Over the last year marketers have been taking umbrage with Facebook, and it’s not really any surprise. With the Edgerank Algorithm becoming a more important factor in the newsfeed brands are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their fans without having to pay for it. Justifying paying to receive likes and comments isn’t always possible. But justifying paying for a Facebook app developer may be a little easier…

Facebook apps are a much neglected aspect of pages, granted they’re used well by the larger brands, but it’s not something used or even understood by the majority. Simply put they are small, custom applications that can be added to a page via tabs. They’re an effective way to make much more of your page as well as providing an opportunity for prospecting, sales and further engagement.

Facebook rules state that competitions can’t “use native Facebook functionality as a basis for entry”, so all those ‘like and share to win” posts are breaking the rules. Facebook don’t police this very well, but to avoid having your page removed you should use a competition app.  It’s basically so that competitions are technically off Facebook’s platform, and therefore won’t land the site in hot water if a competition goes awry.

It may sound like a pain, but it’s actually much better, not only does an app give you more control, it allows you to collect data should you want to and you can brand it exactly how you wish.

If you already run an ecommerce site, setting up a Facebook shop is fairly logical, but it can also be good as a first step toward ecommerce for smaller businesses.