Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

11

Social Graph Applications

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Recall the importance of profi le completion. If members can’t identify each

other, they won’t connect and build relationships. Think about it: Would you accept a

LinkedIn connection request from “asdf ghjkl” in “anytown, usa”? (I actually received

that request and promptly moved it to the trash.) If members are not completing pro-

fi les, add the tools that help them to do this, as is done on LinkedIn: LinkedIn shows

you, as a member, the specifi c steps to take next to complete your social profi le. Ensure

that the networking platform you select supports something similar, either directly

or which can be built. Many social applications offer a programming extension or

an application programming interface (API), which itself offers a method by which

extended capabilities can be easily added to the core platform functions.

Social Graph APIs

If you are interested in exploring the API—the programming extensions that can open up the

social graph for your social applications—you may want to visit the Google and Facebook API

reference sites. There are, of course, others but these will provide a useful starting point for those

so inclined. You can always do more on your own!

http://code.google.com/apis/socialgraph/

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api

Here’s a tip: Figure out the capabilities you need in regards to how much you

want to assist or suggest connections and similar friending activities, and then look for

a pathway to implementing them before you select a platform. When you know what

you want, it’s lots easier to fi nd it.

In addition to the tools that focus directly on social interactions and the things

that facilitate them, consider contests, reputation and profi le completion bonuses, and

other incentives that encourage profi le completion and social interaction. Relationships

are possibly the single most important gating factor in the development of a strong

community experience. Figure 11.4 shows LinkedIn’s profi le completeness indicator. As

noted, relationships and the content sharing they enable are absolutely key to the pro-

gression toward engagement with your brand, product, or service.

Beyond the profi le, what else can you do? The social profi le—and its relative

completeness—is certainly important in facilitating connections. But there are also

active steps that can be taken to suggest friends, to recommend content (and hence

content authors), and similar actions that help drive connections within a community.

Facebook, for example, regularly recommends that friend requests be sent between

members who are not currently friends, but have a number of mutual friends within

the network. If Tom knows Jane, and Jane knows Mike, maybe Tom would have

Social Graph APIs

If you are interested in exploring the API—the programming extensions that can open up the

social graph for your social applications—you may want to visit the Google and Facebook API

reference sites. There are, of course, others but these will provide a useful starting point for those

so inclined. You can always do more on your own!

http://code.google.com/apis/socialgraph/

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api