The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development

10

Riding the Social Networking Wave

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Learning about the in-app social networks that are available
• Discovering which social networks might work best for your app
• Understanding how achievements drive both engagement and retention, and tips for implementation
• Learning what positive marketing attributes to take from Facebook, and which to change
• Discovering the power of metrics and split testing
• Understanding how gifting and sharing encourages return action
• Learning about ways to provide competition and cooperation within games
• Learning how Facebook Connect and Twitter can be implemented
• Discovering how to maximize your viral channels using Fan Pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube, and more

From a business perspective, social media is all about marketing. It's another way to directly impact proliferation and sales of your product by engaging and interacting with your target audience (in this case, apps), but it can work for most any business. Social media means unique channels where users can directly communicate with others (one-way or two-way), via direct message or chat, Facebook wall or newsfeed posts and notifications, tweets and re-tweets on Twitter, LinkedIn, the old-fashioned (but still heavily relied upon) e-mail, and other social platforms — both general and targeted to a specific niche.

In June 2010, Admob reported that roughly 50 percent of iPhone users discover new apps via word of mouth, which included social media recommendations. Though the report ...