Fanzila Upgrades Facebook Pages, With Apps For Blogs, Forums, Contests And More

Fanzila is a new startup that lets brands upgrade Facebook pages with blogs, forums, competitions and more. The company announced this week that it raised $1 million in Series A funding in round led by Blumberg Capital, who joins previous investors, Dr. Yossi Vardi, Shiomo Nechama and the Haaretz Newspaper Group. The announcement was timed perfectly to coincidence with Fanzila’s spot in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley, which is where we ran into them.

Currently, Fanzila has 20 brands using the service for their Facebook Pages, including MTV Networks, Viacom, JWT, Y&R and other agencies.

All the features that can be added onto the Facebook Pages are dubbed “apps,” and brands can choose which ones they want to use on their site’s page. The end result are pages that are more fully featured mini-sites which engage a brands’ fans and customers where they typically hang out: Facebook.

In addition to the aforementioned apps for blogging, forums, contests, etc., Fanzila pages can also include a video portal, wiki site, photo galleries, Twitter feeds and more. On the back-end, advanced analytics provide Fanzila’s users with business intelligence on their fans’ engagement and interactions. The system identifies and tracks relevant fans activities on Fanzila apps and the Facebook page (e.g., likes, comments, churn, fans leaders, etc.)

Previously, Fanzila would set up the Facebook Pages for the companies paying for its service, but it’s just now launching a self-serve platform that brings the same tools and customizations to brands and businesses of any size. There’s a free version of the service that includes Fanzila branding, two premium versions (one with and one without the analytics) and an Enterprise version.

Not surprisingly, the Fanzila “homepage” itself, is available a Facebook Page, demonstrating the service in action. On Monday, the company is launching a new standalone website, it says.