1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
|
page.title=Build Community
page.metaDescription=Build a loyal following with great support and communication.
page.tags="users, growth, community"
@jd:body
<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
<h2>
Contents
</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="#starting-your-community">Starting Your Community</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#tools-to-build-your-community">Tools to Build Your Community</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#managing-your-community">Managing Your Community</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#related-resources">Related Resources</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<div class="headerLine">
<h1 id="starting-your-community">
Starting Your Community
</h1>
<hr>
</div>
<p>
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:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
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.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
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?
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Will different countries or territories, or speakers of particular
languages need separate forums? How will I handle feedback in languages I
don’t know?
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Do I need any additional policies beyond those governing the tool used to
host the community?
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Any way you do it, starting your community early helps you build momentum as
you turn happy users into influencers.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
When you use the <a href=
"{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">beta-testing
feature</a> in Google Play, you’ll create a testers group through a <a href=
"https://support.google.com/groups/answer/46601">Google Group</a> or <a href=
"https://support.google.com/plus/topic/2888488">Google+ Community</a> to
define who gets your software for testing. Consider managing these groups as
communities in their own right.
</p>
<div class="headerLine">
<h1 id="tools-to-build-your-community">
Tools to Build Your Community
</h1>
<hr>
</div>
<p>
There are many tools you can use to build your community. Before you launch,
inviting <a href="http://www.google.com/+/business/">Google+</a> users or
<a href="https://support.google.com/groups/answer/46601?hl=en">Google
Groups</a> to <a href=
"{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">beta-test</a>
your app can help you kickstart your community while you listen to and
respond to your user feedback.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
Forums like <a href=
"https://support.google.com/groups/answer/46601?hl=en">Google Groups</a> 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.
</p>
<p>
Respond to comments and reviews on both your product details page on Google
Play and <a href="http://youtube.com">YouTube</a> pages. Prospective
customers are influenced by reviews and comments, so be sure to manage your
brand in every channel you can.
</p>
<div class="headerLine">
<h1 id="managing-your-community">
Managing Your Community
</h1>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="figure">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/gp-community-0.png">
</div>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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 <em>member of the week</em> 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.
</p>
<div class="headerLine clearfloat">
<h1 id="related-resources">
Related Resources
</h1>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="resource-widget resource-flow-layout col-13"
data-query="collection:distribute/users/buildcommunity"
data-sortOrder="-timestamp"
data-cardSizes="9x3"
data-maxResults="6"></div>
|
