Facebook Marketing Strategy for Business, 5 Useful Applications

It’s no secret that online social networking (done well) is a great way to market your business.  Social network applications can make that even easier.  Applications are used to enhance the experience for users (ever watched a video on Facebook?).  They are also useful to developers, providing them with valuable information from users in exchange for installing the application.  This post covers 5 Facebook applications to consider for your business with your Facebook Marketing Strategy in mind.

Facebook for Business, 5 Useful Applications

Simplaris BlogCast - If you are a business owner, or small business marketer with a blog, this one will monitor your blog RSS feed for updates, and update your profile feed with each new blog post.  I like it because it updates your status feed, and puts an icon next to the feed update that makes it stand out to visitors.
Networked Blogs App – Similar to Simplaris, this Facebook application not only updates your profile feed with each new post, but it also is a place for blog owners to build a reader base.  When you get enough readers to join your blog ‘page’ it unlocks other features.  You can ‘go pro’ giving you the ability to message all readers (similar to fan pages).  Here is the Networked Blogs page for MarketingProfessor.com on Facebook (feel free to become a reader).

Both of these tools are great ways to extend Facebook for business in a soft way (“selling” can have adverse effects for sure).

My LinkedIn Profile – You can put a LinkedIn Badge on the Info tab of your Facebook profile which allows visitors to hop over to your LinkedIn profile page with a click.
Profile HTML – This allows you to place standard HTML code on a section of your profile or even a Fan page that wouldn’t ordinarily work using the standard Facebook interface.  You can see the web form to sign up for the special FAQ reports on the MarketingProfessor.com Facebook Fan Page .
Facebook Video (Default App)– Facebook has made major strides when it comes to video, not the least of which is the addition of HD (high definition).  I’m looking forward to adding more videos to my profile in the near future.  If you want to see a video I did a while back on one of the best social messaging tools out there, you can find it here.

These applications are a great place to start using Facebook for online social networking.  While social marketing has been around, using Facebook for business is relatively new.  Since applications are coming out all the time, consider how you can use them to extend the reach of your business.

Let’s learn together: Got a favorite Facebook application you are using, or questions about one mentioned here?  Other random thoughts?   Be heard by using the comment boxes below.

Image credited to luc legay

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