How To Harness Social Media To Boost Your App’s Organic Growth – App Growth Blog Series (Part 2)

The first stage on your journey to growing your mobile app is acquisition. Here we’ll be staying on the topic of organic channels available to acquire users.

Once you’ve gotten a handle on your ASO strategy, you’ll want to deepen the relationship with your audience. The best way to build your brand and engage users is through social media. Just think: in 2019, there were 3.48 billion social media users with the worldwide total growing by 9% since last year. That’s a whole lot of potential audience to tap into! 

Social media is also the perfect place to test your new ideas and get instant feedback from the people who use your app the most. The beauty about these platforms is that they allow for an actual dialogue and relationship-building exchanges to take place. If used correctly, social media a powerful tool!

To help sum up the social media game, we’ve outlined some simple steps you can follow to help you implement a successful social media strategy.

1. Choose your social networks

You have to decide which platforms are best suited for you. Do you benefit more from an update-style Twitter feed? Or maybe your users prefer visuals – making Instagram and/or Pinterest a valuable channel.

The social networks that you choose will depend on where your audience is. Hopefully, you’ve already found your perfect target audience in your app’s pre-launch phase and have a clear idea of where they are.

Remember that these social networks will be used for business purposes and should be leveraged as tools to meet your goals and objectives. You need to be confident that you will be able to get your message across in the most efficient way possible, whether it’s spreading awareness about your brand or having a two-way conversation and getting their feedback.

2. Decide on your content

Now that you know where you’re going to connect with your audience, you have to decide on what you’re going to share with them. There’s plenty to choose from; you can do blogs, tweets, reshares, graphic designs, stories, videos or anything else that comes to mind. Pick the one you are most comfortable with, as you’ll be doing this for an extended period. If you don’t enjoy the process, the audience will feel the lack of authenticity they crave and soon leave you – and likely your app.

This is also the time to think about the tools you’ll need to deliver on your content strategy. Will you be spending the bulk of your time typing and need a great keyboard? Are you going to make videos and need an awesome camera, mic and editing software? Do you need to know how to use Photoshop? The more of this you can plan, the easier it will be to reach your goals!

3. Make a plan

No matter what topic it is, you often hear that consistency is key. How do you get to that consistency? Planning!

After you know what you’ll be posting and where – you need to focus on three things:

• Campaign goals
• Publishing times
• Campaign budget

Establish your goal and make it tangible. Focus on one thing – maybe you want to increase your outreach or get more followers. For this you’d need a viral strategy with provoking content that’s more likely to get shared across the web – maybe it’s a great deal offer or just an inspirational video.

Or, if you’re trying to build your community and want to engage them in conversation, then you’ll want to implement a slower approach that shows your commitment. Like all successful relationships, building rapport and trust takes time. Even if you don’t get as much response as you’d like – keep talking to them. Eventually, with enough authentic outreach, it will become a meaningful two-way conversation.

Plan for when you’re going to post all of your insightful content. Are you going to post on specific days, when your audience knows to expect news from you? Or are you going to randomly drop in and keep them on their feet? As always, there’s no clear answer. But if you’re uncertain, we’ll talk about common posting times in the next step.

Budget! Maybe it’s time to ask your boss for some resources to fuel your viral machine that will win the hearts of your app’s users. You’ve planned the tools you’ll need to generate content, and maybe that requires the purchase of a camera or software. Perhaps you’ve also decided to spend money on services like Facebook Ads to promote your content – and the list goes on and on. Budget accordingly, and you’ll have numerical evidence of  your cost efficiency as a top marketer!

4. Post at the best time for different platforms

Let’s breakdown the most common social media platforms, what they are used for and who uses them.

Platform	Audience	Prime time
Facebook	Almost anyone within the range of 13-60. Used both on mobile and desktop.	Thursday-Friday, 1-4 p.m
Twitter	People commuting, idling or waiting for something that are passing the time by catching up on the latest buzz	Weekdays, 12-3 p.m, 5 p.m
Instagram	Generally a younger audience, on mobile, active most of the day	Avoid Monday, Thursday at 3-4 p.m
Pinterest	Artists, creative people who want to be inspired	Saturdays, 8-11 p.m
LinkedIn	Professionals using it for work-related things, like industry news, content and networking	Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m, 12 p.m, 5 p.m

5. Don’t overwhelm your audience with content

Remember that just like with anything we like, there’s the law of diminishing returns. Your audience will appreciate the quality content you’re putting out, but if all of a sudden you start posting a lot – almost spamming – you’re likely to see a decrease in your conversions. 

Go with your gut; think about how many posts you like to see from some of the sources you follow on the internet, or go off of analytics and act when you see a marginal decrease in tap-throughs.

As you can see, social media is not an exact science. But there are best practices that you can follow to yield the best results. Don’t be afraid to play around and try new things. Your audience – and your metrics – will let you know what’s working and what’s not!

We have a lot more to share regarding user acquisition, so stay tuned as our App Growth blog post series continues.

If you’d like a free one-stop resource to all of our App Growth tips right now, download our “How To Grow Your App” e-book here!