Serial Entrepreneur Ryan Merket and his Latest Start-up, AppBistro

Three minutes with ____ is a series of short interviews with people who’re creators and thought leaders in the creative, start-up or media world.

Ryan Merket was an ex-Facebook employee who left earlier this year to continue his journey as an entrepreneur. During his time with Facebook, Ryan was part of the Developer Network team supporting major brands.

Prior to his Facebook days, Ryan co-founded the widely used Ping.fm in December 2007 (acquired by Seesmic earlier this year) and Workstic.com in May 2008, and is now working on his next big idea, AppBistro, the world’s first Facebook applications marketplace.

In this interview, Ryan shares more about AppBistro and how simple Facebook applications could drastically improve your business.

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1. Sweet business concept. In general, how do you think Facebook applications can help businesses?

Thanks Willis! Facebook applications can help businesses in numerous ways. They can act as engagement tools, conversion tools (bringing in new customers for your business), CRM tools (rewarding your loyal customers) or simply just for entertainment. People need to be engaged, entertained and appreciated. A good application can do all of these.

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2. Okay. My friend who runs a restaurant is looking to improve engagement on her Facebook page. What are some recommended Faceboook applications for restaurants?

The restaurant industry is unique because there are so many different ways to engage people! You should definitely have your Yelp reviews on your page. This gives potential customers more assurance before they visit your restaurant. Of course, that’s assuming that the restaurant has good reviews to start with.

I would also recommend Menu App and Reservations App. It’s so important to have everything in one place, rather than linking to OpenTable and then linking back to your Website. It cuts down a chunk of your customers’ research time and also makes your Facebook page more engaging and user-friendly.

For coupons, we love the Group Deals application. It works much like Groupon on Facebook. If you really want to run the extra mile, go mobile with TextualAds. It allows you to send deals to users via SMS.