14 Facebook Applications to Encourage Fans Engagement in 2011
CHECK OUT: 23+ Essential Facebook Page Applications to Improve Fans Engagement in 2012.
2011 has finally arrived! It’s the moment we renew our pledge to social media commitments and keeping our audiences enthralled with our content! As I went through my blog achieve the other day, I was deeply encouraged by the responses obtained from the below posts, especially in helping page admins to discover some favorite apps of their own:
13 Facebook Applications to Promote Your Blog16 Facebook Applications to Boost Popularity of Facebook Fan Page- 31 Facebook Applications to Enhance Your Facebook Page
5 Ways to Create Welcome Tab (Custom & Sub-tabs) for Facebook Page
Coincidentally last month, a reader wrote in and requested for ideas in increasing fan base and fans engagement on their page wall. During my research, I came across Appbistro, a market place for facebook page applications that saved me a lot of time in discovering new applications when I logged in as my Social @ Blogging Tracker page:
Basically what it does is to identify my page type then recommend me the best applications for my facebook page. I can sort the app results based on popularity, rating or price range. Thanks to Appbistro, I found myself a new set of facebook applications for my facebook customization work in 2011. Most applications below are either free or allowing free trial as I know how much we all love FREE stuffs.
Kindly be reminded that this review is based on my personal opinion only and has nothing to do with Appbistro or any app developers sponsorship whatsoever.
To Listen to Fans / Customers Feedback:
#1 UserVoice
I had briefly touched about UserVoice in promoting your facebook page with testimonials. When I finally tested out this app in mid December, what a great substitute for Feedback app this is! Your fans can now provide suggestions for your service/product, and have others to comment and vote for existing discussions. You will then be notified for each new update via email so you can moderate fans posting at once. When you feel a subject has gotten enough feedback, close it so no further voting or new posts can be added to it, except for comments.
Two features I love about Uservoice: page admin can retrieve deleted ‘ideas’ (if you had deleted any posts by mistake) and each response on the forum will not be posted back to any of your fans profile wall – I’m sure most will appreciate that, especially in separating personal profile from business pages.
This application is cross posting between your fan page and UserVoice homepage, where you can setup own alias for the domain (yourusername.uservoice.com). Learn more about their different plans and how extra features such as ‘export’ or ‘unlimited forums’ can meet your page requirements.
If you’re not ready to pay for the service, you can always customize a feedback form using Static FBML all by yourself.
To Give Incentives and Attract New Fans:
#2 Gifts for Pages
Everyone loves FREE gifts! ‘Gifts for Pages’ prepares a facebook tab for you to create branded gifts so fans can distribute to their own friends on your behalf! Inspire your inner creativity and personalize some catchy 130×130 px image icons to grab fans attention. Give them something meaningful or worthwhile to share, then track fans responses via traffic graph. If you don’t like the existing layout, modify the ready CSS file to fit your brand’s image.
It’s always good to learn about giving prior to receiving.
#3 Easypromos
If you don’t know how to customize a promotion tab yet, this is the app for you. Easypromos is FREE for FIRST-time promo only ($15/promotion after that) and you should definitely take a look at the features and configurations, very easy to setup. Specify the length of your promotion period and select the criteria from the given options. One of my favorites is that page admin can encourage non-fans to like your page first before they are able to fill up the entry form.
You may choose how to display this promo on your page wall and check your fans registration form within the application itself.
Note:
Promotions are great but make sure you’re not violating any of these Facebook Promotion Guidelines before set one up.
Extra Read:
Refer to #1 Promotions in 31 Facebook Applications to Enhance Your Facebook Page
To Encourage Fans Participations via Polls and Media files:
#4 Fan Appz
Fan Appz will impress you with its wide range of social media marketing applications. Free account provides Polls, Quizzes and Top 5’s. To me, those are sufficient enough to generate interest and participation from fellow members, if your questions (and images) are intriguing enough:
Page admin can edit or delete published poll or quizzes but not after fans had already voted on them. Plus, you will be given scheduling feature to promote the poll on your page wall so fans from different time zones can participate. To discover more about their paid plans read here. Just remember a free plan will have an advertisement link on the tab and you won’t be able to set promotions/coupons.
#5 ffwdPlayer
I had been asked many times about better ways to import a video channel into a fan page. Besides Involver, ffwd Player can be an excellent alternative to publish videos uploaded by you on other video hosting sites such as YouTube or Brightcove.
The video-import is extremely easy by inserting your channel’s username, then you can configure so to update it automatically with feed (either via uploads, favorites, playlist or search). Customize your video tab with brief description of the videos and include a header image. Your fans can later share the videos with their friends via the ‘Share’ button per video.
#6 Livestream
(image credit: Livestream)
How fun it is you can now broadcast live from your fan page to get in touch with fans all over the world! Just a click at the Livestream tab your fans can enjoy real time interaction with you via the comment box during the live broadcasting. As usual, the ‘Share’ button is highly visible so if your fans find it interesting enough to share with their friends, they probably will. Customize your livestream tab with a catchy header image for brand awareness. Your livestream is not limited within facebook page only, it will be kept in a video library on livestream.com and to be viewed or used on your external sites, such as a company blog.
Another great example of Livestream can be seen on Facebook Live. Read about their paid plans if interested.
#7 Peekeez
Peekeez is very similar to livestream, it lets you setup a live video broadcasting from your webcam on facebook page and encourage fans to comment, share within the tab. Say, if you have a restaurant and you’d like to show off how busy the day can get, Peekeez is perfect for the task.
What makes it different from Livestream is that it does not cross post to its official site. According to their privacy policy that “your webcam can only be viewed on your facebook page” but it’s not entirely free. You may have trial period up to 14 days and after that it’ll cost you $20/month.
#8 Posted Items Pro
Posted Items Pro is basically a tab where you gather your favorite medias to be shared in one place with your fans. All you have to do is decide which media files (blog posts, video, mp3, web link or image) you’d like to feature with proper title, source link and descriptions. For web link, you can even select a thumbnail for the post. Then all the media files will be displayed within a tab named ‘Favorites’. Your fans can comment or share these files with their facebook friends, a harmless and effective way to increase page impressions for your business page.
#9 Clobby Group Chat
Some people told me how they admire Facebook Groups for having the Group chat feature. If you feel the same way, why not try out this real time chat app called Clobby Group Chat? Your fans will be able to invite their friends to join in the chat or ‘like’ a chat, so it’s great for viral effect. I once blogged about this application so if you’re in for a detailed review, kindly refer here Clobby: Facebook Group Chat for Fan Page and Personal Account.
To Encourage Geotagging for Local Business:
#10 PlaceWidget
(image credit: appbistro)
PlaceWidget adds a foursquare tab to your facebook page that includes your venue info with an easy configuration. You can show off mayor, offers and tips to visitors – this is obviously a plus if you and your fans are dedicated users on Foursquare. Comparing to the after-merged facebook places and a fan page, this would not alter your existing page layout and landing tab settings.
Extra Read:
Find out what other types of location you can add on Foursquare here.
For Marketing, Job Opportunity & Branding:
#11 TextualAds
You do aware how prevalent mobile marketing is these days. TextualAds is not for everyone but if you are interested in mobile marketing, textualads is an application that allows your fans to opt in for latest promo or product news via text messages. You will be able to send targeted SMS for your marketing campaigns according to your fans age, country, state, gender etc with customizable layout (css style sheet) and messages – but these are under paid plans, of course. Free account has less customization but may be good to try out:
Just be reminded that people are very cautious with their privacy. If you are going to use TextualAds make sure you had made clear that you will not distribute or misuse your fans’ personal details. Trust is hard to come by these days so never, ever violate that promise.
Extra Read:
To learn more how powerful textualads can get, here’s a post that will amaze you.
#12 Work For Us
What can be more rewarding by offering your fans a chance to work as a team? Work For Us allows you to post job openings on business page. Apart from filling in the forms, applicants can attach their CV/Resume without having to leave the page at all! Work For Us makes it easy to share job opportunity with friends via ‘Share’ button or a personalized private message.
One thing I love about this application is that you can integrate your twitter account and set the tweeting frequency for the new job vacancy.
All accounts are given 30-days free trial or, you can always subscribe to its Free plan for one job slot.
Extra: similar application – Jobmagic
#13 Contact Tab
I absolutely love Contact tab! This is a comprehensive tab about your business info and how your potential clients can reach you. Not only banner image and logo, you can include contact forms, contact methods and embed a comment box within the tab. The setup is very easy, simply fill in the required info and Save it. If you’re interested to display the location of your premise via Google map or Bing map, feel free to do so. A remedy to a plain, dull info tab that makes you stand out from the rest of your competitors.
#14 dPortfolio
I’m all about adding Testimonials and portfolio to your social profiles if you are to promote your business as effectively as possible. As much I prefer custom tabs for the job, but if you are not familiar with customization, feel free to adapt dPortfolio in categorizing your quality work with descriptions. Honestly, I was having second thoughts when placing this as # 14 since I was getting error message when trying to save my project, the page stalled for a long time and didn’t stop. It could be a temporary error since no other users are complaining about this yet, so I’m putting this under observation as I really hope it would work.
There are over 110+ applications on appbistro so these are just the tip of an iceberg. You can learn more about other facebook applications that match your needs by logging in with your user profile in which your facebook page has attached to it. If you are not ready to login with your facebook account, why not browse all the applications here.
The paid apps listed in appbistro are either using their payment API or attach with an affiliate program with them. That’s why some apps can be purchased straight from the site (Cart) while some are not. When enquiring about their future project, I was told that appbistro is working on a whitelabel application store. Any service or website that owns an API can integrate their own application store powered by appbistro, a great news for app developers in search for a platform to showcase and market their products.
Friendly Reminder: some apps require access to your basic facebook info. There will always be a pop up box to alert you what information the app will be accessing so make sure to check them through before you click ‘Allow’. Also, if you decided to discontinue an app from your page, apart from removing it from your ‘Edit Page’, make sure to remove it from your profile’s privacy settings here as well.
Now is Your Turn
How do you plan on enhancing your facebook page in 2011? Will you be using Appbistro or any of the facebook applications above to increase fans engagement? Do share your thoughts.
SPECIAL GUEST on SBT In TWO WEEKS TIME!~
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Excellent post – learned a few new things I had not been aware of. Thanks!! 🙂
Keri, it’s always a pleasure to share the app findings with my dearest readers. 🙂 Your visit is highly appreciated. Happy new year!
First of all – Happy New Year my friend 🙂
Starting of 2011 here with re-balancing all my projects. One of the main things I did was to start up a branded Fan Page for – Are Morch – Hotel Advisor and Social Media Strategist. The original page was turned into a Community page. Tried to get Facebook to change it. But I decided to just move on after several attempts.
So now I for sure needed some new and refreshing engagement tips. Great info here. I will work on apps that is related to my niche and that will help especially in the customer service area.
There are some Hotel Apps on Facebook, but none of them are really standing out. TripAvisor’s incorporation with Facebook is something Hotels can learn from.
This is also a good engagement app for Travelers: http://www.facebook.com/CitiesIveVisited
Keep up the good work in 2011.
Cheers.. Are
Happy new year, Are. 🙂 May you have started the year well too and great job on setting up a new page!
I agree, sometimes it’s better to just start fresh while your previous page is still relatively new. Thanks for pointing me to the CitiesIveVisited page, quite a smart way indeed. I’m sure more apps will be blossoming and more towards app integrations, looking forward to that.
Wow, this is an awesome list! Thanks so much for putting it together! I’m about to launch my Facebook fan page, and will definitely use some of the stuff you’ve mentioned here.
Hi Tristan, sure is great to see you here again. Nothing excites me more to hear a blogger will be starting up a new page soon this year! Go for it and be sure to share you page link here when it’s up. 🙂
And I call myself Facebook addict. I mean, I spend so much time on Facebook but had no idea you can do all this.
It will take me days to test all this but I am sure glad I saw your list.
I can’t even choose what I like the best or what I am going to try out the first, all these apps look great.
I just hope to be able to increase my FB fan page interaction. Thanks
Hi Brankica, thanks so much for dropping by. 🙂
Take your time and you don’t have to test them all at once. You can even try one for one or two weeks time and see how your fans react to them. I would recommend the Top 5 app as it seems fun and fans are more open to intriguing questions. 🙂 Love to know your after-use experience in weeks to come. Keep up the great work and have a great year ahead!
Oh Ching Ya I have to virtually kick myself every time I come here and you’ve something new about having a fan page because I’ve yet to start one.
No excuses really, I just keep putting it off. I reckon I better make a start soon or I’ll be too embarrassed to show my face here.
Sire, don’t say that my friend. 🙂 You are welcome here with or without a page. You’ve contributed a lot in the blogosphere and seeing you commenting here is a huge privilege.
If you ever start a page, be sure to leave a link so I can head over for a ‘Like’. 🙂
Hi Ching Ya,
As always you’re a great source of information Facebook-related 🙂
I’m behind of improving my fan page with new applications and this one come very handy! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hope the Best 2011 for You!
Gera
Don’t mention it, Gera, it’s my joy to share the findings and you know how crazy I am about facebook apps. 🙂 No thanks required, just let me know the after-use experience that’ll be wonderful. Have a great 2011 too!
i did not knwo things/apps like this even existed, now i am interested in a whole new facebook page!
Greg, there’s never too late to start one. Wish you a great fb page experience! 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
Hi Ching ya,
Those are awesome lists to make up our facebook fan page.
My fav is the contact form.
Thanks for your great effort, appreciate it.
Thank you Kimi for the feedback. Were you able to set one up for your fan page? All the best.
OMG, Ching. This is absolutely awesome. Late last year, I finally decided to start “enhancing” my FB pages and 2011 will be (hopefully) the year that I will be giving more attention to using FB, as I have been neglecting it for a while now. Call me lazy, but there is just so much to do. Fortunately, you narrow it down by providing these awesome apps, to make everything easier.
Happy New Year and more power to you!
Always happy to be of service, DiTesco. 🙂 On the other hand, your tip with dlvr.it during our twitter conversation the other day was a brilliant one, I missed quite a lot of hot trends on twitter. Thinking about exploring it further before I feedback to you what I think about it. Thanks so much for the suggestion, here’s to a great year of facebook experience in 2011!
Ching, this is yet another awesome stuff. Sorry for being so late in commenting. I forgot to check it out earlier. Anyways, I don’t have any fanpage as such. But my fellow friends have their fanpages on facebook. I will surely recommend your blog and this post, ofcourse. Keep blogging.
And wish you a very happy and a prosperous new year. Enjoy to the fullest…Cheers !!
No worries, Aswani. I understand how busy everyone is, that’s why I appreciate everyone who’s taking time to drop their digital footprints here, it’s better late than never. 🙂 Always great to see you here and thanks in advance for willing to share the post with your network.
Gonna install the UserVoice on my Facebook fan page 😀 Thanks for sharing these wonderful unknown apps for us
Great choice, Michael. 🙂 Be sure to feedback how it performs. Thanks so much for dropping by.
Among the facebook applications you have listed here I love “Clobby Group Chat” most. This can help you make your page become more interactive than ever! 🙂