Facebook spam controls hit SixApart

Several members of SixApart's marketing team repeated to Vator.tv what we'd already heard from Joyce Park of Renkoo, who told us last month that new restrictions on Facebook app developers have made it harder to exploit the site's viral marketing abilities.

"They've definitely cut down on the viral elements," said SixApart Director of Marketing Mark Simmons.

When we spoke, SixApart, the company behind TypePad and other blogging applications, had just rolled out its "Blog It" application on Facebook. The tool that pushes Facebook content out to WordPress, Twitter, Tumble, Pownce and other social networking platforms.

With some typing that bridged three social networking platforms, and in a true Web 2.0 moment, one of Simmons' co-workers used her Twitter account to tell her friends that she was blogging on Facebook and pushing it to Vox.  

That kind of super-distribution, not only of text posts but also of pictures and videos, is one reason that Internet traffic is exploding -- and why lots of ad inventory is being created on the Web. The problem is that ad dollars have been slow in coming because big brand advertisers want to make sure their logos don't end up where they don't want them. In other words, on Web pages that could turn off their intended audience.

Facebook tightened up its spam protections on March 18 in anticipation of more advertisers coming to the site to buy inventory that they want to know is properly targeted -- not just sent to everyone on a user's friend list.

"They're limiting your ability to spam your friends," said Bryan Tighe, a SixApart developer.

Renko's Park predicted that it would be harder (although not impossible) for her latest app, the tank-battle game Warbots, to  spread as quickly as the company's other games, Haikoo Zoo and BoozeMail, which together have have garnered 30 million users on Facebook. BoozeMail is a popular app which allows users to send their friends a virtual drink.