The Role of Social Media for App ASO

Levent

15 May 2023

Social media is one of the most powerful tools you can leverage to improve your App Store Optimization strategies. However, like any other tool, you need to know exactly how to use social media to ensure you get the best result.

So, how can you use social media to increase your app’s visibility, downloads, and, ultimately, revenue? That’s what you’ll learn in this post. Read on to learn more!

Social media is a term that collectively refers to various platforms on the Internet where users can create and share information, such as text, images, and videos.

Aside from that, users can communicate and interact with each other on a social media platform. Social media connects users through a network of friends, acquaintances, family members, classmates, and other like-minded individuals.

Here are some of the most popular social media platforms today:

Facebook
YouTube
WhatsApp
Instagram
TikTok
WeChat
Snapchat

There are multiple advantages to leveraging social media for App Store Optimization (ASO). Here are a few key ones:

1. New avenue for app promotion

There are millions of apps in the app stores today. The huge competition in app stores can cause your app to lose visibility and, therefore, shrink to obscurity.

If you’re going to simply focus on promoting your app in app stores, you are losing some vital business opportunities that you can find outside of the app store.

Social media platforms give you an alternative place to promote your app, and the added traffic you get from these platforms to your app store page could dramatically improve your app ranking and SEO efforts.

2. Increased visibility and reach

Social media offers you an excellent opportunity to reach a larger audience, including potential users who might not actively search for your app in app stores. Promoting it via these platforms increases its visibility and reach and can draw in new downloaders who might want to try your app.

3. Improved brand identity and recognition

Social media provides the ideal venue to showcase your brand identity and develop trust among target customers. By building an active social presence for your app, you can establish itself as a trustworthy source, potentially driving more downloads and installs.

Moreover, users tend to view brands with social media presence as more professional and reputable. Thus, it should not be surprising to see how people would more likely choose an app with a strong social media presence over apps that don’t have any social media presence.

4. Engagement with users

There’s a reason social media is called social media — it’s a place where you socialize with other people. Social media platforms enable two-way dialogue between you and your users, helping you better understand their needs and preferences.

Engaging with them on these platforms enables you to build relationships, foster loyalty, and encourage them to leave positive reviews on the app store. In short, social media allows you to connect with existing and potential users.

Through creating engaging content and running targeted ad campaigns, social media is an ideal platform to acquire new users while encouraging existing ones to remain loyal users of your app.

6. Cost-effective marketing

In contrast with traditional marketing channels, social media is an affordable and efficient way to market and install apps. In fact, most, if not all, social media platforms are free to use.

Through carefully planned social media strategies, businesses and startups can reach wide audiences at relatively low costs.

Overall, social media can be an extremely effective asset for App Store Optimization (ASO). It can help you increase visibility, build brand recognition, engage users, and drive more downloads.

Social media platforms are a rich avenue for new users. While you primarily do App Store Optimization in app stores such as Apple App Store and Google Play Store, you can definitely use social media to support your ASO campaigns.

With social media, you can promote your app outside of app stores. From there, you can lead interested and engaged people to your app store page, where they can learn more about your app or download it immediately.

As you can see, social media is a reliable tool too. Here are some tips to help you know how to use social media to promote your app.

There are tens of social media platforms out there. You have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and the list just goes on and on. In an ideal world, you want to create your presence on all social media websites. However, you might not be able to do that when you have limited sources.

That’s why you must focus on the best social media websites that give you the best results. Here are some factors you need to consider when choosing a social media platform:

Audience demographics

Each social media attracts different people from various demographic backgrounds. Thus, you need first to know your target audience and decide which social media platform you will most likely find them.

For example, Facebook is the largest social media platform today. They have a broad user base that spans all age groups.

On TikTok, you’ll find a billion users, most of whom are younger people aged from 18 to 30 years old. So, if you’re targeting younger people, TikTok would be a reasonable choice.

If you’re trying to target professionals, then you should choose LinkedIn. Another example is Pinterest. More than 75% of its users are females. If you have an app that is made for women, then go for Pinterest.

The demography gives you an idea of whether social media is the right one for your app promotion. Thus, research the demography of each social media platform to know whether they are the right choice for you or not.

Content format

Every social media platform has a unique way of sharing content. Facebook is highly flexible, which allows users to share links, texts, images, and videos. Instagram is more focused on photos and videos. TikTok’s strength lies in its short-form videos, while Twitter is for microblogging.

How do you want to create content? Will your content be more on text, images, or text? The answer could help you determine which social media to choose.

Advertising options

Advertising on social media is a huge factor in reaching your target audience. Therefore, you need to know how the ads work on the social media website you’re interested in before deciding.

For example, Facebook allows you to target people based on location, gender, interests, and behavior. On LinkedIn, you can choose your target audience based on company size, industry, and job title. YouTube allows you to put on banner, video, and text ads.

Different platforms offer different advertising options, which could give you the ideal means of reaching your users.

Engagement levels

Because of how each social media platform works, users are engaged in different ways. Facebook has a lot of content for users. Because there are different distractions in the platform, you might not effectively catch people’s attention. This means you need more attention-grabbing content to make them look your way.

On Twitter, people are more engaged. One reason is that Twitter limits users in what they can share. Although people are more engaged on Twitter, it has fewer users compared to Facebook. So, you need to weigh your options based on engagement levels.

Brand fit

If your brand fits on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platforms? You must consider how your app and brand could blend into these websites.

Aside from that, consider the type of app you’re trying to promote. If your app is about photo editing, then Instagram could be a good choice since IG is more on photos, and you can indeed highlight your app’s features on that platform.

Create engaging content

Now that you have chosen a social media platform, you need to decide what type of content you’re going to create. Remember that content is king, meaning people will determine whether they will notice you through your content.

Your content should have the following qualities:

Visually appealing – humans are visual beings. Pictures and videos are known to cause a higher engagement rate.
Informative and useful – your content should include useful information that your users would most likely engage with. You want to give your users reasons to click, read, or watch your content.
Relevant – no matter how useful your content is, if it is irrelevant to your audience, it won’t really make a huge difference. Your audience should be able to relate to your content.
Updated – people can easily dismiss outdated content, so be sure to update what you share on social media regularly.

Run targeted ad campaigns

There was once a time that you could easily share content on social media and see how it reached many people. However, this is currently not the case anymore.

Social media platforms need to make money. Thus, they make it more difficult for you to get more exposure, and the best way for you to reach people is to run paid ads.

Facebook

While this may sound bad news, the ad campaigns of social media platforms are super useful. Most advertisers get a high conversion rate in their ads.

Of course, you still need to create eye-catching visuals and compelling copy to make your ads stand out and encourage users to download and use your app.

Leverage influencer marketing

Whether you are just starting to use social media or already have a strong social media presence, you’ll benefit from working with influencers.

Influencers have a huge user base. It’s like using their stage to promote your app and get more eyes to see what you have to offer.

Reach out to influencers who might endorse your app. Collaborate with them to create content that increases your app’s visibility in social media and, ultimately, on your app store page. Be sure to choose influencers who align with your brand values and are genuinely interested in your app.

Encourage users to promote your content

You can’t fully succeed in using social media for your ASO without the help of your audience. After all, it’s all about them, and when you revolve your content around your audience, you’ll more likely get the best result.

Thus, whenever you can, ask your users to like or subscribe to your social media page or channel, encourage them to share your content. If possible, reward users who engage with your page. You can even run a contest to promote your posts further.

The more people engage with your content, the more the platform will increase your visibility. That’s usually how the algorithm works. So, ask users to promote your content.

Monitor and analyze your performance

Monitoring your social media performance using analytics tools is a great way to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and optimize your strategy. There are a lot of free tools out there that you can utilize. These include Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and Google Analytics.

You also have the option to use paid software and services to track engagement levels, reach, and conversions. Once you have the right details and data, you can better understand how you run your social media campaign.

Social media undoubtedly plays a crucial role in improving your ASO. With the information you read in this post, you’ll have a better idea of how to run social media campaigns that will support and improve your ASO effort.

Of course, this is easier said than done. Would you like to have professionals and experts on your side who will help you leverage social media for your app? If yes, then you need to get in touch with ShyftUp.

ShyftUp is the leading user acquisition agency with the expertise and experience to help you run social media campaigns and ultimately improve your ASO.

Give them a try today!

How does social media influence App Store Optimization?

Social media can significantly influence App Store Optimization (ASO) by increasing visibility, promoting user engagement, creating referrals, and diverting traffic from social media websites to app store pages.

What are the best practices for leveraging social media in your ASO strategy?

To successfully use social media for your ASO strategy, you need to choose the right platform, develop relevant and updated content, and lead users to your app store page.

How can you measure the impact of social media on your app's ASO performance?

You can compare the number of downloads before and after you started using social media to promote your app. You can also create a custom landing page or URL that you only use on your social media post. This should help you track the number of people engaging with your content.