The Right Social Media Content Mix

To accomplish this, you need a good mix of original content and content cultivated from others (always give credit).  It’s fine to share promotional posts about your company, but do so in a compelling way and don’t make these the bulk of your content.

Your content should also vary depending on the platform you’re using, and what you’ve learned from listening to others.  Content that gains attention and interaction on Facebook won’t necessarily accomplish the same thing on LinkedIn.  It may take a little experimenting to get a feel for what works best.  (We’ll talk about monitoring your efforts and making adjustments in an upcoming post.)

Cultivate Social Media Content from Others

Sharing the content of others is a great way to round out your social media offerings.  If you have Google Alerts and Google Reader set up as we suggested last time, you’re off to a good start in always having relevant content from others to share.   There are many other resources for finding and curating content on topics you want to cover.  I use Zite on my iPad. Daily Tekk recently shared a hefty list of curation tools.

Create Your Own Social Media Content

Creating your own online content is one of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise and offer your own spin on relevant topics.  Blogging is a great way to get started with creating original content to share via other social media platforms—we wrote a post a while back on generating ideas for blog topics.  This morning, I came across a useful infographic from Smart Insights for brainstorming content ideas.  Mix it up–short videos, infographics, and photos are also effective at offering insight on your company and its products or services.

Establish a Social Media Routine

The most important aspect of keeping your social media content flowing is to get into a routine.  A routine also helps prevent your social media management from becoming the huge time suck it has the potential to be.  My routine looks like this:

Next time, we’ll discuss various tools for managing your social media sharing and interactions.  In the meantime, let us know how you go about putting together compelling social media content. We’d love to hear about the tools you use and your routine for keeping the content coming.

Any expert worth your attention will tout listening as the first and most important element of social media success.  Many businesses jump in on Facebook or Twitter and merely use it as a broadcasting tool.  As we mentioned last time, the whole point of social media is building relationships.  Think about the people with whom you most enjoy having a conversation—they offer up interesting topics and viewpoints without dominating.  There’s a give and take.  Satisfying conversations mean everyone involved not only contributes, but also listens to, comprehends, and comments thoughtfully on what others have to say.

Before you can foster this type of interaction on social media, you need to know with whom you’re interacting, where you should hang out, and what type of content will ignite interest and inspire a response.  So, how do you get started?

Monitor what others are already saying about you and your industry.   There are fancier monitoring tools available, but I suggest starting out with free and simple versions.  Google offers two:

Google Alerts:  This tool allows you to monitor the latest Google results (blogs, news, videos, discussions, books) for any mention of keywords that you select.  You should choose keywords based on the name of your business, key employees, new products/initiatives, competitors, and any other relevant topics you’d like to stay on top of.  You’ll get daily or instant email notifications when related content is published. 

Google Reader:   Monitoring via an RSS feed aggregator (Google Reader is the probably the best known example) lets you subscribe to new content from specific news sources, blogs, etc. without having to check in on their websites.  All of your subscriptions are viewable in one place.  Subscribing to relevant RSS feeds gives you a feel for hot topics and new developments in your industry, as well as ideas for content (more on that next time).  There are also several apps you can use to keep up with RSS feeds on your mobile devices.

Prioritize 1-2 social media platforms where you can have the most impact.  How do you decide?  See if there’s any research available on social media use for your specific industry.  Ask your customers, colleagues, and co-workers which platforms they use most and how they use them.  Don’t spread yourself too thin at first.  You don’t have to be on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest right from the beginning.  Start out by setting up just 1-2 platforms (if you’re already using several, refocus on 1-2 for a while).  Once you’re set up, there’s nothing wrong with following others and listening before you jump in with your own posts.  Get a feel for the idiosyncrasies of each platform and pay attention to the strategies of others who seem to be using social media well.

Now that you’ve started by listening, you’re about ready to jump in (or refocus your efforts). Next time, we’ll cover cultivating and creating content, as well as tools to help you monitor and be responsive in your social media management.  In the meantime, how do you stay on top of the online conversations that are relevant to your business?  Are you focused on a few social media platforms or are you giving as many as you can a try?  We’d love to hear your thoughts on how social media fits into your internet marketing strategies.

A couple of digital marketing experts I’ve followed for a while have helped me rethink how I prioritize and allocate my time to social media.  (I still have a long way to go, but at least feel I have a road map.)

I’ve been working my way through Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics 2.0 this spring.  He offers up “Four Metrics That Rock” in terms of social media:

Kaushik published an informative blog post thoroughly explaining all of these metrics and how to measure them.  Notice he doesn’t list the number of followers you have as a rockin’ metric.  He’s all about the response and conversation that ensues due to your shared content.

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, author of The Thank You Economy, (we’ve covered him before) is less enthralled by numbers, at least in the shorter term. At a conference, he was asked repeatedly about justifying social media’s return on investment (ROI). His response? “What’s the ROI of your mother?”

Vaynerchuk argues that numbers don’t always tell the story, and if they’re all we care about, we’re missing the point. Social media offers a channel where we can listen to and engage with our customers, our colleagues, and our competitors in a way unmatched by any other. Vaynerchuk encourages us to care a little less about the numbers and a lot more about making connections that evoke emotional responses and foster longer-term relationships. With social media, he says, we should be running the marathon instead of the sprint—building trust and a community. (Here’s a video if you’d like to see Vaynerchuk in action. Head’s up—he’s a fan of colorful language.)

I tend to believe that if we listen to Vaynerchuk, we’ll also be rocking Kaushik’s metrics…maybe not by next month, but the payoff will eventually come.

We’ll cover ideas on how to reach your social media goals in upcoming blog posts. In the meantime, we’d love to hear how you measure success with your social media efforts. And be sure to let us know if we can help you out with this or any other internet marketing initiatives.

However, there are marketing and functionality advantages with native apps over web apps, as pointed out in a previous post in which we covered cases where a native app makes sense.   We find some of our clients and their customers are more familiar with the concept of a native app that can be found in an app market/store.  We’ve recently begun to use a great tool that lets us cost-effectively develop one mobile web app, “wrap” it as a native app in our choice of platforms, and deploy as if it were written natively.

PhoneGap is the open source mobile framework we’ve been using recently for our mobile app development projects.  We’d like to share with you what we’ve discovered, through our work, as PhoneGap’s advantages and disadvantages.

PhoneGap Advantages:

• You can code in standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript instead of Objective-C or Java and build apps quickly.
• Because you develop the app once, but can deploy in multiple platforms, the client saves time and money.
• You are still able to tap into many of the device’s built-in features (location services, push notification, etc.).
• The apps can have their own icons, rather than just being bookmarked, which offers a marketing & branding advantage.
• The apps have a cleaner interface, operating similarly to native apps without a browser frame around them.
• You can distribute the apps via app stores.
• PhoneGap supports seven different mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Symbian, Samsung Bada and Windows Phone.
• Because it’s open source, new modules are continually being developed.

PhoneGap Disadvantages:

• PhoneGap doesn’t support all built-in phone features.
• Because it’s covering multiple platforms, PhoneGap is often one step behind the native platforms when new features are introduced.
• PhoneGap apps look the same in all phone environments.  While they all look and function like a native app, the look is a little more generic—not necessarily like an iPhone app or an Android app.

We’ll definitely continue to use and experiment with PhoneGap to provide more affordable mobile app development for our clients.  Have you given PhoneGap a try?  We’d love to hear about your experience with this tool.

ASO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO).  It’s all about making sure your mobile app ranks highly in the app store/market and, once your app is found, it’s appealing and relevant to searchers.   There are basic ASO mechanics to setting up your app in the store.  However, as with SEO, quality content is central to successful ASO.

In simple terms, here’s what you need to do to optimize your app:

1.)    Develop relevant keywords, and use them to name and describe your app.

What search terms would you use to find an app like yours?  Pick a few keywords and do some research.  Which apps come up when you enter your keyword terms?  Are they similar to yours?  How are these apps being described and marketed? Focusing your keywords on how the function of your app fulfills a user need is a great way to go.  If you’re really serious about your app store rankings, TechCrunch recently reviewed this tool for engaging in keyword research and for monitoring rankings.

Once you decide on keywords, you’ll want to use them in the following places within your app store/market listing:

• App Title
• Company Name (if possible)
• App Description
• Keywords
• Image Titles

A catchy app title is great, but what if that catchy title doesn’t describe the function of your app?   Try using a title along with a subtitle:

Formula:             Clever Name-Descriptive Keywords
Example:             Skype-Free Video Calling

If your app is offered for free, you may want to include “Free” or “Lite” in the title as well.

Your app description should be rich with keyword phrases, but make sure the text flows organically.  If your app is similar to another high-ranking app, you might try working the name of that app in as one of your keyword phrases.  Again, use it in way that sounds natural.  Try something to the effect of, “…action-packed game that fans of Angry Birds will love.”

2.)    Market your app well, inside the app store and out.

We focused in an earlier post on marketing your mobile app to drive users to your app store listing.  Your overall marketing efforts do impact ASO directly.  It should be no surprise the more your app is downloaded and installed, the higher you’ll rank.

Once potential users arrive at your app listing, make sure you greet them with high-quality images, including interesting screen shots and a well-designed logo/icon.  If possible, work some of your keyword phrases into your image titles.

Another element shown to impact ASO are dramatic short-term spikes in downloads/installs.  Some marketers recommend a tactic called a “burst campaign” to propel a short-term spike.  Burst campaigns involve a very concentrated marketing push over a short period of time.

3.)    Make sure people love your app so much they can’t wait to let others know about it.

All of the strategies we’ve mentioned in this post are important, but it should go without saying that without a great app, you won’t succeed.  Even if your initial marketing campaign generates thousands of new users, your up-front work is wasted if masses of people start uninstalling because the app doesn’t live up to expectations.  Like any other product or service, the goal isn’t just getting people to sign on or buy; it’s offering something of value.  You want users to love the app, post a high rating, and hopefully care enough to write a rave review.  (And if they happen to use a few choice keywords in that review? Bonus.)

Feeling confident you can move your app up the ranks?  Let us know if you have other questions about app store optimization or any other mobile strategy issues.

I keep quite a few articles and blog posts bookmarked to help me generate ideas.  Then, last week, I realized all of our posts fall under one, sometimes more, of four broad categories.  Don’t get me wrong—I love all the 100 Great Blog Content Ideas posts out there.  But, being a big picture kind of gal, tying these back to larger questions really helped me.  With this discovery, I saw countless possibilities.  Here are the categories:

1.)    Who are we?

-What are we involved with/what do we support in the community?
-What do we believe, read, listen to, watch, attend?
-What’s it like to work for our company?
-What inspires us?

2.)  What do we do?

-What questions are we asked by our clients? By our colleagues?
-Which of our completed projects could serve as teachable examples?
-What questions do we want answered ourselves? What have we been meaning to learn more about? (LOTS of our posts fall under this category.)
-What’s our take on the hottest topics in our industry?
-What predictions do we have about our industry?

3.)   How do we do business?

-What processes/tools do we use?
-What do we do differently than our competitors?
-What do our clients/colleagues have to say about our work?
-What honors have we been lucky enough to receive because of our work?
-What have our mistakes taught us?

4.)  Who do we work with? 

-Which of our clients/partners deserve recognition?
-What’s happening in our local/regional business community?
-Who do we need to thank?

As you can see, in several years of blogging, we still haven’t completely covered all of these questions.  The fun part is dreaming up new and interesting ways to answer these bigger questions.  How do you decide what to write about? We’d love to hear how you generate blogging ideas.  And, we’re always excited to help you out if you’re not sure how to get started or if you get stuck along the way.

I was a bit worried we were in for a couple hours of touchy-feely, New-Age-y-ness, however, I was pleasantly surprised by how practical, yet eye-opening, the summit turned out to be.   The evening focused on Design Thinking and how to break traditional thought patterns in coming up with innovative solutions.  In a nutshell, Design Thinking is defined as “observe first, design second.”

We took on the challenge of several fun puzzles/dilemmas, and our struggles demonstrated how even the most creative people depend on learned patterns to solve problems.  May introduced the “7 Deadly Sins of Solutions” that come into play when faced with similar issues in real life:

1.)    Shortcutting:  We all tend to leap to solutions, jumping into answer-finding before we step back and evaluate the real issue and its causes.

2.)    Blind spots:  When faced with a problem, we make assumptions, and “fill in the blanks” with familiar patterns and ways of doings things.   This creates blind spots that often prevent us from seeing a clear and simple solution.

3.)    Not invented here:  We tend to be less trusting of solutions we didn’t generate ourselves.  We spend time trying to solve issues for which a solution (someone else’s) may already exist.

4.)    Satisficing: Often, we jump right to the easy solution rather than taking the time to find the most elegant way of solving a problem.  We “satisfice” –a combo of satisfy and suffice—rather than pushing outside our comfort zone.

5.)    Downgrading:  Like satisficing, downgrading involves taking a safer route when problem solving.  The difference is, we compromise our original goal, allowing ourselves to claim success with an inferior solution.

6.)    Complicating:  By nature, most of us overthink things.  We don’t trust that the simplest (which isn’t necessarily the same as easiest) solution just might the best.

7.)    Stifling:  We are masters at shutting down ideas—both others’ and our own.  May calls this ideacide—second-guessing and mistrusting, rather than experimenting and taking chances. 

May also shared a couple of very engaging videos that demonstrate the power of Design Thinking.  Here are the links so you can enjoy for yourself:

Some useful takeaways (and a killer slice of red velvet cake) made for one of the better Thursday evenings I’ve had in a while.  I’m looking forward to checking out more of May’s work.

Each method below can be used on its own, but many app developers and publishers who create stand-alone apps (in other words, apps not tied to an already existing business) combine several methods to maximize earnings.

Mobile App Monetization Options

Any revenue you earn via paid downloads or in-app purchases is typically brokered via the marketplace where your app is published:

Mobile App Markets

• App Store (iPad, iPhone)
• Google Play (Android-updated 3/7/12)
• BlackBerry App World
• Windows Phone Marketplace

If you determine you’d like to feature in-app advertising, you can simplify the process by working with one of many existing advertising networks (and you can work with more than one if you’d like).  These companies serve as the broker between app publishers who have ad real estate available, and those wishing to purchase mobile advertising.  Systems, payment policies, and development requirements vary depending on the network you use, so check out the details on a few popular ones below:

Mobile Advertising Networks

Sturgis Falls Apps Developed by Far Reach

Whether you’re developing a mobile app as part of your existing business’s strategy, or you’re bringing your great idea for a stand-alone app to reality, the goal is to make your investment a profitable one.  Besides putting sufficient and skilled resources into developing a great product, the next most critical task is, of course, to get your app onto the devices of as many relevant customers as possible.

There’s a lot more to maximizing downloads of your app beyond getting it into the app markets.  What are some key marketing issues you need to consider for your mobile app?

1.)    Focus on how your app benefits your customer.  Your focus needs to be on your customers and how the app provides them with convenience, value, and/or entertainment.  Spend some time formulating exactly how your app improves the lives of your customers so you can concisely and clearly communicate this.  Also, consider the target user for your app.  Is there a defined demographic group that you’re trying to reach?  What’s the best way to do this? (This will also be important if you want to sell in-app advertising, which we’ll cover in an upcoming post.)

2.)    Price your app right.  If your app is a marketing/commerce tool for an established business, you’ll likely offer it for free, considering it an investment in the potential revenue and customer goodwill it will generate.  However, if you’re developing a stand-alone app, you’ll need to consider whether to charge for your app or offer it for free.  Do some research—what similar apps already exist?  Where are they priced?  How many downloads have they generated?  There’s a balancing act between the potential revenue you leave on the table with a free app and pricing at a level that generates enough downloads to maximize your earnings on in-app advertising.

3.)    Create a clear brand for your app.  If your app is an extension of your business, you need to ensure it consistently reflects your established brand.  If your app is its own entity, you’ll need to develop a unique brand. The targeted audience you pinpointed earlier, along with the benefits the app offers, should drive your branding. You’ll want a professional to help you create a logo and tagline that reflect what your app is about.  Consider the apps you use regularly—I bet you can recall the look of their logos with very little effort, and that’s because of strong branding. Well, that, and maybe because you spent four hours playing Angry Birds last night.

4.)    Develop an online presence for your app, well before you launch your app.  If your app is tied to a company with an established online presence, then you simply need to create a landing page on your current site that’s focused on your app.  A fast and inexpensive tool for this is LaunchRock.  LaunchRock allows you to gather contact information so you can provide updates and invitations to interested customers, or, invite them to be part of a beta group.

If you don’t already have a website, then you should consider creating one for your app.  An online “hub” lets you generate excitement before and after your release by offering a way for social media users, bloggers, and others to link to information on your app.  It also offers you a place to post demos and other more detailed information on the app.

5.)    Work it!  Again, think back to your target audience and the benefits your app offers them.  (There’s a reason we listed this first.)  If your app is a marketing tool for your business, integrate information on the release of your new app into all of your various marketing channels.  Use your established social media networks and blogger contacts to spread the word.

If you’re building a new network for your app, set up social media profiles and start working them.  Drive traffic to your site, where potential customers can check out a demo or detailed descriptions of your app, and where you can capture their email addresses.  Seek out bloggers and sites that review mobile apps or cover categories related to your app.  If you’re going to charge for your app, offer promo codes to entice bloggers and others with a strong following to try it out and hopefully spread the word.

Next time, we’ll discuss getting your app into the mobile app markets and go into more detail on options for monetizing your mobile apps, including in-app advertising.  Have you had success launching and marketing a new mobile app?  What other tips would you share?  We’d love to hear about your successes and challenges.

Inspired by Chapman, I had some follow-up discussions with Dan Beenken of the UNI Innovation Incubator, and Rob Williams from MyEntre.Net.  Long story short, we decided the Cedar Valley could benefit from a BarCamp event.  A lot of individuals and organizations came on board to support the effort. (Check out the event site here to see all of the sponsors.)

The first BarCamp CV last Saturday was a big success—around 80 people showed up for a morning of creative idea sharing and fun energy.  Many are already asking when the next one is happening.  If you want to take a look at some of the recap, check out the BarCamp CV Facebook page.

Far Reach felt from the beginning that BarCamp was a worthwhile investment of our staff time and sponsorship dollars for a lot of reasons, and I’d like to highlight a few:

Vitality of our Business Community:  Events like BarCamp not only energize our business community and make this a great place to live and work, they encourage collaboration.  Several “competing” businesses worked together, along with individuals and organizations in the community to make this happen.  Instead of claiming our turf, we worked together for something that benefits us all.   Without this pooling of resources and the support of organizations like the UNI Innovation Incubator (donated the meeting space) and the Cedar Valley Alliance (donated food), BarCamp wouldn’t have happened.

Sessions Sign-up Board at BarCamp CV

Offering a New Way to Network: The traditional means of networking have worked well for years.  However, many at BarCamp expressed their relief at being able to attend an event that was entirely about making connections and sharing ideas rather than making the sale.

Giving Voice to the Future:  The next generation of business and community leaders needs a forum like BarCamp that’s less formal, offering everyone an equal opportunity to influence the agenda.  The more that young leaders are empowered to share their ideas, the more likely it is those ideas grow into something successful.

Our support of BarCampCV is strongly in line with one of our Core Values at Far Reach– “Make a Difference.”  (We’ll be unveiling our Core Values in detail on our blog and website in upcoming months.)

Did you attend BarCamp CV?   Wish you had?  We’d love to hear your feedback, suggestions, observations, etc. on BarCamp and these types of events.  Just leave a comment here and we’ll make sure it’s considered for the next BarCamp CV.