Facebook Applications

The 2 graphs below indicate the number of facebook applications provided and how users take advantage of them.

The free game, which allows users to invest in farm equipment and sell their produce for profit, has exploded in popularity since being launched on June 19th.
With nearly 35 million monthly users, the game will soon surpass the 35,554,755 record achieved by the How Well Do You Know Me? application.
It owes its popularity to a growing trend among urbanites to try to their hand to the rural life by harvesting vegetables, milking cows, and shearing sheep.
Online farming games have enjoyed a huge growth in popularity in recent weeks, even as the real-life industry is in steady decline.
AllFacebook, a website which tracks the popularity of applications, has estimated that there are over 72 million farmers on Facebook across a number of farming games.






Farmville’s San Francisco-based developer, Zynga, says that the game provided a simple, fun way for people to unwind at the end of the day.
Players spend an average of 20 minutes a day tending to their farms, with much of that time taken up with planting their fields.
Although Farmville is free to play, Zynga draws revenue from online advertising and from some users who are prepared to pay for virtual goods.
Mark Pincus, the Zynga Chief Executive, branded the game a ‘cultural phenomenon’ and claimed it taps into a new demand for family-friendly games.
He said: ‘By combining the best elements of social gaming, with people’s instinct to nurture, we’ve created an incredibly fun, wholesome and rewarding experience.’
Another farming game, Farm Town, is Facebook’s second most popular application.
The rest of the top ten includes a range of applications which allow users to do anything from donating to charity to starting a virtual Mafia family.






A pairing of the two most hyped tech products of the year: released what is arguably the single best iPhone-customized website to date at iphone.facebook.com. Like the iPhone website which launched late yesterday, it isn’t much to look at in a normal browser. But open that thing up in an iPhone and you’ve got a very usable site.
The site uses javascript to avoid page refreshes, although there is still some lag in moving around the site (this is an iPhone issue). The main navigation tabs – Home, Profile, Friends and Inbox – are at the top of the site. Click on any person and see their profile, wall or photos via a horizontally scrolling interface.

Top Ten Facebook Applications

Rank	Applications	Average number of users
1.	Famville	13.4 million daily users
2.	Farm Town	6.0 million daily users
3.	Mafia Wars	5.8 million daily users
4.	Facebook for iPhone	5.7 million daily users
5.	Facebook for BlackBerry	5.2 million daily users
6.	Pet Society	4.4 million daily users
7.	Texas Hold Em Poker	3.8 million daily users
8.	Restaurant City	3.7 million daily users
9.	Facebook Mobile	2.7 million daily users
10.	YoVille	2.6 million daily users

Facebook App Developers

The phenomenal success of Facebook has been instrumental in releasing the entire spectrum of opportunities for businesses that want to position their brand effectively. The Facebook application has brought a mini revolution in marketing. Facebook app developers are playing a crucial role in scripting the success of the branding exercise.
The increase in social networking has seen investors lining up to develop applications that engage the user's attention. Application developers are offering their expertise to develop apps that include entertainment, as well as the commercial value. App programmers help the companies with expertise in optimizing the applications of the social networking sites like Facebook to gain leverage from the Facebook's platform. These developers also offer support for marketing and monetization of the applications that so the best interest of the company.
Facebook app developers have experience in developing applications for Facebook. They are able to create designs that can attract a large customer base without much difficulty. The service of these developers helps companies to be highly successful in their marketing campaigns through the use of Facebook applications.
Facebook app programmers are an ideal choice because of their experience and expertise in designing the applications. They know the pulse of the market. Their expertise makes easier to achieve a higher ranking on Facebook. This helps companies to expand their operations by successfully launching applications that increase their profitability and visibility on the Internet. The Facebook app developers are experts in their domain hence they are able to provide applications that can ensure immediate success for the businesses.
The apps developers offer their expertise in the viral promotion of application; they have the complete infrastructure consisting of designers, copywriters and expert programmers at their disposal. These developers even help companies in building mobile Facebook applications for android, Windows mobile and iPhone platforms. The app developers work just like the either team of the company advising that is best for the interest of the client.
It has become essential for companies to work closely with the Facebook app developers because of your expert insights in user behavior on Facebook. A company that has a superior product, but poor marketing will always lags behind the company that may not have a terrific product, but succeeds because of great marketing. Facebook is all about branding and the professional services of the Facebook app developers can help the application reach millions of users in no time.

How to Socialize Your Website?

Social marketing has emerged as a strong pillar of marketing, and there are no ways you can escape the power and potential of these strategies. It is an essential aspect of online marketing and is the simplest way to reach a large segment of consumers. When you make attempts reach your audience via social sites, you are contacting them at a comfortable place and in their own personal space. Traditionally, all the marketing efforts of websites were concerned with search engines but the scenario changed overtime because youth and middle-aged could be easily targeted on social networking sites rather than on search engines. Listed below are some of the simplest ways to market your website on social platforms. Following of these trends in the right approach will ensure that you get more traffic and business in an extremely limited time frame.
Using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut: If you own a website, it is obvious that you will have Facebook page, a business profile on LinkedIn and a Twitter account to give short blog updates. You can link these pages on your portals. This will encourage visitors to check the page on social sites, even if they are not interested in your portal. For those, who are yet to own accounts on social sites, you are missing out on many grounds.
How your blog can be your social tool: If you are running a website that is directly related to generating business, you need to maintain a business blog which is regularly updated for your business statuses.
Blogging is not just about writing once in a while; rather it is a daily routine of your business, which you cannot skip at any cost. As a matter of fact, your blog will get more attention, and you might just enjoy the passion of writing.
Use mobile features on your website: It is essential that your website is designed and optimized for mobile use. This doesn't mean you need to develop Mac or iPhone applications, but all you need is a smart web designing technique. Just keep the load time of your website low and avoid using hungry graphics in all the pages. You website should be easy to navigate and have features that will interest the targeted customers.
Have RSS feedback: If you have done RSS, you can do it with a blog. In most cases, RSS is built right in applications that deal with blogging. It is all about syndicating the content of your websites because the users get the scope to create feeds on various websites of their interest and that in turn, gives them the updates on their emails.
You can also socialize your portal by embedding videos to your portal and further sharing them on various networks like the fan page of Facebook. You can also add presentations and share the same on social media and portals. Bookmarking new content on social portals can also be beneficial in drawing attention. With these simple techniques, you will see a substantial change in traffic and business of your website. Your presence in the social networks will ensure that you are up-to date on various concerns of the business, and your internet marketing strategies are doing the right work for your website.

Make Friends on a Free Chat Site

Free chat sites are one of the best new ways to meet friends, connect with people and share information with other people in your network. When you make friends through a free chat room, you have the opportunity to expand your social circle, meet new people from around the world and engage in conversations even when you're stuck at home alone.

Why Make Friends Online?

Why not? When you use a free chat room site to connect with friends around the world, it costs you absolutely nothing other than your time. Online chats allow you to quickly and easily meet and get to know other people both in your own town and around the globe. Making international friends offers a window on the world that you can't get in any other way. You can learn about their daily lives, chat about world events and get a different perspective on the world around you.

What Can You Do On a Chat Site?

There are many different kinds of chat rooms available online. Some of them are part of larger sites and allow you to connect with friends you've made on the forums there. Others are standalone rooms where you can sign in and meet people, or invite friends you already know to chat with you. You can set up a profile, make connections with others, share pictures - privately or publicly - and enjoy the company of people that you meet or already know.

What Kind of Room Is Best?

With all the free chat room sites available online, you can easily find a chat site to talk about any interest you have. You'll find rooms that cater to younger people, rooms devoted to flirting and romance, free chat sites for older singles and younger singles, even chat rooms where kids can get help with their homework. You can share music in a chat room devoted to music - or share your love of a particular artist or style of music with others who share your likes and dislikes.

Connect With Friends on a Chat Site

While you can make friends on a free chat site, you can also the chat software to connect with your friends and colleagues online. Many sites that offer free chat rooms allow you to set up a private room, complete with passwords, and invite friends to join you there to discuss anything you want. It's a handy way to meet with business colleagues or make plans with friends you can't connect with in real life.

How to Use a Free Chat Room

Using a chat room is as simple as signing up with a free chat service. Generally, you need nothing more than a valid email address to sign up for real time chats on chat sites. Most will require you to give your birth date to ensure that you're more than 13 years old. Once you've signed up and validated your account on the site, you can create a profile to let other people get to know you a little, upload photos of yourself to your own albums and decide whether you want to share them with everyone or mark them private so you can decide who can see them and who can't.

Whether you use a chat site to make friends or to connect with friends you already know, make sure that you check the site's usage and privacy policy to ensure that you're on a safe, free chat site - then go on, have some fun and meet new people.

Structuring web sites for charities or non-profits

This article examines the work done to enhance the web presence of Tanzania Development Trust, a UK-based voluntary charity which I joined as Treasurer in 2010.

Since 1975 TDT has acted as the charitable arm of its parent, Britain Tanzania Society, channeling donations to development projects in Tanzania. It has also worked successfully with a number of other charities and trusts which share its vision, funding or contributing to projects suggested and overseen by TDT. It has amassed an impressive track record in delivering funds for projects that make real changes within communities. Inevitably, however, there is always more demand for funds than fund available.

A strategic review in 2011 highlighted the need to broaden our funding, and to attract donors from outside our 'traditional' sources. Younger fund raisers, without a natural connection to the trust, did not seem to be 'finding' us. An easy litmus test was given by the thousands of sponsored climbers each year on Kilimanjaro: why, over the previous four years, had only four chosen to climb on behalf of a charity so clearly dedicated to good works locally?

However, we needed to be realistic about costs and resources, and take into account the entirely voluntary nature of TDT. Our thoughts turned naturally to the Web, as a low-cost means to engage with a mass audience. Though not solely responsible for the Trust's web presence, I have taken on responsibility for the development of our Facebook page, and delivering enhancements of our web site, in particular ensuring a flow of new content to the front page.

Our first step was a 'no-brainer': we needed to experiment with social media. Our brainstorming identified this as a means of tapping a younger audience. But with average ages of social media users climbing, and the fastest growth in numbers among 'silver surfers', there is a varied and huge audience out there (Facebook says more than 50% of its 750 million active users log in on any given day! Also, I have read that 1 of every 8 minutes spent on the Internet, is spent on Facebook); the question is, how to engage it?

Charity fundraising site JustGiving has a page of hints on fund raising. Among other things, it tells us that 15% of all visits to JustGiving resulting in donations, come from Facebook. Also among its hints, was a quotation which seems to me to describe fund raising via social media in a nutshell: "Fundraising is a story. You have to tell that story, to a group of people who will be interested, interact and support you."

In setting up and 'seeding' our Facebook page, we have kept both parts of this quotation in mind: it has to tell a story, and we have to develop a constituency of friends interested in our activities, and Tanzania as a whole. Please bear in mind when visiting our page that it is early days, also that the two people who set up and administer the page have a combined age of 116! However, I hope it will be evident that we are putting in place the basis for a much greater dialogue with interested parties which we intend will result in greater recognition of our 'brand' and ultimately in more people fund raising on our behalf.

We have also opened a twitter account (@tanzdevtrust), but this is very embryonic, and used mainly at present to receive Facebook posts and forward them to the website.

Since it was set up a few years ago, our web site (www.tanzdevtrust.org) has been maintained admirably by our Chairman, with information on the way we work, projects funded, and on Tanzania as a whole. However, we now realised that it would need some significant tweaks to be used as a fund-raising tool.

We researched a number of 'best practice' guidelines for a fund-raising site. However, resourcing constraints mean that changes in our web site will be more evolutionary than revolutionary, at least until our committee is joined by a communications/website manager, which we are currently looking for (could it be YOU?).

Here are a number of the 'best practice' bullet points. Some we do at present, some we shall be addressing. Others may need impetus from a new communications manager.

• The front page should exhibit a short explanation of the missions or goals of the organisation. Plus easily found navigation to longer mission statements, services or actions. An easily identifiable and memorable tag line, or slogan, is a good way to solidify the brand. (On the whole we did this already, in particular our USP that all money donated goes to projects being well expressed and understood).


• Visitors should see IMMEDIATELY how to become involved or donate to your mission or cause. There should be a 'call to action', including an immediate way to help. This could be in the form of 'bite-sized pieces' (eg '£10 buys a....'), via selected project(s), or perhaps via some e-commerce feature.


• UTILISE SOCIAL MEDIA to encourage member activity and bring new members or donors to your site. Aim for a CONSISTENT look and message across media. Google and other search engines place surprisingly great store by social media. (Well, through our Tanzania Development Trust Facebook page we have made our first steps in this direction.)


• And when utilising social media, don't always be too earnest:   constantly banging away on your need for more funds is likely to be a turn-off.  Leaven it with more entertaining and interesting stories, which are more likely to be read, and MUCH more likely to be shared outside your existing circle of 'Likes' or friends.


• Use fantastic photos and impactful videos! User-friendly technology nowadays makes this so much easier, and we all know about a picture painting a thousand words!


• Be PUBLICLY THANKFUL to those who support as volunteers or financial contributors. Thanking those who are helping goals to be reached or activities to be successful encourages more engagement from visitors. Social media complements the web site by giving a very direct way to do this.


• A 'latest news' or 'blog' section with current and active content will encourage repeat visitors to the site. Again, search engines like blogs because they present regular new content. (I have made the front page have a more 'blog-like' feel, though it's not actually a blog structure - probably it should be).


• Have a general contact form for visitors to get in touch.


• There should be a news media or press release section to help promote and encourage media outlets to spread your message. (We haven't done this - will probably need to await a communications officer).

How to Use Social Media to Protect Your Brand

In today's world of the internet, companies have got to be even more aware of what their customers are saying about them and, more importantly, where they are saying it. Social media platforms are a common place for people to talk about a particular brand and they will often talk about what their perception is and how the service can be improved. This is something that companies in all industries and of all sizes can use as failure to monitor these conversations can have an adverse effect on business and your social standing.
One of the main benefits of social media is that it acts as another level of customer service and if your customers can see that you are actively trying to rectify the problems, they are more likely to give your brand another chance. However, the main reason why companies monitor social media platforms is so they can make sure that any problem does not escalate into a huge problem that ends up damaging the brand image of the company.
Twitter and Facebook are the main social media platforms that people comment on so it makes sense that companies have their own page. This should mean that if people want to use the site to complain or make ideas, a company has got it all in one place. It is, therefore, important to ensure that the company has a member of staff that is monitoring the page. By doing this, your customers know that you put customer service high on your priority list and over the long term they can use this as a way of communicating with your company.
The problems arise however when people start making comments on blogs, forums and their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts as this is going to be harder to monitor. This is where social media experts come in as they can make the most of the social media tools that are available to ensure that all conversations relating to your brand are monitored at all times. Of course, if you are using an external agency then you need to ensure that they have experience in working with clients of a similar size to yours and that they are going to have the right tools to monitor your results. Social media is a relatively new technology and many companies are yet to embrace it so when you take the plunge make sure that you do it correctly from the beginning.