• 80,585 Facebook applications as of 2009-05-13



• Top most active applications were Living Social, Rock You Live and Movies

• Importance of an architecture of social entertainment

• Tips on application type, title, description, newsfeeds, icon, request/invitations, notification, email and spam

As of 13 May 2009, there were 80,585 applications constructed on Facebook, with hundreds being added each day. The 3 most active applications were Living Social, Rock You Live and Movies respectively. These successfully viral applications on Facebook, all bore a common hallmark, which is they were built upon an architecture of social entertainment.

An application not only creates an element of fun and gets users involved with your brand, it's also a great driver in generating traffic to your site. Best of all, it is achieves excellent cost efficiency with the results it can produce.

Here are some tips to creating an awesome application that will hopefully plaster the walls of users who would readily adopt your application very soon!

Application Type

First and foremost, you'll have to decide on the type of application that suits best: web or desktop depending on whether you want the user to download it or use it only on the web.

Application Title

An interesting title will stick in people's minds when they talk about and recommend applications to their friends. Come up with one that is descriptive, memorable and sets your application apart.

Application Description

Just as important is the description of your application. Make use of convincing copy that describes the highlights of your application to entice the user to add it.

Newsfeeds

Live News Feeds literally feed updates of other users on a member's home page, and this is an excellent way to get people to notice your application. Designing your application to publish News Feeds can vastly increase the presence of your application.

Choose only interesting and exciting events to broadcast, and not just everything. Decide on the title, body and images of your News Feed and work around with the text and image limits to produce a front page worthy feed!

Application Icon

A 16 X 16 icon size on the application menu only allows for a simple one, but that doesn't mean it can't be memorable. Pick an image that users can identify you by.

With a more generous 64 X 64 icon specification for the product category, you have more space to create a graphic icon that best represents your application. Remember that an inviting visual is just as important in trying to attract users!

Requests/Invitations

A fun application users enjoy will have the ability to work its own magic when users invite their friends to use your application. This is an excellent way in which your application can gain popularity. However, users cannot send more than 20 requests or invitations per day for each application.

Notifications

Notifications, sent in response to application activity, is a way in which you can maintain a relationship with your users. This is another way you can entice new users to adopt your application; use action-oriented words that will encourage a response from other users to click on your application.

However, bear in mind that spam control is in place when sending notifications sent to non-users.

Emails

You can also send simple emails to your application's users to encourage them to use your application more. Ideally, you should send out an email update to your users every week, as well as on special events or dates.

Spam

Be careful about having spam hinder your efforts as if your application could be blocked from users if it generates spam. An excessive amount of notifications sent to non-application users would trigger the alarm and your application could face blockages and receive a warning.

After you've constructed your application, you will need to garner five users or more before submitting it to Facebook for approval, after which it will show up in the application listing upon approval.

A strong application concept, backed by the ability to understand and fully utilize these components can result in a phenomenal application that might just take the community by storm, like what some popular applications have achieved.