Today more than ever, companies struggle to differentiate themselves from competition.  The hottest craze in marketing to attract attention is Social Media, which deserves a well-thought plan.

Social Media is more than collecting Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers.  It’s a method of discovering and sharing news and content.  It’s a way of having your followers publish your message in their own words.

Consider the following as you begin to engage users or as you sharpen your current social strategy:

• Determine your goals and objectives.  Make them tie to your overall company goals.
• Do your homework.  What social media sites do you wish to engage with people?  A starter list includes the obvious Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn and other blogs.
• Get to Know your Social Community.  Find out what they respond to and their etiquette preferences and ease into it.
• Actively get to know your target users.  Listen to them, understand them.
• Inject humor when possible.  Learn what makes your social media members want to share what you have to say.
• Create a convincing reason to share.   You can’t expect others to share without being asked or incentivized to share.
• Ask people to spread the word.   Make it easy to share by adding buttons to easily utilize social media sites.
• Make things easy to read.   People like quick, easy-to-remember material.   Creating lists or “Top 10”-style reads keep your message brief, but valuable.
• Keep ideas fresh to your target market and don’t always use the same format.  Shake it up.
• Illustrate speaking points with photos and charts.   Make it easy for your social community to understand what you’re trying to say.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Every day there are new articles about how to effectively market your social media strategy.  Pay attention.  The more informed you are about planning for the social web, the more successful you will be.

For additional tips on sharpening your social media strategy, contact W3i at info@w3i.com.

Sue Ann Heck, Account Development Manager, W3i, LLC

Sue Ann has extensive experience in account management and prides herself in building quality, long-term relationships with W3i’s valued partners.

Already have an app up on one of the app stores? Just starting your development work or simply thinking mobile? Don’t underestimate the knowledge and impact that attending a mobile app industry event can produce.

Feedback; it’s an essential part in developing an awesome app, the problem is that getting straight-up user feedback online isn’t always easy since it’s usually not at the top of your user’s mind. Industry events on the other hand offer a prime opportunity to meet others in the mobile app industry, share ideas, gain insight, and crucial feedback you might be missing to take your app to the next level.

Network Like There’s No Tomorrow

When it comes to your online brand, your social presence and your blog, you mayhave jumped in whole-heartedly; but how many of your online connections have you really made the effort to meet offline? The fact is that some of your online friends and followers might already be attending the events that you should be at. More importantly, your app’s potential users are definitely attending those events. Obviously, you need to make an effort to attend more “real world” events or better yet, pitch event organizers for a speaking opportunity. Even if you don’t get a full speaking spot, there may be an opportunity for you to be part of a panel.

Discovering the Right Events For You

Finding out about “must attend” events is actually a lot simpler than you think, if you know where to search. A great starting point is Eventbrite, an online events organization service. Searching for events in Eventbrite is as easy typing in keywords such as mobile, apps, telecom or any other string of relevant search terms. For example, searching for the word “Apps” and filtering the location to New York generated 37 possible events, which included App Store Revenue Optimization, mHealth Conference – Mobile Apps, NYC iPhone/iPad Boot Camp, Fundamentals of iOS Development and many more.

LinkedIn events is a great resource.  Search for events related to apps, games, etc. and drilldown by location.  Don’t forget to add your events to get additional attendees.

Facebook events are equally a primary go-to destination to discover upcoming mobile industry events in your area, some of which may even be hosted by your Facebook friends which presents an even greater opportunity for you to work your charms and seal a speaking opportunity spot. Keep in mind, however, that even if you are invited to speak, the focus should never be directly related to you or your app, unless you have an outstandingly interesting story to share.

It’s almost impossible to discuss mobile industry events without mentioning WIP Connector, a hub for many of the mobile industries leading activities. WIP has been organizing its WIPJams for the last 3 years either as stand-alone full day events or as dedicated sessions that are part of other events. WIP also organizes other activites such as receptions or workshops. The regularly updated WIP calendar covers most of the mobile events from California to Budapest.

Event Preparation Tips

Take a look at the event schedule before attending to determine the sessions that are taking place.

Find out who will be attending the event and try to schedule a meeting with them beforehand.

Networking is the name of the game. Invest more time in meeting people you don’t know than talking to individuals you might already have a connection to.

If you’re speaking at an event, carefully prepare before hand with a presentation deck that’s timed according to your speaking spot. Don’t go over your allotted time and save a few minutes for questions.

Business cards; make sure you have plenty handy but don’t force them on anyone. Remember: introduction first, business card next.

Prepare your app’s elevator pitch. If you can’t explain what your app does in 10 seconds or less, no one’s interested.

On a final note – If you’ve invested the time in searching for mobile app industry events but couldn’t seem to find the right fit, that usually means that there’s a perfect opportunity for you to pick up the glove and host your own event. Find the perfect venue, invite app developers in your area to speak, invite a sponsor to host a few pizza’s and you’re good to go. It really doesn’t take a lot more than that, and it will also serve as a perfect backdrop to take pictures and videos you can share through your social presences.

Know of must attend mobile app industry events in your area or any great places to find mobile events? Share them in the comments below or reach out to us over on Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros. We’d love to meet you there!

Analytics were the talk of GDC Online last week.  Apps are getting much more competitive.  You can no longer just build a great app and hope to get discovered and retain your users.  You need to not only market your game but do predictive analysis to improve engagement.

Nick Lim of Sonamine pointed out the following in his session, “Predicting Player Behaviors.”  There are three stages in life cycle  management for games:  1.  Welcome/educate, 2.  Upsell/referrals, and 3. Seek renewal/retention.

Stage 1,  Welcome/educate.  Make your game easy to play with simple tutorials.  Predictive analytics can help you determine where the drop off is in your tutorial (see case study at end of article). The more engaged the user is the higher retention, less churn.  More  engaged users are also easier to upsell.

Stage 2,  Upsell/referrals.  Limit your messaging.  Your game should message the user at the right time with the right message. If you try to upsell too soon, you will overwhelm the user.  The user is only receptive during a brief window.  Predictive analytics can determine the optimum number and timing of messages.  “Spamming” the user causes the following:  numbness, annoyance—user can only do one thing and is trying to focus on the game, waste of money, hurts your reputation and degrades trust.

Stage 3, Seek renewal/retention – Again use predictive analytics to communicate with the user at the right time.

What is the difference between Metrics and Predictive Analytics?

Metrics measure and report the past with 100% certainty.  When using metrics, you can only view correlations between a few variables.  Predictives estimate and predict the future; certainty is impossible.  You can do predictive analysis with 50-100  variables.  Predictive modeling will give you a competitive advantage.

When using predictive analysis you are looking for the users that are “on the fence” as it will be easier to get them to cross the conversion line.

Case study of analytics at work at W3i

Speaking of tutorials. One of Recharge Studios games, My Pet Zombie, had an abnormally high churn rate during the game tutorial.  By optimizing the tutorial and improving the user interface MPZ reduced the churn from a 41% completion rate to a 81% completion rate—a 98% improvement.

My Pet Zombie - Conversions Prior to Test

Through testing churn rate reduced from 41% completion rate to 81% completion rate--a 98% improvement.

Improving just one particular image in the tutorial, shown below, saw the churn rate go from 25% to 4%.   The developer focused on the elements circled in pink.

The churn rate went from 25% to 4% by focusing on the elements circled in pink.

Predictive analytics will give you the information you need to grow your game business or just contact Recharge Studios, and we can help you improve your game marketing.  Have you run any tests that increased performance considerably?  If so, feel free to comment.

Debby Manthei, Director of Marketing Communications, W3i, LLC

Debby’s focus is on app marketing—strategies for increasing user acquisition and monetization for mobile and desktop apps.

Were you ever annoyed by an apps messaging or couldn’t determine any value so uninstalled it?  Make sure users don’t uninstall your application by asking the following questions putting yourself in their shoes:

Think about how to get the user to take action and what screens/messages top include in your app to get them to do so.

• Frequency/Timing
• Are you prompting action screens immediately, before the user starts using the app or are you delaying the action screen until an appropriate time during use?  You don’t want to overwhelm the user.
• Are you messaging the user subtly or are you overwhelming them with different messages? Don’t bombard the user, but make sure you are engaging them.
• Think about the purpose
• Is the action screen necessary? Can you combine two action screens into one if you are now using multiple screens? Can you minimize the messaging so it isn’t overwhelming, but still communicate to the user that you want them to take action?
• Location
• Do the action screens pop from the taskbar, in the browser or within the application?  Wherever the messages are popping, make sure that they make sense and feel integrated with the application.

• Functionality
• Does the application function correctly when installed with other applications?
• Does the application require additional software to be installed for the user to be able to use it?
• Does it do what it says it will do?
• Does the application work in all browsers and browser versions (if it is a browser add-on)?
• Does the application play nice with direct competitors’ applications or does the user suffer due to conflicting technologies?

Give the user Options

• Give users the option to put specific features of the application on snooze if the app pops during certain actions.  This can decrease attrition so be careful that it doesn’t decrease the use of the application too much.
• Give users the option to customize the application if possible. This allows users to make it fit their needs better and increases engagement making it less likely for them to uninstall.

Target

• Find ways to target users that are more likely to use your application. Many distribution channels will allow you to target different criteria.

When creating an application, it is important to keep all of these things in mind.  Usability should always be top of mind; you don’t want to spend resources creating something users will not value and uninstall.  Around W3i we have a saying:  “We did it that way yesterday but is it the right way today?”  Continual optimization gets the best results.

Have you learned any messaging tricks?  If so, please post in the comments.

Nicole Virnig, Account Development Manager, W3i, LLC
Nicole focuses on growing W3i business relationships, making sure the  client has what they need to make them successful. If they aren’t  happy, she isn’t happy.

This is part two of a three part series unpacking data from inside the W3i network, offering insights on browser use, browsing habits and engagement factors. In Part one, we identified state by state browser usage between Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Default Browser Use

Internet Explorer has the default browser world pretty locked up. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering IE is the default on Windows machines. W3i data shows that of Firefox browser users, 81.60% have Firefox set as their default browsers and Chrome retains about 75.84% as default compared to Internet Explorer active users where about 65.62% maintain IE as a default

Locking in the default browser setting is key to winning and retaining the crown in the browser war.

Changing Tide?

While it may seem intuitive that IE would hold the title of Default Browser King, Firefox continues to show its viability. In mid-summer 2010, IBM mandated it’s nearly 400,000 employees have Firefox as their default browser. Bob Sutor, Vice President of Open Source and Linux at IBM’s Software group said in a blog post about the mandate that “While other browsers have come and gone, Firefox is now the gold standard for what an open, secure, and standards-compliant browser should be.” It would follow, that there is an indication that Firefox continues to gain ground. The IBM announcement came around the time that IE reversed a year-long slide in usage also indicating the fickleness of the market.

Meanwhile, in the world of tech

There is one market segment that seems to be a black sheep in the browser family. Business Insider released numbers that indicate in the tech set, Google Chrome has surpassed Firefox now owning 34% market share of a tech savvy niche market(note* this is active use, not default browser settings). That eclipse happened this fall and also serves as an indicator that consumers’ browsing habits are a rich world of variation.

Final Thoughts

What the data shows is a rich world of browser preference based on market segment. For broad use, Internet Explorer still reigns supreme. However, both Firefox and Chrome are proving their ability to move the needle and that they are worth a review when developing add-ons, applications and toolbars. Both Firefox and Chrome retain high default usage among their active browser users.

In our final installment of The Browser Wars series we’ll take a look at user retention and engagement through add-ons, toolbars and applications based on browser use and identify which browser has highly engaged users when it comes to using enhanced features.

W3i’s new custom toolbar platform, 3quency, helps publishers increase engagement and user retention, as well as strengthen their brand presence and generate meaningful revenue through the creation of browser toolbars.  Each toolbar can be customized with a unique look and feel, as well as cool apps, buttons and features.   As product manager for 3quency, I know well the great things our platform can do.  This is why I’m introducing a weekly blog post called “3quency Highlights”.  I’ll be highlighting the awesome apps that 3quency offers and the cool features that 3quency is capable of each week and how they can be used to benefit your site or business.  This week I’ll be focusing on 3quency’s Social Apps.

An important part of making your custom toolbar “sticky” and thus increasing the amount of time users keep it installed is to ride upon the shoulders of social media.  Most users have Facebook, Twitter or YouTube accounts these days, so why not extend those services directly to your user base in your custom toolbar?  3quency has three great apps to charge your toolbar with the power of social media:

Twitter app:  Users can log directly into their Twitter account to view their timeline right on their toolbar.  Compose a clever 140 character or less quip or reply to tweets directly from the app.

Facebook app:  This app allows users to log into their Facebook account, view their Newsfeed, submit updates, and view events, among a plethora of other features.  Why go to your Facebook page when you can access your social network from within your toolbar?

YouTube app:  View most popular, top rated, and top viewed videos or search videos on YouTube with this app installed on your toolbar.  There’s no better way to make your toolbar sticky by providing direct access to today’s viral video sensations.

Your custom toolbar can leverage the power of social media by including social media buttons piggybacking on the strength of social media to continue to engage your valued users. 

Look forward to more 3quency Highlights in the coming weeks!  And if you want to become a 3quency custom toolbar publisher, click here to get started!

Eric Montag, Product Manager, W3i, LLC
Eric is a Pragmatic Marketing Certified Product Manager and uses his experience in internet marketing to lead the charge in product research, planning, and execution from both a consumer and business standpoint.  

Amazon, along with all other book retailers and a variety of device manufacturers, are faced with a most disruptive competitive threat to their eBook business to date, the April 3 US release of Apple’s iPad.  Amazon is turning to app marketing to defend their competitive position.

Defending and Growing Their Core Business, Books–There’s an App for That

Amazon and other book retailers, like Barnes and Noble, are in the business of selling books, not selling devices.  Apple is in the business of selling devices, not selling books.  

Armed with this knowledge, Amazon has launched Kindle for the PC and Kindle for the iPhone.   Think of the Kindle for iPhone as a consumer’s “eBook store for iPhone/iPad” more so than Apple’s owned and operated e-Book store. This is a smart move by Amazon’s marketing team. Recent research conducted by W3i shows 50% of respondents indicate that they have an interest in using an application to aid in the discovery of books. Amazon introduced Kindle for iPad March 22, integrating with the Kindle bookstore and making more than 450,000 Kindle books available through its Kindle app.  Able to sync with Amazon’s servers, Kindle for iPad makes it possible for you to continue reading on a PC, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Kindle e-reader.   Amazon will continue to grow by knowing their strength, selling books, and making sure that their content is available in emerging platforms—like Apple’s iPad.  Barnes & Noble has already jumped on this bandwagon with the anticipated early April release of their eReader app for the iPad.  Other book retailers will be wise to follow suit and use app marketing to their advantage. 

It is important that app marketers consider what utility is provided by the apps they are developing and marketing. Amazon did a fantastic job with their PC and mobile apps versus their Kindle eReader. (I own a Kindle 2, and I rarely use it. When I am traveling, I’m much more likely to carry a pocket device like an iTouch, and when I am at home, I am much more likely to use my laptop PC.) I’ve used both the Kindle for PC and the Kindle for iPhone apps for a couple of months now, and I’ve found both to be very fast, easy to use, and well thought out. After I installed the Kindle for PC on my laptop, I tried out its “free sample” feature and skimmed through a few pages of Chris Anderson’s “Free” book, which is one of my all-time favorites. Unlike the Windows iTunes app by Apple where most of the navigation of content itself is within the app causing it to be very slow at times, most of Amazon’s desktop app is built by calling back to Amazon’s web technology while still managing the eBook files locally on my machine. This makes for a much faster, enjoyable experience. Next, I installed the Kindle for iPhone app on my iTouch. I purchased the book “The Quants” by Scott Patterson, and read it while on vacation with my family in Orlando. Amazon’s website, iPhone app, and PC app are all synchronized through their “Whispersync” technology. Kudos to Amazon for having a truly synced up, multi-channel strategy that creates great utility for its users.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-Mobile

Now that Amazon and other brands have very user-friendly mobile and PC apps, they need to find solutions to market their apps to the masses.  Last month, my Clickz column discussed a variety of ways marketers could find alternative distribution models for mobile, including rebates, free-for-a-day, free for virtual goods, and cross-promotion in app advertising. One example mentioned was the cross-promotion solutions provided by Tapjoy.  Tapjoy drove the Book Bazaar app to a top 10 position in the Books-Free(App) Category.  

How might Amazon push their Kindle for iPhone app more aggressively?

One of the most common distribution tactics used by top mobile app marketers is to get top ranking in the App Store.   As I read recently, “You don’t call Apple, they call you.”  I doubt Amazon will be getting a call from Apple to give them free publicity on the AppStore.  Amazon needs to use a variety of other consumer application marketing tactics: 

• Advertising – go old school with traditional advertising; an expensive tactic, but it can work.
• Download exchange – optimize ad campaign performance with mobile ad networks like Admob.
• Word of mouth – make it easy for friends to engage.
• Social buzz – expand your app’s horizons through viral market on existing social media such as blogs, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook.  
• Review sites – get app ratings and reviews on sites like AppShopper, iUse This, AppVee, and Apple iPhone School.  Let positive reviews to do the work for  you.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-PC

One very effective application marketing tactic currently employed by Amazon is sponsored search.

However, there are limitations to search marketing; a major limitation being the lack of volume available in many new product categories. Amazon is also using In-house promotion tactics by heavily advertising new Amazon apps on their already highly trafficked and successful website.

How might Amazon push their Kindle for PC app more aggressively?

• PC OEM Deals – expand relationships with channel partners.  Ever heard the phrase, “enemies of your enemies are your friends” from Art of War? Most PC manufacturers are very concerned about the growth of Apple’s market share in the desktop and laptop market, the smartphone market, and now with iPad and Netbook sales. Even if the iPad is a smashing success, total unit sales are not going to come close to all other devices.
• Cross promotion- similar to Tapjoy in mobile, Amazon could contract with cross promotion companies like W3i.
• Affiliate marketing – Amazon is a pioneer in affiliate marketing.  If they are not already doing so, adding apps to their affiliate program could boost distribution.

Will Apple Block Amazon’s Apps?

No, there is too much risk from user outrage and potential unwanted attention by anti-trust government agencies.  Ultimately Amazon does not cannibalize Apple’s device sales but adds value.   

Strapping on the Amazon Marketing Armor

Amazon is making its content readily available on emerging platforms and in doing so is providing greater utility to its consumers.  Marketing their great new apps using cross-promotion,  search engine marketing, and other consumer app marketing tactics has Amazon well armed to fight the ensuing eBook battle.

If you observe any other Amazon app marketing tactics, or otherwise have a perspective, please post a comment.  We are always eager to learn from our valued readers. 

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Why is the opportunity for marketing free apps larger than paid apps? Analyzing user engagement trends, mobile app advertising trends, and details regarding the lack of attention being given to free apps compared to paid apps gives some strong indications. The explosive growth of mobile apps since Apple’s App Store launched on July 10, 2008, has led to increased competition as well as innovation. App store revenues are expected to grow from $4.2 billion in 2009 to $29.5 billion in 2013. Mobile advertising expenditures are predicted to increase 28 percent to $914 million in 2010.

The value of free mobile apps is not limited to advertising revenue; free mobile apps are also the leading influencer on paid downloads and support the rapidly booming virtual goods business through in-app purchasing. The importance of free apps is misunderstood by developers, as the number of paid apps is disproportionate to their demand and revenue contribution.

Free Mobile Apps Drive User Engagement

Android, iPhone, and iPod touch users are averaging 79 to 80 minutes per day engaged with apps. This is phenomenal usage.

Flixster, the leading online destination for movie enthusiasts, touts 30 million unique visitors per month and 2 billion movie ratings. Flixster found that mobile apps provided superior user engagement over their mobile Web page. Flixster apps offer an easy way to share movie choices and meet-ups with movie-going friends because it combines movie information with social networking. Flixster now has 11 apps built for various platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. The “Movies” app is said to be installed on one in five iPhones in the United States. Eight million users engage with the apps, adding to the 20 million unique visitors Flixster attracts on the Internet. Using mobile apps, Flixster’s mobile user base more than doubled in 2009.

Demand for App Distribution Drives Mobile Ad Innovation

Publishers are using mobile advertising campaigns to propel their app to the top of app store lists. AdMob routinely sells burst campaigns to help marketers achieve prominence in the Apple App Store. Being on the top of app store lists fuels revenue, whereas not making it can plunge an application into the great abyss. Of course, the cost to buy your way into the top 25 free apps in the App Store is growing fast: $10,000 in October 2008, $11,000 in December 2008, and $20,000 in March 2009. The coveted number one spot can cost as much as $250,000. It’s tough to make these numbers work without a strong business model.

New promotional methods are leading to new, innovative distribution alternatives for mobile apps. Here are some examples:

• Rebates (paid apps)
  • iPhone Game Rebates
• Free for a day (paid apps)
  • Free App A Day
  • Great App a Day
  • Free Game of the Day
• Free for virtual goods (free apps)
  • Tapjoy
• Cross-promotion in-app advertising
  • Flurry: AppCircle

Free Apps Are Underserved

Apple knows it. Apple acquired mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless in January 2010, investing $275 million. Apple launched in-app purchase support in October 2009, to support the monetization of free apps. Popular opinion is that Apple will feature app ads in the App Store similar to AdSense.

Google knows it. Google is investing in a mobile future by signing an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display advertising company, for $750 million. It was reported in November 2009 that AdMob served over 10.2 billion ad impressions per month, up from 1.6 billion a year ago.

Game developers know it. Backflip Studios CEO, Julian Farrior said he uses its free app (Paper Toss, now with 17 million downloads generating 400 million impressions per month) to cross-sell Backflip’s paid apps and generate ad revenue. “Free impressions give you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you run your business,” Farrior explained at the recent 2010 Game Developers Conference.

SGN, iPhone game publisher, CEO Randy Breen said, “The charter of this company is free apps with micro-transactions.” He predicts the mobile market will become larger than Facebook.

click to enlarge

The power of free is driving the success of mobile app marketing. Users continue to demand apps with value – be it time-killers (entertainment) or time-savers (information) – and the companies that can figure out the way to leverage this monumental demand while promoting their mobile apps for free will be the long-term winners.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Different forms of media engage consumers in different ways. Social media apps can’t engage the audience in the same way a Web site, mobile, or desktop application can.

Marketers, stop trying to force the utility of your Web site into a social application. It won’t work! Unlike a Web site, the goal of a social media app is to get people to share their action with friends, thus creating the viral effect marketers relish.

Social media apps must have a simple interface and an entertainment factor (or other value to the consumer) to start engagement, as well as an easy-to-share interface to create the desired consumer response. Let me explain with several examples:

Trek Me and Tweet in Klingon were created by Friend2Friend, as part of an integrated social media campaign across both Facebook and Twitter to create buzz for Atari’s February 2 release of “Star Trek Online,” a highly anticipated MMO game. The combined applications resulted in more than 20 million social impressions for the brand, and helped build the “Star Trek” Facebook fan base to 40,000 in advance of the game’s release.

In Trek Me, the Facebook application, “Star Trek” devotees can easily morph images of themselves or their friends into exotic and detailed backgrounds and characters developed for “Star Trek Online.” With a simple click, the picture is uploaded and edited; with a couple more clicks, the image is posted and shared with friends. “Star Trek Online” is entertaining and intuitive with an easy-to-share interface.

In addition, Atari includes an easy way to preorder the game to accelerate sales. This is an engaging application for Facebook users, where the branded element actually enhances the consumer’s experience and increases the social appeal.

Atari’s Tweet in Klingon is a social media application for use with Twitter. Twitter is all about tweeting a short message to your followers. So, Tweet in Klingon enables “Star Trek” fans to publish their messages in an easy-to-use text generator and then post it on Twitter – in Klingon.

Again, the interface is simple to use: type your tweet in English and click continue to progress to your Twitter login page, log in, and post. More than 60,000 tweets were sent in Klingon, each one from a branded microsite with information and visuals from the “Star Trek Online” game. The app provided entertainment and spread the “Star Trek Online” message to its target demographic at the same time.

Success factors for winning social media apps:

• Make the social media application “go viral” by making it easy for everyone to participate. Rather than appealing to people with design skills with a promotion for best video or graphic, include all the tools to make it easy for everyone to participate, as in Trek Me, where the consumer can upload an existing Facebook picture or snap one from their Webcam and simply place it in the various backgrounds and characters included in the application. Similarly, the Klingon translator lets anyone tweet in Klingon, not just hardcore Trekkies who know the language.
• The process should be simple, but the visuals should communicate quality. Whenever someone morphs themselves into a Cardassian or tweets in Klingon, they showcase the fantastic visuals which create the great visual experience they will get in “Star Trek Online.”
• The brand theme must be consistent. While these apps enable “user generated content,” the users put their content into a controlled environment that is consistent with the brand. Both Trek Me and Tweet in Klingon appeal to people who are already big “Star Trek” fans, in part because the brand experience in these apps is consistent with what “Star Trek” fans already love. Tweet in Klingon was also monitored to remove profanity.
• Design for sharing. By enabling the consumer to easily create something personal and giving them the interface to share, the outcome is natural – consumers share their creation with friends, increasing the chances that the app goes viral.

Let’s look at one more example. Vitamin Water used a Facebook app to crowd source its next flavor. By having fans vote and collaborate in the FlavorCreator app posted on Vitamin Water’s Facebook fan page, it created excitement and engagement with the brand.

The FlavorCreator made it easy for fans to participate and share the experience while focusing the community on realistic flavors. Adding more allure, it sweetened the promotion with $5,000 cash to the winning flavor creator.

Appropriate interaction with the brand, entertaining, easy sharing, and motivation made for a winning social media application. Vitamin Water’s Facebook fan page now has more than 11,000 fans.

Branded applications are excellent tools for increasing fan engagement and loyalty while providing for the viral spread from advocates to their friends. Winning social media apps create an entertaining, unencumbered consumer experience appropriate to the brand, with a built-in interface to encourage sharing.  So easy to say, but so difficult to execute.

When planning an application, make sure that it engages the audience appropriately for the media. Social apps are covered above. Desktop apps are an excellent way to engage the audience when content provides daily utility – like weather updates or music. Browser add-ons are a great way to extend your brand by providing consumers additional functionality within the browser experience.

Mobile is perfect for location-based information and for an Internet interface when the consumer is away from their computer. Keep this in mind and all your apps will be winners.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

The Challenge
Going live with an advertiser’s offer is only the beginning when distributing through the W3i Application Network.  As with landing pages, the challenge is to optimize the critical elements so that ROI is optimized.      

The Solution
W3i provides consultative and testing services for advertisers to increase acceptance rates.  One of the first things we look at is the disclosure screen itself.  The disclosure screen is the screen shown to the user within the installation manager, InstallIQ, that discloses the required information about the application.  Ultimately the goal is to improve acceptance rates.  It works like this, W3i mocks up multiple disclosure screens based on the findings of previous tests.  W3i runs tests on the disclosure screen mocks showing the various screens to users to determine which one has the highest acceptance rate.  W3i replaces the original disclosure screen with the one that performs the best. 

The Results
An example of a disclosure screen test that W3i recently ran was for a security application.  There was a 6.45% gain in acceptance rate with one of the versions tested. Needless to say, that version was rolled out.

Here are some things that W3i found to perform better in terms of improved acceptance rates with disclosure screens, but ultimately testing can only determine what works best for each particular application:

• Illustrating what the software does instead of having multiple useless graphics
• Having the copy left aligned
• Showing the functionality of the applications simply
• Trying to limit the amount of information on the screen to avoid crowding

Following is an example of these tips at work on an internal W3i product disclosure screen:

The top image is a control disclosure screen for one of W3i’s internal products.  The bottom image is a test version that had a 2.48% improved acceptance rate.

Find Out More
To learn more about optimizing within the W3i Application Network, contact Nicole Przybilla at nicole.przybilla@w3i.com or call 320-257-7500 ext. 1020.

Nicole Przybilla, Account Executive, W3i, LLC
Nicole focuses on growing W3i business relationships, making sure the client has what they need to help them be successful. If they aren’t happy, she isn’t happy.