After a somewhat auspicious beginning , I’m happy to say that I haven’t been banned from any social media networks or labelled a spammer since I started using social media to promote my apps. I’ve tried a variety of methods, including using other ways to promote my app…without promoting my app. As an example, I’ve had over 15,000 combined views on my various How To Photograph Meteor posts, which don’t mention the app directly…but there is a nice little “ad” on the sidebar. Yet none of those resulted in a big jump in app downloads. I have to be honest, this puzzled me, because these people should be my market. They are photographers. This has led me to the only conclusion….
I have NO social media clout.
I’ve got an amazing local network of awesome friends, students, and colleagues to whom I owe all my success.
I’ve met a lot of cool developers and started to make connections.
But I’m a nobody outside of this.
I’ve done a bit of research on Twitter to see what kinds of tweets are being shared in relation to other photography articles…and I’ve noticed a pattern.
Most of them are from people with a popular blog or community, where they give away a ton of free info, free ebooks, etc.
The question is…how do you become that? And more importantly, do you want to put the work involved into creating that?
Today, it is relatively simple to use WordPress to set up a site that has a ton of features, paid membership structure, etc, without having any real web design skills.
But you have to create content and build it up, which is going to take a lot of work…and time. Or you need to become a well-known name in your area/genre. Which will take even more time.
Just to give you an example of what having a real social following can do for an app.
Jeremy Cowart is a well know photographer, (he created this awesome project called the Help Portrait), with well over a hundred thousand Twitter/Facebook followers, etc.
He announced he was creating an app. Details were kinda vague, and it was in development for quite a while, but there was tons of hype about the app from both him, and his numerous followers leading up to it’s release. Since it appeared to be some sort of photography idea related, I kept tabs on it.
OKDOTHIS finally launches November 2013…and there are a flurry of tweets/retweets about it that day. It shoots up to #5 overall on the app store in the US. OVERALL. Not to mention #2 in the Photo/Video category.
In just two days, it had over 100 5-star reviews on the App Store. The app gets mentioned by other big names in the photography industry like Scott Kelby. It continued to move up the charts of the various countries and stayed in the top for quite a while.
THAT is what having a following can do for your app.
Before anyone calls me out for jealousy because my app didn’t rocket up the charts like OKDOTHIS, or that it’s because it’s competition, it’s not about the app itself. OKDOTHIS is a wonderfully designed app, and full of interesting images from it’s users, and you should go download it to try it out.
The point of all this is, if NOEL CHENIER had created OKDOTHIS…no way it would have done so well right from the start.
The only reason I’ve done as well as I have with my apps is because of that awesome group of friends, colleagues, and students who were willing to help promote it since the launch. And I’ve done a whole lot of work trying to promote the apps.
“Hey Noel….maybe your app sucks” you might be saying to yourself…but I don’t think that is it. I’ve gotten lots of great feedback, mostly positive reviews on the store (when I have been able to get them)
I really think it’s because I’m not able to generate the kind of viral buzz to get that huge amount of downloads in one day required to make it to the top of the App Store…and almost as important, keeping the momentum going. If you are really expecting to make a ton of money with app developing…you need to hit a top ten in a major market.
So do everything you can to build a community with great content, grow a base of followers, fans, and supporters . Then once launch day comes, you will have an army who will hopefully share your awesome app with their networks and get you the exposure you need.
Hell, this blog should have way more views with all the people getting into app developing these days, and the goldmine of information I’m giving out here…
Maybe I need to put it out as a free ebook?
Noel Chenier
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