To advance your brand and news organization, social media experts have advised building a mobile app.
Now, industry professionals can do it themselves, if they have the time.
Jeff Cutler is a social media journalist and social media trainer for the Society of Professional Journalists. He said it is a personal preference whether you want to budget someone to build the app or find the time to do it yourself.
In his “How to Turn Your Website into a Mobile App” session at the 2011 Excellence in Journalism conference, he posed a list of questions when building a mobile app.
· What platform will you be using? Will the app be available for the iPhone, the Blackberry, or the Android? Or will it be “platform agnostic” and available on all platforms?
· How good are you? Will this be a solo project? Do you want to hire someone? Cutler said to know your limitations and skill set.
· What is your budget and goal? Cutler said to anticipate hiccups and plan the building process according to the time you have to update and maintain the app.
· What is your deadline? Cutler said there is no rush to publish. He reminded attendees of their brand and their news organization, and he said the app should be sophisticated enough so it could reinforce the respective publication.
· Will it be practical? Will users be comfortable with the app? Cutler said each use should be a consistent experience.
· Will the app have any connection with your online website? Cutler told attendees to think of their audience and attract them to match the online website with the mobile app.
· What are you going to do with the app? “Have a road map for where it’s going to go and what you’re going to add to it,” said Cutler.
· How are you going to measure its use? Cutler said to track the app’s use and start analyzing how it is being used.
During the session, Cutler introduced several simplified online resources, including shoutem, lifehacker, appmakr, and conduit mobile.
For more information on Cutler’s mobile apps session, visit 60sites.com.
