Brands must stand out to succeed on Facebook

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Posted May 25 2008 By Laura

A recent article in NMA has announced ‘poor levels of user take up for branded applications on Facebook’. Branded applications for MTV, Warner Bros and Woolworths were found to have as little as five daily active users. Similarly, applications from Boomerang promoting Fraggle Rock had 31 daily active users and applications for BBC Torchwood, iPlayer and BBC Weather have a combined average of 120 daily active users.

Whilst these examples show bad results for Facebook applications, many have had a great success. We think that the key to succeeding on Facebook is to stand out from other applications. Brands shouldn’t just jump on the bandwagon and create any old Facebook application – they should plan it as they would any other media. Creating something that users will be interested in and find useful, fun or entertaining is key.

The full article can be found here – however you will need to have a NMA subscription to view it…

http://www.nma.co.uk/

Tags applications BBC brands Facebook MTV NMA success Warner Bros

Comments Add Yours

By neoco Posted May 27, 2008 at 5:00 pm

It’s weird how this things work sometimes… like there are two very distinct curves. I remember 6-12 months ago we were really pushing Facebook apps to clients and then it slows right down. Suddenly everone is talking about Facebook apps again as the second wave of clients catch up.

Facebook apps are just like every other (2.0) media channel lifecycle to date:
1) consumers get what we’re given and like it
2) consumers (as creators and users) then get given access and swamp the channel with remakes of everything – ooh a personality quiz like we used to do as a viral but now it’s an app! (remember that before that we done it on email!)
3) channel gets flooded with crap as consumers (as creators and users) run out of the old ideas and try to fit in new ones.
4) novelty wears off. consumer rebellion – lead by the cool lefties!
5) main brands catch up and start at point 2 – except consumers are now looking for apps that actually contribute to their experience.
6) everyone moves to new platform

so what’s the next platform?
By What comes after Facebook? « Neoco’s blog - keep up to date with the best digital marketing agency in the world! Posted July 18, 2008 at 2:19 pm

[...] The power of Facebook is realising this and using it as a social tool to empower your ‘real’ life. This is where brands can really enrich user experiences and connect with their audience. Facebook applications (games/ functionality/ etc) are more numerous than friend requests. I stopped deleting them a few months back and currently have about 900+. Just like my Facebook friends, I do not have the time to engage with everyone. I cherry pick. Often this is based on my existing relationship outside of Facebook. Do I know the brand? does it tie-in with an existing ATL (TV, radio, etc) campaign? Is the application productive to my real life beyond Facebook? These are a few of the questions that identify if an application is likely to gain traction with users. A big successful brand and ad campaign is no guarantee that the application will be a success but it means there is likely to be a higher install rate than a total unknown – check out the Indy campaign. Obviously, there are always exceptions to the rule (see a recent blog post about big brand/ big bucks applications that sit around with only 4 daily users). [...]

Neoco