Apps that make friends
Facebook applications deliver that much-beloved engagement factor -- and marketers have begun to demonstrate that these interactions translate into better awareness and actually boost sales.
Facebook Connect, launched in December 2008, enables applications to perform double-duty as display ads. When you add an application, Facebook lets everyone know about it by automatically placing a comment in your news feed -- the running list of all actions you've performed (and opted to make public). In other words, the marketing content is passively distributed without the user having to choose to share it -- and at no additional cost to the marketer.
Because of the somewhat random nature of many users' lists of "friends" (which often include people they've never met), brands have an opportunity, simply by showing up in the news feed, to gain exposure to consumers who lie outside the expected target.
Let's take a look at how five brands made new friends.
