Essential Facebook Programming:Widgets and Timeline

摘要

After covering some basic aspects of Facebook programming in previous columns, I'll now discuss tools and techniques to view and retrieve content from a Facebook wall in order to share it through other means and catalog it for something else, such as business intelligence (BI) analysis. Not all companies have the same level of interest in the world of social communities as does Facebook. One lesson I've learned, however, is that in all companies, periodically an internal department—usually marketing—ends up with a strong interest in getting closer to customers and, maybe more important, in having customers get closer to the company. A Facebook fan page is one of the tools to attract contacts, and the number of Likes and the level of activity on the page can measure the success of the initiative.