The mobile app space is ending up being an increasingly crowded and increasingly competitive space. Both developers and marketers discover it harder making the app stand apart from almost hundreds and thousands of other apps offered for customers to choose from. While developers have the choice of using paid advertising or cross advertising tools to increase need for their apps, significant funds work as a deterrent.
In such case, social media levels the playing field to some degree. Social media offers not simply economical ways to generate buzz for apps, however also lets users often find apps. However, you have to take advantage of social media in the ideal way. By successfully utilizing social media, you can build an audience, drive needs for your apps, and ultimately enhance downloads to the point of putting largest mobile ad campaign to shame.
Social media levels the playing field to some level. Rather of spending upwards of $2.50 per user to acquire app users, social media gives all developers, despite their size or financial resources, the capability to build an audience in time. If made use of correctly, social media can assist app developers produce an army of fans whose marketing strength and word-of-mouth can match even the largest mobile marketing campaign.
Ways to use social media for creation of successful Mobile Application
Make social media a design priority
Social media is not something to be added after the truth. The best way to get a social media following is to integrate Facebook and Twitter straight into your app. At a minimum, provide users the opportunity to like or follow your product through the most important social networks. Allowing users to share achievements and other information on Facebook is also a great alternative. The much easier you can make it for your users to discuss your app and share their experiences with their friends and fans, the most likely you will be to attract extra eyeballs and get additional clicks, typically with no additional effort or investment on your part. Milkman Games supplies a GoViral Social Media native extension for Adobe AIR to assist AIR developers do precisely this.
Reward users for getting in touch with your product
If you use virtual currency or products in your app, think about satisfying users who get in touch with you through social media. You will not constantly have the ability to track actual conversions from social media, however this doesn’t matter: the engagement and added audience reach that you obtain from users on social media is still important and deserves “paying for” with virtual currency, even if you have no idea which users bought/downloaded your app as an outcome of social media. The crucial thing is to give individuals an additional need to get in touch with you. Ask yourself: what’s it worth to you to get an extra Facebook fan or Twitter follower, especially if the expense doesn’t need any “real” cash?
Make a long-term commitment to your Facebook community
Social media needs long-term engagement and connection and a financial investment of time and interest from an app developer. As soon as your community of Facebook followers starts to grow, keep individuals engaged with a continuous stream of important content, sneak-peek information, intriguing concerns to generate conversations and concepts, and co-created content (such as sharing users’ images, screenshots, and other contributions). For example, the Tap the Frog Facebook page has inside “preview” at new levels and new variations of the app, special offers and rewards to get people to “Like” the page, and pictures from users sharing their decorated Frogs. Remember that you do not wish to bombard people and congest their Facebook feeds with a lot of updates, but you must try to post something valuable every day or two.
How to use social media for Mobile App Marketing
Keep your tone individual and human
Lots of app developers are worried about managing Facebook or Twitter neighborhoods due to the fact that of their lack of official marketing training; they typically question if they have the interactions skills and writing ability to deal with these jobs themselves. Even if you’re not a natural wordsmith, do not feel intimidated by the possibility of speaking with your users via social media. App developers’ lack of official marketing experience can actually be an advantage: social media success commonly goes to individuals who are great at “being real” instead of being a silver-tongued spokesperson. Instead of attempting to choose the ideal words or attempting to sound “larger than you are,” embrace that you are a small developer. Be yourself. Share your passion for your app, be charitable to your audience (by thanking them for following you and by without delay reacting to their feedback, concerns and concepts) and make clear that your social media efforts are in service of developing much better apps for your customers, not “getting famous” for its own sake.
Automate where and what you can
You have to have a human voice and react to your users’ questions and ideas promptly and authentically– but you don’t need to permit social media to take up too much of your time and effort every day. A lot of great tools are readily available to assist you automate your social media activity. For instance, Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows you to schedule your Facebook and Twitter posts ahead of time. If you get a bunch of excellent concepts for social media content, you can conserve them and space them out in Hootsuite so they release when every day or more. Tools like Hootsuite are an excellent method to remain on a regular publishing schedule and maximize your time, without having to log into Facebook each and every single day while still providing your users a constant flow of new content
Take a “value first” approach to content
Numerous app developers make the error of using social media as just another method making a sales pitch and solicit more downloads– but individuals didn’t join your Facebook community to be “offered to.” They joined your community because they have a genuine interest in your app and what it represents– most likely, FUN. If people put in the time to “Like” your Facebook page, that’s a big deal: they desire to interact with you and your app’s “brand,” beyond merely downloading an app. So treasure these relationships and keep people’s trust– instead of attempting to “sell, offer, sell” all the time, focus on adding value to your audience’s experience with your app. Content that includes value and assists users address problems and amuses them is the method to go; for example: pointers and tricks, relevant articles about your app or your subject matter, jokes, video content, contests, funny photos, and anything else that might educate, inform and lighten up people’s day. It’s OKAY to use Facebook to make requests (“please download this,” for example) but you ought to just make requests sparingly. Ensure to “offer” more than you “get” from your social media community
Try out Facebook advertising for your community
As soon as you have set up a Facebook page for your app (or your app development company), you can try out Facebook advertising for as low as a couple of dollars a day. Facebook advertising deals with a pay-per-click or pay-per-action design (where you just pay whenever somebody new “Likes” your Facebook page). The greatest thing to keep in mind with Facebook marketing is that you have to ensure to target your advertisements. For instance, you can target your Facebook advertisements so that people only see your ad if among their pals has actually currently “Liked” your page, or by targeting people with certain interests. Facebook advertising for mobile app developers doesn’t need to be pricey; if managed correctly, you can accomplish a cost per connection as low as $0.10 for lots of apps. Keep in mind, the goal here isn’t to obtain a larger Facebook audience just for the sake of being “popular.” The goal is to discover people who are predisposed to engage with your app, and ultimately to transform them to paying customers from your community.
Accept and encourage user-generated content
Among the very first guidelines of social media marketing is that “it’s not a monologue, it’s a dialogue”: you do not have to create all of the content yourself. Lower your work by encouraging your users to publish their own fan art, videos, comments, evaluations and other content. You can run contests and offer rewards to get people to take part in sharing their ideas and producing content– however understand Facebook’s content guidelines making sure that any competitors that you run adhere to the site’s terms and conditions. Read the Facebook Page standards, area III E., “Promotions.”.
Tell people what you want them to do
Community members tend to follow your lead. After all, they decided to “Like” your page for a factor; opportunities are that they respect your judgment and wish to be part of your “motion,” whatever that might be. So, if you want your Facebook fans to do something about it, go ahead and ask to do so. If you desire them to “Like” a post, state, “Like this post if you enjoy the new features we’ve added to our app …” or “Do you want us to release a new level occasionally soon? Tell us more!” If you want people to share a post with their buddies, state: “Please share this post to help get the word out about our new app, coming out soon …” If your audience likes you and trusts you since of the continuous value that you provide to them, they will be delighted to assist you– but you have to ask.
Important platforms to use
Facebook encounters as an essential choice for mobile app developers wanting to promote their production. But before you take a plunge, it is necessary to chart out your objectives. What do you want from Facebook? More likes, more downloads, or user engagement? It is very important that you pick your main goal to determine metrics.
Call-to-action
Tactically consist of call to action to improve the amount of feedback you receive and enhance direct exposure your app gets. Strong call-to-action encourages users to take preferred action.
Comprehend your audience
Completely capitalize on targeting choices. Facebook has tons of targeting options for paid advertisements. It permits you to target specific audience like never ever before. You can target audience by location, age, gender, work, relation status, education and far more.
Develop content that strikes home
Facebook ranks stories with loads of likes, comments and shares near the top, the order is mostly chronological. It is very important to release content that users think about valuable and strikes home with audience, not simply mere gimmick.
With 400,000+ million tweets from Twitterati every day, Twitter can concern the rescue of app online marketer wanting to build audience. The Blue bird simply won’t let you down. Majority of Twitter users are on mobile and far more active than desktop-using counterparts.
Make retweets effortless
Give people enough room to retweet your content and add their input too. Things tend to get difficult due to the character limitation. Keep content as brief as possible and use a link shortner if needed. You can think about Twitter deal with that represents your brand. Substantially drive user engagement by developing Tweets that consist of rich media and strong call to actions. By simply consisting of the words “Please retweet,” the probability of being retweeted increases drastically.
Twitter for big occasions
Twitter users are most likely to engage even while enjoying a motion picture or TV. Online marketers can create a hashtag to produce a buzz around mobile app or participate with an established hashtag that’s already popular. Constantly search for innovative ways to connect your app with a popular event.
Don’t overdo it with hashtag
Hashtag is a grossly misused concept. Really frequently online marketers overdo it with keywords by packing hashtags to Tweet. Excessive use of hashtags frequently frustrates target market and tends to alienate them. It is best to choose 1-3 hashtags per message. Significance is the prime aspect in figuring out the ability to reach your audience.
Visual marketing is a trend for 2014. The growing appeal of Instagram supplies a strong statement for the fact that images strike home with users and resonate throughout cultural obstacles. It is very important that mobile app online marketers leverage the power of visual marketing in its totality to increase app downloads.
Go Hashtaging and sharing pictures
Sharing gorgeous pictures and screenshots to develop an app name and reputation is excellent chance for effective visual marketing strategy on Instagram. You can efficiently use hashtags to share pictures of your brands to obtain them discovered. App marketers can produce a meaningful context for their fans by creating their own hashtags and driving visual campaigns. But always remember, razor sharp and premium images are essential for success on Instagram.
Get professional touch for videos
Videos can end up being a complicated job specifically since mobile phones are yet to be truly optimized for video. So see to it that you follow best practices for video production. Quickly presented videos will just not work marvels.
There is a great deal of hubbub about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and such other websites. In the mad rush to profit from these sites, app marketers frequently undermine the value of social networking site like Reddit. If made use of in a right manner, Reddit can increase awareness for your app and swing things in your favor. Be careful, outright vote-buying methods and extreme promotion have been rebuked, marked as spammers and honestly turned down by the Reddit community. This makes app marketing on Reddit all the more challenging.
Dos and Do n’ts on Reddit
Attempting to just promote a product without really including real value to the community is a big NO. Rather, supply content to redditors under pertinent subreddits. While doing so, you have to actually assist, entertain, or teach individuals cool new features of the world. Constantly bear in mind Reddit turns out to be an extremely effective possible alternative to give inspiration to your short-term app marketing goals, eventually helping your long-term goals. When done correctly, you can anticipate a big boost in traffic or downloads in a matter of couple of hours.
Steps to follow
Here’s a fast review the actionable actions that any app developer can take to produce and engage a community around their app:.
- Produce a Facebook page for your app or company.
- Build viral hooks in to your app and reward your users for linking with you.
- Take a long-lasting technique to developing your community.
- Be “human,” but automate where you can with tools like Hootsuite.
- Offer value to your community with distinct content, preview, and more. Provide more than you get.
- Experiment with Facebook advertising.
- Encourage user-generated content, which engages and extends your community.
- Make it clear and easy what you desire your community members to do: use easy calls to action!
Conclusion
While there are many social media channels and tools that help app online marketers to take mobile app to the next level. If you follow these easy ideas, you’ll be well on your method to increasing downloads and leads..
The market for mobile apps is competitive; but, just due to the fact that you are a small app developer and most likely cannot afford enhancing user acquisition costs, it does not imply all is lost. You simply have to work a little smarter to grow and engage your community. Your users enjoy your app– use them to promote it and increase demand for your app.
