Facebook App Case Studies
compiled to show the concepts, scope, reach and results of Facebook Apps
1. The Huffington Post
Here’s how the Huffington Post is using Facebook Connect on their website.
When a user goes through the Facebook application they connect, Huffington post captures their information then they have the option to subscribe for more updates from Huffington post building their database.
Huffington post now have over 870,000 people using their Facebook application on a monthly basis.
2. Treat Me
With the incredible success Groupon has experienced we are now seeing deal sites pop up left right and centre. Recently another one of these prepared for launch in New Zealand. This concept is nothing new to New Zealand, as it already has a number of ‘deals’ and ‘specials’ websites which are very popular. Treat Me knew this but they saw a new opportunity (to use social media combined with deals to engage their audience and spread the word about their specials).
Here’s how they successfully connected Facebook Apps to direct Facebook users from Facebook back to their site, and at the same time give Facebook users a non-intrusive way to share their purchases from the treatme.co.nz website, with their friends.
First of all they decided to give users an option to login to treatme.co.nz with Facebook. This is called “Facebook Connect” and the “Connect” button is where users can click, in order to use it. Facebook Connect is like a quick way to signup for the user; and for the website it’s an easy way to capture information and create a viral spread. What this connect option does is give Facebook users the ability to automatically log-in to the website, with their Facebook username and password.
When a user clicks on the “Connect” button this is what they see:
What you can see now is a list of permissions. Each permission represents a form of information that a Facebook App is able to capture. Here is a breakdown of the information that Treat Me gathers and why.
Access my basic information:
This allows your website to capture a Facebook user’s “Name, address etc”
Send me email:
This allows you to capture the email address of a Facebook user. You can then use this email to promote offers to a user in future or send an invoice or notification of purchase when this person purchases something.
Post to my wall:
This permission allows you to post information on the Wall of a user, having it appear in much the same manner as if it was from them. It’s like telling a Facebook user what to say to their friends and then going ahead and doing it. This is also what can spread your website or marketing message over Facebook, fast.
Access my date and time:
You can capture a Facebook user’s time and date information “wherever they are in the world” with this permission. This can be used to identify when peak times are and it also gives you the ability to update on a user’s Facebook page, or spread your message when you know that their friends will be online.
Check-ins:
This can be used as a really good research or marketing tool. You can capture the information people submit to Facebook; information such as where they have been to eat, drink or shop. A business can then use this information to draw conclusions about what their audience would be interested in.
The permissions being captured by this particular application are email, post on wall, access my data anytime and check-ins access my profile information. In this scenario the user’s email is captured by treatme.co.nz for future promotion.
Once a user has logged in they have the option to “Share this purchase on my Facebook wall.” What this means is that when the user orders a product it will show the purchase to their friends via the newsfeed, so they too can click through and do the same. This is one of the big reasons Treat Me was able to grow so fast, as a result of the exposure it got over Facebook, with each purchase.
You can do the same in your business using Facebook Connect by combining it with the action of purchasing an item.
Here’s what it resulted in for Treat Me:
Treat Me now have 10,000 monthly users sharing their message over Facebook and Treat Me purchases on a monthly basis.
3. Robert Grant: $164,000 with 1 Facebook App
Background:
Robert Grant is the co-founder of Crowd Conversion, an online training brand that specializes in helping professionals get the most from Facebook.
Robert was planning the third launch of his product to the marketplace but, this time around, he wanted to create more exposure over Facebook than he had in his past launches.
Robert wanted to find a way he could combine 3 major theories he understood about Facebook.
1. A general motivation for people to share
2. A way of easily qualifying those who entered the contest for his product
3. A way of building a relationship with those users that would allow him to promote to them in future.
Visitors:
Firstly Robert researched his audience who had previous bought his products.
He found that the majority of the audience was between the ages of 35 and 45. They had a low income and 75% of them were on Facebook. He also found that many of them had engaged in a contest before on Facebook and had positive feelings about it.
Implementation:
Robert decided that a contest would be the best way he could combine what he wanted. A contest would motivate visitors to take a closer look on Facebook.
He could choose specific prizes that were relevant to the audience he wanted to reach so they would be qualified. He could also ask visitors to his contest to register to become a subscriber of his to find out more.
He enlisted the help of a developer to create a contest that would work on his Facebook page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/crowdconversion
Rob created specific prizes that would motivate his audience to share as well as a Raffle system that meant everyone who entered had a chance to win.
Robert launched the contest just one week before his launch of crowd conversion and started to encourage users to share the contest over Facebook.
Results:
Robert’s contest spread. Over a 4 week period over 23,268 visitors landed on his Facebook page, 3177 qualified themselves and became leads and the contest bought in over $116,114.00.
4. Facebook Contest App: Get 10,000 Fans
Helping professionals get the most from Facebook. The Page took 12 months to reach 100,000 fans through organic strategies they teach their market. The Facebook Contest App changed everything. From 105,000 to 155,000 fans in a number of weeks, the Contest App increased engagement by 300% as a result of the contest and sales increased by around 50%.
5. Facebook Contest App at a Glance: Fortune Cookies
Fortune Cookies have done a massive promotion, similar to the Get 10,000 Fans one, with a prize incentive, which meant people were battling to tell their friends about the Company in order to earn more ‘raffle points’ to get onto the leader board and have a greater chance of winning the grand prize. Here is what the App looks like on Facebook:
Before a Facebook User becomes a Fan:
After a Facebook User becomes a Fan (you can see there are options to tell friends about the company, etc):
6. Subway’s Facebook App Promotion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDiNfgkmlZE&feature=related
7. Lacta’s Facebook App Promotion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5pFwmYabI
8. Contest App for Duty Free Stores NZ
Brought in thousands of fans, and helped them grow their online presence in 2012
9. Unique VIP Code for CQ Visitors
CQ Wellington, New Zealand – a way to collect names for a database, and instantly generate a unique code the individual can use for VIP deals in-house!
YOUR BUSINESS NAME HERE