The best thing Facebook has done is Facebook Connect. This allows your website to let people become members using their Facebook login. It also allows your site to personalise how it works for that person and their friends.
Here's how it works. The examples I will use are from our Footy Dreamteam site www.footyrocks.net. When somebody visits Footy Rocks they can click a button up in the top left corner...
When the button is clicked, a window will appear to confirm that the person doing this wants to give the site access to their information. After that, the site will remember this person when they come back and log them in again automatically.
Underneath, Facebook passes us everything we need to set them up an account and it also passes us a list of their Facebook friends.
The first window above is a list of my friends with their names and pictures as supplied by Facebook. The second window is my new account that has been set up automatically - including my details from Facebook and my current profile picture.
This is very powerful information and we use it on Footy Rocks to personalise the site for our members.
Above you can see the page that shows the ladder. The first window is the global ladder and the second is a filtered ladder showing only my friends who are on the site. Now that I am a member, the site will only show my friends when I go to that page. We did the same thing for the scores, challenges, who else has put a team in, and everywhere else where we could give the impression that it's my own site with only my Facebook friends on it.
We have one more trick up our sleeves - posting to Facebook.
Any member of our site can challenge one or more of their Facebook friends to a game. When they do, their friends get a message on their wall letting them know they have been challenged. This includes the Footy Rocks profile picture, description, and a link to click on to accept the challenge.
What you see above is a post on my friend's Facebook wall that looks like it came from me but really came from the Footy Rocks website.
Yes, your website can post to the Facebook wall of your members OR THEIR FRIENDS.
These are some quick examples of how Facebook Connect can add personalisation to your website.
The best bit about Facebook Connect is that people use it. Nobody likes filling in their details on every site they visit so give them a one-click way to become members.
Call me now to find out how we can use this exciting technology on your website.
