Who's making money with Facebook?

Information provided by AppData

 There is a cottage industry surrounding our use of Facebook. A number of folks have figured out how to make money. 

The “gifts” you give, the “contests” you take, all contribute to someone’s bottom line. These companies have figured out how to monetize Facebook and also how to sneak in advertising using the social network “voice”. There are a number of web sites geared up for an audience of potential marketers and advertisers. 

Let’s start by thinking about the two hundred million Facebook users. Only about 60 million are US based. That’s still a lot of potential consumers.

You can track which companies are having success with web sites like AppData. On a daily basis they watch the metrics of which Facebook application is on the rise or decline. Living Social is at the top of the leaderboard, but certainly you’ll also recognize Mafia Wars and Birthday Cards. These items seem benign, except they tend to clutter up my home page. Yet they are a vehicle for marketing products and for advertisers to better understand their market.

Allfacebook is an independent web site tracking all things Facebook. They have a great application tracking/ranking page where you can look up all the various players. They also have a terrific demographic analysis tool allowing you to find your ideal demographic on Facebook.

Designed for the Facebook application developer, Inside Facebook, is a blog providing insights into the work of those that produce these apps. They have synthesized their writings into a Facebook marketing bible…essentially a step by step how to manual.

Facebook wants you to channel your advertising dollars directly to them and offer Facebook Advertising, where you can sign up and start making your offers. Their Facebook Lexicon can show an advertiser who is saying what on Facebook. Facebook Connect is an enabling technology allowing you to integrate your third party application or web site directly into Facebook for a single sign on. This portal-like thinking is very Google-like.

Facebook growth coupled with American ingenuity makes marketing and monetizing Facebook inevitable. Your company can play a part with a little constructive research into the demographics your inclined to chase. Research tools are available and others have already proved the medium worthwhile.