Duh. Eric Eldon of Venturebeat has published an article showing how Facebook apps have helped to drive significant traffic to both Slide, HotOrNot and RockYou each of which have extremely popular Facebook applications. This is the first data to show that Facebook applications can truly help drive users to your site. One of the companies I’m currently consulting has used their application to increase their user registration. A whopping 30% of application users have visited their site and another 10% of those individuals have signed up for the site (3% in total). This is a fairly high conversion rate for any form of marketing and we are working hard on increasing this number. Since the beginning of the launch of the platform I have been saying that Facebook applications are a new weapon in the marketer’s arsenal. Once other social networks open their platforms, companies will be forced to develop on multiple platforms and that is only months away. For now though, the majority of companies should be taking advantage of the power of Facebook applications. Do I think that these user conversion numbers will decrease once the Facebook application market becomes a little more saturated? Definitely not. If you develop an effective application, you will be able to drive users to your site and gain a significant market share within Facebook. It’s as simple as that. So if you don’t have an application already, it is time to start brainstorming ideas for your Facebook app.