By: Michael Sim
Facebook Add-Ons and Applications
1) Facebook Marketplace
Facebook’s Marketplace application opens your company to a wide variety of classifieds-style posting that is very similar to Craigslist. The marketplace allows you to advertise your company’s products or services, recruit new employees, and easily connect with other marketplace users. The added value of marketing from within the marketplace over a site like Craigslist is the convenience of being able to connect with and view marketplace user profiles. The marketplace can also be used as a means to identify other companies or potential clients that are also actively participating users. Using relevant keyword searches, request friendship from those you would consider part of your target audience.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/
2) Events
Facebook Events feature provides users with the ability to publish and manage events, invite members, and build a loyal following among your targeted viewers. This works well for promotional offers by creating “events” out of product or service sales and discounts. The location of the event can then be set to your company’s location, which will increase the potential of in-house visits by clients and customers.
3) Facebook Pages
As an individual user, members are able to create a “page” that is dedicated to a specific theme. As a business owner using a personal profile, Facebook Pages can be used to create a unique landing page specifically for your company. If the Facebook profile is a business account, companies can create pages for relevant theme-related materials. If I was a contractor from Chicago, I could create a new page titled “Chicago Contractors”. I would then send out mass-invitations to my personal friends list to become a “fan” of my new page. Facebook pages are also highly searchable, which increases the potential for generating new “fans” for your company’s page. The marketing power behind Facebook pages is that you are essentially building a sub-community among your peers, colleagues, associates, competition, and target audience. Facebook pages also enable the page creator to assign multiple administrators to a page. This is highly valuable for companies who have multiple employees using Facebook for business purposes. Each member can be assigned as administrators to the page, and have the ability to post new content and updates. By adding multiple administrators, each new administrator has the ability to mass-invite their personal friends list to become a “fan” of that page. This exponentially increases the potential fan-base for the page, instantly creating a highly viral marketing vehicle.
4) Facebook Advertising
Facebook’s advertising features include custom ad design, relevant targeting, campaigns and account management, customized polls and surveys, traffic analytics and more. Users are able to quickly create new ads, which are then distributed to Facebook members based on keyword relevancy. With the campaign management system, users are able to create new ads, modify existing campaigns, bid for relevant keywords, and more.
URL: http://facebook.com/advertising/
5) Polls
The Poll-Daddy application feature offers both individual and company account holders to collect valuable data from their network of friends. Poll-Daddy’s Polls also allow the creator to choose the location of where the poll will display, including a users Wall, Group, or Page. When creating a new poll, entering in a question that engages people on a personal level will result in a higher percentage of participation among your friends. From a marketing perspective, this can be used to create sales or consultation opportunities among your friends. By creating a targeted poll that identifies a need or want within a specific audience, those who participate can be considered pre-qualified leads.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/polldaddy-polls/
6) RSS, Updates, & Blog Promotion
NetworkedBlogs and Social RSS are both 3rd party Facebook applications that has a several key features that add a tremendous amount of marketability to your social presence. Both applications allow you to display your various blogs and RSS streams from across the web on your profile. Take both applications into consideration and decide which works best for you.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/rss-connect
7) Payvment + Paypal for eCommerce
The Payvment Facebook application combines the free ecommerce storefront capabilities of www.payvement.com with the payment gateway integration features of www.paypal.com. As a member, you are able to create a fully functional ecommerce storefront from within your profiles, either adding your own products or displaying those from affiliate/reseller accounts.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/payvment/
8) Video
Facebook’s default video page enables a user to upload or record video content to their profile. Websites like YouTube and Vimeo are the leading examples of how multimedia-based marketing can drastically increase brand awareness and visibility. The same marketing concepts illustrated by both of those sites are directly applicable when using video from within your Facebook profile.
URL: http://facebook.com/video
9) Ustream.tv Live Mobile & Webcam Video
Ustream.tv allows you to stream live video from a webcam and most smart-phone/mobile devices directly to a web-based video player. The Ustream Facebook application allows you to add a streaming video player to your Facebook profile. In terms of marketing value, the live video features of Ustream.tv creates new ways for you to connect and interact with your page viewers.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/myustream/
10) My Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking utility that allows users to bookmark, tag, and publish an RSS feed of quality links. The My Del.icio.us application reads the RSS feed created by the Del.icio.us member’s profile, and displays the content in a widget within the user’s Facebook page. From a marketing perspective, Del.icio.us is typically used by businesses to drive traffic to the company’s website, external blogs, partner websites, and more. Including those links within your Facebook profile increases the likelihood that members will connect with you, make contact, and become a future client or customer.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/mydelicious/
11) Web Profile
Facebook’s default profile editor allows you to add a variety of outbound links to your profile. However, the links that are created tend to be somewhat plain, and consume a large amount of page real estate in a profile’s sidebar. The Web Profile application allows you the ability to add a wide variety of hyperlinked icons to your page instead of the standard text-based links generated by Facebook. The icons available within Web Profile allow linking to many websites and social networks not available in the default link-adding utility.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/webprofiles/
12) My LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the web’s most popular business oriented social networks. Driving traffic to your LinkedIn account from your Facebook page increases the strength and influence of your social media marketing efforts. The My LinkedIn application displays your LinkedIn profile details within a tab located on your profile’s navigation panel.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/linkedinprofile
13) Page Maps
Including a map to your business location greatly increases the chances of driving relevant visitors to your company location. Page Maps utilizes the Google Maps API to display a module within your Facebook profile showcasing your business location.
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/pagemaps/
No comments:
Post a Comment