Help! Need Ideas for "Biggest Loser" Facebook App

6 replies
I have a Facebook App called Slim Contest Login | Facebook

Basically it is just like the weight-loss competition TV show on NBC "The Biggest Loser". Once you install the app in your facebook you can invite other friends to your competition and at the end of 8 weeks whomever loses the highest percentage of weight wins.

It has several "viral" elements to it:
1. you invite friends to your contest, and in turn those people can invite other friends to their contests
2. you can add the app to your profile and tabs which shows the contest standings and theoretically sparks interest in the program.

I've been running it for several months now, and people that are on it seem to really like it.

However, it only has ~250 installs.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can market this better?

I'd like to increase the installs first and then introduce either weight-loss CPA ads or maybe even CB products or whatever.

Anyone have any experience or insight with facebook apps?

Thanks!
Kent
#app #biggest loser #facebook #ideas
  • Profile picture of the author DrewG
    I honestly have no idea on how to promote apps, but since it has a 'viral' nature to it, hopefully someone with a huge friends list promotes it =)

    Other methods I would use if I had an app - maybe create a Facebook group dedicated to fans of The Biggest Loser, and promote your app via the group.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedMatrix
    Have you tried tweeting about it? Have you tried a lens?
    Signature

    ~Dave

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  • Profile picture of the author arnoldsmithh
    The best way to market app is just give links to people on facebook via messages and place link at your home page. facebookster.com/blog also try to place your app link daily in facebook status so whenever you update it, it will goes to everyone of your friends and if your friends like that then they will sure join and send request to other 20 people in their friendlist.
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    • Profile picture of the author halfpoint
      - Message the owners of various weight loss groups within Facebook and ask them to send a message out to the other members of the group.

      - Participate within the same groups and build relationships with members and then ask them to join.

      - Make (or outsource) an enticing banner and then network through various weight loss forums with the banner in your signature.

      - Make videos advertising it and submit it on all the big video sites. (Use Tubemogul)

      - Offer incentives for participating in it (Prizes for winners, etc)
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      • Profile picture of the author appsrus
        Hello Kent

        I develop and run Facebook applications for (part) of my living, and I'd be glad to offer my expertise here...

        I've used Facebook to generate over $500,000 in the past year, and a large portion of this income was due to Facebook apps.

        The SINGLE most important thing you can do to make sure that your Facebook app will grow itself is to make sure you are FULLY UTILIZING the most recent viral integration points that the site offers.

        Not to put anybody who responded above down, but I didn't see a single solid piece of advice on marketing a Facebook app above... It is of course the thought that counts, and they obviously had good intentions when posting here (aside from arnoldsmith, who only seems interested in promoting his blog, and FB development service ) but the bottom line is that most of these techniques will simply not work.

        This is the best piece of advice I see in the above posts:

        Originally Posted by Pat Jackson View Post

        - Message the owners of various weight loss groups within Facebook and ask them to send a message out to the other members of the group.
        The key thing to remember, is that your app exists on Facebook, and that users MUST be logged into Facebook to access it. So advertising any place else is simply a waste of your time. Yes, some users may join if you do this, but when you send a user who is not currently logged into Facebook to your app Canvas URL, they will first be re-directed to login to Facebook, then if they do this, they'll be directed to 'Allow' your app, then finally, if they choose to do both of these things, they can get in.

        Obviously you are wasting your energy promoting your link when people will have to jump through both of these hoops just to get there. And of course many Interent users still don't (remarkably) have Facebook accounts, so your efforts would be completely lost on these users.

        So the point is..... promote your app within Facebook! It's certainly not hard when you know what you're doing

        There are two possible routes to take:

        1) Buy PPC advertising. I would recommend the Cubics network. You can get international clicks there for about $.05-$.08 each. Solid. You can get US, UK, CA, and AU clicks there for about $.11-$.18 each. Still REALLY cheap. One thing to keep in mind is that Facebook is a GLOBAL community, and user's activities are shared with one another automatically. The point is, many US FB users have Friends in other countries, where the clicks may be cheaper than in the US. For example I have Friends in India, Bangladesh, China, and all sorts of other countries where I can advertise to for much cheaper than I can in the US. I get updates about what these users are doing just as frequently as I get updates about my US Friends, although of course I have many more of them overall.... The point I'm trying to make though, is that FB does NOT discriminate Feeds or activity updates by country. If you have a Friend from some other country, you WILL still get updates about what they've been doing on FB, in your Feeds, on your News Feed page, etc.. So in essence, buying clicks in other countries where they are cheaper is still a very effective way to grow your apps, especially in the beginning. It's true that ad clicks from these users won't earn as much as US users will, but they will still grow your app and expose it to other users. At a MUCH cheaper initial cost. Again, Facebook does not discern between countries. A user is a user to them, and likewise to your application statistics. So I use these international clicks in the beginning as an easy way to build an enormous userbase, which will in turn give your application more exposure in Facebook's viral channels and cause more users to join it more rapidly. I think everyone can agree that 10,000 users using an app with viral features will create more (and more rapid) growth than an app with a userbase of 1000 people using it. Of course, if money is no object, forget what I just said and go straight for the US/UK/AU/CA users. They will make you more money. The bottom line though is that no matter who you advertise to, the viral effect of the app, if it's well designed... will eventually filter into other countries and userbases due to the fact that Facebook connects people around the world.

        2. Organic Promotion.If you don't have promotional/advertising cash to spend, you can still grow your app quite effectively simply by utilizing Facebook features like Groups and Pages. You WILL need multiple accounts loaded up with Friends to do this, but it's not a difficult task. Check out one of our free videos here: Get Thousands Of Facebook Friends Instantly! Facebook Marketing Tips To Make You Money that will show you EXACTLY how you can do this with very little effort. Be warned it is the equivalent of spamming users, but I have absolutely no qualms about using this method, and in fact use it everyday. There is no risk of being banned by Facebook for doing this, and it's up to the users as to whether or not they add you as a Friend or not, so don't feel bad using it. Once you have built up accounts with decent sized user-bases, you can literally promote ANYTHING on Facebook this way, apps are just the tip of the iceberg. To sum this up though, create some accounts, get friends, create Groups and Pages about your app, promote it on your accounts loaded up with Friends. From this point it all just depends on whether or not your app is worth using...

        Damn this is getting long.... Hope it helps!

        take care,

        Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author appsrus
    Just re-read your post and noticed it says nothing about the app sending notifications or Feeds out when people use it. This is your first mistake.

    Without adding support for these viral integration points you are wasting your time promoting your app.

    First add these features, then promote it, and the app will start working for itself.

    Without adding these things, your 'app' may as well be a 'website'.. nobody pays attention to Invites on FB these days.... it's not 2007 anymore
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