Facebook application development has proven to be a useful marketing tool for many companies. After doing some research, there are notably three different kinds of Facebook applications, which companies could consider:

1. Value - Value applications refer to applications which provide their users with information that is relevant and useful to them. This sort of application usually has a long life and is interacted with on a regular basis. A company which uses this sort of application is able to engage their members and provide them with real time information that is valuable. The sort of application I am referring to here could be an application which provides exchange rates and weather conditions. Information like this can be watched and interacted with on a regular basis.
2. Growth - Another sort of application and one which certainly seems to be the most popular is an application which is used solely to gather as many users as possible. There are many reasons for a company to want to do something like this, such as building the user base before launching a new product or having the hopes of being able to sell or monetize the application and use the traffic as the selling point. The type of application which comes to mind is the sort of application which allows two people to swap or trade items.
3. Brand - Creating an application with fancy visuals is a fantastic way for a company to get recognised. This form of application would require an interesting catch to it obviously, but the main focus would be brand awareness. An example of such an application could be a news headlines application, which displays the latest news headlines from the companies website - Now, I realise this is touching close on the Value application description, but the difference here is that the concept is very small and the main point is to present the user with a bright and loud profile box application logo, which basically shows off the company in hopes for recognition.

In my opinion, a company would be best to invest in a Value application, engaging their users and interacting with them, however many companies would see a good return from a branding application. In terms of Growth applications, this type of application is the least efficient, unless the company has a strategy in place to make use of the thousands of users who register to use the application.

Interested to know what type of application will suite your company most? Drop us a line, we’ve got the experience to help you decide.

Most companies have the tools to complete the job, but lack the reach to find prospective clients. Marketing online has become somewhat saturated and thinking of new and innovative ideas is far trickier than it used to be. Most companies have caught onto the whole RSS feed movement and have setup news feeds in order to reach further into the market space and keep their clients up to date.

Facebook feed showcasing applications are more popular than ever. A Facebook feed application allows Facebook users to add the application to their profile and receive up to date news from the source they would usually visit.

FormFunction was commissioned to tackle the task of completing a news feed reader for SA Good News. Let’s take a look at the application and get a better understanding of what an application like this can do for your company.

From the image above, you’ll see that your company will be able to include its logo as well as the latest news items. Users will be able to add this application to their profile page, so each time they visit Facebook, your news headlines will be right in front of them, as well as displayed to all the users friends who visit their profile. Users and friends will be able to click on the news headlines, which will take them to the full articles on your website.

Apart from just showcasing the news headlines, Facebook’s viral nature will spread the word about the application and others will be given the chance to add the application, thus growing your reach drastically. Using the share buttons on the application, allows a user or a friend to send the news headline to his or her page, this news article then becomes available to all the users friends via the news feeds. Below is an example of what happens when a user selects to share an article:

All in all, sharing information and having your information reach increased is what will drive more traffic to your website and in turn hopefully generate more business related leads.

If you’re interested in having a Facebook application developed to handle your feeds, please don’t hesitate to contact us.