Richard Branson once said:
“An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.”
Now, we may not be able to give you all the little details here, but we can definitely put you in the right direction, and help you improve all those niggly things.
Why is that important?
So that you can turn your average community into an exceptional community.
And how?
By mastering the process of social listening.
What’s Social Listening and Why Does It Matter?
Before we dive into how you can use social listening to create stronger communities around your game or app, let’s first define it and see why it matters.
Social listening refers to the process of closely monitoring digital interactions and conversations across various social media channels that can give you insights.
It enables you to understand why those conversations occur, what makes them meaningful, and this is key in community management and protecting your brand’s reputation.
What’s more, social listening not only helps you get insight into your own brand – it helps you understand trends surrounding the overall industry too.
All in all, social listening matters because it helps:
- engage with customers;
- prepare future campaigns;
- trace and outpace your competitors;
- get consumer insights about your products;
- identify influencers;
- inform your roadmap;
- manage your reputation and customer satisfaction.
Why You Need a Community for Your Mobile App
An online community refers to the social space where groups of people with shared interest and purpose are brought together.
They function more or less like the social media platforms, with the difference that they have a more personal touch to them (they reflect the brand’s vibe).
Online communities are great because they usually have their own set of rules and guidelines, moderation, and management.
They also help you:
- collect feedback to understand what users love most about your app/game;
- what can be better;
- discover influencers and potential brand ambassadors who already use your app/play your game;
- increase affinity and drive advocacy which in turn lead to higher customer lifetime value (LTV) and can boost word-of-mouth;
- understand your users more and also connect with them better;
- create a safe space where users can freely express themselves, but also their needs and wishes;
- share the right content at the right time;
- collect necessary feedback;
- keep users motivated and engaged at all times.
Finally, each online community is defined by its members. So, by posting great content, caring about what users think, and investing both time and energy to make things better, you’re already on the right track to create a great one.
| More useful reading on the topic: |
| Creating In-App Communities: A Proven Way to Improve User Engagement |
| 13 Top Tips for Creating Kinder Online Communities |
Social Listening Strategies to Build a Stronger Community around Your App or Mobile Game
Social listening can be used at almost any stage of the community building process.
There are many different ways to approach this – one is choosing a social listening tool that best suits your business needs.
And below we discuss the rest of the social listening strategies to help you build a stronger community around your app and/or mobile game.
Identify the needs of your audience
Use social listening to understand who your audience is and get to know them better. Whether they are Gen Z app users, or perhaps they come from one country, in particular, knowing this can only enhance your strategy.
Furthermore, really getting to know them will help how you can reach them. What do they care about? What bothers them? How can you help them solve their issues?
Users are more than likely discussing your app online. They might as well be talking about your competition too. By implementing social listening, you’ll identify what your users need, but also what could make them join an online community.
We also suggest using Voice of Customer (VoC) to position your community. Voice of Customer refers to an in-depth process of getting informed about your users’ expectations, aversions, and preferences.
Use your customers’ own words to demonstrate the value of your community.
Go where your users live online
Consider whether your community should be in-app or you may opt for social media instead. This will ultimately depend on where your users spend most of their time online.
In terms of social media – as a marketer – you have plenty of options to choose from. Of course, you need to make sure they fit in well with your app and your users’ preferences. Think about which social media platform your audiences use to discover products like yours.
For instance, if you have a fashion app it will make complete sense to opt for a social media platform such as Instagram and/or Pinterest, rather than LinkedIn. Or if you have a gaming app, YouTube and Reddit might make more sense than Pinterest.
In case you’d like to build a community within your app, consider GetSocial’s Activity Feeds feature. Activity feeds have the potential to turn your app into the new socializing channel for mobile users, without compromising on its other functionalities. You can build user-powered social news feeds and notifications into your mobile app in no time.
Track topics your users care about
Developing a content plan based on what users are already talking about online is always a great strategy.
Identifying the right topics not only helps you with your brand visibility, as you’ll be able to join ongoing conversations, but it helps overall engagement too.
Track user satisfaction and generate new ideas
User satisfaction should always be one of your priorities.
Checking whether new features and/or new releases are well-received or not. Look for potential gaps you could fill, changes you can make, and so on.
Going the extra mile to understand what your users love about you and your app or mobile game can help you have an advantage over your competitor(s), which actually brings us to our last point.
Identify influencers, brand advocates, or early adopters
Do you know that influencer marketing is expected to be worth $13.8 billion in 2021? That’s how much power influencers have.
And social listening can help you identify them. Also, it can assist you in finding brand advocates, and early adopters too.
Each community needs brand advocates, and there are many ways for you to show your appreciation – from highlighting them on your social media profiles, to running planned campaigns with some of them.
This will also give your app and community a human touch – remember, people like connecting with people.
Plus, you may even recruit beta testers/early adopters to test new app features and/or releases.
All in all, social listening gives you access to various different groups of users that can help you not only promote your app/game, but also improve your user experience.
Understand what lands well with users
Use social listening to see what type of content, features, and information your current users care for. Keep in mind that it’s very easy for people to bond when they share the same interests.
All you need to do is provide them with a community where they can express themselves and share their views. Namely, this is what makes mobile messenger apps so popular. Just consider the following graphic:
As of January 2021, 2 million users have been actively using WhatsApp on a monthly basis. This makes this app one of the most popular social apps worldwide.
What all these apps have in common is that they all provide an online environment where users can connect.
You need to follow the same steps with your community.
Monitor your competitors
Staying focused on your goals and following your plans is great, but there’s nothing wrong with checking what your competitors are doing every now and then too. Learning from others’ mistakes (but also successes) can drive your business in the right direction.
You might want to explore:
- what they’re doing;
- whether they have an online community or not (if they do, what’s it like?);
- what works for them;
- what are their community members saying;
- what changes they’ve made (if any), and so on.
Check out our email course to learn more about competitor research.
Final Thoughts
All in all, social listening is an amazing tactic to be used as business leverage. Of course, nowadays with so many apps, tools, and communities it isn’t easy to secure your place on the market.
Competition is definitely off the charts.
And when users don’t feel engaged or happy, there are many alternatives they can opt for.
Building a strong and engaged online community will help you connect with your users on a deeper level and learn what they need and want so you can create a sticky app and retain customers.
Listen to online conversations to notice patterns and discover new ways to make your users happier – by delivering exactly what they ask for.
Building – and maintaining – an engaged online community is not easy, but once you manage to get it off the ground, your reputation will be stronger, your users more engaged, and as a result, your product will get better as well.
