Last week the Facebook Developer Garage in Palo Alto co-sponsored a Hackathon with Girls in Tech to focus on building great social applications. It was the first time Facebook opened a hackathon to outside developers. The event focused on women’s innovative and entrepreneurial achievements in technology. After all, the majority of Facebook users are women.
The Facebook experience is a managed and self-contained environment, but the newly designed Developer Platform is intended to spread Facebook across the rest of the web. Unlike the Twitter API, I don’t think it means people will drift away from the main Facebook site.
It does mean new users might think about Facebook in a different way. Third party websites can connect with Facebook as deeply as they want to. The convenience of a single sign-on could mean you are perfectly happy to allow Facebook to manage your identity as you browse the internet. Facebook usage continues to grow, even while you aren’t looking at it.
Facebook the company is built on the premise that a few people who are passionate through technology can change the world.
Mike Schroepfer
VP of Engineering, Facebook
Visiting Facebook I got a good idea of how small this company is compared to others who have touched as many people. The entire building that hosted the hackathon is usually empty. Except for bicycles. These guys and gals are looking at a lot of growth.
How do you change fast? Is that a good thing?
So you think Facebook is changing so fast that you can’t keep up with privacy settings? When Kara Swisher of All Things Digital stepped in to moderate a panel of women in technology she asked the obvious question. “How do you deal with rapid change?”
“The best advice we ever got was to focus,” said Meebo co-founder Sandy Jen. She revealed that it took three different versions of Meebo to arrive at the one we know today.
You need to focus on doing one thing very well, rather than doing a lot of things badly. In fact, on the internet, you won’t even be noticed for doing a lot of things above average. You’ll be too far down in Search results. Not worth mentioning on Facebook.
The world has changed. There are far more choices, but there is less and less time to sort them out.
Seth Godin
Purple Cow
“Change is okay,” advised Jen. “The fundamental need for people to communicate has always been there.” That’s how Meebo focuses on what they do best.
I don’t want to socialize. I want to do business.
It’s obvious why a Facebook hackathon attracts developers. There are opportunities to create something nobody ever thought of and shake up the internet. We hear the same message from Google.
But what if you aren’t a high tech company? What if you don’t have a marketing plan to spend on social media? What if you can’t socialize all day? What’s the benefit for small and medium sized businesses?
We think of the world as a Social Graph.
Sandra Liu Huang
Platform Product Marketing, Facebook
We listened to what Facebook had to say. According to them, it’s all about the Social Graph. Everything connected to everything else. We went away convinced it was worthwhile to integrate with Facebook.
The benefit goes something like this: Customers are searching for what you sell. They get unwanted email or a random suggestion, and probably ignore it. But if they get a recommendation about your business from someone they know on Facebook, they might consider it.
People spend more time on Facebook than on any other website. Facebook serves 500 million users. Half of them log in every day.
It’s a good idea to let Facebook do what they do best. Because, you might take a recommendation if it comes from a friend on Facebook.
What about the cupcakes?
I first came across Kara’s Cupcakes in a small retail store in Santana Row. It was remarkable that they only sold cupcakes. So when they showed up at Facebook & Girls in Tech last weekend I had to take a picture.
It’s another example of why I want you to focus on what you do best. People are going to talk about you. They’ll recommend you to their friends. Maybe on Facebook.
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Proudly yes, We are!