facebook Page Applications

A Facebook Page usually comes preloaded with several Facebook-developed applications, including Photos, Links, Notes, Discussions, Videos, and Events. Many of these existed on the site even before the introduction of Pages or applications, and so it is easy to forget that they are, in fact, Facebookdeveloped apps.

Custom Applications

Facebook allows developers to create all kinds of custom apps. Depending on your size, budget, and strategy, you might want to develop your own custom applications for Page member use or simply to take full control of tab customization and design. Readily available, free applications can help you get up and running quickly or add more content, but they provide little control. If something breaks, you must wait for the developer to fix it, and you usually have very little say in how content is displayed on your Page tabs. Using FBML is one option, but for landing tabs or promotions, it is best to design your own applications.

Custom User Applications

Some applications are designed for user interaction and may be only tangentially related to your brand. For example, Coke Zero’s Facial Profiler doppelganger app allowed users to find their online twins. Based on the idea that Coke Zero tastes the same as regular Coke, this popular app was fun but didn’t really connect the application to the brand. What it did do was allow Coke to advertise to a captive audience.

Zappos, on the other hand, created an application that allows users to share their favorite products from the online retailer with their Facebook friends. Marshalls uses a custom application to ask Page members to unlock their “shopportunity” for a chance to win a shopping spree, while TripAdvisor allows users to display all the cities they have visited. Fashion, technology, and travel play well on Facebook as applications, but get creative and you can create an application that is both fun and relevant in any industry.

Custom Tab Applications

With a custom application, you can create tabs that not only display content any way you want, but also include such interactive elements as polls and quizzes, video players, games, and email capture forms. A custom app like this is ideal when designing a landing tab for a Facebook promotion. Although you can also use Static FBML to create custom tabs, it does not provide the full level of customization that an application built to your specifications can offer.

The functionality of these apps is pretty self-explanatory: each allows you to upload or post the content they are named for. Thus, they provide the basic structure of a Page and the Page members’ interactions with content. Your Facebook Page marketing strategy should go far beyond these basic applications, however.