Sprout has released an updated publishing tool for Facebook Fan Page administrators, essentially making it easier to create and share content through your Facebook Fan Page. According to Inside Facebook, the new Sprout capabilities come through as a new application, allowing administrators to make coupons, notices and news flashes directly from their Facebook page. That content is then pushed to fans through news feeds.
What this means is that users will no longer have to add an application in order to interact at a reasonable level with the Fan Page they’ve joined. In essence, the new Sprout Publisher is a time saver for all, from administrators down to the end users. As Inside Facebook noted, this particular form of an app designed for Fan Page administrators better encourages fans to participate and interact with the fan page because of the limited commitment involved.
Which raises two key points: should more applications be standardized so that they are more interactive without so many levels of independent security checks, and are businesses being given too much slack when it comes to Facebook applications?
A more seamless integration from an application perspective would undoubtedly be a desirable perk, and this may be handy for users as well. But it would open the floodgates further for spammy applications and other applications that take advantage of such a deep and trusting relationship with the Facebook platform. Perhaps this indicates that businesses are not being given too much slack when it comes to their Facebook applications, as the bulk of the power still lies with the end user.
It’s a fine line for Facebook to walk–more active users means more potential for transactional conversions, but it also means that more users will fear the application platform all together if their experiences become to spam-induced. This highlights the plight of all major social media brands, as they look to monetize, fit within the larger corporate environment, and make users happy all the while. It’s a give and take relationship that affects us on an economic scale, reflecting social attitudes towards supply and demand and a willingness to use a product regardless of its market-level indentation.
We still haven’t figured out how far a business can push a marketing campaign on Facebook utilizing applications, public profiles and fan pages. We have yet to determine the full return on investment as far as these actions go and their branding translations for end users and consumers. But the social economy driving this development is in full force, creating a platform atop Facebook’s own platform for the purpose of providing a valuable service to business owners looking to build their brand.