facebook application development

Since its founding in 2008, Santa Monica, Calif-based Fan Appz has built its Page management business around an enterprise and free version of its self-serve Page management software. It has most recently created a professional version for small- and medium-sized businesses that includes tools to enable users to create top 5 lists, quizzes, polls and other features on their Facebook Pages and other social media profiles.

As part of our ongoing series on companies that provide services to Page owners on Facebook, we recently spoke with founder Jon Siegal for more information.

“When I founded the company the business idea was, ‘Let’s build a suite of applications to help businesses and brands attract and retain customers, but do it using social media,’” he tells us. “We decided that we were going to build an application that businesses and brands could use to build and engage and grow their fan base, a suite that people can use to be productive right out of the gate.” Of the company’s many competitors, some have taken a similar approach, while others have opted to provide more customized services, focused on larger brands that want the special attention.

When Fan Appz hit the Page management scene in 2008, MySpace was still the number one social network in the US, but it was clear to Siegal that it would be Facebook that would transform how people interacted with businesses. Along the lines of what many other marketing-focused companies have thought, he tells us that Fan Appz wanted to offer companies a way to manage their social media marketing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — something that’s hard to do if every campaign is custom built.

“If you’re into building custom software for people, it’s going to cost more and it’s going to slow you down,” he explains, noting that the company’s larger clients had three core goals: acquire an audience, grow that audience and make money from that audience.

Although the company didn’t share a lot of specific data, here are some key stats:

• Its larger clients include the NBA, NASCAR, comedian George Lopez and the Tonight Show
• It reaches more than 40 million Facebook users among tens of thousands of clients around the world
• The company claims it has seen increases of 7 to 10 times in the number of video plays on a Facebook Page, a 55% click rate to web site increase and a quadrupling of customer sign ups on web sites
• The products are built in English, but clients cab input their own content — so Fan Appz products are used in just about any languages you can think of — anything from Turkish to Hebrew.

When we asked what that expansion might include — integration with mobile or geo-location — his reply was unsurprising.  “We want to build the integrated suite to where (customers) can reach out to fans wherever the fans are. If there’s something new down the road, we’re going to be there.”

For more information about page management companies and the tools they offer, see our Facebook Marketing Bible.