your circles.  Right now the opportunity seems exclusive to celebrities, and I can’t find information on how other pages may become involved – but I fully expect Google to expand this feature to more pages if it successfully grows Google+.

Googles instructions on how to have your Plus page appear on the “right hand side of search results”

Overall Takeaway

With these changes, Google is obviously taking even more steps to integrate social opportunities into its search results.  However, these changes are placing large bets on its relatively young social network Google+.  So even though these changes are exciting, I can’t help but feel that the opportunity is solely contingent on the success of Google+ as a network.  If Google+ can prove the network is growing in size and user engagement, then I think the integration’s announced today will be an important consideration in a brand’s social strategy.  It also seems they are already getting criticism from other networks who might be displaced by the new additions.

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Facebook Timeline is set to give you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.

Starting today, timeline is now available everywhere as a pre release. Here are some tips from Paul McDonald to help you get started.

7-day review period

• When you upgrade to timeline, you’ll have seven days to review everything that appears on your timeline before anyone else can see it. You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time during the review period. If you decide to wait, your timeline will go live automatically after seven days. Your new timeline will replace your profile, but all your stories and photos will still be there.
• If you want to see how your timeline appears to other people, click the gear menu at the top of your timeline, and select “View As.” You can choose to see how your timeline appears to a specific friend or the public.

Feature or hide stories

• As you explore your timeline, you may see stories that you want to feature, like your graduation or the day you bought your first car. There might also be stuff that you want to remove or hide from your timeline.
• To feature something on your timeline, roll over the story and click the star to expand it to two columns. Or you can click the pencil to hide, delete or edit a post.
• Use the privacy dropdown to adjust who can see any of your posts. You can even select “Only Me” for posts you want to keep but don’t want others to see.

See all your activity

• With timeline, now you have access to a new tool called Activity Log. Your activity log is a place where you can review all your posts and activity, from today back to when you first started using Facebook. Only you can see your activity log.
• You’ll see two dropdown menus next to each story in your activity log. The first lets you see and adjust the privacy of a post. The second lets you decide if you want the post to appear on your timeline. You can feature, hide or delete any of your posts.
• To quickly find a certain type of story, click the “All” dropdown at the top of your activity log and select what you’re looking for. For example, you can choose to see only photos or posts from apps.

Get timeline today

To get timeline, simply go to the Introducing Timeline page and click “Get Timeline.” Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your profile.

Starting today, timeline will also be available on Android and m.facebook.com.

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In addition to being a skilled comedienne, Ms. Kaling seems to have a talent for social media promotion. Her approach to Twitter, blogging and Facebook is both professional and down-to-earth, warranting a closer look at each social venue and the aspects that make them successful.  Mindy’s recently increased social media presence isn’t just a make-shift plan to promote her book, it’s a carefully executed way of building relationships with fans and creating a lasting personal brand.

Twitter

Mindy took full advantage of her preexisting Twitter account, @mindykaling. In a Nov. 21 interview with Bookish, Mindy explained her love of the micro-blogging platform saying, “Twitter is the most amazing medium for a comedy writer…. it’s a way of me getting out other comic ideas and immediately getting feedback.” The intrigue behind Mindy’s Twitter presence is that she doesn’t present herself as being follow-worthy just because she’s a celebrity. She’s extremely interactive with her more than 1.5 million followers, who include fans, media sources, publishers, designers, friends and other celebrities.

Drawing from her millions of Twitter connections, the actress amassed a grassroots following of her recently released book. Through constant updates, links to book retailers and articles, sneak peek content and information about book signings, Mindy has succeeded in promoting her book without sacrificing her lovable persona or annoying every last one of us with repetitive content.

Mindy’s well-crafted pre-release tweets contributed to the book launch hype. Content  included an exclusive audio excerpt from Mindy’s book, a special book-related mixed CD, several book giveaways and many personal calls to action from Mindy herself. By connecting with publishers, friends and media sources, publicity about the actress’ book easily found its way to other Twitter followers and social forums.

Mindy spread word of her book launch by retweeting celebrities like Ben Stiller and Rainn Wilson, among many others. The compliments and referrals rolled in throughout November, and somehow Mindy managed to thank nearly every person who showed their support. This positively affected the actress’ personal brand and greatly increased the number of Twitter users seeing content related to Mindy and her new book.

Blog: ‘The Concerns of Mindy Kaling’

Mindy also incorporated blogs into her social media plan, expanding the buzz around her book to other social channels. For example, the Office Tally, top fansite and blog for “The Office,” tweeted about the chance to win a copy of Mindy’s new book. The actress is a writer and co-executive producer for the popular sitcom, in addition to playing the role of Hollywood-obsessed Kelly Kapoor.

Mindy successfully used the Office Tally to connect with Office fans that might not be on Twitter but religiously follow the show and websites associated with it. Mindy also linked to her own blog, The Concerns of Mindy Kaling, which was launched Oct. 3. Despite its relatively recent launch, the blog is already rich in content and personality. Mindy announced the blog via links on her Facebook and Twitter pages. She also maintains a strong social media emphasis on the blog itself, with Facebook and Twitter feeds and social sharing links.

The blog’s home page features a free excerpt of Mindy’s book and links to retailers selling it. An entire tab devoted to the book houses a synopsis, book reviews and more free excerpts. At first glance, it may seem like the blog is a social microsite advertising Mindy’s book. In fact, it’s a very well-rounded blog that’s updated frequently and actually reflects what’s concerning Mindy through photos, videos and anecdotes. The blog is full of links to sites that Mindy loves, and everything featured is easily sharable. Topics range from bloggers to fashion trends to the continuing series, “Things I Bought That I Love” — all written in Mindy’s humorous and refreshingly awesome voice.

Facebook

Mindy’s Facebook page was launched at the end of September, presumably in anticipation of her book launch. Initially, this sudden dive into multiple social spaces made me expect a shallow treatment of each channel, with greater emphasis on pushing book sales than on forming a lasting and meaningful online presence. However, what I found was to the contrary.

It turns out Mindy’s sudden foray into Facebook and blogging was not a brief-lived promotional push. The comedienne and her team have remained dedicated to cultivating these social spaces with prompt and meaningful interactions with fans and businesses, as well as general ongoing hilarity. Her Facebook page includes links to articles on Mindy’s blog, videos of the actress’ TV appearances, interviews and information about upcoming events. Mindy even hosted a BFF Rights & Responsibilities contest on her blog that she cross-promoted on Facebook, thus raising awareness about her book and engaging fans in a unique way.

Social Media Success

After more than a month of careful observation, Mindy Kaling’s social media trifecta continues to be a success. The actress is well on her way to being a social superstar for several reasons:

• She maintains her unique voice and offers great humor that’s relatable to us mere mortals
• She takes advantage of the interconnectivity social spaces offer, such as cross-promotion and retweeting
• She constantly updates her pages, which is crucial to maintaining relevance and reader interest
• She provides readers with different types of content to keep things fresh and interesting
• She  links to reputable, relevant sites very frequently
• She is a dependable social presence with regular responses, interactions and calls to action

Ms. Kaling has approached social media in a more human, and ultimately more successful, way than many other celebrities. The most apparent characteristic of Mindy’s online conversation is its humility, evidenced by the never-ending stream of thanks she posts to her friends, followers and fans.

It’s possible that a trained team of social media professionals planned and continue to maintain Mindy’s social profiles without her input, but I find that highly unlikely. She’s a comedic writer with a highly identifiable writing style and an apparent dedication to keeping it real. In either case, it doesn’t change the fact that Mindy is at the center of a highly successful social effort that others could stand to learn from.

What do you think about Mindy Kaling’s approach to social media? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments sections below!

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Dave’s Answer:

A splendid question and one that involves some coding on your part, a special snippet that you have to paste somewhere on your site’s home page. The good news is that it’s pretty easy with Google‘s help pages, and they recommend that you just go ahead and add the cute little g+ icon, which is the easiest.

In either case, though, the first step is to figure out what Google calls the canonical version of your Google Plus page URL. Yeah, what it has to do with canons, we don’t know either.

Still, it’s not too much of a nightmare. Since I’m assuming you already have a Google Plus Business Profile Page, what you need to do is go to your page’s stream, then click on “Get Started” on the left side:

When you click on “Get started” you’ll see that the subsequent page has a number of different areas. The one you’re interested in is “Tell the world”…

As you can see, the canonical version of my Google+ Ask Dave Taylor page is:

https://plus.google.com/115791840784857718050

Armed with that — and it’s mostly the long numeric value — we can jump back to the task of creating the “g+’ icon. To do that, you’ll want to get the snippet of code, which drops you here:

Copy and paste the numeric code and you’ll be able to choose between different styles and sizes of icons. Here’s the one I like, the “Medium Icon”:

Immediately below the icon display is the snippet of code I’ll need to put on my own home page:

That’s it. I copy and paste that so it shows up somewhere on the home page and lets Google know that the Web page and the Google+ business profile are a loop and are a definitive connection, making you eligible for Google Direct Connect and, of course, helping your fans find you on G+ both.

Want to do something more subtle? Add the following line of HTML to the head section of your home page (with your own ID specified) and that’ll do the job too, without having a visible link back to Google Plus:

However you do it, I hope this’ll help you get up to speed with your Google Plus business profile page.

But you’re not done yet! Why not Circle Ask Dave Taylor on Google+ too? Thanks!

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