These ads, in my mind, would become tools to your consumer desires. You would see the right ad, at the right time, and know you are being advertised to, an appreciate it. Need a new pair of shoes? Have your fiends called you out on this in a photo or two? BAM! You get the perfect, timely ad from that shoe company you’ve liked on Facebook. This kind of ad is not far away, maybe within a year or two. It’s with this perspective that one must look at the latest enhancements to Facebook’s social network. Advanced news feed algorithms that predict what you want to see, Timelines that encourage you to reveal more and more about yourself, ads that use your own words to advertise to your friends. All of this is happening so fast that many users have been left dazed and frustrated.

This frustration will pass, the strange will become the norm. Soon we will have more Facebook powered ads than we can imagine, and if they prove to be effective Facebook may one day usurp the king Google for the best spend to revenue model for advertising. Frankly though, I find this a bit hard to believe at the moment and hope to be convinced through case studies and the like. Most Facebook advertisers will tell you that the best use of their ads is to grow your fan base, thus growing your potential to market more effectively. I haven’t been able to make Facebook ads effective to drive immediate conversions like Google ads, and as such need to see some serious improvemtn to believe that Facebook will change the world.

It’s possible, if they continue to develop and work on building a better ecosystem where advertisements work effectively. The potential is there, but I don’t believe the public is ready to understand it. It’s too “creepy” or “unwanted” at the moment, but soon they will understand. Facebook stands to revolutionize online advertisements but it must constantly play a popularity, privacy, security, and numbers game simultaneously. Hey, that sounds kinda like the work of a social media manager like me.

Nearly once a week I am approached by a salesman with a new piece of technology that will help my business via social media. While I do enjoy learning about how these tools and software work, I cannot help but remember the old tale of the Gold Rush. Here I am slaving away through comments, insight data and advertisement CTR’s, while these guys have created a tool that still leaves it up to me to use effectively. I will try it for a few months, and it may or may not make a difference. Meanwhile, they go on to sell more tools, taking full advantage of this craze to find the gold in them hills of social media, the elusive ROI.

Now don’t get me wrong, at my full time employer we have many teams and tools that make what I do there possible. However, this is not always the case for other businesses, and as such my opinion is skewed. However, as part of Design Whale, I hope to never pitch someone on something that I myself do not truly believe is an efficient way to spend money.

BADGES! We don't need no stinking "Badges -plugins"

There are certainly many ways to make money through Social Media. However it takes a careful alignment of goals, resources and effort. It takes real passion and real honesty. Many of these tools offered by third party social media businesses can go a long way to facilitating passion and honesty. I just think that in the wild west of social media, the man who can learn the trick to the tool and take advantage of the core idea quickly will be the one who wins in the end.

Upon entering the event, and having connected my Facebook profile to my ticket purchase, I was given the small card, which was the size of a normal business card. I believe that inside of the card is a normal RFID chip, however I cannot be sure, as I have not dissected mine. Accompanying the card and chip were multiple sensors connected to numerous activities through the F8 lobby. These activities used my Facebook profile data in different ways, each demonstrating a different use of the core technology.

The first activity I interacted with was a simple photo booth with a touch-screen that enabled photo tagging on the spot before it uploaded the photo to my profile on my behalf. With the help of an event staff member my colleges and I snapped a pic, touched the sensor with our cards which glowed green to acknowledge a connection, and tagged our photos all within 3 seconds. A snazzy tool, and something that can certainly go a long way at other events like weddings.

The next activity I noticed was the giant wall of information, being augmented by ever attendant that chose to check-in, a process made easier with the presence card and a sensor near the main entrance. The wall presented profile images of attendants, and numerous real-time info graphics. One of the main sections of the wall displayed “face-offs,” or comparisons of like counts for different Open Graph objects, displayed in three columns. The columns showed the like count comparisons of event attendees, people in San Francisco, and finally all of Facebook. It was cool to see how the event attendees’ interests compared to the city and the entire Facebook user base.

The "Pen" enabled by the presence card

One of the coolest activities using the presence card was the “ play-pen,” as I like to call it, was basically a fenced off area for users to interact and compare profile data in real time with anyone else in the pen by using the card to synch their profiles. I jumped in and invited others to compare their data with mine and was delighted to see some connection lines form showing that we had similar interest. All of this was accomplished by infrared sensors and over-head projects, along with a large screen containing a legend for the info graphic surrounding each person in the pen.

Now all of this has been exciting for sure, but the next activity actually showed where this type of tech may be stretching a bit. There was the ability for users to manipulate the music playlist being played in the lobby by tapping their cards to another sensor. When it was my turn, the application searched my numerous musical interests as listed in my profile, chose a band, and chose one song from that band’s library of music. However I was a bit surprised and embarrassed by the song selected, even more so when my name was associated next to it. This showed a weakness in random pulls of data from Facebook profiles, there may be some lingering data in your profile that you would really rather not appear in public, let alone on a screen in front of hundreds of people.

All in all the many uses of the presence card were impressive to say the least. I imagined many uses for this card, most importantly how it could be used in museums and other information centers to provide additional information for use later on, such as home work assignments for school children on field trips. The idea is fascinating, and from my perspective it would be in Facebook’s interest to make these cards more readily available. If they were, I can imagine many brick and motor institutions to develop numerous ways of using the technology to enhance user interaction. Oh and the best part of all of this was the story of how this technology was developed. It all started with a HACK member wanting to find an easier way of announcing to his friends that he just poured himself a beer at a keg.

Classic.

Skepticism aside, I was filled with excitement as I walked through the doors of the event, housed in a gritty brick building in the SoMa district of San Francisco.  I knew from the beginning that this event was different than most social media conferences in that it was a developers conference, for the technically inclined, and should be filled with more web design geeks than mommy bloggers.  The number of Macbook Pro’s being brandished was evidence enough.

Being a designer at heart, and a former sign maker, I can say that the signage and other materials at the event were very impressive. The grid patterned used throughout the event showed a consistency and creativity that I immediately had respect for. However, the signage and print materials were pale in comparison to the amount of technical wizardry displayed in the lobby of the event. I was immediately handed a personalized book, complete with images of many of my Facebook friends lining the inside covers. A truly personal touch, made creepy by seeing my boss staring at me even this far away from the office. Included with the book was an RFID enabled card, one of the subtle technological advancements Facebook has discovered through their many HACKs. I explain more about the Facebook presence card and the amazing ways it interacts with physical objects, music, photos and games here.

Facebook F8 Wall of info

Once the show actually began I was again treated to a spectacle, this time it was a comedy show by And Samberg, a notorious Zuckerberg imposter from NBC’s SNL. When Mark finally appeared on stage the audience was well primed for something big, and he certainly delivered. What Mark announced on stage will forever change the internet as we know it. It is difficult to say that without sounding like a hype-ster myself, but it is something I truly believe, and this comes from my professional opinion as a person heavily entrenched in the industries of social media and ecommerce. The main announcements discussed the changes of profiles into Timelines (explained in more detail here: XXX), the upgrades to the Open Graph environment and app creation tools (explained in more detail here: XXX) and finally some in-depth looks into how Spotify and Netflix will be using this technology to change the way we consume content. All in all the presentation was an impressive series of slides, videos and facts.

The presence card enabled interactive infographic

Following the presentation were numerous breakout sessions allowing me and my colleagues a chance to divide and conquer, choosing the sessions that most closely aligned to our areas of interest. All of these were very well produced and provided sufficient examples and explanations of the new technology being released. There was even many opportunities for me to ask Facebook engineers and employees directly about some of the questions that had been burning in my mind for months now. It turns out there is no Facebook advertising quality score (who knew), and that they just use an estimated CTR to determine ad placement. I was also able to ask directly about Facebook Page post scheduling service, and the rumors of a white list of apps that benefit from the News Fed algorithm unfairly in my opinion. It was truly awesome to ask these questions in a room full of people and put the engineers on the spot about some pressing issues.

Zynga's HQ. How can he see me?

The work of the day being over, my friends and I gathered our thoughts and experiences and returned to the conference center later on to enjoy a rousing party full of great food and drinks, as well as a great show put on by the Crystal Castles, a pretty awesome band if you ask me. We even got a chance to check out Zynga’s new office and enjoy some food and drink on the house there as well. I’d be lying if I said that Zynga’s office didn’t remind me of the movie Grandma’s Boy a lot.

The Crystal Castles performance

I would highly recommend this conference to anyone in the social media application development industry. Even for a guy like me who mainly deals with the Page admin side of things it was an incredible chance to ask questions, learn more about the technology behind the scenes and enjoy camaraderie with people who share my passions and job requirements. If you have any questions about F8 or other conferences I invite you to send me an email at Mario@deisgnwhale.com.