Going to be frank here…if you think that you can just put an app on the App Store and it’s going to sell itself…think again. You gotta market this thing. If you’ve got the capital, you probably have a marketing department who knows what they are doing. If you are a solopreneur like me, you are the marketing department…the secretary…public relations…and the janitor. So it’s up to you to develop your social media strategy. But you have to do it right…
First off….if you have no idea what social media is…
STOP. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200. (you don’t have to go directly to jail though)
Social media has to be used the right way to promote your product. So if you know nothing about it…you need to educate yourself.
First off, sign up for a free Intro To Social Business course with Sociallogical. Then, take their full course. This company is run by a friend of mine here in Saint John, New Brunswick named Jeff Roach, and he KNOWS social media. And he’s not going to hit you with free e-books and other crap like most “experts”. It’s going to be solid advice on how to use social media the RIGHT way tointeract
Social media is such a large topic, I’m going to be breaking it up into it’s various components and doing separate posts on my failures in each.
So far in promoting these apps:
–I’ve had my twitter account suspended twice
-I’ve spent $80 on Facebook advertizing and got 80 clicks
-I was banned from posting on Facebook Pages for 15 days after one of my posts was labelled as spam
-had many posts on Google+ blocked as well
-was able to get over 30,000 clicks on a blogpost with absolutely no bump in app sales
-was unable to email anyone in Australia for about a week after being labelled a spammer
So, I’m probably the last guy you should take advice on how to be SUCCESSFUL at promoting your app with social media. I’m the perfect idiot to show you how NOT to do it.
But I’ll give you some overall advice based on my experiences so far.
USE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS…
Depending on how many facebook friends, twitter followers, etc you have, you probably already have a nice chunk of people who life you enough to help you out. In order for you to make that BIG SPLASH ON LAUNCH DAY, you will need their help. All the early “success” i’ve had, it’s all because of them.
If you’ve got a Facebook page, post a link and invite people to like it. Facebook pages are also a way to separate your personal Facebook posts and your app posts. That way, people who really want to keep updates on all your success (and failures) can like the page and do so. It will also help prevent your personal page from become one big ad for your apps…as I found out when it was pointed out to me that my personal page was filled with the same image of my app as people were liking and sharing it.
I’ve tried to limit posting on my personal page, but have mostly failed in this.
To ensure people get your info, you can message your friends directly with info on the app, or your app page, etc. Just to note…Facebook only allows you to send messages to a certain number of people at once…but fails to tell you when you’ve reached the limit. I thought I had sent out a message to the majority of my friends…and most of them didn’t even get it. So I ended up sending personal messages to most of them instead. Which actually I ended up enjoying as I got caught up with some people I hadn’t spoken to in a while. I think people will be more receptive if you at least try to interact with them instead of just copy and paste your spam…I mean, app info.
BUT DON’T ABUSE THEM…
People can only take so much promotion. If you overdo it, people will start blocking or just stop following you. That obviously isn’t what you want. You can’t avoid it though…some people will get tired of hearing that your app is in the top 100, or the top ten in Cambodia…or that things aren’t going so well.
The quickest way to have this happen is to direct message someone more than once.
Some will tell you straight out when you’ve crossed the line into annoying territory:
“Noel, if I share your app one more time people are going to start blocking my posts.”
and some will do it anonymously…
This Batman meme was sent to me from an anonymous yahoo account from someone who I guess has had enough of my promoting. I have no idea who this person is, but I had a few laughs about it.
Depending on the type of person you are and the amount of good Karma you’ve built up, you might have a core group of followers who are willing to do anything to help you.
I’ve been really fortunate to have that. As I had mentioned in a previous post, it’s easy to be labelled a spammer or blocked when you sign up for a forum or group and start posting about your apps. But when someone who has been on there for a while, it’s less likely to happen. I’ve had many willing to do that for me.
And defend me when necessary:
While I don’t approve of the method of delivery…Batman DOES make a good point. People can easily chose to NOT follow you.
I also think it’s important to says thanks to the people who have helped you out. If someone shares a post on Facebook or retweets you, reply back with a thanks. They took the time to help you out, it’s the least you can do, and it shows you appreciate them.
And when it comes time that they need something for you, you better damn well reciprocate. Well, unless it’s something crazy, like inviting people to join a crazy cult or something.
I’m really happy that 6 months after this, I don’t appear to have lost any of my Facebook “friends”. Now, I have no idea how many have BLOCKED me from their news feeds…but I can’t control that.
So that’s some of my general advice.
Stay tuned however, as there is much hilarity to come as I tell you all about my social media stupidity!
Noel Chenier
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