Facebook marketing is an evolving social media medium still finding and working out its web legs, with profile ads, wall posts and Fan Pages some of the top current methods. As Facebook continues to add new features and grow, both in functionality and in attractiveness to API developers, the way it is used for both social networking and marketing will grow and change as well.
Mashable reported this week about new possibilities for the Facebook Inbox, which would present new options for both developers and marketers. If I understand it right, Facebook just announced that they are introducing two new API’s- Mailbox and Notifications. Depending on what developers do with the new API’s, this could integrate Facebook Inbox notifications into other desktop apps- as in, you could see on your Seesmic Desktop that you have a new Facebook Message.
While that doesn’t necessarily change how the Facebook Inbox itself works, it does mean that users could start to visit Facebook more often, the way people check their phones everytime they get a new text message. It takes Facebook one step closer to real time, and gives them a feature comparable to the Twitter DM, and opens the door for unforeseen developer innovation. As with any new open API, the Facebook community in general will change, and Facebook Marketing could change as well.

Facebook also announced last week that the Facebook Pages are now part of the API open stream, enabling users to bring Page updates into their desktop apps. That could give both more real-time and screen space prominence to company or product based Fan Pages, again, something that could tweak the possibilities around Facebook marketing. Overall, Facebook is opening their API’s to desktop app developers, and what those developers do with it we can only imagine.

Also, MySpace is angling for relevance by launching their own webmail, enabling users to open email accounts @myspace.com. Whether the domain-specific emails will afford users more credibility or relevance within the MySpace community has yet to be seen, but this could open new doors for email marketing approaches. If Facebook does the same (with @facebook.com email accounts), it could open an entirely new book of possibilities.

Does anyone have any new Facebook Marketing – related ideas with these new features? Would love to hear about it in the Comments if you do.

Facebook Marketing Possibilities Expand With New Features?

Scott