Facebook App Best Practices

The folks at the Three Minds blog have a great post up about advertisers and Facebook Applications. Just as Second Life is home to numerous advertiser locations without a soul in site, advertiser created Facebook Applications are starting to become deserted islands, with little to no usage. Here are five key guidelines they spell out for advertisers wanting to create a Facebook App:

1. Don't start a new version of something that's already popular
2. Don't overcomplicate the concept or interface
3. Don't extend a campaign without thinking about the social context
4. Don't separate your fans, reach them where they already exist

Great guidelines for the agency or advertiser wanting to get involved. I would add the following in addition:

1. Don't require invites to use your application
2. Don't require registration at your website to use the application
3. Don't send users outside of Facebook unless you have to

Here are a few valuable questions to ask as you're concepting the application:

• Would a user want to display this app in their profile? (remember, this is optional)
• Are you giving them a reason to interact with the application frequently?
• Will they really want to forward this application to a friend?
• Have you included funds or plans to drive usage of the application?

And a couple technical questions:

• If your app becomes a huge success, can your hosting handle the traffic?
• Are you building the application in a way that it can be utilized in other social networking formats?

Thanks to Three Minds @ Organic for a great conversation starter!