Social Media or Mobile Apps for your business?

[Harold Mansfield]

I've been becoming more and more disillusioned with the effectiveness of Social Media to engage with your customers. While I do think it's great, and should be an addition to everyone's web program, it's still missing that functional element of direct contact.

Lately I've been turning my attention to mobile apps. And from what I've seen the market is full of "cool" apps. Games. And glorified RSS readers. But what is missing are real functional apps that help people do business with you.

Given that more people access the web through mobile devices than laptop or desktop computers, and people spend more time with or on their phones than they do their desktops or laptops, it stands to reason ( and I;m sure stats back this up) that mobile apps communicate more effectively. If done properly.

One thing is for sure. You can't predict when or how much your customers will be on Facebook. But you know that their phone is with them 24/7.

The problem for most small businesses is that building an app built can be expensive. Very expensive. But what if it wasn't? What if you could get an app tailored to your business or industry that helps your customers actually do business with you, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg to build?

Given the choice of how you would like to engage, which do you think is the better way to inform, entertain, and engage your customers?
Social Media, or mobile apps?

[KristineS]

I think mobile apps do work in certain situations. I know in my industry, which is garment decoration there are apps specific to the industry. Most are aimed more at color matching or calculating yardage for thread or fabric though.

I think whatever app was created would have to be something that had a use to it, and I don't know that it could be specific to a particular business. If the app only works with your site, then you're only going to get people to download it who are interested in your site. If the app performs a function, like calculating yardage for fabric, then you'll get more downloads, but I'm not sure how that helps you communicate with your potential customers, other than the fact that they got the app from you.

Personally, I hate ads on games and free apps that I download, and either ignore them or don't download the app, so I can't see that working well for most people, although I may be atypical in that regard.

What I like about social media is the back and forth of it. We've had success communicating with our customers and getting them to talk back to us on Facebook and Twitter and now, somewhat, on Pinterest. To me, social media is a better option than an app at this point, at least for the company for which I work. Of course, I might have a different idea of what you mean by app, so if I'm off base regarding that, please correct me.

[Harold Mansfield]

Kristine you hit multiple mails on the head.

Facebook is not supposed to work for everyone, because every business doesn't need that constant engagement And mobile apps won't work for everyone.

You are saying exactly what I'm thinking. I see too many businesses getting into one area or another because everyone else is doing it, and not taking the time to consider which is going to work best for their business.
Your example of an app that measures and matches colors is a perfect example. You can't do that on Facebook or Twitter. And what do your potential customers care more about? Something that they can use to help them do business with you, or your latest blog post?

Maybe it's both. But you need to choose the platform that will do both.

I'm interested in the app that you mentioned. Is it Android or iOS? Do you have a link?

[KristineS]

To tell you the truth I'm not sure what the app is exactly. It was mentioned in passing to me by someone a while back. I hear bits and pieces about different apps that people use for embroidery or garment decoration every once in a while, but I haven't paid a lot of attention. If I come across the information, I'll definitely pass it along.

[phillips]

Definite mobile apps. As youve said its expensive, but in terms of marketing your business they work. I would love to have hundreds of apps built for my business if only I have the budget. If you go to elance, an iphone app could go as high as $5000.

And thats what I usually do with my iphone if Im bored, go to the apps section and download just about anything.

[vangogh]

And what do your potential customers care more about? Something that they can use to help them do business with you, or your latest blog post?

Customers care about something that will help them do business, though not specifically with you, unless they do business with you often enough and if an app makes doing business with you more convenient or provides some other benefit. I don't think you'll find that's going to be true for a lot of small businesses.

All the companies who I do business with or want to interact with often enough where I would want an app are large companies. I can't think of a single small business where I'd prefer an app over visiting their website. Real estate on my phone and tablet is limited. Asking me to download an app is asking me to give up something which I have in limited supply. If you have a website I can use my browser to get to it and for most businesses I'd prefer to do that than giving up some precious real estate.

I think most small business will end being better off building a website or web app that works well on mobile devices than building a dedicated mobile app to communicate with customers. A mobile app can make sense if you need to access some functionality of the phone you can't access through a browser or you absolutely need the performance boost. It could also make sense if you have enough customers who need to interact with you often enough that giving up the real estate is worthwhile.

Otherwise I think you need to think first of making an app people would want want regardless of the company behind it.

[libra]

I cannot agree more with vg about apps occupying real estate on users' devices.

As time passes, I can imagine the tons of apps a typical mobile user would have downloaded.
Not only will that be adding more clutter to the devices, but also it makes it difficult to navigate among the multitude of apps, as compared with a single web browser with bookmarks.

Apps are by their very nature most useful only when they are needed to perform specific tasks just like those PC "utilities" of not so long ago.

[vangogh]

I know there are ways to make it easier to find apps beyond your first few pages of home screen, but those are still the ones most used. I think the main difficulty with apps is making one useful beyond one business. Some businesses are going to be popular enough to only need to provide functionality for their business. Facebook, your bank, Netflix. These companies can build apps solely around their business. Typical small business owners probably won't have a wide enough customer base to justify the expense over building a website or web app.

Not to discourage Harold or anyone else. Mobile is the future and apps are part of mobile. I just think you have to find something more than making it easier to communicate with your business, unless you have a large enough business and a wide enough customer base.