You know you need to create a buzz for your app, but the question is HOW? Social media is an obvious promotional tool but leveraging it can be inefficient and time consuming…unless done properly.
If you haven’t already done so, make sure that you register an account on all of the major social media sites. You want to try and keep your branding consistent across all platforms so it’s important to do this early so you can claim your name on these sites.
At a minimum secure your name with the following Social Media sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit.
When you setup your accounts make sure you add a picture and complete as much of the profile information as possible. You should include a link to your app website and your app store download page on all of your social media accounts so visitors have a place to go for more information.
When you use social media you want to engage people in your experience developing your app. If you are at the pre-launch phase you can share images and inside information about how the development is coming along. Once you have launched (or at any time at all, really) you can explain why you developed the app, what your motivation was and talk about its evolution and features you want to add, which is a great way to not only engage your users in the process to build a sense of community around your app and get people excited enough about what you are doing that they want to share it with their friends.
You need to check your social media accounts on a daily basis to respond to any comments made and try to find a reason to post each day, it doesn’t always have to be about your app, the value of knowing your customer is that you also understand what other things they like so you can easily pick an article, photo or video that will give them a laugh or stimulate conversation.
Here are some suggestions on how you can promote your app with a solid social media strategy:
Create Engaging & Exciting Videos
While it is great to make a basic promotional video for your app that talks about the features and benefits this type of video is unlikely to get shared on social media. You need to think outside the box and relate to your audience. Even if you have a simple productivity app, think of a fun way to promote it like a challenging situation where having the app would come in handy.
Once you have created your video, share it using all the social sites and video directories, make sure you include a link to your website or app download page in the description and use all the appropriate keywords.
Your promotional video ads serve a different purpose and people are unlikely to share those but they might share something that makes them laugh and help them relate to your product or service.
Create A Consistent Online Persona
If you are going to be successful on social media then you need become an interesting personality that people want to start to follow because they find you intriguing, entertaining or just plain funny Don’t constantly send out messages about your promotions, this won’t be engaging and people will become blind to your messages and will miss them when you do have something important to say.
If your app features in-game characters, try leveraging their unique personalities within your social posts to create engagement with current users and create interest with those who you are trying to attract.
Discuss Trends Related To Your Industry
To bring yourself closer to your audience on social media you need to be connecting with them based on what they are talking about rather than who they are. You can join conversations where people are talking about an industry or a specific problem within that industry that your app solves.
You can also start your own conversations by using trends and news events related to your industry to engage people in a discussion.
This applies as much to a car dealership who might talk about the latest safety statistics through to game app developers who could talk about exciting new technologies like Google Glass.
Understand And Monitor Your Analytics
By monitoring your social following with analytics you can lean more about your target demographics (or perhaps discover a new user base coming on board from a demographic you hadn’t considered). Facebook Pages has “Insights” for analytics and there are a number of 3rd party software solutions like Sprout Social that will provide information about other platforms like Twitter.
Even knowing simple things like if your following is predominantly male or female can save you a lot of money.
Create Incentives For Social Sharing
Try to incorporate social friendly features in your app to encourage social sharing. If possible, create incentives that are tied to unlocking rewards or features when users tell their friends about your app. You can experiment with different offers to see what is the most enticing and provokes the highest levels of sharing.