Welcome to the Dad 2.0 Summit Live Blog. This is the live blog session for Appetite for the App.
The topic: Building your readership means diversifying your efforts to maximize reach. But as the string of platform logos in your signature line expands, the need to unify them for the sake of an intuitive customer interface looms large. Our panelists will discuss how they turned to the app as a hub that synthesizes all their content in one easy-access point for their end-users, and lets them take it anywhere. Their only regret is not having done it sooner.
Moderator: Titania Jordan @Titaniajordan
The Panel:
Demetrio Cuzzocrea @Dcuzz
Ryan Hamilton @LifeofDadShow
Jill Krause @BabyRabies
Andrea Nair @andreanair
Titania Jordan starts the talk with telling the audience about what the panel will be about.
She starts talking about Yik Yak and her struggles with working on tech stuff, family and the creation of Privet.
Panel members talk a little about themselves.
Demetrio – I have created a lot of apps. I have one coming out soon with Stan Lee. I also have done social media for reality stars.
Ryan – I am the tech guy for LOD and am an app creator and podcaster. I love to share my tech wisdom with others.
Jill – I am the creator of Babyrabies. I consider myself more of a content creator than a blogger. I have created stuff on youtube for myself and other companies. Due to my blog getting hacked I created the Babyrabies app to collect all of my stuff.
Andrea – (Sidenote: She bought ketchup chips for the panel.) I’m a psychotherapist and childhood educator. I am known as the “tantrum lady” a list that I put up was shared over 250K times in a week. I knew nothing about creating an app and it took 6 months in research to create my Taming Tantrums app. The app is a parenting tool to help out with the tantrums.
Ryan Kanyed the panel for a second to tell the panelist how much he likes their apps.
How do we develop a good app idea?
Tatiana – We build on the shoulders of giants – and do it better. It boils down to finding a need and making an app to help solve it.
Key points 1:
A good app idea –
Serves a human need or want.
Is based on a good fundamental business idea
Enhance your humanity
Stay connected to have people read your stuff.
Jill – Facebook is my water cooler
The Babyrabies app lets readers know when something new is posted and helps out her readership.
Andrea – I wanted to solve the problem of “What do I do” without carrying a book around.
Demtrio – What’s the story you are telling and in which channel? An app is like a Haiku: it is a quick brief summation that you want to come back to again and again.
Titania – Applications are reaching far more people that we can imagine. When you control the way people are interacting with your content, you can sleep better at night.
Ryan – Mark Zuckerberg can not control all of your content. Life of Dad has held off on app development and we are developing an app that will be coming out this spring. There are a lot of routes and way to work with facebook. There is a thing called “Comment Mirroring” Comment mirroring allows you to have your page and any comments that comment on you page will go to your website.
WHAT!! – Jill.
Demetrio – There are things called Hybrid app it has your stuff wrapped around in an app. It’s not really an app. This all takes time and expertise. You could build it yourself
Key points 2:
Should you develop a free or paid app
It depends on your idea….bu t generally few
Serve first. Build adaption, satidfaction, trust, referrals, reviews and discoverability
Key Points 3:
Monetize later
-in app purchaseing
Premium content
Feature unlocking
Product sales
Advertising
Sponsors
Andrea – I had to pay to have my app created. I got my app off the ground in 4 months. Creating an app is a process and can talk a long time.
Demetrio – The review process takes a long time to and sometimes your app can be canceled without knowing.
Jill – I created my app for $99 with Mobiiloud.
Key points 3:
Do it yourself or hire a team?
It depends on your needs, budget, and in-house development.
DIY has become easier and options more available than ever.
– native app plugins for wordpress bloggers
-native apps plugins for wordpress bloggers
e.g. AppPresser, IdeaPress, UppSite, Mobilid, Joemobi, etc.
Titania – Hiring a team has also become less expresive and more options are available.
Demetrio -$1.99 is the magic number to sell apps.
Titania – Don’t be afraid to ask someone to work for free.
Demetrio – You can’t run a business on equity alone.
Ryan – If you idea is truly great, companies will help.
Demetrio – You can find deals and great coders, but look into their apps already created.
Key points 4:
What kind of content should you have?
Content that is useful
Content that build trust
Content that is timely and relevant
Content that is customized to the user
Based on affinity, preference, location, etc.
Content that is user-generated.
Jill – Once the app goes out, it is hard to get it back.
Andrea – Reviews are important. You tend to lose all of your looks/numbers when you make changes to your page.
Key points 5:
How to get your app off the ground?
Have a good idea, blog or business in the first place.
Buikd the app
Distribute the app via app store and google play
Introduce the app as a value add to your preexisting users audience etc.
Encourage reviews
Make it highly discoverable.
Ryan – Keep thinking multi-channel and how to show those.
Key point 6:
Do you even need an app?
It all depends.
In many cases, no
-you probably want an app more than you need one.
But, in some cases, yes,
Having an app, or at least an app-like experience, had become more if a necessity through the years.
Mobile boom 2007 generated a rush to make desktop
Question from the floor. – Can an app be a proxy for an info product?
Demetrio – Content is king, context is queen.
Titania – Yes, it is great for all.
Andrea – PR is a lot to do to get the word out.
Ryan – It’s not “If you build it they will come.” Keep in mind that you have to find a way to explain your app to your customers.
Jill – Developers ask you what your key words want to be (in regards to SEO).
Ryan – Plugs-in are available to direct readers to other posts on your page to your page.
Takeaways
Titania – Collaboration and support are going to help you and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Live Blogging by Victor Aragon Jr of Fandads.com.