Social Media Strategy for App Development Startup

This case study examines the social media strategies of Appster, a startup specializing in app development for websites and mobile phones. The analysis includes a SWOT assessment, market segmentation using four variables, a representative user persona example, and SMART goals for their social media campaigns. The rationale behind selecting Facebook as the primary channel and utilizing Google Analytics to measure engagement (likes, website activity, user retention, reach) is also discussed.

Running head: EMERGING MEDIA STRATEGY
Emerging media strategy
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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EMERGING MEDIA STRATEGY
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of the client..............................................................................................................3
Aim of the report..........................................................................................................................3
Analysis of current social media efforts..........................................................................................3
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................4
Social media platforms used by the company..............................................................................5
Target audience................................................................................................................................6
Example persona..........................................................................................................................7
Social media objectives...................................................................................................................7
Detailed media plan.........................................................................................................................9
Justification....................................................................................................................................10
Intended evaluation methods.........................................................................................................11
Evaluation systems.....................................................................................................................11
Summary........................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
The topic focuses on the emerging media strategies used by the business organisations in
Australia to create a sustainable place in the competitive business environment. Appster is one of
the major start ups in Australia that has managed to develop different mobile apps and created a
marketplace for developing applications that can be used by organizations to manage marketing
activities with ease and effectiveness along with maintenance of other digital assets (Aral,
Dellarocas and Godes 2013).
Background of the client
The clients are mainly targeted by Appster to sell their creative assets to the creative
people all over Australia. There are millions of people and businesses all over the world who
need to purchase applications, and gather relevant skills and knowledge to develop effective
applications that can meet the business needs and preferences as well as enhance the outlook and
structure of the website managed by a company (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Aim of the report
The main aim of the report is to identify the emerging media strategies adopted by the
organisation to attract more customers and generate good amounts of revenue in business
(Berthon et al. 2012).
Analysis of current social media efforts
There are various social media efforts considered by the company as useful for driving
more traffic and gain more profit in business. The social media has helped the company to
engage the customers and spread a positive message through the use of hash tags, call the users

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to take immediate actions and furthermore execute the movement to deliver grassroots results
(Castronovo and Huang 2012).
SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 The company uses its social media
platforms wisely by integrating with
multiple applications and websites.
 High engagement of customers
 Identification of needs of users is easier
and convenient user experience
(Appster.com 2017)
 As it is a start-up business, lack of
engagement of customers
 Advertisements on Facebook is the
only major source of generating good
revenue (Appster.com 2017).
 Lack of increase in the numbers of
followers in the last few months
Opportunities Threats
 The number of users accessing the
social media by using mobile phones
has increased
 Other sources of revenue are Twitter,
YouTube, LinkdIn, etc.
 Additional growth opportunities like
new apps and social media pages that
are run by App developers
 The ad block extensions prevent pop
ups which can make the company
remain unnoticed
 Poor business model
 The slow growth rate of online
marketing and privacy issues.
Example

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Facebook Facebook
Strengths Weaknesses
 Huge fan base
 Effective for business start ups to
promote the services
 Effective marketing platform for
generating more traffic and revenue
(Juris 2012)
 User authentication problems might
arise
 Cyber crime can be serious threats to
business and may even result in
important data and information
(Appster.com 2017)
 Lack of security
Opportunities Threats
Side business with LinkedIn has helped to gain
a good position in the marketplace.
With more than 2000 followers and an average
of 1.5 k likes on each of the posts made by the
company.
Lack of security
Negative responses can result in bad word of
mouth promotions and deteriorate the status of
the company (Macnamara and Zerfass 2012).
Social media platforms used by the company
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are few of the social media platforms used by the
company to generate more traffic as well as engage more customers towards the services offered
by the company (Appster.com 2017). The TweetDeck is one the major tool that can be used as a
tool to schedule Twitter and monitor the feeds on Twitter. A custom dashboard is created for
monitoring the messages and develops feed for the Twitter lists, trends, notifications, etc (Meijer

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and Thaens 2013). PostPlanner focuses n both Twitter and Facebook on connecting one profile
and schedule that profile post till five to six posts per day. The advantage of Post Planner is that
it manages integration to develop graphics that are attractive for the social media posts and can
engage customers easily. Buffer is another social media tool for managing multiple social media
profiles at the same time and provides accessibility to analytics for identifying the numbers of
clicks on the links or websites of the company (Trainor 2012).
Target audience
Demographic variables Geographic variables
Age 25-40
Gender Both male and female
Income level
Size of family
Occupation
Education
Race
Ethnicity
Region – Australia
Market density – Urban and suburban
Size of country
Size of city
Climatic conditions
Psychographic variables Behavioral variables
Lifestyles
Behavioral traits
Leadership skills
Values and beliefs
Motives
Status of users
Status of loyalty
Brand preference
Price sensitivity

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Example persona
Social media objectives
The SMART objectives are created for accomplishing the social media goals and
objectives and furthermore increase the rate of accessibility to Facebook and Twitter by some
percentage (Appster.com 2017). Appster wants to expand its services offered to obtain more
sales and revenue generation with the help of social media. The various individuals involved
with the goals or objectives are the workers of the organisation who are specialised in the web

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application designing and are skilled to handle web applications used by organizations to market
its products and services (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). The measurable objectives are to
engage as many users with the web site that is being promoted on Facebook. An inventory
consisting of knowledge, skills and resources must be established to accomplish the goals and
objectives with ease and effectiveness. The objectives are to measure the outcomes and not the
activities involved. The company must send five tweets or posts every day to enhance the brand
awareness and draw in more customers (Turner and Shah 2014). Lastly, the time-based
objectives include accessibility to the web site by introducing a blog on the Wordpress platform
along with the availability of the all new apps that are available for the users. This would
enhance the efficiency of customers’ services and respond to customers queries with ease
(Wright and Hinson 2013).
Example
Facebook
S-Increase sales and revenue
generation
M-Promotion of the websites
A-Management of inventory
consisting of knowledge, skills
and resources
R-Enhance the awareness of the
brand
T-Improving the customer
services’ efficiency and resolve

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customers’ queries
Detailed media plan
Channels Time period Type of content Date Examples
Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday
Facebook 10:00 Share posts to
make customers
know about the
services
delivered by
Appster
25.8.17 Wide range of
apps that can run
on android,
iPhone and iPad.
Twitter 11:00 Manage tweets 25.8.17 Get the most
effective website
app and is
functional on
iPhone, iPad and
android
platforms.
LinkedIn 12:00 Suggest websites
and links for
gaining the
services
25.8.17 Look for skilful
individuals who
have knowledge
in the domain

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Channels Time period Type of content Date Examples
Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday
Facebook 10:00 Share posts to
make customers
know about the
services
delivered by
Appster
25.8.17 Best quality apps
delivered for
managing
business with
efficiency
Twitter 11:00 Manage tweets 25.8.17 Get the most
suitable app that
the businesses
are looking for.
Channels Time period Type of content Date Examples
Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday
Facebook 9:00 Business related 28.8.17 Great web
applications and
web sites
managed with
the help of
mobile apps
created by
Appster

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Twitter 10:30 Management of
customers’
services
28.8.17 Best marketing
applications and
business themes
available
Justification
Based on the data and information presented in the Social media today, Facebook is one
of the most popular and effective social media platforms that have not only allowed Appster to
reach a wider group of audiences but also has increased the number of users largely (Aral, S.,
Dellarocas and Godes 2013). The traffic from Facebook has resulted in the success of the
company, and both the social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter have accounted
for more than 98 percent of the social media generated traffic to the websites. Most of the people
get online at least once in a day on Facebook, and it has created a huge scope for the startup
companies in Australia to attract them and make them know about the kinds of services related to
the development of applications that can be run on both mobile phones as well as on desktop
computers for providing much ease to customers., (Armstrong et al. 2015).

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Intended evaluation methods
Evaluation systems
There are various systems of evaluation for tracking and measuring the efficiency of the
distribution channels used by Appster to attract customers. Google Analytics, Facebook Insights
are few of these analytical tools. Google Analytics tool can be used to enhance the brand
awareness and deliver important data and information related to the activities done within the
website managed by Appster (Berthon et al. 2012).
Stages followed to determine the efficiency of social media marketing and focus on the
audiences and acquisition are:

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The Google analytics and Facebook Insights are effective evaluation systems used to
measure the level of engagement, likes and followers on the web site along with the rate of
conversion. It can measure the numbers of likes and various activities like individuals visiting
the website managed by the company (Appster.com 2017). The individuals who have clicked on
actions are identified along with the identification of time when the audiences are online on the
web site. The reaching of posts and engagement of users on the Facebook page are also
monitored to check whether customers have been satisfied with the kinds of services delivered
by Appster or not (Juris 2012).

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Summary
The topic illustrated about the emerging social media trends and strategies and Appster,
which a business start-up specialised in the development apps for the websites and mobile
phones, has been considered as the case study. A SWOT analysis of the organisation based on its
social media strategies undertaken had been included here along with the targeted market
segments with the use of four segmentation variables. An example persona was presented here
and SMART criteria of the various social media strategies implemented by the company. The
justification of theories was done by selecting Facebook as the right media channel whereas the
Google Analytics tool was used to determine the growth in likes, activities on the website, time
during which users remained online, reaching and engagement of users on the posts too.

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References
Appster.com. (2017). Appster.com. Retrieved 28 August 2017, from http://www.appster.com
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media and
business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.3-
13.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D., 2012. Marketing meets Web 2.0, social
media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business
horizons, 55(3), pp.261-271.
Castronovo, C. and Huang, L., 2012. Social media in an alternative marketing communication
model. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 6(1), p.117.
Juris, J.S., 2012. Reflections on# Occupy Everywhere: Social media, public space, and emerging
logics of aggregation. American Ethnologist, 39(2), pp.259-279.
Macnamara, J. and Zerfass, A., 2012. Social media communication in organizations: The
challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic
Communication, 6(4), pp.287-308.
Meijer, A. and Thaens, M., 2013. Social media strategies: Understanding the differences between
North American police departments. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), pp.343-350.
Trainor, K.J., 2012. Relating social media technologies to performance: A capabilities-based
perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.317-331.