Facebook Gadget Development

Tonight is the Facebook Developers Garage in Tempe, and I'm very excited to attend. Facebook, the up-and-coming (some would say level-and-arrived) social networking platform has been gaining ground on Myspace for some time now. However, their pages are not indexed by search engines. Buying a company profile has an astronomical cost. The best way, then, to establish a presence there and create messaging is through their gadgets. One great thing about "Application Marketing" (I said it first! If you want to use it, send your checks here!) is the fair exchange of content for messaging. Instead of interrupting your regularly scheduled program with my commercial, I instead give you that calorie burning calculator you've been looking for - in exchange for making you aware of the personal training certification client I've made it for. I personally look forward to offering these kinds of services to our clients, as they are a fair way of creating buzz for any company. It is always important to remember that the more you spray messaging at people, the more jaded they will become, the less effective your ad strategy will be. Offering content to people in the form of Facebook Applications (as well as Google Apps) are fun, interesting, and potentially great sources of interest in your company. I will let you know when I know more...

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)