The 5 Golden rules to creating a successful Facebook App

It is the must have social media accessory that everyone is talking about. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours. That’s right I am referring to Facebook app.

So what should yours look like, and will it be appealing enough to attract the audience it is supposed to? Below are MoCo’s five golden rules to developing a Facebook app:

1. Make A Plan

Facebook should be treated like all marketing activities; write a marketing plan. Old school rules apply to social media as well!

The plan should cover:
• Who is your target audience?
• What is the objective of the app?
• How are you going to measure your return on investment?
• Which stakeholders will it impact and how?

All these questions and more need to be considered before your Facebook app can be developed.

2. Permission Is King

The Facebook “social graph” is a goldmine of information. To access this data your apps must ask permission first (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/permissions/). Permissions are a trade off, the more you ask for, the likelihood of someone engaging with your Facebook app decreases.

MoCo recommends testing the number of permissions to ascertain the drop-off rate. Our experience found Gen Y users aren’t too concerned about the information they give up. It is the older audience who tend to be more protective of their privacy.

3. Build It And They Won’t Necessarily Come

Just because you have built an app it doesn’t mean your audience are going to engage. I don’t want to break your creative spirit but Angry Birds is an anomaly.

You will need to incentivise people to download your Facebook app. Examples would include:

• Exclusive Facebook discount vouchers
• Group deals (eg. three of your friends buy a ticket and the fourth one is free)
• 10% discount if you post a purchase on your wall
• Pick your favourite diamond necklace and go into a prize draw to win it

Once again Gen Y users aren’t too fussed about the incentive. It is the other million odd discerning users who require a worthy incentive to give up their information.

4. Don’t Forget Your Reports

The brilliance of Facebook is the volume of information you can gather on your customers and each campaign. No other third party sales channel can provide a marketer such granular insight.

We suggest writing a shopping list of useful reports and handing them over to your developer to build into your app. At MoCo we would ask for this shopping list up front, as the reports requested may impact on the Facebook app design.

5. Don’t Go Overboard

Facebook is a wonderful engagement tool as long as you have something to say. Ensure that your content up-to-date, relevant and engaging – in short, don’t spam!

Best of luck with your new Facebook app. Feel free to call 03 9415 2502 or email me on Carolyn.Harrington@mocomedia.net if you have any questions.