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This week we were proud to launch a Facebook application for Number 10 Downing Street. The communications team at Number 10 are making fantastic use of social media, in particular Twitter and Youtube and now with this application, Facebook. In addition to announcing the launch, this post is to introduce the core functions of the application to give you an idea of what can be done on the Facebook platform.

The aim of the Number 10 Facebook application was to aggregate content from their existing channels into an easy digestible format for users on Facebook. In the application we aggregate three different types of media (text, photo and video) from three different sources which I will take you through.

The top of the application features the latest tweet from the Number 10 Twitter account.  This auto refreshes every minute to ensure the application features the most up to date tweet, which is necessary given the frequency of updates that are made to the Number Twitter account.

The next content area in the application features the latest news headlines from the Number 10 website. To do this we rely on the RSS feature of the Number 10 site and again refresh this on a regular basis to ensure it features the latest news. Each news item features the headline of the piece, the time it was posted and the first sentence of the news piece itself. To read the full story the user is encouraged to visit the Number 10 site. In addition to the latest news section, the app also features two other RSS feeds from the Number 10 site; e-petitions and Speeches and Transcripts.

As well as text content, the application also features the latest photo and video content. For the photo content, we pull in the latest photos from the Number 10 account on flickr. The application displays the latest 12 photo thumbnails from the flickr account and to see a larger version of any of the photos or to see further back in the Number 10 photo archive the user can follow a link back to the flickr account. For the video content we display the latest video from Number 10 TV. Originally this was a feed of videos from the Number 10 channel on YouTube, but for the final version we opted to use the Brightcove video player from the Number 10 website.

To help the application spread, we have built in two Facebook functions. The first is friend invite which allows a user to send up to 20 invitations to the application while the second enables the user to easily add the application to their profile where, being in a prominent position, it will be seen by visitors to that profile.

On the subject of profiles, the application integrates with three different parts of a user’s profile. The first is as a tab. This allows the user to add a full version of the application to their profile. The second is a box, which also allows customisation of a smaller version of the app which is displayed in the boxes section of the users profile. The final place and possibly the most prominent is the profile box which features the latest number 10 tweet and is positioned alongside a users wall.

Another new feature of the Facebook application platform that we took advantage of was enabling a user to view the application before signing in to Facebook and without installing the application. We felt this was important as following a link from the Number 10 site to the application and being asked to sign in and install an application before knowing what the application is or does wouldn’t be the best user experience.

If you are interested in other Facebook applications we’ve developed, why not check out our portfolio or have a look at the Facebook application services page. If you’re looking for more information about Facebook applications, you can also have a read some of our other blogs posts about Facebook applications. If you are looking to engage with your audience and new audiences on Facebook, why not give us a call to see what we can come up with.