Let’s have a look at Socialize, a free social layer SDK which can be implemented into your app. Here’s what we are promised on the website getsocialize.com: “Unleash the community hidden inside your app!”
So, what does this exactly mean? Basically the SDK creates a community out of all people using a certain app by giving them the chance to see which content other users of the same app have viewed, liked and/or commented on. This seems to be a smart idea since many app gamers are kind of lonely within their app (unless is has a multiplayer mode). As this might often result in a dramatic drop in users’ engagement it’s definitely worth thinking about ways to keep the app content dynamic by adding community features. Socialize states an up to a 50% increase in amount of time spent in apps running the SDK.
Giving app users the chance to share content right out of the app isn’t something new, of course. Most apps offer such functionality to enable users to share interesting stuff via Facebook or Twitter. However it’s definitely interesting to be able to share within the app. While showing other users’ activity on certain elements of an app, Socialize also offers some kind of a dashboard (called ‘Activity Pane’) to list the content users interacted most with.
If you wonder why the SDK is for free, the answer isn’t hard to find. A a growing number of apps using the SDK will enable Socialize to create very sophisticated profiles of users’ interests (interest graphs) – what allows advertisers to target their potential customers very precisely. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you should be aware of it when you think about using Socialize.
The implementation of the SDK is quite easy to do for iOS as well as for Android apps – typically, it only takes about 30 minutes to install it. While the really fast ones among you might want to participate in the implementation challenge ($2,500 prize), others could be interested in Socialize’s one-on-one developer SDK workshops in their San Francisco office from 1 August through 31 August 2011.
Torsten is doing appbackr‘s online marketing, bringing together app developers and backrs.
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