EVCin

While some have reported developers seeing a 20-30% drop in traffic and usage since Facebook pushed aside the live news feed for an algorithmic feed, Zynga is one of the first to visibily be trying to crack the code.

For developers, the constantly changing Facebook platform has always been a challenge. At least this time they’re getting a roadmap. And while those changes are pretty significant, they should improve the quality of interaction with users. The message is clear: it’s time to innovate again and make the new tools and APIs available work to keep users engaged and to virally grow the base in a little less “spammy” way.

As more marketers look to game mechanics as a way to incent users to talk about their brands, there’s the distinct possiblity of a glut of “social spam” in the near future. As users get more judicious about filtering, quality content will be the true incentive to engaging customers.

Chinese developers now have three games in the top 20 on Facebook and each of the developers has honed their skills on the top Chinese social networks. Expect more international developers to join the ranks and for US developers to go global. Translations are the next big hurdle.

Whole foods is one of the rare brands that don’t revolve around celebrity, tech or media in the top 1000 Twitter accounts by followers. Analyzing over 500 tweets, you can the success of Whole Foods is their commitment organic foods. Now watch them reach out and engage users on the local level using Twitter and Facebook.