Getting the Word Out on Your Social Networks

Remember when I said that you should develop Facebook friends and Twitter followers? I’m mentioning it again because it is so important. The ones who will want to know about your application are Android users, and it is really easy to inform them.

When it’s time for you to send out the message to all your Facebook friends, use the method that I discussed earlier in Chapter 8, the one that I said not to abuse. The launch of your application is important, but other press releases, like “We achieved our thousandth download,” not so much. You don’t want to abuse your power in this way, or you will lose friends (when I say “friends,” I mean the Facebook kind, but it might affect your personal friends as well).

While we’re on the subject of Facebook, you should know that Facebook offers an advertising program based on click activity. You can create an advertisement for your application’s page and even target this ad to certain people. Of course, this is about as risky as other paid search programs, such as AdWords. By the way, if you are offering a paid app, be sure to put the price of the application in the ad. You don’t want users clicking it and then leaving after they find out there is a price!

Now is also a time where you can perfect that 140-character tweet and put out the official word that you have an application out. You don’t want to post something like “My app is on the Android Market!” That is only helpful if your audience has been following the progress of your application. However, most Twitter users have hundreds, thousands, or (if they’re celebrities) millions of followers, who can’t keep track of their friend’s tweets. You want something that is short and to the point—for example, “My Android app Baseball Card Organizer is now available on the Android Market for free.”

I believe that I have said this before, but even though Twitter and Facebook are the most popular social networking sites, there are many more. Some of them are very specific, so you should check around to see what you can find that will suit the culture of your application.