Facebook Apps To Add To Your Restaurant Facebook Page
May 25, 2010
Do you have a Facebook page for your restaurant yet? If so, you are probably familiar with the standard applications available with all pages, including Events, Photos and Reviews. The following list aims to introduce you to a few, less obvious applications to consider adding to your page to encourage deeper engagement from your page’s visitors:
- Static FBML allows for page customization using Facebook’s mark up language, FBML, which is very similar to HTML. Functionality is more limited than with standard HTML but you can still build fairly complex designs for custom tabs and boxes. We used this application to design the TwoTables landing page, which enabled us not only to provide a consistent look with our website but also allowed us to direct visitors to various tabs on our Facebook page that they may not otherwise have found. We were also able to provide links to pages on our website and blog to give the visitor more options to engage with our brand. TwoTables will offer more guidance on using FBML to create custom tabs for maps, menus and more in future posts, so if you’re interested in learning more, subscribe to our feed or get updates sent to you automatically via email.
- YouTube Channel and Photo Gallery from Involver add visual functionality to your restaurant’s page. If you’ve already set up a YouTube channel for restaurant videos, then the YouTube app allows you to add a tab to your page that will update automatically whenever a new video is added to your channel. Photo Gallery allows for uploading of photos to be displayed in a carousel format. Both of these are free, however you do have to register with Involver to activate.
- Extended Info is a flexible app that enables administrators to add more information to their company profile that the standard info section provided by Facebook. We’ve used this application to better explain our mission and services to our page’s visitors. Restaurant marketers could easily use this app to add their menu, detailed driving directions or any other information that doesn’t fit into the standard Facebook info tab.
- Promotions from Wildfire is the only app included on this list that is not free however they do offer an affordable option for small businesses. Promotion Builder allows page administrators to quickly and easily set up a campaign for sweepstakes, surveys, coupons and more.
- For restaurants that offer online reservations, OpenTable has an app that allows your fans & visitors to book a table without ever leaving Facebook. Very handy!
- For those that use Contant Contact to manage their email marketing campaigns, they offer an application that allows users to sign up for your email list directly from Facebook.
Of course, the caveat when adding any Facebook application, either for your business page or personal profile, is that you authorize the application to have access to all the information you make available within Facebook. That said, you can easily remove any application with one click if you find it is not useful or if it is invasive.
What apps have you added to your Facebook restaurant page? Are there any applications that you would like to see offered that aren’t currently available? Let us know by leaving a comment to this post.
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