37 of the Best Facebook Page Apps for Brand Marketing

One of the easiest ways to use your Facebook page to its fullest potential for social media marketing is to employ third-party Facebook applications. 

Doing so makes your page significantly more appealing to your audience and improves user experience. This translates to more visitors who interact with and share your content, which then appears in their activity streams and is more virally discoverable. Facebook page customization can dramatically increase your visibility, improve your branding, and create more leads and sales.

There are thousands of social media marketing tools for Facebook that assist brands with managing and enhancing their Facebook marketing activities. Here are 37 of the top Facebook apps on the market, ranging from design and customization to creating engagement with polls to blogging and video integration. Start using some of them to take your Facebook page to the next level!

Facebook App Suites

1. Ripe Social

Ripe Social offers 10 apps that increase brand awareness, promote client interaction, drive website traffic, cultivate repeat business, generate sales leads, and ignite viral marketing. Check out the Ripe Social blog.

2. AgoraPlus

AgoraPlus is an all-in-one platform to manage your Facebook page. Its 10 Facebook page applications give you everything you need to attract fans, engage them, and offer exclusive content on your Facebook page, mobile devices, and your own website. Check out the AgoraPlus blog.

3. Heyo

Heyo’s easy-to-use editor and templates enable you to use contests, promotions, and deals to drive traffic, leads, and sales. Drag and drop widgets make it simple to create a custom campaign from scratch without writing a single line of code, giving you complete creative control. 

4. North Social

North Social offers 19 Facebook applications that allow you to create great pages and fan experiences to increase engagement and promote your brand. 

5. FanAppz

FanAppz gives you everything you need to grow, engage, learn about, and ultimately convert your social audiences into customers and turn good customers into great ones. It’s easy to turn brand assets into high-impact social experiences that leverage your fans’ “amplifier affect” and help you capture emails, likes, interests, and demographics. 

Facebook Tab Apps

6. Tabfusion

Tabfusion lets you create your own custom Tab with virtually any content. Be sure to check out their numerous apps for photos, videos, blogs, and more.

7. Static HTML

Static HTML makes it easy to create powerful custom iframe tabs.

8. Tabsite

Tabsite helps you build Facebook tabs for deals, sweepstakes, reviews, contests, and more. 

9. Contact Tab

Content Tab lets you easily add a tab to show your contact information and business location through Bing or Google Maps.

10. SocialAppsHQ

SocialAppsHQ offers 26 apps that are easy to set up, multilingual, and easy to set up. 

Facebook E-Commerce Apps

11. LunarMods

LunarMods makes it quick, easy, and secure to embed eCommerce in your Facebook Page.

12. Ecwid

Ecwid is a shopping cart app that seamlessly integrates with your page and can be mirrored on many other sites at the same time. 

Facebook Posting and Scheduling Apps

13. HootSuite

HootSuite simplifies posting and scheduling Facebook updates, adding images, monitoring feeds, and more. Teams can manage complex campaigns – including Profiles, Pages, Events, Groups, and Search.

14. Post Planner

Post Planner schedules posts, helps you find content ideas, and brand your Facebook posts across all of your pages and groups. 

15. SocialOomph

SocialOomph enables you to schedule Facebook status and wall updates, group updates, and photo uploads.

16. Status Shuffle

Status Shuffle has the largest collection of Facebook status messages to choose from when you’re stuck for inspiration.

Facebook Contests and Promotions Apps

17. ShortStack

ShortStack has many features to help you get the most from your Facebook pages, including contests, polls, data collection,  and analytics.

18. Top Tab

Top Tab makes it easy to create and implement an interactive contest on Facebook.

19. EazyContest

EazyContest creates photo and video contests, custom banners, buttons, CSS, custom menu tabs, custom entry forms, and reveal pages that pop. 

20. SnapApp

SnapApp sets up custom branded Facebook competitions that help you improve engagement, increase conversions, and drive sales. 

21. Antavo

Antavo enables you to run contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways on Facebook, the Web, and mobile devices. 

Facebook Blog Apps

22. NetworkedBlogs

NetworkedBlogs automatically publishes your blog posts to Facebook, so you get found and generate more traffic. 

23. RSS Tab

RSS Tab lets you publish up to five different blogs on your Facebook page.

24. RSS Graffiti

RSS Graffiti automatically publishes your blog RSS feeds on your Facebook Page. 

Facebook Video Apps

25. YouTube for Fan Pages

YouTube for Fan Pages syncs your YouTube channel directly to a custom tab on your Facebook Fan Page so your viewers can spend more time with your brand.

26. Livestream

Livestream for Facebook enables you to add an existing Livestream channel to your Facebook Page and share a live broadcast or from their on-demand library.

Facebook Page Design and Customization Apps

27. GroSocial 

GroSocial lets you start from scratch or use one of many great-looking professionally-designed templates to create Facebook tabs, timeline covers, and more. 

28. SOCI

SOCI brings your Facebook page to life with branded business pages. You can  craft custom timeline cover images with in-line editing, host micro websites on  Facebook, and more. 

29. PageModo

PageModo helps you set up a professional Facebook page for your business or organization. Customize your page with a stunning cover photo, custom welcome tab, and more in just a few minutes. 

Facebook Fan and Friend Apps

30. SelectrMe

SelectrMe manages your your Facebook fans and friend lists.

31. Fan of the Week

Fan of the Week enables fans to apply to become “fan of the week”. Other fans can then peer-to-peer vote for who should be selected — you can choose the winner manually or let the raw votes decide. 

32. LiveChat

LiveChat helps you actively engage your Facebook fans and provide them with friendly customer support. 

33. ooVoo

ooVoo facilitates video chats with up to 12 people on Facebook. You can also send video messages and record videos for your YouTube channel.

Facebook Survey and Poll Apps

34. Polldaddy

Polldaddy easily creates surveys, polls, quizzes, and rating systems.

35. Poll

Poll creates polls for your Facebook pages and improves fan engagement. 

36. Polls for Facebook

Polls for Facebook sets up polls that are multiple choice or composed of freeform questions. 

37. Cupli 

Cupli creates standard polls and surveys, and also has functionality for private interviews and different question formats . You can target by age, gender, marital status, and education, and sort respondents into groups.

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Google Officially Launches Local Results Carousel

The Google Local Carousel beta test that we saw last month is now rolling out to all U.S. users, Google announced. While the carousel has been used on tablet devices since December 2012, the carousel style results being available on a desktop is a much newer change.

With the new style of carousel listings, when a user searches for a local results, such as a restaurant or hotel, instead of the traditional vertical listings most users associate with Google search, there is now a horizontal carousel which features thumbnails, ratings, as well as the number of Google+ reviews. Users can then scroll sideways through the listings to see more results.

One of the positive things to this new carousel style for local results is that businesses who might not rank in the top two or three required to see the results above the fold, can now see their business featured very prominently, complete with an image. However, there is no guarantee that your business will be one of the ones chosen to show in the carousel. Google search ranking algorithms also apply to the listings in Google Maps in determining which businesses are featured in the carousel.

This will also mean it is that much more important for a local business to ensure that the thumbnail used for their local business listing is one that not only represents their business, but is eye-catching enough to draw searchers to their listing. Interestingly, Google’s algorithms will also decide which photo is used, although exactly what algorithms are used as unknown at this time, but they do suggest using high quality images on your Google business listing.

Google's local carousel is only available in limited verticals at this time, with hotels, restaurants, and bars being amongst the verticals included. They do say that they are looking to expand this by experimenting with different designs and interfaces.

This is currently being rolled out in the U.S. only at this time and is only available in English.

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Google Maps Gets a Brand New Look

Google has announced a revamping of Google Maps and it is much more than a few changes. It is a reworking of the entire Google Maps interface from the group up, designed to make Maps more intuitive for users.

One major change is users can now click on any area of a map, and Google will respond by showing you information about what is in the area that you could be interested in, such as restaurants, businesses, and hotels. This is designed to make it easy for visitors to see what is near a particular location, such as discovering what is located near a hotel when someone is visiting a city.

There is much more connection with Google+ and what they display on the map popups, meaning it is much more critical for businesses to make sure their Google+ page is active with correct information, including hours and photos, and user reviews of their business.

What businesses are displayed are also influenced by each user's Google+ network, highlighting specific businesses that Google+ connection have given positive reviews for. So that also makes it well worth it for businesses to promote their Google+ pages to engage users for more reviews, increasing the likelihood that their business shows up first for more people.

Google Maps search results are much more clearly added to the maps page.

For example, they included a screenshot highlighting a user searching for an Italian restaurant, it not only displays the first result as an overlay on the map, it also shows all related Italian restaurants in the area with restaurant names and short blurbs about each one.

They have also redesigned how advertisements are placed on Google Maps. Formerly, different colored pins on the map represented paid advertising versus non-paid, however, engagement wasn't that high as many users didn't understand what the different colors meant. Now, short snippets of ads are placed directly onto the map itself with the business name, alerting users to an advertisement or special deal for that business.

The new style of ads are in the testing phase and advertisers aren't being charged for ad clicks at this time. However, this ad style is for desktop only, not mobile.

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Social Search Concerns for National Multi Location Brand

Social media management can be problematic for businesses of all sizes but is arguably most complicated for large multi-location brands, particularly following the advent of Facebook Graph Search and updates to Facebook Nearby. It is now no longer sufficient for national brands to rely on one social presence at the corporate brand level.

With a new focus on local search, Facebook has upped the stakes significantly for multi-location brands. According to a comScore local search study, consumers already search locally on Facebook. The study found that Facebook was second to only Google Maps as the place people go to conduct local searches on mobile devices.

In light of these trends, national brands should respond by building out local Facebook pages for each of their many locations if they want to compete with local and national competitors in each of their markets. Only a local presence can deliver the engagement and local flavor required to penetrate Graph Search and Nearby.

Developing a social media strategy that works across all of a brand’s locations, however, is difficult, and several roadblocks should be considered before jumping in.

Management

How does a national brand manage the social media presence of hundreds or even thousands of locations? They could hand over social media management to each location or choose someone at the regional level to be responsible for a group of locations.

Carefully choosing the right person(s) to handle social media at the local level is a great step toward developing a successful localized social media strategy that can deliver a powerful presence in social search; however, it also brings up a few additional issues to consider.

Brand Integrity

How should brands ensure each location posts content that is on message and aligns with overall brand goals? The voice and frequency of posts also matter. Local fans should never be greeted by a blank Facebook page.

These challenges are multiplied when locations are allowed to handle their own social media management. Creating social media guides that clearly outline the appropriate messaging, voice, and posting frequency for a brand is critical in educating social media managers and aligning the overall social strategy.

Customer Service

Having a customer service call line won’t stop customers from asking questions (and expecting answers) via social media. Brands should have a plan in place to ensure each location understands how to appropriately respond to customer inquiries and does so promptly and positively.

Customer service issues not handled properly can become amplified very quickly across social media platforms. Left unresolved, this can hurt a brand’s image. Empowering locations’ social media managers with a plan that specifically outlines how to handle different types of customer service issues or complaints can help avoid potential problems.

Offers

When promoting offers across locations, brands should work to ensure consistency and devise a plan to verify that locations are promoting appropriate offers. Brands also need to monitor and ensure that different locations or franchisees don't undercut one another by offering differing discounts.

As brands develop their social media strategies, they should determine a process for pushing out appropriate offers to the right locations and monitor what each location promotes.

Compliance

If a brand falls under FINRA, IIROC, FSA or any other regulatory board, it must ensure its locations manage their social media in a compliant way.

Tools exist for brands to help locations manage their social media while maintaining compliance. According to FINRA executives, FINRA looks for three things when it comes to social. That the firm:

1. Has robust social media policies and procedures in place.
2. Has implemented those policies and procedures.
3. Is complying with record-keeping and retention requirements.

The importance of developing social media guidelines and procedures for a brand is critical if the brand operates in a regulated industry. When creating these policies and procedures, ensure that each location and social media manager reads them carefully and signs to verify they read them and will abide by them.

In order to be compliant, a brand also needs to enlist the use of a social archiving tool to archive both outgoing messages from all of your locations as well as third party comments. It is important to choose a tool that makes recalling this information as effortless as possible.

Corporate Content

Oftentimes brands develop content at the corporate level that can be repurposed for social media messaging. This is a great way to ensure that social media at the local level aligns with all other ongoing marketing efforts.

Pre-approved content that is localized and a chosen method for delivering this content to each location should be a part of your localized social media strategy. This content can act as the foundation to ensure regular posting so that locations that find it difficult to come up with relevant content to post won’t have empty or outdated social media feeds.

Social CRM

Social CRM tools can help automate and scale these efforts. A good social CRM tool allows brands to:

• Post to multiple locations at once.
• Host pre-approved messaging for location use.
• Streamline social monitoring for the brand.
• Ensure compliance by archiving each post and interaction for easy review.

Some social CRM tools also provide custom workflows to help automate and simplify customer service issues with social media.

Last of all, brands should look for a social CRM tool that offers insight into their social media performance across locations. If the success and return on investment of a social media strategy cannot be tracked, it’s impossible to tell if money is wasted or well spent. Social CRM tools should help brands identify which areas to focus more time and resources on in order to optimize return on investment.

Developing a successful localized social media strategy can seem overwhelming, but by implementing the tips above and seeking out a social CRM tool from a trusted partner that fits a brand’s needs, the process can be vastly simplified.

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Google+ Misconceptions: Why You Should Give it a Try

Misconceptions about Google+ could prevent people from taking advantage of a social networking platform that offers unique features and benefits. If you give up on Google+ before you give it a chance, you have probably fallen victim to these four common misconceptions.

Google+ is too difficult for the average person to use. 

Google+ has a lot of advanced features that give it a steeper learning curve than most social media sites. But that doesn't mean it's for tech geeks only. Anyone can learn how to use Google+ within minutes.

If you have a hard time understanding how Google+ works, then you can turn to the countless video lessons online. Many of them offer step-by-step directions that make Google+ easy for anyone.

Google+ is just a slightly different form of Facebook.

Google+ and Facebook have a lot in common, but they also have a lot of differences. Some of the biggest differences include:

• How you interact with people.

On Google+, you can decide to share information with certain circles of friends and colleagues. A message that goes out to your buddies about tonight's party doesn't go to your boss, too.

• Chatting features

Google+ allows video chat. Facebook also has a text chatting feature. Google+ also allows group chats whereas Facebook takes a one-on-one approach.

• Filtering and finding content

Google+ has a feature called "sparks" that will display updates on topics that interest you. Facebook gives you a steady stream of information from your friends, but it doesn't filter information in any meaningful way.

Google+ was dead before it started.

Google+ isn't the first social networking site that Google tried to create. Remember Google Buzz? It didn't even last a full year.

Google's unsuccessful history with social media sites caused a lot of people to proclaim Google+ dead before it even got started. That's worse than a misconception. It's uninformed and unfair.

The truth is that Google+ is thriving. As of January, Google+ had over 343 million active accounts, making it the second-most popular social media site in the world (sorry, Twitter). That's nowhere near Facebook's 693 million active users, but it shows tremendous growth since its release less than a year ago. Google Plus for business continues to be a powerful traffic generator.

Google+ just doesn't matter.

Chances are that Google+ has already changed the way that you use the Internet, even if you don't have an account. What else would you expect from a successful social media platform operated by one of the world's most successful tech companies?

Let's put it this way: if you use the Google search engine, then you use Google+. When you search for a restaurant, and the results page gives you a picture of the restaurant, its location on Google Maps, where you can find a menu, and reviews, that's Google+ at work.

Google+ is also reshaping the way that websites get ranked. Bloggers with Google+ accounts can create bios that help them establish authority. The more authority they have, the higher their content gets ranked.

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Apple to Drop Google Maps?

Recently Simon Baker addressed the fact that Nestoria were moving away from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap as their mapping platform provider.

Last week 9TO5 Mac reported on Apple being rumoured to have a feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application.

Apparently, Apple will drop the Google Maps program in favour of a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The app design seems to be similar to the Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it seems to be a cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

With property portals launching iPhone and iPad apps more and more, and these applications using GPS technology allowing users to search for nearby properties to buy or rent based on their current location thanks to Google Maps; how will the rumoured decision by Apple affect the property portals which have developed smart phone applications?

Companies such as Property24.com, Trulia, Zillow, HotPads and Apartments.com, among others, have recognised that the on-the-go convenience of an app allows their users greater search capability, and therefore greater movement of properties.

“Smartphones have become ubiquitous in South Africa, with many consumers relying on these devices as their primary point of Internet access,” says Property24.com’s General Manager JP Farinha. “We want to be able to offer our audience the freedom to access the full functionality of the Property24.com portal, irrespective of time and location, and the advanced features afforded by today’s smartphones have allowed us to do that and more.”

Below is the 9TO5Mac reported article:

Rough mockup showing the user-enabled 3D mode (on the right)

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

Read on after the break for all of the details!

While Apple has always had full control of the actual iOS Maps application design, the backend has belonged to Google. That will change with iOS 6 thanks to their purchases of Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9; acquisitions that Apple has used to create a complete mapping database. Now that the application is fully in-house, it is being referred to simply as “Maps” (some people call the current version Google Maps because of the backend). We reported prior to the launch of iOS 5 that Apple and Google had extended their Maps deal, and now it is obvious when that deal ends.

Signifying the application’s complete re-write is a new logo for iOS Maps: it is basically a redesigned version of the current iOS Maps icon with a view of Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop Campus, but redrawn with a new color scheme. Apple’s replacement for Google Street View will likely also be an in-house solution. C3 Technologies worked on street view capability as shown in the image above.

The most important aspect of the new Maps application is a powerful new 3D mode. The 3D mode does not come enabled by default, but users simply need to click a 3D button that is conveniently and visibly stored in the app. Perhaps under the fold like the current traffic, pin, and map view buttons. This 3D mode is said to essentially be technology straight from C3 Technologies: beautiful, realisitic graphics based on de-classified missile target algorithms. This is how the Apple acquired company C3 Technologies described their technology:

C3 Technologies is the leading provider of 3D mapping solutions, offering photo-realistic models of the world for search, navigation and geographic information systems. Since 2007 when it was spun out of the aerospace and defense company Saab AB, venture-backed C3 has redefined mapping by applying previously classified image processing technology to the development of 3D maps as a platform for new social and commercial applications. The Sweden-based company’s automated software and advanced algorithms enable C3 to rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street level photography and user generated images, that together are forever changing how people use maps and explore the world.

On the topic of C3 technologies, a few weeks ago we heard that most of the C3 Technologies top executives that came to Apple as a part of the acquisition have left for new opportunities. It is common sight in the Silicon Valley to see acquired team members leave companies once their “job is done.” The C3 Technologies team leaving just ahead of iOS integration would be similar to Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus leaving following Siri’s launch on the iPhone 4S late last year.

iOS 6 will likely be introduced at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in mid-June. We’ve heard that many versions of what will become a final iOS 6 product have been floating around Apple’s Cupertino labs (the iOS team likes to work on many projects and then pull them all together at the end of a development cycle), but those expecting major home screen changes or Android-like widgets might be disappointed… briefly, anyway.

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