05.16.08

What is a Facebook Application - 10 things to know

Posted in Best Practices, Social Media, Social Tools, Web Business at 9:22 am by Mosey

Recently every time I am pitching a social project the word “Facebook” comes up. Not surprising it is the social media tool of the year, until the next one comes along, and that site which is capturing the exact demographic most companies are looking for. It is “fun” or at least “more fun than Linkedin” as I am told.

The bonus is anyone with a budget can get a piece of the Facebook pie. In the genius of Facebook
they don’t have to do all the work and people still flock. I know people who showed up just to be on a certain app that they like to play. Cost to Facebook $0. Profit to Facebook, lots.

Of course not only can you promote your product through some widget, you can also make some cash if you have the right game set-up. It’s not easy and I haven’t seen any that are terribly profitable, but it can happen.

With that, here are 10 things about Facebook everyone should know:

1. A Facebook Application is not magical, it is like any other web application.

For that matter, web applications are not magical either. They are no different from a shopping cart or a filter on a datagrid. There is data, logic and display. The difference is in a Facebook Page, the display is fancy and the logic is something you would not normally do on a web page. You could easily take just about any mini-tool on your website and reconfigure it.

The main point of a Facebook app though is engagement in a vacuum, where on your website they are hunting and pecking for YOUR information. Your product catalog isn’t going to get anyone excited even though it is the same technology as “find a new friend based on 4 random letters.”

2. Facebook Applications can be programmed in any language

PHP is what Facebook’s own site is programmed, so the library you get as a developer comes in PHP. What this means is the script kiddies have a development advantage. However, as long as you use the FB API properly (and there is a library available for most any language) you can use whatever language you want. I do my Facebook apps in Coldfusion. I have seen them in .net, perl, even straight HTML/Javascript. If you can program you can probably program a Facebook App, it is just more syntax to learn. Which brings me to.

3. A Facebook application doesn’t need to “do” anything

A Facebook “Application” can be a single page. I have seen them as “I support” type pages, or an invite. Because when you add an application it tells your friends this can still be viral. It can still get word out to small circles well. No, it won’t be the next hot thing like Dogbook, but if you have a small local audience people will at least click and see what this application is. There is practically free advertising for hooking into the API. Really, there doesn’t have to be any “interaction” at all.

4. A Facebook Application can be as big or as small as you like.

You can create an entire virtual world in a Facebook application. It is hosted on your server, maintained by your people, so do with it what you want. Facebook development is as complicated as you make it. Most are three to five actions (buy, sell, invite, fight/compare, purchase) because those are small, addictive and easy to use. But you can create 70 action sites with their own sub-menus, economies, logins, etc. As much as you want to spend time and money you can make it that.

5. When Open Social gets rolling that Facebook Application can work other places with some tweaking

Google, of course, is leading the way and created Open Social. So far it hasn’t caught on, but it will. There are still some questions on security and so on but the idea is this, the App you created in Facebook will also use the Open Social API.

To un-tech that down a bit, if you are on Friendster and your buddy loves Hi5, you can still play the same game, and see their updates because OpenSocial talks to both networks at the same time. Now, Facebook has yet to sign onto Open Social because they have the lion’s share of the market, why should they? But the Open Social API will work a lot like the FBML language for Facebook, it won’t be a complete re-write to take that FB app and make it a myspace AND friendster AND Yahoo application.

6. Yes, you can display your logo on a Facebook Application

There is this rumor going around that you can’t brand your Facebook Application or have it link off Facebook. This is crap. What you can’t do on Facebook is use it as an adwords server, sell advertising to other companies, automatically link people to new pages, require downloads or “force” invite friends on install.

What you can do is, link to your site as an option, plaster your logo everywhere, suggest (and reward) invites of friends, say pretty much whatever you want and design it how you feel. Sure you can use it simply as a sales tool but that isn’t going to be popular. There should still be a fun “catch” some place.

7. Facebook Apps tell people’s friends when they are installed and used

This is really the biggest advantage of a Facebook Application. Jane Popular has 200 friends. When she installs your Application it gets listed as an update for her. The next time her 200 friends log on they see Jane installed your new toy. They get curious and some of them install it too, then their friends see the same message and so on.

Even better if Jane Popular likes your game, tracker, whatever, you can put an update on her newsfeed that a new level was reached, a trivia contest was passed a survey was taken, whatever (you can update a person’s profile 5 times a day as they use your product), that also is an alert friends see.

Plus, you get your own little ad space on their profile of their current rank, setting, whatever. Your application advertises itself in a big way.

8. Facebook shares user information with you

When someone installs a Facebook application they essentially login. Now, some information you don’t get, like direct email addresses, but some you do, like their city, zip code, political preference, and very important groups they are in and their friends list.

Whatever information they filled in you can get (and save to your own database!) Now, they get to choose if you ever get to send them email, or update their home page but most people let you do as you want and leave all the boxes checked when they install. You can base your logic off this, pre-set information for them or just horde it for yourself.

You can email them using the Facebook language so you don’t get direct emails but can still communicate to their inbox outside of Facebook. This is great for “remind me” applications.

Touching on that friends list a bit, you know how whenever you sell something you say “tell your friends” Well, that is a built in function to Facebook apps. You can highly encourage it. i.e. see advanced results after you invite 10 friends” or “double your play cash with each friend that signs up.” It is like networking gold!

9. Facebook Applications are at a premium but they shouldn’t be

On freelance job boards now I see e-commerce sites and web design going for half or less what it should on the open market. Yet, Facebook applications are “at price” which means they are a bit of a premium. I could sell a 5 page Facebook application for twice, or more what I sell an equally hard five page website for.

This premium is artificial because, remember all a Facebook application contains is the same programming your website can have (it is even on YOUR website). When that programmer says scary things like “FBML” and “Facebook talk-back” scoff and say if they have that hard a time learning it they might not be right for you anyway.

The premium is there because most people don’t realize how easy and simple some of these smaller applications are, and because they aren’t templated like a blog or a three column home page layout. There is still an illusion of expertise because Facebook applications are less than a year old and most marketing and PR firms are just now looking into how to use them.

10. Having a Facebook Application is not unlike any other “viral” tool

Most important, just like any other “viral ” tool, having a Facebook Application does not mean it will be successful. It can still suck, and no one will use it. Now, it can get a little help, and there is networking automatically in place, but really, if it is just your business card it won’t get talked about and spread. There should be a good idea behind it, there should be a cause, reason or fun item to do, otherwise, start a group Those are also advertised on update and profile pages, and FAR easier to do).

It is no different than putting a video on Youtube, it doesn’t mean anyone will see it unless it is entertaining in some way.
Hopefully this took some of the mystery and wonder out of Facebook Applications. Now, go think of that cool idea, diagram it and go make yourself popular.

Technorati Tags: facebook, Open Social, social networking