By Ellyn Angelotti
Interactivity Editor
Since I added the New York Times News Quiz Facebook Application to my Facebook page last fall, I have been envisioning what kind of Poynter Facebook Application we might create. But even with my basic HTML and programming skills, I cowered when I looked at the source code of a Facebook Application.
Until last week. We now have a Facebook Application that enables Facebook users to access Romenesko’s latest news from their profile page on Facebook.
How I did it
I’ve been checking out how news organizations create and utilize Facebook applications. A couple of weeks ago, I found some inspiration when I opened the San Jose Mercury News’ “Rethinking the Merc” application (the last post to this blog was in March). When clicked on the “About” page, I saw this:
Could I really make a Facebook Application in merely a few clicks?
I went to the Widgetbox Web site and saw I could make a Facebook Application based on RSS widgets. I thought, “I can do this.” (We created an iGoogle page of widgets based on Poynter content last summer.)
Widgetbox walks you through the process of making a widget. After you’ve created a widget in Widgetbox, log in to your Facebook account and Widgetbox walks you through the process of creating a Facebook application. Once you have five users, you can submit your application to the Facebook gallery for other Facebook users to find.
Learning from the Traffic
We wanted to use this application to learn more about the best vehicles to drive traffic to Poynter Online using a Facebook application.
I tracked two groups of Facebook users:
2. “Fans” — those who say they like the application.
Here was the strategy we pursued and what happened as a result:
Result: The next day, there were 16 fans without any promotion other than Facebook friends seeing other friends add the application to their page.
Action: Friday, April 11 at 2 p.m., I posted an update to the Poynter Facebook group.
Result: By the next morning, Saturday, the first statistics for how many people had added the application became available. Thirty-six Facebook users added Romenesko to their page Friday, 23 added the application on Saturday and 56 more Sunday. By Monday morning, 80 users had become fans of the App.
Action: Monday, April 14 I posted a link to the Journalists and Facebook group that includes 7,466 Facebook members.
Result: Seventy-one Facebook users added the application between Monday morning and Tuesday morning. Fifteen more people became fans of the application.
Action: Tuesday, April 15 I added a Facebook badge and link to the application on Romenesko’s column on Poynter.org.
Result: The number of users who added the application reached its highest point Wednesday morning with 102 adding. By Thursday morning 73 more users added the application. In this time 22 users became fans of the application.
Action: On the afternoon of Thursday, April 17 Colleen Eddy, the Career Center director, and I created a Facebook ad promoting the Romenesko Facebook application.
Result: Thursday and Friday, 89 people added the application. In this same time period, there were 15 new fans of the application.
View this graph visualizing the number of Facebook users who have added the Romenesko Facebook application to their page:
We saw the largest number of Facebook users add the application after we added the Facebook badge to the Romenesko page on Poynter Online.
The graph below shows the number of Facebook users who have become new fans of the Romenesko Facebook application each day since it’s launch:
We saw the greatest number of new fans 48 hours after we first introduced the application. I think this is because the people we made the application available to first were some of the Facebook users who are loyal Poynter users (and many Poynter employees).
What Needs Work
There are a couple of things that are not perfect. For example, I haven’t found a way to control the ads Facebook places above the application I create. We were less than impressed with some of the ads displayed (see an example of the less-than-desirable ads below):
Also, when someone adds my application to their page, they add a “badge” to their page. They are still one click away from the feed. Once they click the badge then they can access the Romenesko column feed.
My former Scripps colleague, Brian Bruce, has also created a Facebook application for HGTVpro.com, a site for those interested in remodeling their homes. HIs application aggregates these resources and allows Facebook users to access them from their Facebook page and share them with others.
