Successful Facebook Applications Use Calls to Action

In a previous post, we discussed using Calls To Action (CTA’s) within notifications, however, some application developers are using CTA’s in other ways within their applications. Matt Davies of Fadtastic defines a CTA as: “…a section of text which tells the user to do something. For example…the famous ‘click here’.” Used within Facebook applications, CTA’s are small additions that may very well have a big impact on application adoption and user retention because, as you’ll see, some of the most successful applications on Facebook are using CTA’s.

 Click to Play 

The first type of CTA that we’ve noticed is adding a flag on the application information page that points out what the user needs to click in order to start using the application. Playfish uses this type of CTA with all of their applications along with Playfish’s Geo Challenge includes the CTA “Click here to play!” SuperPoke! also uses the (now outdated) CTA “Click ‘Add Application’ to install!” The examples above are subtle, but they still help to convey what the user should do in order to start using an application on a page that is somewhat complex. Bookmark this Application The next type of CTA that we’ve seen is important when it comes to helping users find your application quickly and easily the next time they login to Facebook: bookmarking your application. Playfish, again, is using this call to action in all of their applications along with SuperPoke!, Pieces of Flair and Texas Hold’em Poker: Playfish’s Geo Challenge bookmark CTA Playfish places this image at the bottom of their application’s loading screen (it goes away once the application has fully loaded). As you can see, they’ve placed it directly above of the actual bookmark bar (obviously the position of the image is dependent upon the size of the browser window, but most of the image seem to match up fairly well in a 1024×768 browser window). SuperPoke! bookmark CTA SuperPoke! includes the above CTA in Step 1 of how to use their application. Pieces of Flair Pieces of Flair includes the tip above at the top of their application. Texas Hold’em Poker Similarly Texas Hold’em Poker includes a tip to their users at the top of their application, however, they take it a step further by including a short animation showing how to bookmark their application (a still shot of this animation can be seen in the center of the image above).

 Add to Profile 

 Another CTA that we’ve seen is to add an application to the user’s profile. Bumper Sticker uses this type of CTA and it is really an essential part of keeping their application visibility high within the new Facebook design: Bumper Sticker’s add to profile CTA CTA’s like the examples above could prove to be an important part of creating a successful Facebook application. While designing your applications, you may want to consider including some of the CTA’s we’ve looked at above.