-- Fans of your apps love to help others, turn newer users into fans, and bring - you more users as they talk about your app. Building a community can help you - tap into those influencers to help you improve your app and provide support - to others. -
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-- Building your own community can help you bring content that will delight - users and get them talking about your apps to friends, family and others in - their social network. -
- -- In conjunction with your apps’ design and development, you should start - defining and building your community infrastructure. There’s no one approach - that fits all, and the approach for each of your apps may need to be a little - different. You should start by thinking about your potential users and asking - questions such as: -
- -- How will my users prefer to interact? Game users may prefer a modern feed - style community, users of a financial management app a more traditional - discussion forum. -
-- Should I have a community for all my apps or should each app have its - own? Will users be turned off if the community isn’t just about the app - that interests them or can I make it a way to turn them onto my other - apps? -
-- Will different countries or territories, or speakers of particular - languages need separate forums? How will I handle feedback in languages I - don’t know? -
-- Do I need any additional policies beyond those governing the tool used to - host the community? -
-- Any way you do it, starting your community early helps you build momentum as - you turn happy users into influencers. -
- -- Consider inviting your existing users through a rich notification or an - opt-in on your website. Don’t overlook inviting your critics too. If you have - been able to address their earlier issues you may convert them into - supporters — it’s not unknown for your harshest critics to become your most - enthusiastic fans if you address their concerns. -
- -- When you use the beta-testing - feature in Google Play, you’ll create a testers group through a Google Group or Google+ Community to - define who gets your software for testing. Consider managing these groups as - communities in their own right. -
- -- There are many tools you can use to build your community. Before you launch, - inviting Google+ users or - Google - Groups to beta-test - your app can help you kickstart your community while you listen to and - respond to your user feedback. -
- -- Once you’ve launched, your Google+ or other social media presence can help - you continue to gather feedback, answer questions, and get input on updates. - Use social media to get the conversation started. Post updates to your - followers, announce new apps, and host contests. Ask followers to re-post so - that they bring new users into the conversation. Fans love to profess their - passion for great apps, so be sure to give them plenty of reason to do so. -
- -- Forums like Google Groups are - particularly well suited to help you and your users provide support to - others. By helping out your community, you’re building your fan base who will - share their experiences with other prospective customers. -
- -- Respond to comments and reviews on both your product details page on Google - Play and YouTube pages. Prospective - customers are influenced by reviews and comments, so be sure to manage your - brand in every channel you can. -
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-- Engaged users want you to succeed. Let them know you’re listening! Responding - to posts, comments, and other social media mentions improves your ratings by - letting users know you care. -
- -- Update the product based on user feedback and announce new releases. Users - often change their original star ratings after feeling heard, inspiring more - users to install your apps. -
- -- There are many ways to make your community feel special. Consider polls to - let users influence product updates. Use competitions to inspire and reward - your community. Giving a special member of the week badge is an easy - way to recognize those that help others. Or get users involved in testing new - versions or new apps to make them feel special. -
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