Facebook friend get friend apps from Greece, UK and Brazil
Posted on: July 30, 2011
A recent ComScore study has provided more data showing share of time spent on Facebook, in terms of content.
It follows that a key means to capture user attention on Facebook is to appear in their newsfeeds or photos. But appearing prominently in a user’s newsfeed is a matter of their demonstrated level of interest in a brand or organisation, based on previous interactions with it – the more a person engages with a brand on Facebook, the higher the chance they will see its posts in their ‘Top News.’ 
This is because the Facebook Newsfeed uses an algorithm (called Edge Rank) to rank content based upon the likely interest to a user. This has led some to suggest that comments are actually more valuable than likes to a brand’s Facebook page.
Aside from developing an effective Facebook content strategy for day to day wall-posting, and interacting in a friendly, helpful and timely way with users on the wall, another way of getting into user’s newsfeeds and photos is via page apps. Although the data above shows people are only interacting with apps 10% of the time – apps can also produce wall posts – even to friends of fans – tapping into Facebook’s virality. These items of content can then be engaged with in turn, driving further impressions for the brand.
Here are three examples of very different brands from different countries using Facebook apps that encourage fans to interact – resulting in the posting of messages and photos which appear on their own, and their friend’s walls.
Lacta personalised virtual chocolate
Lacta is the leading chocolate brand in Greece. It’s friend get friend Facebook app took it from 87,000 to 250,000 Facebook users in just two months – turning it into the most popular brand page in Greece. The app asked users to reproduce a virtual Lacta chocolate bar with the name of their loved one on it – and send it to them.
The messages were shared to their wall with the photo as well as appearing in their photo album with the person’s name tagged. After this app gained mass popularity, in a surprise twist, a trend began for people to upload their personalised Lacta bar as their profile pictures, ensuring even wider exposure for the brand on Facebook.
Strongbow Festival pub builder
This application on the Strongbow Facebook page invites fans to enter their Festival Pub Build 2011. People are invited to assemble a crew of five Facebook friends to earn three days of “VIP glory” for one day’s “graft” at one of the UK festivals where the pub has a presence.
To participate in the activity, consumers choose five “workmates” from their Facebook friends, and, in order to generate online communication around the crew, are asked to select and badge them from a list of 10 pre-defined stereotypes, including The Grafter, The Muscle and The Butterfingers. (They are all men – which I think is a bit of a flaw of the app – while many Strongbow cider drinkers are no doubt be male – they might just want female company along with them at the festival).
Once they have selected their workers, each entrant has a chance of their team being picked at random for the VIP festival experience. Importantly, every step of the way users of the app are encouraged to share what they are doing with relevant friends, and also encourage them to enter too – to increase the chance of winning among their friend group.
Get closer rewards real-world relationship activity
This Brazilian app was developed for toothpaste brand ‘Close Up’ – part of a campaign encouraging people to get up close in new ways. Designed to hook up activity between two people on Facebook – the ‘Get Closer’ app reveals surprise badges to people that take part and are in relationships.
Badges are rewarded based on tasks such as tagging each other in photos, or how long you’ve been in a relationship for. The rewards in the Get Closer app are surprises, so people are not incentivised to do things differently, rather the rewards are unlocked through actions they would naturally have taken. Interacting with the app posts to both users newsfeeds.
