Ken Yarmosh is the proprietor of a boutique mobile agency based in the Washington, D.C. area and the author of App Savvy (O’Reilly).

Mobile is only getting bigger. Thousands of new apps are hitting app stores every day. The result is that even innovative or well-made apps are often ignored.

One reason for this is that far too many mobile developers start their marketing efforts after they launch their app. This approach wastes one of the best marketing opportunities available — when the app first goes into an app store. Many app creators don’t realize that marketing needs to occur parallel to development and build over time.

To help, here are five tips for marketing a mobile app before it launches.

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1. Build a Splash Page

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One of the easiest ways to generate interest in an app, even if the app is just an idea, is to build a splash page.

Typical splash pages include a device image, some branding relevant to the app, very basic details about the app’s functionality and social media links. Creating a newsletter sign-up form at this stage also gives people the opportunity to stay updated about progress. Yes, newsletters still work!

The splash page will act as the headquarters for an app, until it’s actually built. Eventually, the splash page should grow to house the full website.

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2. Do a Sneak Peek

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Communities have really come alive on sites like Dribbble, Forrst, Ember, and comparable outlets. These sites are specifically built to share sneak peeks of works in progress. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that they also represent free places to get extremely high quality feedback from the best in the business. There’s no better way to generate interest in an app than by having peers and potential customers actually contributing to the final version.

App-focused blogs also love featuring cool new apps in development. If you pique their interest, it’s very likely they’ll write about an app even while it’s being built. That’s especially true if they are given exclusive screenshots and other details about the app that aren’t available to others.

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3. Create a Teaser Video

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It’s not necessary to be a professional videographer to develop a good video preview of an in-progress app. In fact, the simpler it is, the better.

Showcase the key features and include some upbeat background music or interesting narrative. Remember, what you want to highlight is the promise of the app. The final version does not need to be completed at this point.

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4. Rally Beta Testers

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Working with beta testers is one of the best examples of how marketing helps development and vice versa. Leveraging the splash page, sneak peek, teaser video and other similar assets, you can excite potential customers to sign up to beta test an app.

Not only will beta testers provide feedback about how to improve the app, they’ll also become advocates for it once the app actually launches. You’ll then have an army of people that will help both in testing and marketing your app.

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5. Share Promo Codes With Key Contacts

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There’s a little known secret about promo codes for iOS apps. If an app is approved for Apple’s App Store but not yet released, promo codes are still active. Taking advantage of this function gives you the opportunity to get your app into the hands of key contacts (press, influencers, friendlies, etc.), even if it’s not publicly available.

Using promo codes this way will let these contacts review the app in advance of its official release date. And for those who agree to write about the app, you might even suggest they post their review the same day the app becomes available, giving it greater visibility and attention from the outset.

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Concluding Note

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The goal for anyone creating an app should be to see an initial marketing frenzy when the app is first released. Getting early attention and growing interest over time will help make that happen.

Of course, once the app is actually launched, many of these same strategies are still applicable. From update to update, it’s helpful to tease upcoming features, incorporate beta testers and keep bloggers and other key contacts aware of any major releases.

Ultimately, acknowledging the mutually beneficial relationship between marketing and development will make each of these efforts more effective. Start your marketing with development, and you’ll greatly improve the public’s interest, engagement and attention for your app once it finally launches.

So many statuses, so little time. As the popularity of social media continues to grow, so too do the number of networks to update and monitor. Whether you’re keeping track of personal Facebook () and LinkedIn () profiles or juggling 25 company Twitter () accounts, it’s becoming tougher and tougher to keep up.

Luckily, tools to help you manage a growing social sphere are popping up just as frequently as new networks. Some work best for maintaining multiple accounts on one site while others consolidate your web presence across many networks. No matter what type of user you are, there’s likely a tool (if not several) that can make your online social life a little easier.

Here are five social media management tools that can make your life easier. What do you use to keep track of multiple social accounts? Let us in the comments below.

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1. One Person, Many Networks

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TweetDeck () is your best (and free) bet if you’re looking to manage all your personal social media profiles. TweetDeck allows you to connect across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (), LinkedIn, Foursquare () and Google Buzz (). You can update all or just a few with the same status at one time.

The design is clean, user friendly and even makes some networks more fun. For example, it integrates Google Maps () into your Foursquare () feed, visualizing your friends’ checkins. You can also view photos and videos from within the tool.

As you might have guessed from the name, TweetDeck is best at managing Twitter accounts. It makes the experience more customizable by organizing feeds, mentions, messages and searches across columns.

TweetDeck is probably best when dealing with four or five accounts at a time (whether that be all Twitter accounts or a mix of the other networks it supports). Though the dashboard is generally easy to use, it can get bogged down if your streams have a lot of activity, making it difficult to keep up with updates and engagement.

Also worth checking out: Seesmic ()

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2. Personalize Business Replies

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CoTweet () is an excellent tool for small businesses or divisions of larger businesses that spread social media duties among team members and have a customer-service approach to engagement.

Like many SMM services, CoTweet allows updates and follow-up messages to be assigned to specific social media managers. This can make responses more relevant as team members with certain knowledge bases can handle appropriate questions and comments from followers. The responder’s initials are included at the end of the tweet, letting the follower know there’s a person behind the handle.

What’s different about CoTweet is its OnDuty status, which notes who is responsible for social streams at a certain time. Aside from organizing your SMM schedule, it allows for more passive monitoring. The person on duty can receive e-mails when something needs to be acted on, freeing him or her up to go to meetings or take calls while remaining aware of social media activity.

CoTweet supports Twitter and Facebook and recently launched an iPhone () app. The Standard edition is free and allows up to six Twitter accounts. The Enterprise version costs $1,500 a month but you can request a free demo.

Also worth checking out: Postling

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3. All Monitoring, All the Time

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Small to medium-sized businesses that have one or two dedicated social media managers should try HootSuite (). Its free version allows you to add five networks and supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace, PingFm and WordPress ().

HootSuite is best for actively-managed accounts because its design focuses on streams, which are housed in customizable tabs. You have the flexibility to organize tabs by account, network or content, making it easier to monitor a specific type of feed more closely.

One of the greatest benefits of social media is finding out more about your audience. HootSuite takes this to the next level by providing a follower’s bio and Klout score along with links to his or her social media profiles. You can also create lists of followers you want to keep a closer eye on and increase engagement with.

Stats in the free version don’t give you much information, but paid subscriptions offer Google Analytics () integration and unlimited insights. Pricing starts at $5.99 a month and maxes out at $1,998.99 a month for the Enterprise package plus vanity URL service.

Also worth checking out: Scroon, Buddy Media

Disclosure: Mashable () is a Hootsuite Pro Partner

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4. Analyze That

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For agencies managing social media for several companies with high ROI demands, SpredFast has everything you need.

Its biggest advantage over other SMM tools is analytics. Measurement is determined by the amount of content distributed, how many people were reached and whether the intended audience was engaged. Spredfast integrates analytics from clicks by tracking bit.ly links as well as data from each social network. This information is formatted in presentation-ready graphs, which is ideal for agencies bringing clients up to speed on outreach progress.

Most useful is Spredfast’s benchmarking feature. Managers can compare social campaigns to other strategies in the industry or to the same type of campaign as it was run in another industry. As businesses continue to experiment with social media as an outreach tool, this context answers key questions about how to best leverage each network.

These first class analytics come with a hefty price tag; Plans range from $12,000 to $1 million a year.

Spredfast began as an in-house tool and went public in January 2010, then made a name for itself at Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW. The latest version launched on Friday. Though the Austin, Texas startup has some big endorsements, it’s always good to be wary of the risks that come with investing in a newer company.

Also worth checking out: Radian 6, Objective Marketer

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5. Big Business Made Easy

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Franchise companies looking to maintain consistent messaging while giving local branches a hand in social media strategy should give Engage121 a shot. Though its competitors are few, Engage121 is best in its class at encompassing monitoring, broadcasting and engagement.

The tool is incredibly customizable and can support just about any site with a social presence. Corporate managers can create a company-wide promotion message and use mail merge to broadcast it with a local store’s name and address. Permissions may be set to allow a branch to approve a message from corporate before it is distributed to area followers, maintaining a local voice and brand consistency at the same time.

With the amount of buzz around big-name brands, monitoring and engagement are particularly challenging. Engage121 simplifies these with customized filters, giving managers total control over what types of messages they see. Just underneath each message is an engagement button. When clicked, a very user-friendly interface pops up where managers can easily respond to followers’ messages or start conversations with social media influencers.

Engage121 CEO Jon Victor said the analytics component measures social media in about 100 ways, depending on the different stats useful to corporate divisions and local branches. Pricing also varies with business needs. Individual stores generally pay $25 per month with a separate charge to corporate. If the company incurs the total cost, the price tag ranges in the thousands, depending on the number of outlets, Victor said.

Because virtually every aspect of the tool is customizable, you should have a strategy in place before jumping into Engage121. Its functionality seems endless and could be overwhelming without a set social media objective.

Also worth checking out: Valuevine