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c h a p t e r8 :Customized experienCes via FaCebook appliCations■If you want to avoid creating your own Facebook quiz, just build your own using a “quiz-building” application.
Several of them are available for free on Facebook. Check out QuizPlanet!, Quiz Monster, QuizYourFriends.com, or a
variety of others to see what meets your needs. But beware—if you don’t write the app yourself, you’re beholden
to the specific limitations and rules by which those apps were created. You can save time, but you won’t have ulti-
mate control over how the app is used and the wording that propagates on users’ News Feeds.Personal/virtual gifts in the early years of Facebook gifts, Facebook controlled the gifts
that were available for free and for purchase. applications emerged to help developers
and brand managers create their own gifts so people could give each other hugs, pats
on the back, and other virtual gifts like the James avery charms described earlier in
this chapter. the same situation was the case for identifying family members—parents,
siblings, cousins, and so on. out of that need was borne the We’re related applica-
tion (now Familylink), which had more than 20 million monthly active users in early
november 2009. in both cases, Facebook has recognized the need these apps fill and
has added new platform features for developers that make for a better consumer expe-
rience. users can now just use Facebook’s features, and they won’t need to install or
use an app if they want to identify cousins or siblings or share a virtual hug. in a sense,
apps written by third-party developers have given Facebook ideas about product/plat-
form enhancements, and it has responded with similar functionality.
Widgets Widgets are Facebook apps designed not to run as a consumer “app” experi-
ence but rather as part of a fan page to customize the look and feel for a consumer.
there is no installation process for a consumer. these apps instead run inside a fan
page automatically and are presented to the user via a tab of their own or the boxes
tab. Why would someone go to the effort of creating an app just to customize a fan
page? the functions offered through Facebook fan pages are fairly limited and cover
broad scenarios that are consistent with the rest of Facebook—posting photos, links,
comments, and so on, and interacting with other people. if you need to do anything
else in particular, such as creating a sign-up form, for instance, you’ll need to use a
Facebook app such as Facebook’s own static Fbml. You don’t necessarily have to
build your own custom application for this. You can also look for apps that do what
you need via a search engine or look at examples of other fan pages that do the things
you need to do. You may just find that you don’t have to build anything yourself—you
can just reuse and/or modify something that has already been released for general use.
Conceptually it’s also good to think about what you want to achieve with your
application. most folks are motivated by one of the following goals:
Building a viral hit You may want to create an engaging application that people will enjoy
using repeatedly and will recommend to friends either directly or by allowing messages
to propagate via the news Feed.Types of Facebook Applications
so, what types of Facebook applications are most popular today? that certainly
depends on who you ask. some demographic groups respond to different types of
applications, while others don’t. the following are the different types of applications
that currently have the highest number of users. this list is intended to give you some
high-level ideas of the types of concepts that may resonate with your customers in
case you are considering an application of your own.
Social games by far, the most Facebook applications today are social games. these are
applications that intend to entertain the user first and foremost, not necessarily sell
them anything. that said, the in-game experience is often enhanced through virtual
goods, which are often sold to users for real money. this is the primary monetization
scheme for social games on Facebook, although some also sell advertising. the top
social game producers are currently zynga, playfish (acquired by electronic arts),
and playdom. Few “branded” social games have achieved significant popularity,
although red bull had some modest success with the roshambull application (http://
apps.facebook.com/redbullroshambull), which is the branded rock, paper, and scissors
game app we highlighted earlier in this chapter.
However, a few large companies have introduced branded elements into social games
for marketing purposes. this is similar to paid placements in movies or television
shows—a company interested in reaching a certain audience will pay to have a branded
item placed into the game to enhance game play in some way. expect to see more of
this over time instead of actual fully developed and new social games that need to
catch fire to meet marketing objectives.
Quiz apps popularized in late 2008 and early 2009, a variety of quiz applications were
designed by a wide range of companies to capture answers to simple questions from
users and share those personal details with other friends on Facebook through the
news Feed. it sounds too simple to warrant something as seemingly complex as an
application, but there is no shortage of quiz apps on Facebook. Why would someone
write a quiz app? engaging quiz applications have occasionally generated a large audi-
ence, which the producer of the app could use either to monetize through advertising or
to offer products and services to users of the app. one company, livingsocial, created
a huge user base with simple apps such as the pick Your Five series that allowed users
to pick their five favorite things (movies, celebrities, tv shows, sports teams, and so
on) and share that information with other Facebook friends. again, it sounds way too
simple and perhaps sophomoric. but living social was able to tap into a user’s desire
to express themselves on their profiles and share information with friends in a system-
atic, predictable, and somewhat socially acceptable manner. there have been several
attempts from companies to create branded quiz applications, but few have succeeded
in creating a large and lasting user base.