In the next article, I will cover the different “crafts” or roles needed to have a successful game development agency.

Read more about: How to make money with your iPhone Game

After its IPO woes and subsequent status as a publicly-traded company, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came out to talk about the company’s future prospects in a press conference.

One was his widely held view about how Facebook is going to grow on mobile. Zuckerberg contended that the shift to HTML5 was necessary to make Facebook deploy on mobile internet platforms quickly and seamlessly. He further stated that his comments deriding HTML5 had been taken out of context. Every technology had their time and at the advent of the smartphone revolution, HTML5 was the best bet.

But now, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and new technological tools, Facebook needs to translate its experience to smartphones ‘natively’. The web-centric version of Facebook needs to be radically overhauled.

So how is Facebook readjusting its ‘mobile first’ strategy?

For starters, Zuckerberg has made his company structurally different – teams are assembled and categorized by product rather than platform.

For instance we have the Facebook Messenger Group. It is led by Peter Deng. He and his team is in charge of all things Facebook Messenger for iOS, Android, Web and PC. The same is true for the Photos Group, headed by Dirk Stoop.

These teams work to produce standalone apps for their products apart from the native Facebook functionality. The Engineering shift helps to improve these products faster and a good testing ground for features that ultimately make it to the main Facebook app.

The advantage of this shift can also be seen in schedules and timeframe management. Every 6 weeks the Messenger Group pushes out its app update. If one has to keep up with the native app releases, then this staggered update cycle is in sync with the release schedule. The App Store and Google Play guidelines are notorious for delaying app updates on the stores. With this scheduling, they can work all issues out just in time for release.

Users are feeling the results for themselves. Facebook’s recent Messenger and Camera apps are the result of this engineering shift. Some of their best features have made it to the main Facebook app proper. Perhaps more Facebook app developers will follow this same model in the future.

How right is a Facebook App for Business purposes?

Even though it has limitless potential, many businesses are hesitant to invest in an app. Well they shouldn’t be. There is an app that suits your business strategy perfectly. Looking for a social-media oriented app? Or maybe you want to drive most of the traffic to your website?

Facebook apps come in all shapes and forms to accommodate your needs. Here are some of em:

Never underestimate the value of data collection.

A Facebook app is unique in the sense that your customers themselves volunteer to be part of data collection. However, keep in mind that the average user will always prefer usability over data collection functions so it’s best to strike the perfect balance between the two.

• Enter Pragmatic Apps

These kind of Facebook apps prefer promoting your services and products more than existing Facebook ones. They are cheaper and faster to build with preexisting templates. Invest in them if direct exposure to your business is what you have got in mind.

• Viral Apps

If your business has a vibrant Facebook Fan Page, then a viral app is exactly what you need to drive the traffic to your fan page. This kind of app focuses on generating interest from your services and products in social media.

• Apps that gauge True Value

There are times when you don’t want to expose people to your company’ services or products. Instead, you develop an app that offers value by itself. Like a social game such as FarmVille. These kind of Facebook apps require huge development costs but they also tend to be the most popular apps all around.

As you can see, a Facebook app can be customized to accommodate any business strategy. Its time you made one for yourself and reaped the results manifold.

Here’s why Facebook is still viable and relevant for small businesses:

Its free and good to build a solid footing for your brand.

This one is obvious. And when people hear the word free, they don’t think that a free platform is worth their time. Over 27.5 million small businesses utilize it in many ways in US alone.

You can promote your products and services in many ways.

You can either employ the services of a Facebook app developer and design an app that does the best to promote your products and services. You can register for your own ad that all Facebook apps will be able to serve to their audience – an audience of 1 billion potential customers to be precise.

Get Access to a Treasure Trove of Target Demographics Data

The more your business takes off on Facebook, the more accurate it becomes to ensure that your products and services reach the correct target audience. This is Facebook at its best. Use this feature to your advantage.

A comprehensive social media strategy for Facebook is a must. Plan it through and watch as your small business reaps the rewards via Facebook.

The answer to this question lies in the recommendation engine that powers Facebook’s App Center. The app recommendation engine takes into account 3 main elements that govern it:

• Personalization
• Quality
• Algorithms

Personalisation

The App Center takes into account individual preferences and personal tastes to serve users with app recommendations that are relevant and unique. This aspect of personalization makes app discovery of diverse genres more pronounced.

For Facebook app developers who are worried about their apps not getting enough exposure, a personalized App Center search result comes as a godsend.

Quality

Make no mistake Facebook app developers. Your apps are rated by quality first and foremost.

The question invariably becomes, how does Facebook rate quality? Facebook prompts users to rate an app out of 5 stars every time they try out a new app. User feedback is taken this way and the results are computed automatically.

An app that has a high number of daily active users tends to score higher on the quality tests.

‘We found that the number of daily active users (i.e. the average number of users who used the app in a day) was a good measure of how large the app is, while the number of monthly active users could be inflated by spikes of activity during the month. So we settled on a formula for app quality that is primarily a function of its average rating as well as average daily active users. ‘

-          Facebook Engineering

Algorithms

The App Center employs a complex recommendation algorithm based on candidate selection, scores and ranks, and real-time updates.

First the candidates are selected based on efficiency and high recall rates. Once the candidates are selected their scores are fetched and their ranking is calculated from the data available. Last but not the least, real-time updates of Facebook apps are important. It shows that user feedback is valued by Facebook app developers and they take care of issues as they are discovered by the way of updates.

All these elements work in combination to make the App Center feature the best apps and games.

There are invaluable insights to be gained from under-the-hood assessment of the App Center recommendation engine. So if you want to develop the best Facebook apps, taking the workings of the App Center will help you achieve your goals easily.

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How right is a Facebook App for Business purposes?

Even though it has limitless potential, many businesses are hesitant to invest in an app. Well they shouldn’t be. There is an app that suits your business strategy perfectly. Looking for a social-media oriented app? Or maybe you want to drive most of the traffic to your website?

Facebook apps come in all shapes and forms to accommodate your needs. Here are some of em:

Never underestimate the value of data collection.

A Facebook app is unique in the sense that your customers themselves volunteer to be part of data collection. However, keep in mind that the average user will always prefer usability over data collection functions so it’s best to strike the perfect balance between the two.

• Enter Pragmatic Apps

These kind of Facebook apps prefer promoting your services and products more than existing Facebook ones. They are cheaper and faster to build with preexisting templates. Invest in them if direct exposure to your business is what you have got in mind.

• Viral Apps

If your business has a vibrant Facebook Fan Page, then a viral app is exactly what you need to drive the traffic to your fan page. This kind of app focuses on generating interest from your services and products in social media.

• Apps that gauge True Value

There are times when you don’t want to expose people to your company’ services or products. Instead, you develop an app that offers value by itself. Like a social game such as FarmVille. These kind of Facebook apps require huge development costs but they also tend to be the most popular apps all around.

As you can see, a Facebook app can be customized to accommodate any business strategy. Its time you made one for yourself and reaped the results manifold.

So how are social media marketers dealing with the challenges? What techniques they can adopt to gain large number of fans?

Here are 3 ways to give your Facebook fan page a massive boost:

There is more than one way to drive traffic from other sources.

Chances are that your business has a fully functioning website with a veritable customer database. Make use of these assets to gain new Facebook fans.

Get your customers on Facebook to ensure brand longevity. The average customer spends more time on Facebook than they do at your website – take advantage of the increased engagement opportunities.

But what if you don’t have access to a larger customer database and big web traffic levels?

Partner up with other firms to promote yourself.

You can partner up by solving a longstanding tech problem, giving out free product samples, etc. It can do wonders for you and net you more potential customers in the process.

Chances are that you can expand beyond your primary customer base by using this strategy. Which begs the question – how do you cater to a diverse customer base on Facebook?

Consider designing different Landing Pages for Different Visitors on Facebook

A customer which clicks on a Google Adwords product ad will be redirected to the same product’s Landing Page on Facebook. You can define different destinations for different visitors quite easily now all within Facebook.

Even if Facebook marketing is generally not owned and controlled by you, you can still follow these tried-and-tested tips to set your Facebook Fan Page for phenomenal growth.

Every brand is conscious of their identity and the same holds true for their social media strategy on Facebook. Every big brand should keep these considerations in mind in order to avoid brand damage and loss of customer interest:

Don’t Sound Condescending to Your Facebook Fans

You know you are a big brand and essentially your fans also know your worth. For big brands to go ahead and shout the same on their Facebook page, it’s just plain disrespectful marketing. Avoid thumping your own chests.

Avoid ‘Tag all your friends in this picture’ actions

Not only does this hurt your credibility as a responsible brand, it also portrays you as a spammer. This can earn you some unwanted notoriety.

Do not use fonts that are an abomination for eyes everywhere

A lot of companies don’t realize that the average Facebook user’s attention span is limited. Any user-unfriendly font that you use on your images will not get your point across. After all you do want to engage your users right?

Avoid Controversies of all kinds

As a socially responsible business, your adherence to universally acknowledged norms and values is not only required but is also a necessity. Any lingering controversy can open your firm to potential lawsuits. A loss of customer confidence in your brand is also a possibility.

Maintaining a perfect Facebook fan page is not easy. But it’s not impossible either. If you can avoid these mistakes, your Facebook Fan Page can continue to run like a well-oiled machine.