Ask Politely.

So far you’ve introduced your app successfully to users, they’re actively using your app, but your user base isn’t growing. As simple as this could be, just ask them politely to spread the word. I’ve seen this done in numerous methods, but I’m going to explain them in a more general sense. The most common methods to spread the word about your app is to include an “Invite Friends” feature from within your app. I think this should be a mandatory feature. There is no good reason not to have this. Using FBML this component can be built with only a couple lines of code. If your app doesn’t have this, add it.

The hardest part about asking your users to share the word is come off as obtrusive or annoying. If you’re constantly pushing them to invite friends after every action they perform they’ll quickly become annoyed. As easy as it is to create the invite friends feature, it’s just as easy to push users away from using it. Currently Facebook only allows users to invite 20 friends to a particular app within a 24 hour period. Don’t let this frighten you. There are other methods of sharing your app with hundreds of users without coming off as intruding or needy. I think the proper use of Facebook notifications can spread the word just as effective, if not more effective as invites. When a user performs an action that interacts with another user, send a notification to that user. Similar to the signature Facebook poke, if you poke a user, notify them they’ve been poked. Next give them the option to poke them back. Naturally if they do not have that app installed it will take them through the installation process before they can poke back. You’ve just effectively added a new user to your app. Currently there are no limits to how many notifications you can send out, so utilize this, but do it wisely. With anything that’s limitless, there is a certain line of abuse. You do not want to cross this line. Using notifications properly will not only increase your user base, but it will also keep your users active.

Another very important feature to making your app noticeable is the use of mini-feeds and news feeds. In FBML you can post things to your user’s mini-feed. This is important on two levels. First, when you post it to the user’s mini-feed any one that views their profile page will see their mini-feed. If your app has entries in their mini-feed they will be visible to the viewing user. The mini-feed can contain text, links, and images. Utilize this to the fullest by including words, links and images that stick out from the rest of the feeds. They click it, and then you’ve successfully enticed them. The next important use of the mini-feed is the newsfeed. The newsfeed is a “smart” aggregator of all the mini-feeds of the current user’s friends. When a user logs in to Facebook they are immediately viewing the newsfeed. This newsfeed includes entries from all of their friend’s mini-feeds. The goal behind this is to get your mini-feed posts to show up in other users newsfeeds. This can be done in a few ways, but the two main ways I see this successfully work is repetition and mass action. Repetition is when users are using the application over and over again, which is posting very similar mini-feeds. Mass action is when numerous users are performing the same action; the number of users gets tallied up and posted as a newsfeed. No matter how you try to get content into users’ newsfeeds, it starts with posting entries to the mini-feed.

The use of notifications and mini-feed posts are key roles in increasing your user base. These are indirect, polite ways of asking your user to share your app with other users. If you’ve successfully introduced your app and made the user active, then there is no reason why they shouldn’t share your app with their friends. Having said that, you don’t want to beg them to share with their friends. These ideas are the polite way to ask your users to share. In turn you’ll increase your user base and you’ll have an application that users will use and be more than willing to spread the word with their friends, just by asking politely.

Concluding Thoughts

After you’ve successfully developed an application that the users love and enjoy, it is only proper to think of a monetization strategy. Using Google Adsense is the simplest from to capitalize on your application, but be creative and specific to where you place your ads. Don’t overpower your app with ads either. There are also ways to offer your users products and/or services that completely integrate with your application. Using referral codes towards content that the users are interested in, work well. If your application becomes highly successful you could also sell space within your applications to up and coming application developers. These are common, simple practices that can help you generate a profit from your Facebook application. If anything, you app could be bought out by a larger company, simply because of your large list of loyal users you’ve successfully accumulated.

Facebook applications are a new realm for developers. You are given the privilege to use Facebook’s large network as leverage towards an idea of your own. With this kind of power there is a lot of room for abuse. Controlling the actions from within your application is very important to making it a successful Facebook application. The users of Facebook built the network and respecting the users is the number one idea you must keep in mind. Create an application for the users and in turn the users will create a successful business for you. The perfect Facebook application.

Keep Them Guessing.

Now that you’ve introduced your app to Facebook users, don’t just end your relationship with them there.  Like all relationships, good ones, “it takes two to tango.”   If you or your app isn’t putting forth anything towards the user, the user probably is going to do the same.  They’ll have your app installed, but quickly become just another inactive user.  You need to keep them on the edge of their seats as much as possible.  Users are curious; give them something to be curious about.  Users are self conscious; give them kudos for actions they perform through your app.  Users are bored; give them an addiction.  These fundamental ideas, when meshed together, can make an extremely powerful and highly active application.  The more the users actively use your app, the more feedback you’ll receive, which in turn will give you a stronger idea on how to improve the application as well as increasing your chances of gaining new users.  It’s a social network; the users of the social network do exactly what it’s all about, they socialize.  If you give them something to socialize about, or use to socialize, they’re going to share it with their friends.  The topic of distribution of your app will be further explored in the core concept: ask politely.  As for now here are a few ways that will help you keep your users guessing, keeping them active within your app.

The most common ways to keep users guessing is some type of point system.  This point system can be utilized in a combination of ways.  The point system has two main parts: methods for the users to obtain points and methods for the users to use the points.  You could reward the user with points for actions they perform in your app (invite friends, interact with friends, submit reviews, submit suggestions).  You could reward them points for solving solutions (puzzles, games, riddles, and trivia).  After the users have obtained points, give them a reason for wanting to get points in the first place.  The points could be a certain type of currency that allows them to “buy” new features within your app or “buy” an item or action to perform on other Facebook users.  The points could be used to determine rank.  The rank could unlock features to only the more active users.  Either make the new features or items viewable, but not usable to unqualified users or tell the users that if they get so many points they’ll unlock new items or features.  Don’t forget that you’ve established a relationship with the users and it is crucial that they feel the need to stay in that relationship with your app.  Keeping them active through a point system keeps the users curious and addicted.

Another common way to keep your users active within your app is make your app a utility.  Maybe your app isn’t as much of a novelty as it is a utility.  If you app is used as a tool, there is still methods to keep the user curious, happy, and active.  Again, reiterating that this is a social network, create some level of interaction with your tool that allows the users to communicate with other users.  This type of communication can be direct or indirect.  Direct methods of communication can include, but not limited to, user sharing and user reviews.  Allow users to share ideas with other users.  Or give the users the ability to review other users’ content, possibility as a form of constructive criticism. Indirect methods can include, but not limited to, user comparison and user submitted content.  Let the user know how he/she compares with other users.  Create a level of compatibility between users so that they know what other users are the most resourceful or similar to themselves.  If you don’t have much time to add new content to your app, devise a way to allow users to submit content.  This content could be in the form of new topics, ideas, or products.  You may want to incorporate a review process before user submitted content goes live.  This could protect the flooding of superfluous submissions.  Or take it one step further, utilizing the social network and allow the users to vote upon your content.  The content with more votes will be used.   The point system previously discussed seems to work best with apps that are a novelty, but it can also work in a utility app.  This just adds to the overall value of your Facebook application.  With your users actively using your app you build a solid foundation to work from.  There is never a reason to stop improving app, remember keep the users guessing.

Make It Simple.

As fundamental as this may sound, many developers have great ideas, but execute poorly because their application was confusing or too overwhelming. First impressions are huge when it comes to Facebook applications. Many users (especially in these early stages) are curious about new applications and are willing to give it a chance. If within the first 10 seconds after the application is installed and they are confused, more than likely they’ll remove that application and never install it again. Even if you change it in the future you’ve already lost the attention of thousands of potential users just because you didn’t initially make it simple to use. Start slow, introduce users to a small portion of the features, and walk them through using the application on initial install. Use FBML to make your application look like a part of Facebook. The users never left Facebook, so why change the look and feel? Give the users a proper introduction to your app and keep it consistent with the look and feel of Facebook. And here’s just how you can do this:

When a user first installs your application they are redirected to a specific URL that you set. This URL is called the Post-Add URL. You can set this in the settings of the applications under Installation Options. (Note: You can only modify Installation Options if you allow for your application to be added by other users of Facebook.) Create some type of tutorial or walk through of the basic features of your application. They can always learn new features later. Just point out the most important ones to the overall operation of your app. You want to assure them they know what your app is for and how to use it. Well document each feature of your application that will answer any of the user’s questions on the spot. If the user has made it through your introduction to your app, chances are, they’re going to keep it installed. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to use it. The strategies to keep your app users active will be explained and detailed later under the core concept: keep them guessing.

The Facebook Developer’s Platform has its own FBML (Facebook Markup Language). Within FBML is the ability to add menus, buttons, and links that are consistent throughout Facebook. Facebook today is very complex to many new users, with so many features that it’s very easy to become overwhelmed. So when users finally become comfortable with using Facebook there’s no reason to confuse them again through a new application. The first step to relieving this barrier is to release an application that has the same look and feel as Facebook. Using FBML you can create Invite Friend buttons, menu bars, sub-menu bars, Share buttons, and more that Facebook already uses. New and existing users will be familiar with these buttons and design and they will know how to act. Doing so will make your app simple, the first step to the perfect Facebook app.

This guide will include key ideas and strategies to consider when creating a Facebook Application.  These ideas and strategies will help increase your app’s popularity ten-fold.  The whole idea is to introduce and entice Facebook users to an app that you’ve created, and then share it with their friends.  In doing so you want to make your app an enjoyable experience and a continuing one for the users.  The key thing to remember is the users.  Facebook is a social networking site, built and managed by the users.  When you are interacting with these users you do not want to annoy, confuse or deceive them in anyway.  They have the power to determine how great your app is and you must respect that. (Did you notice how I put the users first before you in the title?)

                In the following context you will be introduced to strategies and ideas that, when executed appropriately, will produce fast results, winning Facebook users over.  The three main goals behind these strategies and ideas will introduce users to your app, entice them to use your app, and get users to share your app.  These are the three core concepts that will do just that: make it simple, keep them guessing, and ask politely.   The next part to this article will be available tomorrow.

What I plan to do is share with you how and why these systems work and how you too can begin to use these system in your marketing campaign. Before I just jump into these systems and ideas, I want to make sure you have a full understanding on what a social graph is and how they work. I want to show you all of the many features of Facebook, from the most basic to the highly advanced. What this will do is build a solid foundation of how social graphs and networks work, particularly Facebook, which will in turn make it much easier for you to understand how these marketing systems, concepts, and ideas work. It would be very difficult for you to understand how to market on a social graph in terms of the ways I’m going to show you without understanding what a social graph is. Remember these ideas are very new and different from things you’ve probably seen before and if you don’t understand the foundation to which they are built on, they simple will not make sense or work for you.

I’ve followed many social networks such as MySpace (http://www.myspace.com), Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), Friendster (http://www.friendster.com), Livejournal (http://www.livejournal.com), Orkut (http://www.orkut.com), Buzznet (http://ww.buzznet.com), Twitter (http://www.xanga.com), Xanga (http://www.xanga.com), and many more. Over the past couple years I’ve really followed deeply with the Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) movement and their continually rapid success. From its simplest form to its continually evolving and improving system, Facebook has continued to push the envelope on exactly what a social network is. Facebook has taken social networking to a whole new level, creating and evolving a social graph (Don’t worry; I’ll explain to you later what a social graph is). Studying the intricacies of the system and the many features of Facebook has giving me a whole new insight on how to market on the internet.

What is a social network?

A social network’s definition could be defined from its name, a network of people who socialize through multiple media mediums such as pictures, videos, and messages. A social network allows people to shared similar interests, events, groups of friends, and thoughts. A social network makes relationships between its users.

How does a social network work?

Typically a social network allows its users to create a profile. A profile contains information about the user such as date of birth, relationship status, political and religious views, school and work history, a short bio, favorite interests, and more. Users can become friends of other users by simply asking for mutual approval. John sends Marv a friend request; Marv accepts the request; John and Marv are now friends on the social network. Users can exchange messages with friends. These messages can be private or public. Public messages are typically shown on the user’s profile. These are similar to comments on a blog. A private message is only visible by the user it was sent to. These are similar to sending an email.

Social networks allow the users to express their personality and interests about themselves. A lot can be learned about an individual, just based on their profile. A profile typically will show all of a user’s friends as well. Just by viewing one’s profile you can learn their favorite movies, music, school they attend, and whether or not they are in a relationship. There is no limit to what you can find on a user’s profile. It’s hard not to state the obvious, but privacy of an individual seems to be forgotten about completely. Most, if not all, social networks have an in depth privacy system that allows each users control of who can see what on their profile. Users could even hide the profile completely from anyone that is not their “friend.” Also, since all of the information on a profile is published solely by the user, the amount of information you’ll find about that individual depends on what they feel like sharing.

The network of users is based strongly on the social interactions of one another. Users can invite friends to events, request them to join a group, share photos and videos, exchange messages, and see who else they are socializing with. In a nut shell, that’s how a social network works.

Why does a social network work?

There are many reasons I’ve learned on why a social network works, first, timing. There couldn’t have been a better time than now for social networks to grow at their exponential rate. A social network would not be possible without the internet and the speed of users’ internet connections. The internet allows users today to share pictures, video and other media with ease. Also, it’s obvious that the growth of social networks has a strong dependence on the younger generation (under 25).

Younger generations are growing up with the internet. It’s become an integral part of their lifestyle. So it is only obvious that they would use the internet to socialize. They want to share information about themselves and communicate with others, but this is difficult before social networks due to the fact that most people simply didn’t know how to make a website. Social networks make it easy for a user to create a simple website (profile) and communicate with their peers. It allows user’s a creative outlook on self expression.

Second, a social network works because it makes it easy for people to organize information about their social life. Social networks allow users to keep track of events, friend’s contacts, birthdays, and employment status. It allows them to create photo albums and share them with their friends. Social networks can become a central site that makes finding the information about you and your social life simple.

Social networks work also because of curiosity and boredom. It’s hard not for me to say this, but so many people are naturally curious about their peers and during times of boredom they’re going to search social networks. I don’t know if I’m just speaking from the people I’ve talked to, but I’ve spoke with a lot of people on this subject matter and more often than not people look towards social networks in times of boredom. They’re something intriguing in all of us about the voyeuristic approach to a social network. I’m not saying people are stalking individuals (even though they very well could be), but it’s almost a new way of keeping in touch or staying close with friends and family whom you may have grown apart from in time. Social networks have made it so simple to keep up with everyone’s busy lifestyles today.

There are many other reasons social networks work, but the ones I’ve outlined are the most obvious and dominant. It’s become apparent that so many websites have adapted the social network experience on their site because these concepts work so well, especially with the demographics of the web users today.

What is a social graph?

Now that I’ve outlined a basic understanding of what a social network is, I want to raise the stakes one level and explain to you what a social graph is. A social graph is a smarter, more intellectual social network, a higher level of complex networking. This can get really confusing fast so I’m going to go slow. I want to make sure you understand what a social graph is so that you can see why such a system is enjoyed and used by so many millions of people. I’m going to explain this concept in terms of nodes and edges. A node is any entity on a social network such as an individual, group, photo album, or event. An edge is any connection that connects one node to another. Typically a social network is one dimensional. This means that there exists only one edge between two nodes. For example, John and Marv are friends, where John and Marv are two nodes connected by one edge (friendship). There cannot be another edge that connects John and Marv. Since there can only be one edge between John and Marv then, naturally, we can assume that all edges between nodes is known as friendship. This is where a social graph changes everything. A social graph allows two same nodes to be connected by an infinite number of edges. Now if there are multiple connections between the same two nodes, then we must label or categorize the different type of connections to distinguish the differences. For example, John and Marv are friends and they went to the same high school. Now there exist two edges between the same two nodes. So we must categorize the two different edges. The diagram below illustrates this concept.

This multiple connection difference may seem subtle, but this actually opens up a whole new, multi-dimensional web of networking. A social network just acknowledges the fact that there is a connection between two nodes, where-as a social graph identifies what type of connection is made between two nodes. This concept allows for reason to have multiple connections between the same two nodes. Allowing for multiple connections complicates the web of relationships ten-fold. Having the ability to create such detailed categorization on how the network is created allows for a smart approach of interaction and yes, marketing.

So a social graph is just a more advanced form of a social network, actually categorizing and allowing for multiple relationships between the same two nodes. This already happens in the real world, if you think about it. You may be friends with someone you went to high school with. There are two different types of relationships here, friendship and attended same high school. The same concept follows through on a social graph. The social graph is just one step closer to recreating the social world, on the internet. Hopefully by now the idea of what a social graph is makes sense.

What is Facebook?

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) is a social graph. Facebook’s network of users has increased to currently over 60 million users. Facebook started as a social network for college students in February 2004 and has now opened the network to the public, allowing anyone to join. Facebook is a free service and generates its revenue from advertising. The network is also responsible for uploading over 60 million photos weekly, making it the largest photo sharing website on the internet. Facebook has all of the features you’d expect from a social network including the creation of a profile that shares a variety of interests, make connections with friends and family, and multiple forms of messaging. Facebook has also opened up an API allowing developers to create new features and interactions for Facebook users. This adds a whole new element to the social graph (The Facebook API will be explained later) Facebook has an ever evolving privacy system overlapped within the network. This privacy allows for protection of the content published by each individual user. There are an extensive number of features found within Facebook. I will outline many of the basic features so that you get a better understanding of what Facebook is.

What I will do is explain to you the core features and how they are used. This will build a foundation of how Facebook works for the user. Once you understand how it works for the user I explain how to approach Facebook’s social graph for your marketing strategies. What you’ll see is majority of users don’t necessarily use Facebook looking to purchase anything, but the thing is, everybody’s in the market for something. The idea is to find out what they’re looking for, as a consumer, using the social interactions and features of Facebook. Once you find what they want, you want to leverage the social graph to build credibility. Then make them an irrefutable offer.