Most people will know what a mobile (or native) app is. However, not many know what a Facebook app is. When Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s Open Graph in September, he said this: “We think this [Open Graph] is going to make it possible to build a completely new class of apps that wasn’t possible before.” So, what are Facebook apps and are they important for businesses and users alike?

Useful apps
Two years ago Avinash Kaushik (analytics evangelist of Google) tweeted: “Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it was not better.”
As time goes by, we can say that this phrase could not be more wrong because nowadays, everyone does it, everyone knows how to do it and the surprises come, every so often, in the form of news explaining new possibilities within the field that multiply the usefulness of social networks. Facebook is the largest social network with 800+ million users worldwide, therefore, knowing and understanding the capacity of Facebook applications is a key issue in the business world.

What are Facebook apps?
Facebook applications are small programs that run within the Facebook platform. Other extensions similar to these applications are the plugins of a browser or the CMS (Content Management System). They are included within the group of social media applications, among which are also other platforms such as Twitter or LinkedIn.

Why do they have the potential to make more money for their owners than mobile apps?
Facebook applications are way more than just social games and have become an extremely profitable business, in which most large companies are already inside or want to join.
According to a study by the School of Business at the University of Maryland in collaboration with Facebook, and collected by the U.S. newspaper The Hill, Facebook apps have generated 182,000 jobs only in United States. This represents an increase for the economy of the country of about $12,000 million.
The most important thing is, despite the incredible figures, the industry still having has, it is still having a gap to improve. The volume of business, companies and product variety is continuously increasing so if your company hasn’t looked at the possibilities yet, now it´s time to take a step forward.
Mainly the most important feature of Facebook applications is the huge amount of relevant information that can be obtained from the user (or potential customer from a company´s point of view), as friends, likes, dislikes, what he does, what he listens to, what he buys and why.
The growth of social applications has increased rapidly in recent years. According to the market research firm ‘Gartner’, by 2011 the turnover rate has increased by 41.4% compared to 2010. These percentages represent $10,300 million.
In contrast to mobile applications, the Facebook ones are quite easy to ‘show’ and share to your friends and people of your environment so, as everything related to the social network, we can´t forget the viral communication and marketing.

What are some of the best Facebook apps available, describe what they can do?
The most popular Facebook applications at the moment are mainly games. The top five are CityVille (More than 76 million users), The Social Sims (65 million), Static HTML: iframe tabs (61 million), Adventure World (38 million) and Farmville (31 million).
Undoubtedly, out of these five the most relevant one from a business point of view is Static HTML: iframe tabs, very similar to the app FBML, which was canceled by Facebook in March. The extension allows the user to modify the design of the Facebook profile, making it more attractive for a customer, inserting images in HTML format. Most large companies have this kind format in its pages, but now anyone can do it without having to use code.
(I’ve purposely left out custom development apps, e-commerce apps and coupon/contest apps. Those will have to wait for their own posts.)

• SurveyMonkey: Polls and surveys are a great way to learn about your fans and to give them something to do on your page. They’re simple to set up and can yield surprising insights.

• RSS Graffiti: Turn your page into a content hub with RSS feeds. This app has the advantage of being able to handle multiple feeds on multiple pages — perfect for administrators juggling more than one page.

• Contact Me: Facebook wants you to keep all your relationship in one place. But chances are, you’d like your business contacts to be a little more portable. Help Facebook connections get in touch with you with this easily customisable contact information form.

• NutshellMail: Keeping up with your page activity can be tough — especially when Facebook is constantly rejiggering its notification tools. Take some of the stress and the guesswork out of the problem with this handy app, which sends you a regular e-mail with an activity summary. And it works for Twitter too!

• Jobcast.net: Maybe your next top employee is hiding in your fan base. Help them learn about opportunities with your company, link to your external candidates page or even accept applications. This app also lets fans like and share job listings, helping you find the perfect fit for your new opening.

• Livestream: Want to share a live event on Facebook? Livestream is the way to go. Let’s put it this way — when Facebook announced all those changes at the F8 conference in September, it used Livestream to share Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote with the world.

What is the potential of Facebook apps, what does the future hold?
It seems that the trend will continue being exponential, at least in short or medium term. According to Gartner, the expected turnover of the sector is going to be $14,900 million, and it will increase in 2015 up to $29,100 million.
Facebook is already working with most of the ‘biggies’ of the business ecosystem and is negotiating now with many more. One of those companies is eBay, the biggest online market, that from now has an alliance with the social network. This new creation is going to be a huge tool to improve the pre-shopping, a key issue within the online commerce. For the first time, the Facebook users will be able to “have”, “want”, “buy”, “recommend” or criticise products.

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