Do you want access to over twenty four million Facebook members? Can you develop a 3rd party application that is of value?
Through Facebook’s Platform API you can now create 3rd part applications and even serve your own ads. This will be a great way to reach a new audience that is tremendously loyal. Facebook users spend a lot of their online time in their community, sharing their thoughts and interests with others.
So, how can you be successful on the new Facebook Platform? You need to make sure that your application is valuable and most importantly, viral. Every time a user adds an application or an update to their Facebook, it notifies all of their friends. Can you imagine anything more viral then that? Get a few hundred people interested in your application and the viral effect is huge. Plus when someone adds your application it basically tells all of their friends that you are endorsing this application and they should as well. The more people that install the application, the more popular it becomes.
Facebook is the ultimate focus group. Facebook users’ comments regarding applications will help you create the killer application. Are users speaking positively about an application or are the complaining about it and offering suggestions for improving it. Monitoring comments about applications will allow you to respond with better applications and the ability for free testing.
Do you currently have a blog that you maintain on a blogging platform? You can now import your posts into Facebook Notes. All you do is add your RSS feed into Facebook Notes and it updates every time you post to your blog. Your friends will be instantly updated with your blog posts.
Be careful, the new Facebook Platform can become addictive.
[...] Most of us know Facebook as a social network to connect with our college friends. Now that Facebook is open to everyone, how can businesses benefit? Is Facebook is succeeding as entertainment and as rolodex for your friends, or is it serving a useful business purpose? Business users are joining it because it is the hot new platform and everyone is talking about it. So, how do you leverage it for business? 1)You can create applications using the Facebook Platform. This is a great viral marketing platform and proves very effective for 1-to-1 marketing. 2)You can use Facebook as a focus group to evaluate ideas and to your Facebook applications. Also Facebook groups allow you to create groups for your organization. 3)If you rely on access to people, Facebook is for you. You can build your network and leverage your friend’s network. 4)A blog is a business card whereby Facebook is a rolodex. Did you meet a prospect at an event or social gathering and then add them as a friend? Now you can see what their interests are, and more importantly, see a picture of them so next time you meet them you will be able to recognize the face and the name. You will also be able to get introduced to new prospects via your friends. 5)One to one marketing is possible on Facebook. You will know your friend’s demographic as well as psychographic information. 6)Do you have a business blog? You can now import your posts directly into Facebook via Facebook Notes 7)But, I think the best business feature is market research. Following the interests of your friends and the groups that you join, allows you to spot trends. Ask questions and tap into the collective intelligence of Facebook. So, if you are not using Facebook for business now is the time to start. Bookmark: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]