I was recently surfing on brandchannel.com, which I think is a great site for following the latest news with brands, and came across this article: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/11/03/Facebook-Mobile-Upgrade.aspx. The article talks about how “Facebook upgrades mobile with single sign-on, local deals.”
The new Single Sign-On (SSO) platform allows app developers to use add a button where users can choose to log on to Facebook and connect to the app’s services that way. However, instead of reaching a screen where you have to enter your e-mail address and your password, if you are already logged into Facebook on your mobile device, the app lets you automatically log in and skips the login page.
While some people may argue that this technology really only saved a few seconds and thus shouldn’t be considered anything too ground breaking, keep in mind we’re talking about mobile devices and nanotechnology: everything is made smaller, quicker and more efficient, and I do believe many users will appreciate saving those few seconds.
Here’s a tutorial video from the article explaining how to use the new SSO platform:
The other new Facebook feature is Facebook Deals. This feature, in essence, takes the promotional pricing (coupons and discounts) and mixes it with nanotechnology. Now, you can use your mobile device to log on to Facebook and pull out a coupon through Facebook, for the cafe/restaurant/store that you are currently in.
Here’s the promotional video for Facebook Deals from the article:
Why would store owners use Facebook deals? Let me pull out some key phrases from the video: “word-of-mouth marketing…generate awareness…build loyalty…”
Why would users use Facebook deals? Free discounts!!
So after reading through this article, I realized that Facebook is more engaged in promotion and product development than I expected (Post #6). Facebook continues to introduce stunning, new ideas to the world and allows businesses and users to both become part of a win-win situation. All of this could not have been accomplished without constant market research and market analysis.