Use Business Apps to Stand Out on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

In this connected world, you need to create profiles on popular social media that attract your target audiences, engage them, track their activities and entice them to come back to your brand frequently. There are apps on the three most popular social media sites that can help you manage all these tasks.

Facebook

Apps are designed to enhance your visitors’ experience on your Facebook page with engaging games and useful features. You can use apps to share interesting content, recognize and encourage fan participation and provide other value to your community. Explore and add apps from the App Center to find interactive games and social apps that fit your business interests.

Fan of the week Add an extra layer of interaction to your Facebook page by showcasing a "fan of the week". Fans can apply to be picked. Other fans can then vote which fan they think should get the coveted title. The elected person can either be automatically chosen or an admin can make the choice manually. Domino’s Pizza UK asks fans to upload their photos from which they choose “Fan of the Week”. This initiative boosts interaction and motivates followers to share their interesting moments with the brand, in turn providing fresh user-generated content to the Facebook page.

To add this feature to your page, just go to http://apps.facebook.com/fanofthe/ and then choose the page where you will add it. The app will automatically post to your Facebook wall at the same time every week, so do this for the first time at exactly the time you would like it to post going forward.

PostPlanner PostPlanner is an app specifically designed for managing content on Facebook. There are other scheduling tools such as SocialOomph, HootSuite or TweetDeck, but none have the capability to schedule posts with pictures or videos. Another unique aspect to the app is its content discovery engine. You enter keywords that are relevant to your industry and PostPlanner displays recent content that you can sort by popularity (i.e., with the most shares/likes). The tool comes at a cost of $4.95/month to post to pages, but is worth the small price to keep track of your post schedule. Do not forget to check back into the conversation from time to time. PostPlanner also has a white-label version so you can customize the app name and send people who click on it to your website instead of sending them to an application.