Facebook fbFund winner Wildfire is launching the private beta of its web application, The Wildfire Promotion Builder, which allows companies to create their own branded interactive promotions, including contests, coupons, sweepstakes and giveaways. Using Facebook Connect combined with the power of the application, companies can simultaneously publish promotion campaigns on the designated “promotions tab” on the company’s Facebook page and on the company’s website (campaigns can also be simultaneously run on MySpace, Bebo, and other standalone websites).
Wildfire is giving out beta invites for the first 500 Techcrunch readers who sign up here. To be eligible, TechCrunch readers should write “Techcrunch” in the “How did you hear about us?” field at the bottom of the form.
Wildfire’s Promotion Builder application is a simple way for companies to cross-promote across various social networks while still taking advantage of the viral nature and rising dominance of Facebook as the top social network. The promotions tab could complement the recent Facebook redesign of company pages to look more like profile pages. Wildfire charges a fee of $0.99 per campaign per day for sweepstakes and coupon campaigns and $2.99 per day for user generated video and photo contests. The startup also offers a premium service that includes custom design features.
Coupons, sweepstakes and giveaways are a good way to engage consumers and Facebook seems to think so as well. The social network has used Wildfire’s brand promotion apps to run multiple contests on the site. In fact, the consumer voting application Facebook used to vote on the the fbFund winners was actually created by Wildfire. In December, Wildefire won $250,000 in cash grants from Facebook’s fbFund, a joint venture between Facebook, Accel, and the Founders Fund meant to cultivate and reward innovative applications on the Facebook platform.
Here’s a screenshot that shows the application used in the new Facebook “page more like a profile” format:
Cool!!!
Company pages on Facebook are a joke. At least these seem like widgets, so you can publish them on pages that are actually going to get views.
I gotta disagree with that. It took a little while but we’ve seen some good traffic starting to accumulate on our company page as well as interaction through the wall and traffic coming into our site…. And that was before the redesign paged that just launched. Biggest advantage of having the facebook page is when somebody becomes your fan it shows up in the news feed for all their friends so the potential to dramatically increase your brand awareness and fan base with no effort on your part is pretty cool.
I imagine you are a Social Brand Strategist or something ridiculous like that.
I take that back. I see you work for a Brewery. I’ve never tasted your product, but I loves me some beer.
good one
Great idea.
Thoughts from a past FB app developer (Officebook)
1. There is no place for anything serious on FB. Users are primarily there to check out what their friends are up to. Status and photos are the key attractions.
2. With the 2nd rev of the FB homepage redesign, FB has pretty much killed the effectiveness of any application.
3. There is no way to make any money on FB apps.
#3 — ROFL all the way to the bank.
Iiiinteresting.
good
There are federal and state laws that people holding sweepstakes, contests, coupons, etc., must follow.
Does Wildfire ensure that those are adhered to or is it up to the companies/individuals using their promotion builder application to know what the laws are and that they are properly implemented?
Thanks for your question! For those companies that wish to have assistance with rules drafting, fulfillment, etc Wildfire Promotion Builder provides this service. For those companies that do not choose this service it is up to them to provide their own rules and ensure compliance with federal and state laws. In this second case, Wildfire Promotion Builder acts as a technology platform only.
You guys are not delivering the invites. Why?
What a great service
great! I will have a try this service.
I filled the invite form and it has been days and there is no invite from wildfire. Not even a mail stating when is the expected time I might get an invite. Why spread a message that they are giving invites but actually not ready to give one?
Hey Catch 5, thanks for your comment. We gave away 500 invites to TechCrunch readers and I guess you didn’t make the first 500. Can you email me at alain [at] wildfireapp [dot] com with your info and I’ll send you an invite? Thanks, Alain
Great idea, but let’s se the campaigns effectiveness.
I´m not sure…
Great idea! Good!
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