What makes a good facebook application? I tend to get asked this question on a regular basis (daily), so I decided to use technology to actually save me my voice.

First, one must define “good”. Good is a subjective term. As an example: I hate Zombies, it is not a “valuable” application in my opinion. It has millions of users, so it might be a success depending on what the owners objectives are. It is viral as hell (that is good).

In my assessment it is really just a pyramid type of app (which could be considered good depending on the objectives). It has good carrier mechanisms. It does not engage me and keep me coming back to a canvas page for more (bad).

I un-installed it in 1 day (bad). So it’s long term and engagement value is nominal. It is a flash in the pan in my opinion. A facebook application that is like a flu virus, it hits me and I recover and I am inoculated from infection again.

So one must stop, look at the business metrics for measurement of success, and determine what is required to provide the most likely path to success. What is the end goal? Always start at the end. Most people tend to start with an idea. Wrong!. Start at the end and determine the objective. Only then can you determine what the application must do.

What is the objective of the facebook application? Raw number of users? Repeat visitors to canvas pages and continual engagement? Profile page real estate? One dimensional applications that are highly viral that people use once and never use again? Engaged users? Monetization model? etc. I suspect that raw number of installs of an application will become a nominal metric in the future. This is the fools ways to measure a “good” application.

Good App Common Points: In my own opinion
Ability to bring users back to canvas pages on a regular basis for some sort of engagement.
Repeat usage with a reason to return that adds value to the user.
Ability to connect with the user and allow them to share their behavior.
Mini-feed updates based upon user action
Invite ability
Attachment ability
Notification ability
Ability to leverage and engage my facebook connections to add value
Reduced points of friction for knowledge sharing
Ability to make my life better (efficiency, data stream, content sharing, connections or entertainment value)

The bottom line is you need to set the criteria for measurement. Only then will you know if your application is “good”.

We happen to own several applications that are somewhat one dimensional and do not follow all of these points laid out above (the first point is where they fall short primarily). They are not amazing applications. But they are a success because they have met the business objectives laid out for them to be measured by. I tend to be a bit critical of them. Some have 6+ thousand users. All are roughly equally successful based upon why they were built (as test cases for the facebook ecosystem and framework development).

The take away here: Build useful applications that engage users and you have the greatest chance of long term success and monetization.

p.s. I wrote this blog post 60+ days ago and sat on it to see if my thoughts at the time would still ring true. What do you think makes a good facebook application?

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