Especially for new businesses’ or businesses’ seeking to expand Facebook can open new doors, new revenue streams and new customers for your business.
A Facebook application is like any other web based application – its just a normal application wrapped in a Facebook page. Many Facebook applications are built in Flash and many of these applications are games – however this doesn’t mean that you are limited to Flash based web applications. Facebook applications can be developed on any topic and in any style (as long as they do not break the terms and conditions for applications on Facebook) and can be programmed in any language that supports web based programming, such as PHP, Python, Java or C Sharp.
Think about what your business does and how this could be incorporated into an app. Are you a reviews website? You could create an app that allows people to use a Facebook app to search for places to go and display some of the reviews from your website. You could also include a link back to your website and the businesses’ page on your website. Are you an online shopping website or do you run your own e-commerce site? You could create an app that allows Facebook users to search your store and bring up the latest offers directly in your app. You could then have links through to your site that can add a product to a users cart should they wish to purchase it.
An application could also be indirectly related to your business rather than directly related. Say for example you run a driving school business. You could create a fun interactive game as an app related to driving. It’s a great way to ‘spread the word’ about your business and get yourself known.
Any business in the world will likely have a use for a Facebook app – and with a potential audience of 800 million users for your app and the fact that they are free to publish there really is no reason not to dedicate a bit of time and money into getting an ‘app presence’ on Facebook.
You may have already developed a web based application that runs on your own website or on a different platform. If that is the case, then you’ve done all the hard work – you can set up a Facebook Canvas application in the Facebook Developers area and expand your applications use to potentially tens or hundreds of millions more users.
Social media is an ever growing and popular tool to reach potential new customers and people who are interested in what you do.
If you invest some time and effort you are able to create a good, useful application in a relatively short space of time. But what if you don’t have the necessary skills to do this in your company? Well thats no problem, there are many web development companies who can develop your application for you. DPS Computing Limited develops bespoke web based applications (including Facebook applications) at a great, value for money price.