Tag Archives: Facebook edge rank

Using Facebook Apps to Stay Connected to Your Customers

Facebook Apps for Small BusinessesMany small businesses use Facebook fan pages to showcase their products and services, drawing in hundreds and sometimes thousands and tens of thousands of fans. Yet, due to Facebook’s edgerank algorithm, which determines what is displayed and how high on a person’s news feed, many posts go unseen by the vast majority of fans. (For an excellent product on how to increase edgerank, check out Jason Fladlien’s product, EdgeRule).

The key for small businesses is to have a way to consistently reach the majority of fans that land on their page. I have found that this can be done through Facebook apps. Many fan page owners use apps to showcase their events and products. There are two problems that they run up against, however.

The first is that Facebook apps are not mobile responsive. Since about half of Facebook users are now accessing the internet through their smart phones, this means that they cannot access the information contained in these apps.

The second problem with the way Facebook apps are used traditionally is that they only serve to provide information to the customer or client. It is likely that a visitor may land on a fan page once, and never return.

How can small businesses use these apps to reach out to customers over time? They can use these them to give away discounts or to run contests in exchange for an email address.

I create responsive Facebook apps for small businesses that gather visitor’s email addresses in return for a chance to win a prize or for a discount on a product or service. In this way, businesses can provide immediate value to their customers and continue to reach them over time. Of course the customer can opt out of the email at any time they wish, but if the business owner is providing them with valuable information, discounts and specials, the customer is likely to look forward to receiving the emails.

Since the apps are responsive through a “smart phone” hot link, everyone who lands on the fan page will be able to view what the business has to offer regardless if they are on a desktop computer or a smart phone.  Additionally the owner can take the URL of the app and place it on his website or place it in a Google+ post for even further reach.

With changes coming later this month to how Facebook presents fan pages, this smart phone link will be even more important. It appears that fan page apps will no longer be seen and accessible right under the page’s cover, but will be hidden and listed under a “More” link. With the business owner’s ability to place the smart phone fan page app link directly into a post, fans will not have to search for the fan page apps.

The fan page APPCreationSmallBusinesses has examples of these responsive apps. Feel free to “like” the page and message me to discuss how these apps can help your business.