Facebook's New Era of Sharing - Hillary Werronen-RBM

Last week, for the first time ever, one half-billion users logged into Facebook in a single day. Facebook is not merely a short-lived trend in Social Media – Facebook has changed the way we interact with each other, both online and off. Now, Facebook is aiming to change it all again.

On Sept. 20^th, Facebook rolled out the 'mini News-Feed' – perhaps the worst 'sneak peek' they could have chosen to unveil, but an integral part of the new open graph expansion, to be rolled out fully in the coming weeks. The way we interact with the web is about to become even more social, and here's everything you need to know to be prepared for the changes:

You Are What You Eat (and Read, and Listen to, and Watch, and. . .)

Facebook's open graph expansion allows for social sharing on a deeper level, where users' exploration of the web will feed into a new, dynamic Facebook profile made up of your current musical tastes, where you live, and whatever else makes you 'you'. This new simple site plugin allows users to share the books they've read, the movies they've seen, - even the meals they've cooked – as a way of expressing their personalities.

The App Revolution

The same way that Apple once rolled out 'apps' – widgets and programs that changed the way we consumed content on our smartphones, Facebook is rolling out another breed of app. This breed, however, will change the way we share knowledge and express ourselves to the world. Facebook is expanding upon the popularity of games native to the Facebook platform (Farmville, anyone?) – by partnering with a number of top-notch partners to roll out a robust app ecosystem using the open graph platform.

Apps will stretch across a wide array of categories, including media, communication, and lifestyle categories, bringing social integration to everyday life. For example, Hulu's partnership works as follows:

1. A user watches a show on Hulu, integrated with Facebook's open graph platform

2. His friend sees this in her own news feed, and clicks on the show's title.

3. Hulu's native Facebook app opens, and plays the show directly within Facebook.

The same holds true for music, books, and more. Facebook apps will be built for 'social' success from the ground up.

What it Means for Your Business

One of the most intriguing things about this new platform and plugin launch is that it makes it remarkably easy for businesses – large and small – to make their site social-ready. The line of code to add the social plugin bar to the bottom of your website is just that – one line of code.

Adding simple meta tags to pieces of content allows for more in-depth sharing, and allows advertisers and publishers access to a wealth of information about their customers. Facebook has pulled back the reins on caching user data, and the one-step process for allowing data access makes it all even easier.

As Facebook rolls out these new features over the next week, expect to see a mix of angry users (as always) and very happy business users. And get ready for a lot more sharing.

Hillary Werronen has been with Red Bricks Media for over two years, working within Sales and Marketing and Client Services before joining the Creative Services team as a Social Media Strategist. She can be reached at hwerronen@redbricksmedia.com.

Read all Hillary's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The Brickwire.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.