mobile-apps, growth, customer-development, communityI’m developing an app that will mostly spread through use in the real world. Examples of similar growth models: flashlight app (since people see others using it), iBeer app (which looks like your phone screen is filled with beer, and as you tip it back it looks like you’re drinking it - people see that and download it for the novelty).
I also want fans of my app (if there are any!) to be able to communicate among themselves, share pictures, etc. I will promote social media accounts for the app on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. I’m not planning to include a “forum” on the app, or a messaging feature, though those might help promote the sense of community.
Is there some other approach, idea, or “thing” I should be pursuing to build a community among enthusiastic customers?
First things first: a community is a lot of hard work. You have to build it up and to maintain it. And if you not hit a critical mass, all your work is wasted.
There are several reasons to implement a community module. But first think about third party tools, like facebook etc. Maybe there is no need to implement your own redis & co.
Now, as you stated, your “business goal” is engagement. You want your customers/users to actively use your product/service to create new content/methods/results.
To understand what your users drive, have a look into the topic “intrinsic and extrinsic motivation”. (Tl;Dr; intrinsic = do something for the sake of doing it; extrinsic = do it for some kind of reward)
So to increase participation, you will have to build a system which for example rewards the user for sharing with bagages/points/physical reward etc. (extrinsic) and builds engagement by solving needs of the user (intrinsic) like the need to share.
MartinFromMunich
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