The general impression so far seems to be that FC doesn't so much net you new users as it does increase engagement among current ones (if integrated well). That isn't surprising given what I've seen running my Facebook app (which is now at about 50k MAU after 2 months) and what I've seen of sites using FC.
Facebook Platform (and presumably Connect) is great for virality, but haphazardly slapping it onto something that wasn't designed for its strengths and weaknesses from the beginning nets you little. To use it properly, you have to design your app or site from the ground up around the platform. Otherwise you're wasting your time.
I haven't looked into connect much yet, but I'm guessing that if it allows for solid virality (invites, notifications, profile boxes, mini feed entries, etc.) people just haven't quite built the app that takes advantage of it yet. They're just adding it onto their blogs and social news sites and hoping, and unsurprisingly they're not getting much in return. Look through the portfolios of contractors who build Facebook apps and you'll see a lot of that. Some newspaper thinks they can just stick sports scores in a Facebook app and it will go viral. Those apps always have 12 active users.
So I guess my advice would be don't do it half-baked, or you won't get much from it. If you're going to integrate it, rework your entire product to use the viral hooks you get from it. It doesn't seem to be that much easier for a user than a streamlined signup process anyway.
good suggestion, agree initially we'd be looking at it more for getting friends of our already active users aware of it, and then if they join, they can see on facebook the updates off site which will drive return visits. so it's incremental off existing users rater than driving huge viral growth of random people to our site at the start at least
Facebook Platform (and presumably Connect) is great for virality, but haphazardly slapping it onto something that wasn't designed for its strengths and weaknesses from the beginning nets you little. To use it properly, you have to design your app or site from the ground up around the platform. Otherwise you're wasting your time.
I haven't looked into connect much yet, but I'm guessing that if it allows for solid virality (invites, notifications, profile boxes, mini feed entries, etc.) people just haven't quite built the app that takes advantage of it yet. They're just adding it onto their blogs and social news sites and hoping, and unsurprisingly they're not getting much in return. Look through the portfolios of contractors who build Facebook apps and you'll see a lot of that. Some newspaper thinks they can just stick sports scores in a Facebook app and it will go viral. Those apps always have 12 active users.
So I guess my advice would be don't do it half-baked, or you won't get much from it. If you're going to integrate it, rework your entire product to use the viral hooks you get from it. It doesn't seem to be that much easier for a user than a streamlined signup process anyway.