Three years ago, Strutta released a do-it-yourself builder for marketers to create and run online contests. Our goal was to build a platform that would bring the power of social media to brands and communities. We wanted to help create positive environments online where people could share bright ideas, showcase unique content, and get recognition for their skills and efforts.

Back then, social media was a fresh notion in the marketing landscape and Facebook was still developing its business model to accommodate its rapidly growing and diversifying user base. Robert Scoble had impeccable foresight in 2009 when he noted, "We are moving from phase four to phase five right now...Phase 5 [All people and businesses in the social graph] is known as when Facebook is really going to find its business model."

Fast forward to today. Strutta is a Facebook Preferred Developer Consultant that offers a range of DIY tools for marketers, custom development services, and an API. Most brands recognize that social media activity is necessary for growth. And Facebook, now pushing past phase 5 as Scoble called it, has evolved to become the ultimate social networking (and marketing) site with about 850 million active users worldwide.

While there is no shortage of Facebook App developers and third-party vendors nowadays, we saw an opportunity to provide for those who want more than the lower end "cookie cutter" apps and the higher priced enterprise social media management systems. Enter Mighty Apps. Our new suite of social apps for businesses on Facebook, is true to Strutta's founding belief in the power of social media for brands and communities and is a solution for brand-conscious marketers.

All hands at Strutta were on deck in the making of Mighty Apps. Here's a glimpse at how they came to be:

We’d like to thank all those who helped us along the way (shout out to Icon Factory for realizing our Mighty Apps and Power Promos icons!).

To learn more about Mighty Apps or to try them out for free on your Facebook Page, visit strutta.com.

We're thrilled to announce the launch of Mighty Apps! Our fresh new suite of social apps has been specifically designed for Facebook Timeline Pages.

Mighty Apps makes it easier than ever to create professional looking apps and easily launch them to your Facebook Page. You'll get the world-class design that Strutta is known for with an intuitive do-it-yourself interface to build and manage everyday touch points for your fans on Facebook.

All five Mighty Apps are packed with tons of great features. Here are some ways they can help drive conversions and brand engagement with exclusive offers and interactive fun.

• Bulletin Board: Share content, stories and news, add Twitter and RSS feeds, and more.
• Coupon: Reward your fans and customers with exclusive deals.
• Form: Capture data, feedback, contacts and sign-ups.
• Media Gallery: Showcase your Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo content.
• Voting Gallery: Run a fun and engaging voting competition or poll.

The entire application is served in a seamless HTML5 interface that uses modern web techniques to their full potential. We always aspire to create a rich and delightful user experience, and this latest iteration delivers just that.

You can publish and fan-gate any or all of the included apps on an unlimited number of Pages with an unlimited number of fans all for a single subscription fee. And keep your eye out for new apps to come!

On top of expanding our suite of tools for social media marketing, we’ve introduced a new look to strutta.com, completely redesigned our builder and enhanced our campaign management tools.

Here are just some of the improved features you'll find in your Strutta account:

• Easier Access: Revised navigation, with a handy toolbar for quick access everywhere.
• New Dashboard: See all of your live campaigns at a glance and compare important metrics.
• More Analytics: Expanded reports for campaign activity, history and demographics.

Whether using Mighty Apps or our promotions builder for contests and sweepstakes, our new dashboard puts all the flexibility of Strutta at your fingertips to build and track your campaign. We've also streamlined the way you set up Facebook Pages and Apps with a new Facebook Page manager. Strutta connects directly to your Facebook account, so you can launch new promotions with a single click.

The entire Strutta team is really proud of what we’ve developed. We encourage you to have a look around and let us know what you think! We can't wait to see how you use our new products to create even more social experiences for your fans on Facebook and beyond!

If you’re attending #SXSW,
We’d like to wish you all of the best!
Back in Vancouver we’re watching online
While working on apps for FB Timeline!

Have fun, learn lots and stay safe out there!

Update: We've switched our Product Demo Page on Facebook to Timeline. Here you can take a look at what existing Strutta-powered contests and promotions look like in Timeline while imagining your own creative campaign. We will be making future updates to our platform (for new promotions launched after March 30th) to fully optimize the new layout, but all existing Strutta promotions will work seamlessly when you switch your Page to Timeline. We have included some suggestions below for how to take full advantage!

Following the introduction to Timeline for profiles at Facebook's f8 conference last year, the announcement of Timeline for businesses at yesterday's fMC event in New York comes as no surprise.

The Facebook Timeline layout and new features fundamental shifts the way brands and consumers interact on Facebook. At fMC Facebook's Director of Global Marketing addressed the question of how we "make brands social" by outlining four dimensions of social: Connect, Engage, Influence and Integrate.

All brand Pages will convert to Timelines on March 30th whether you’re ready or not. So be ready! You have T-30 days to learn what's new with Facebook and to optimize your brand's Timeline!

Transitioning promotions and apps to Facebook Timeline:

Are Strutta's solutions optimized for marketing on Facebook Timeline?
Yes absolutely! Our existing products will work swiftly on Facebook Timeline as-is, and you can be sure that they will be ready to rock on Facebook Timeline when the time comes. We're actually working on a full suite of social apps designed specifically for Facebook Timeline. We'll be releasing them by the end of March. You can learn more and sign up for front of line access to them at strutta.com.

What does this mean for Strutta-powered promotions and apps?
The biggest change to the new Facebook Timeline for businesses is the UI, and how brands communicate with consumers. The functionality of promotions and apps remain the same. You can switch to the Timeline layout on any Page you'll see that everything works the same. All existing apps and any apps launched between now and March 30th will be fully functional whether your brand is on the Page or Timeline layout. Tab apps and Canvas apps will simply appear centered in the new 810 pixel tab.

What will happen to Strutta-powered promotions and apps on March 30th?

All campaigns will automatically transition to the new tab dimension of 810 pixels. There's nothing you need to do in terms of ensuring our app will still work on your Timeline. See tips on how to position and optimize your promotion on Timeline below.

What else do I need to know about Facebook Timeline?
See curated resources on Facebook's Timeline for businesses and other news from yesterday's fMC.

Optimizing your promotion on your brand's Facebook Timeline:

What do I do about my promotion now that there are no more Tabs and default landing Tabs?
Instead of being listed as small icons on the left hand side on your Page, your promotion's app will appear in your Timeline's Views and Apps area (see Redbull's Timeline above). When you switch to Timeline you can order 3 of 4 top apps to display, so include your promotion there if you wish. Otherwise your promotion will only be accessible when a user clicks the drop down option to see all apps. If you have a custom app you may want to upload a new tab image sized 111 x 74 pixels.

What’s the best way to promote my campaign in the Timeline layout?
Facebook's Timeline and new tools offer a great opportunity for even better campaign positioning. "Pinned Posts" lets you pin a specific post at the top of the timeline so you can use that for any promotional announcements. With pinning, you can anchor the most important story to the top of your page for up to seven days. It’s perfect for promoting sweepstakes, contests, and promotions. Plus, it’s visible to both fans and non-fans. The new "Reach Generator" allows a post to appear in the ad space on the right side of the home page, so users can interact with the post as if they were on the brand's page directly. We highly encourage the use of these new tools!

What is happening with fan-gating?
Fan-gating or Like-gating is supported with existing and new apps for Pages! (Note: There was a bug with this feature when Timeline launched but as of March 6th it has been resolved)

As Facebook Preferred Developers, we're excited to be among the first to provide integrated solutions for marketing on Facebook Timeline. Let us know if you have any questions about our products (new or existing), or how to really take advantage of Facebook Timeline's for your promotions!

Final Update from Ben -- The day started off with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg addressing the crowd and wrapped up with an inspiring performance by Alicia Keys, who entertained the packed house in the Museum of American History.

In between a variety of Facebook executives and marketing leaders from major brands and agencies took to the stage to share their perspectives. One major theme was emphasized throughout the day: that social marketing is the evolution from ads to stories, where people are no longer being "talked at" by advertisers but are a part of the conversation. This was the guiding premise behind Facebook's new Reach Generator and Facebook Premium, where wall posts will now be featured in advertising positions on Facebook and actively invite people to interact as if they were on the brand page itself.

Mike Fox, Facebook's Director of Global Marketing addressed the question of how we "make it social" by outlining four dimensions of social: Connect, Engage, Influence and Integrate. At Strutta we are very much aligned with these four pillars.

• Connecting is about building a fan base, which our apps can help facilitate.
• Engaging is about a series of interactions with your fans over time, which should include a mixture of interactions on page and through fun, engaging applications.
• Influence is tapping in to the power of your fan base to realize "word of mouth at scale." This can be accomplished through some of Facebook's new advertising solutions but also when you allow your audience to become your brand ambassador by sharing your promotional message through their participation in a contest, claiming a coupon, etc. and sharing that through their social graph.
• Integration is about pulling all elements together. As a Facebook Preferred Developer, Strutta is in a position to provide integrated experiences for brands and their fans that tap in to the power of the social graph to connect, engage and influence.

While the Facebook platform continues to evolve, this means we all learn and grow together. There will be some changes to the ways in which brands interact with consumers in the new brand Pages, but overall we are excited about the direction in which things are going. We are excited to be releasing our new social apps that will be optimized for the new Page format. And we look forward to working with clients to continuously improve our platform to be the most useful tool for DIY social marketing.

Update at 5pm EST by Tina -- What a day! While Strutta's boss mingles with fellow fMC guests in New York, the Strutta team is already busy optimizing our existing products and upcoming social apps suite for the revamped Facebook platform.

Stay tuned for a full debrief from Ben tomorrow and for more details on what Strutta has in store. We're really excited for the opportunity that Facebook's Timeline for businesses, Admin panel and Mission control presents to our clients!

Update at 1pm EST by Tina -- Here are thoughts from real people in real time. It's #fMC and Timeline for Page Storified!

Update at 10am EST by Ben -- This morning Facebook made the long awaited introduction of new Pages for brands. We will be learning more details at the fMC event today but we wanted to share some initial thoughts. First, you can preview the new design on your Page but you may wish to hold off on publishing until any kinks are worked out and you've thought about how to optimize the new layout (hint: you'll need a cover image). The biggest changes you will notice are the addition of the cover image at the top, which is a great branding opportunity, but also the removal of a welcome or landing tab as the timeline is the default view for all users. Tabs are now accessed at the top of the page. Existing tabs should work by default but at the moment the "fan gating" option does not appear to be working properly. More updates to come.

There has been much speculation about potential announcements at today's invitation-only Facebook Marketing Conference.

As guests at fMC in New York, Strutta will be the first to know about changes to the platform. As Facebook Preferred Developers we wil be the first to have access to any tools that may become available. You can be sure that we will make any updates necessary to optimize our existing products and upcoming apps suite for Timeline for businesses or any other Facebook platform changes.

Get an insider's view of today's Facebook Marketing Conference as our CEO, Ben Pickering, will be sharing any major announcements and noteworthy insider tips directly from the event. Stay tuned for updates throughout the day on our blog!

Official fMC Links and Resources:

• fMC Facebook Page
• Overview and Agenda
• Live stream coverage - Tune in live today from 1-5pm EST

More to come!