What makes a successful app? The ‘duh’ tip (tie in to social media)

When you are considering your audience, the multiplier effect, and marketing opportunities, you MUST be thinking of Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and all social media trends. They don’t guarantee success, but they can help. It’s a statistical conclusion and a gut reaction from experience. However, if you do tie in to social media, be sure it makes sense and is easy and fruitful for users to do.

So, the second thing we asked ourselves when thinking about our new app idea was: 

Should we (and how would we logically) integrate our new app with other apps and tools for social networking?

We think the answer is "yes" for our project, but every app and every business is different.

We think we have the right social media tie-in ideas and know what exactly we want to gain from tying in to Twitter or Facebook, but we continue to test our ideas and fine-tune. It's important to walk through multiple scenarios and keep asking questions.

• How should my app interface with Twitter (for example)? Should Tweets be sent automatically when users do something or should users be able to choose when to Tweet from your app?
• Does it need to be an iPhone app tied to Facebook or a separate Facebook app and iPhone app? (Or Android, etc.)
• Does LinkedIn make more sense for us? Are there any barriers to entry at LinkedIn?

If you have a good idea for how to tie a serious business solution into social media, go for it! Even a more serious business app can benefit from the network of social media (think jobhunting tools or marketing experts). 

For example, you may want to develop a personal finance app with which users track their spending and receive a gold star whenever they stay within a weekly budget. A big danger alert flashes on the user's screen when they get close to the spending limit before the end of the week. Users may NOT want this app to push these achievements and failures to Facebook. Although..., if it was optional, maybe that would be okay so that any users who respond to peer pressure can involve their friends.

 

If you are developing a photo app, maybe you want to automatically post images to Flickr or tie into Dropbox. That's a tie-in that boosts visibility and provides a useful service to your customers.

We'll fill you in on the details of our new app when it's ready to share and maybe you can tell us about your ideas in the comments.
 

Here's an example of how we use Twitter in our existing app, SoDunked! It gives this complaints an audience of 11,000 followers and that might just make this SoDunked! user feel a little better.

It may not be a serious app, but overcoming insomnia is another story. Is there an app for that?

 

While you brainstorm your own ideas, come on over to our page at the app store and try SoDunked! or gift it to a friend. There must be someone you want to dunk.