Summarized version: it did’nt work and my screencast hopes were dashed

So I started out wanting to do a screencast explaining TD Canada Trust’s “SplitIt” Facebook application. Sounds simple enough right ?

First I log into my Facebook account and go to applications. Get this, there are more than 90 applications in the Money category! Too many to scan thru, so I use the search box and search on “splitit”. Nothing found. Then I search on everything else I can think of “td”, “canada”, “trust”, “split” etc. Still nothing? very strange.

So then I go searching for SplitIt or even just the word Facebook on the TD Canada Trust site. Again nothing. So I figure their search just must not be any good, so I point Google at there site by searching like this, still zip.

Finally, I just started searching the internet and landed on the mynameiskate blog, and she had a direct link to the SplitIt app on Facebook ! Yippee, we are cranking now.

Here is the enticing text (bolding removed) describing what SplitIt does:

Welcome to the SPLIT IT by TD Canada Trust application – a no-hassle, budget-sharing tool that enables you to share bills with your roommates. SPLIT IT makes it easy to determine who owes what, view your balances, and keep on top of your payment dates.

It’s easy to use: Invite your roommates to participate and start sharing bills and expenses such as rent, water, gas and food!

The TD Canada Trust SPLIT IT application appears on your facebook profile, but ONLY YOU can see the bills. No one visiting your profile will be able to see any financial details of your SPLIT IT account.

And here is the snazzy error message I get when I try to use the application:

Errors while loading page from application

There are still a few kinks Facebook and the makers of SPLIT IT by TD Canada Trust are trying to iron out. We appreciate your patience as we try to fix these issues. Your problem has been logged - if it persists, please come back in a few days. Thanks!

I waited 5 days and tried again. I tried another browser. I tried another machine. I tried another Facebook account. All DOA with TD Canada Trust SplitIt.

And this brings me to a bit of advice about lumbering into social networking. By all means do it, but keep these things in mind:

• keep it simple - one of the most popular Facebook apps is sticky notes, simple simple simple
• try to make it viral - SplitIt did this right, adding friends to split bills, very social
• stay the course - don’t just abandon something and leave the carcass
• plan for success - but at the end of the day realize that much is out of your control (we are talking about social networking moths, no telling what light source will attract them)
• don’t hide - why can’t I find ANYTHING on SplitIt at a TD site ?
• abandon “properly” - leaving carcasses, or just fading into a blackhole are not cool, leave an explanation, ask for input, anything but an error message for the next 3 years

Anyone else out there have any better luck with SplitIt ? just leave a comment and will add an update to this post. I would still love to do a screencast about this app!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 8:02 am and is filed under facebook, social networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.