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For all the talk about Facebook, I’ve realized I don’t understand nearly enough what brands are doing with it right now, and what’s working and what’s not. And where the opportunities are.

So as a starting point, I had a look the other day through the top 2,000 apps on Facebook, curious to see what brands were doing with the burgeoning social network now that the platform has been open for a while.

The answer? Not much, oddly.

But I did have a few observations I thought were worth sharing. Here’s the first one:

There are tons of successful branded apps. They just aren’t created by the brands themselves.

There is actually a large number of brand-related apps on Facebook. But the majority are being created by people who are spotting a gap in the market, whether wiley entrepreneurs or passionate fans. And if you start including media properties and sports properties, it goes through the roof.

Heres three examples of how this is playing out:

Example 1: The faux celebrity endorsement

Check out this smart appropriation of celebrity endorsement, Quiz Monster’s adaptation of Dr. Phil’s personality test as presented on the Oprah show. 985,000 monthly users make this simple app one of the most popular on Facebook.

Example 2: “Counterfeit” gifts

Next up have a look at the Chanel and Tiffany & Co. gifting apps. Over 120k and 170k monthly users respectively, placing them among the most popular branded apps on Facebook. Except they are created not by the brand but rather by its fans: teenage girls.

Gifts are a popular category of amateur branded content, with lots more “counterfeit” gifts in the top 2,000 apps, spanning virtual goodies as varied as Ben & Jerry Ice Cream, Disney (and again and again), and Starbucks.

Example 3: Brand communities

The New York Giants and Scrubs. Brands in their own right, as well as media properties. Now fan communities are nothing new, but it’s interesting to see that Facebook is absolutely dominated by groups created by two companies: Citizen Sports and Watercooler, who have created networks of these communities, rolling out the same functionality for different sports brands many times over.

In the case of Watercooler, they have created 869 fan communities on Facebook, adding up to 5.7 million users, making them the 14th biggest developer on the platform.

It’s a land grab, and these two companies have done a great job of getting in first.

Part I Conclusion: Thoughts on Facebook fan apps

Getting a sense of deja vu? It’s the web circa 1994. Back then people squatting on domains like mcdonalds.com because the organizations weren’t clued up enough to buy them yet. Now people are creating branded apps on Facebook, again filling the vacuum left by brands themselves.

I came away with three key thoughts:

There is a clear desire for brands in social networks

People ask if there is a place for brands in social networks. The people have answered that question loud and clear, they want brands in social networks so much they are bringing them in themselves. The difference is that role is not the obvious thing that marketers default to, advertising next to their personal conversations, but rather fans want something from the brands to use on the network itself.

Seeing what’s working currently, I’d say social currency is the primary source of value. In the future, I suspect a lot of the value will also be derived from providing community, services, and two-way communication between brands and their most passionate customers.

It’s a gold rush, and app usage is scaling in a hurry

In the month or so that I’ve left this post sitting in draft, Dr. Phil’s quiz has gone from 720k to 950k monthly users, and Tiffany & Co. gift app has gone from 80k to 170k users.

There are certainly many more apps languishing with tens or hundreds of users. But that’s a huge increase in a short period of time, and says a lot about the potential reach of these apps, and how network effects help the rich get richer.

Think about how to leverage what’s already out there

When you see an app using your trademark without permission, before reaching for the phone to the lawyers it might be worth trying to work with the developer to see if they are interested in transferring ownership or at least improving what’s on offer, like BBC have reportedly done with the extremely successful Chris Moyles fan page.

Or alternatively, just develop something better. It’s a free platform, and you have your brand’s resources behind you right? Think about how people are really using your brand on Facebook, and what you could give them that would enhance that experience further.

Though I admit it’s still fun to see the unofficial Starbucks app for “all things Starbucky” beating out the official app in usage.

Next up I’ll have a look at branded apps being created by brands themselves, to see what’s working and what’s not, and try and figure out why.