88
172 Comments

Can you build in public without Twitter?

Most founders utilize Twitter to build in public. I try my best to stay off of social media. Is it possible to build in public without using Twitter? If so, how? Writing blog articles and submitting them to different sources?

  1. 1

    In my opinion I see build in public as part of my business, in order to grow an audience. I don't feel it like wasting time doomscrolling in social media.

  2. 1

    Some of the comments below talk about using LinkedIn, and I feel like it would be a good place for me to "build in public" as well. However, I am leery about current co-workers or my current employer seeing my posts and what I am building. I feel like that could / would lead to negative repercussions for me.

    So, do people create separate accounts for LinkedIn side-project work? If so, do you create a whole fake profile? Or, do you use the same information from your main profile?

    Or, if staying relatively anonymous is truly a concern, do you just not use LinkedIn and stick to things like Threads (or, ugh, X) ?

    1. 1

      Interested to know more about this second linkedin profile. I need it as well for azure credits since microsoft for startup program is tied to a linkedin account. so if you used that already on one startup - you cant use it on a 2nd one 😅

  3. 1

    I am building Ebookany in public on Twitter and Instagram.

  4. 1

    I like LinkedIn and noticed some companies are doing incredible on TikTok! Any idea how to get started with TikTok?

  5. 1

    Linkedin is like the second best for build in public I guess

  6. 66

    I've been building in public on LinkedIn for 24 months. I've gone from 2,000 followers to over 61,000 followers and generated around 30M content impressions.

    No tricks, no hacks, no gimmicks. Just consistency and patience.

    I don't use blogs, simply short, pithy posts each morning. I feel like organic reach is at an all-time high there.

    I would consider leveraging it if Twitter seems to slow for growth (it does for me).

    Hope that helps.

    1. 1

      I'm intrigued just by this thread. Looks like you're LinkedIn would also be interesting.

    2. 8

      Of all social networks, LinkedIn is the most intimidating for me to consider building in public; it's partly because I have a lot of ex-colleagues and employers on there, but also because I wonder how valuable it would be to others for me to do so. How do people even determine if it's worth sharing what they're building this way?

      1. 2

        +1 I've felt the same way. Leaning towards Twitter for my BIP journey

      2. 1

        Have the same fear for LinkedIn, but on the other hand I think the congestion there is so much less than Twitter.
        I think the 'audience' on LI is more primed to treat anything there as 'business-y'...so LI posts seem to have much more 'heaviness' than their Twitter equivalents (albeit requiring more work to be written).
        If posts should help drive leads to your product, then I think posts on LI will have much more punch than the respective ones on Twitter.

    3. 7

      That is great to hear! Do you have any advice for sharing our project paperless.io on LinkedIn?

      1. 28

        Hi Jonathan - My best advice is to create daily content that's hyper-focused on the ICP for paperless.io

        I've found that sharing content that gets people to think about the problem you are solving (not content selling your product) and doing so with strong opinions, over time, will help you build a very loyal audience.

        Then, I use the Pareto principle. 80% of the time I add value, 20% of the time, I ask for something (a sale, email address, etc.)

        1. 6

          "I've found that sharing content that gets people to think about the problem you are solving (not content selling your product) and doing so with strong opinions, over time, will help you build a very loyal audience."

          This makes so much sense to me! Thanks for sharing your views Justin!

        2. 5

          This is really useful advice. Selling the solution to the problem works better than directly selling the product.

        3. 5

          Curious what is ICP?

          1. 6

            Ideal Customer Profile

        4. 1

          Hey Justin - how do you plan your daily content? For me that is kind of the biggest challenge to start - that all the content is well organized, meaningful and concise.

        5. 1

          Share your opinion. Does it make sense to emphasize Linkedin and Twitter - I have an IT software company? There's not much use for Facebook, but it takes a lot of money for traffic.

        6. 1

          Thanks for the help! I really like the Content you are creating.

      2. 5

        Hey, very nice animations!

        But what are legal strength of these docs? What courts will honour them for sure? Any cases?.. Gotta answer that, i believe)

        1. 1

          The documentation is legally compliant through our audit trail. We have already had one case where this was applied and passed in front of a judge. 🎉

          1. 3

            Nice! I believe many customers. will be happy to read that in detail at landing :)

            1. 1

              Okay that is a good point. We have it on our landing page but maybe it is not eye-catching enough 🤔

              1. 3

                Yep. I skimmed through, not catched my eye. Maybe promote to header / section

                1. 2

                  Great feedback, thanks! We will work on that.

      3. 1

        Hey Garreis, I really love your website. Would you mind sharing who you used to build it out?

    4. 2

      Wow. Good work Justin. I don't log into LinkedIn much because of all the inbox spam, but I know I'm throwing the baby out with the bath water.

      1. 2

        Thanks, Andy. It can be a great platform to grow on if you can ignore the noise and curate an effective network.

    5. 1

      This is amazing! I didn’t want to post daily on LinkedIn for fear of annoying people.

      I had two Twitter accounts. One old one I never used and a new one I set up two months ago to begin my indie hacker build in public journey.

      Someone hacked my old one and posted some odd stuff and so Twitter have shut down my accounts and I can’t get back on.

      I’ll give LinkedIn a try 😊

    6. 1

      Great idea! How can I read your posts on Linkedin?

    7. 1

      Yes, Thank for sharing this amazing. Helps a lot. We just start a LinkedIn.
      Now we focus also on LinkedIn too for our Geeks UI.

      Thank you.

    8. 1

      Hey Justin,

      I would love to know how you manage to do it. I was looking for a place to promote my program and i don't think Facebook suits me very well. It's for non-tech entrepreneurs who want to build an app. Can you give me some advices on how I could use LinkedIn to promote it?

      Cheers

  7. 1

    I'm doing it on tiktok as a vlog & it does ok! Don't use the tag building in public though

    https://www.tiktok.com/@tech.for.creators?lang=en

  8. 1

    As this post has spend some time on indiehackers already, @Pharlap what did you choose?

    For the sake of completeness and maybe for others: You most certainly can. If you completely try to stay off of social media, though, few will probably stumble upon it. One source or plattform could try could be medium.

    Even if it's also social media I just started documenting my journey on Threads: @yvolution

  9. 1

    I'm a VC writing $250k to $1.25M checks & looking for quality deals.
    Industry and Geography agnostic.
    If you are looking to raise, I'm happy to look at the opportunity.

  10. 1

    Hey, my name is Amogh & i Just Launched echonow(dot)co, A powerful browser extension that Effortlessly allows you to leave voice comments on popular platforms like Google Suite, Notion, Miro, Jira, and many more with real-time transcription.

    I am looking for early adopters & feedback on the MVP. ( I don't mind roasts ) 'm super excited for the new year with a goal to achieve $1000MRR in the next three months.

  11. 1

    Yes you can use linkedin & it works well

  12. 1

    I too think the same.. I don't see anywhere people build in public without twitter because most other places require you to get people and build a community first.
    But maybe reddit and other social tools might be the thing.
    I'll be using twitter as of now

  13. 1

    After reading all these comments about LinkedIn, I might start posting there. After 6 weeks on Twitter, it's can definitely feel a little strenuous because of the volume you have to put out. Kind of have to divide big thoughts into 4 or 5 smaller tidbits.

  14. 2

    I think TikTok could be a really interesting medium to build in public and create an audience. Short to the point updates daily that are interesting and gets viewers invested.

  15. 19

    Yes you can.

    The idea is to build in front of your audience, so if your audience is on a forum somewhere, then that's your "public".

    But you will be limited to only those forums that allow you to post regular updates of what you're up to, e.g. IndieHackers. Some forums may see this as self-promoting.

    The way to get around this is to start a newsletter and then post updates in that newsletter. Then you will need to help people in forums and create content online in order to help drive traffic to your newsletter.

    It is a lot easier on social media because you can just post whatever you want, which is why I think a lot of people use social media to build in public. And it's not that bad - there are tools to help you focus on social media, and not get sucked in to all the other distractions.

    Farez

    1. 6

      Came here to say this!

      Build, then talk where ur audience is.

  16. 14

    Sometimes I code in a coffee shop.

    1. 1

      At least your typing speed gets faster

    2. 1

      That works too 😀

  17. 10

    No one's mentioned GitHub! Open source is the ultimate way to build projects in public as well as crowdsource help doing it. All my personal side projects are open source for exactly this reason.

  18. 10

    Yes, possible.

    • Product milestones in Indie Hackers
    • Product Hunt Maker
    • Makerlog
    • Indielog (video based)
    • wip.chat (paid)
    • dev.to
    • Many more communities have project updates
    • I plan to do project updates and management for members of my private community join.coulf.com in the future too

    I felt the same way you feel with Twitter and stopped updating a few things there. When you build in public in front of a community you can say a lot more than you could on Twitter.

    1. 1

      I totally forgot about dev.to. Have you seen decent engagement there for building in public?

      1. 2

        I personally have an account there and occasionally visit. I have got some of my contacts saying they got decent results by simply sharing helpful content and advice there.

  19. 5

    Wouldn’t it be cool to have a platform where builders can post progress, write short project diaries an so on? You could connect with other builders and be inspired by their progress and development. Idk, thinking out loud……

    1. 1

      I think IndieHackers even offers the same, no?

      1. 1

        Yes but unfortunately, some of us aren't allowed to share any updates yet.

      2. 1

        Kinda, but I was thinking about sites like makerlog and the like.

        1. 1

          Hmm, like a public tasklist? Have you tried those? What was your experience?

          I imagine it's mostly to help with accountability rather than collect feedback and find first users, no?

          1. 1

            I’m thinking about a site for builders, by builders. Imagine GitHub but with a more social stuff.

            1. 1

              I feel like it's a lot like what product hunt and indie hackers offer still... You can create your own products and people can comment on them. And on indie hackers you can even have a blog for product.

    2. 1

      That exists already, but of course doesn't have the same reach as Twitter: buildinpublic .ai does pretty much that, allows you to keep track of your progress, to create surveys to communicate back with your followers, post your metrics and even getting free product roasts by other members of the platform

      1. 1

        Doesn’t really look like what I was thinking about. Makerlog is the closest I’ve found, but doesn’t have the vibe I was searching for.

  20. 4

    Yes, you can, but I highly recommend using Twitter.

    Over the last 5 months, I have grown my account from 9K to 38k and I am sharing the lessons I am learning on Twitter as well as I am growing my Newsletter. (now +3K)

    If you learn how to utilize Twitter to build in Public you will get lots of advantages.

    1. 1

      what are you posting in twitter to grow your account that much

      1. 1

        Maybe because of the niche I am in
        Also, the way you structure your tweets plays a huge role.

        And if you can give free value, definitely you will.

        This is something I do regularly.
        Hope this helps.
        https://thegoldsuite.com/how-to-go-viral-on-twitter-and-generate-leads/

  21. 4

    If I have to get rid of twitter. I’d build in public on LinkedIn which I’m already do it.

    Apart from social media, engaging platform like IH would be a good place to start. I usually publish on a weekly basis. Not only I get more traction but also helping myself to be more disciplined.

    1. 3

      I haven't been a huge fan of Linkedin but I'm coming around as it being another option. The community there seems to be changing in the last year in being more engaging with in development projects.

      1. 1

        I share your opinion, the community is getting more engaging, but linkedin seems very "glossy" and shiny from my perspective (maybe my bubble). I have gotten to value twitter more for direct feedback

  22. 3

    Yes, it is possible to build in public without using Twitter. There are various ways to share your progress and insights publicly, such as writing blog articles and submitting them to relevant platforms, publishing updates on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, sharing your journey on forums or communities related to your niche, and creating a newsletter or podcast. The key is to find the channels that work best for you and your audience, and to consistently share valuable content that showcases your expertise and progress.

    1. 1

      What channels would you recommend?

  23. 3

    I guess it's tough to do it in public if your not on social media. But to me, building in public is not only about driving traffic or getting famous. It's even more about the accountability. So sharing your journey transparent with friends and family (could be just emails) would at least tick the accountability box :)

  24. 3

    I'm in my second build, and I'm experimenting with Twitter for building in public. Our first product is for a specific audience, and we exhausted our network pretty quickly (and I'm hoping to get around that for round #2). Twitter seems like a pretty simple place to gain attention.

    I'm playing with Hypefury right now to schedule tweets (which takes off the mental load of thinking about it all day), and I'm starting to see trends by tweeting more consistently. The biggest impact with minimal effort is to find influencers in your area and interact with them. I think twitter will recommend if higher impact people engage with your tweets.

    I'm also writing on Medium, and I've had several reach out based on simple articles. Granted, I tweeted the articles to get more visibility.

  25. 2

    I've been doing some public building using a mix of Futurepedia, Product Hunt, Reddit, and Futuretools.

  26. 2

    Sure you can not use Twitter as i also did. I got my first users from Reddit where i got the Idea from someone. But after that was getting the Inputs from my Customers per Mail / Discord and so on.

    Was never into this Marketing "bullshit" on Twitter.

  27. 2

    I don't know why but Twitter seems not working out for me. https://twitter.com/kaikulapp. Only below 20 impression per post. appreciated for any pointers :).

    1. 2

      Your Kaikul app is really great!

      I liked it. Signed up and shared with my 300+ friends. 😉

      It's a perfect solution for people who want to track their daily activities and analyze what's wasting their time and what to do 1% effective activity that moves the needle.

      Good product, stwboom!

      1. 1

        Thank you so much Syedaliabbas 😊.

  28. 2

    If you think through the idea you want to accomplish and give it a uniform social media handle there won't be a big deal doing Twitter or any other social. I think there is some element of your personal life being tied to a startup idea that might fail. I hope this can ease the pressure on someone.

  29. 2

    Besides the time and effort it takes, it is definitely worth it. As time goes on, you will gain many friends and clients. I believe that playing the long-term game is the best option.

    Maybe use it as a public notebook, so it doesn't feel as mandatory to do it.

  30. 2

    I think it depends on region. In some countries more popular Facebook, Instagram or Telegram.

  31. 2

    I just tried to interact actively on Twitter for the whole week. I've posted my results from this experiment: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/my-first-week-on-twitter-1261-impressions-and-other-stats-12105f0a55

  32. 2

    I was just asking myself the same question (except I'm on Twitter but other social media sites I'm hoping to move away from pretty soon). It came down to these two questions:

    Why do I want to build in public at all? Like, what were my specific goals (I'm doing it for the historical tracking, to build my personal brand, to participate in the larger maker/creator culture, for street cred, etc).

    AND, how do I like to create content (If there's a less than 2k character count I'm out).

    This has led me to my plan of (a) continuing to use audio/podcasting and (b) starting a substack account soon. I have a small audience and am skilled a leveraging my content wherever I land so this plan works for me. Wonder where folks fall on the two questions above!

  33. 2

    A lot of people building in public seem to be moving to, or adding LinkedIn as a channel.
    I believe in it so much I've built a product to help: https://useaware.co

    1. 2

      One thing that's tricky about LinkedIn is if you're building as a side-hustle so I think it rules it out for some.

    2. 1

      oh hi Mac nice to see you here

  34. 2

    Yeah I think so, and I plan on doing this using IndieHackers and Reddit

  35. 2

    If I'm getting this correctly, most of the "building in public" community sells to other devs (who heavily use Twitter).

    My audience is not using Twitter, so it would make zero sense for me to spend energy there. However I do "build in public" through my newsletter (~98,000 subscribers) and other channels.

    So I can be your "social-media-recluse buddy" I guess!

  36. 2

    Most of the traffic on my SaaS web apps comes from Twitter. I would recommend using the platform to your advantage and posting regular updates on your products. At least this is what has helped me over the course of months.

  37. 2

    I think, building in public in Twitter gives you a lot of a benefits.

    And where else would you do it then? On indiehackers or reddit? Don't think they're good enough.

  38. 2

    I'd imagine that you can, of course! Though if you're talking about avoiding social media entirely, it's going to be a lot harder.

    Growing an audience or customer base is always challenging and takes time. Social media gives you the ability to get more eyes on your product/site/etc more regularly and quickly.

    You should absolutely write blog content and build an email list. SEO in particular is valuable but is a long-term growth strategy. The bottom line is use what you can to get you attention. So without being an expert (but having read and experimented a bunch), try any avenue possible to get the attention you want.

    As far as Twitter vs other networks though, I'd bet it depends on your target audience. Where do they spend their time online? It might be on LinkedIn, it might be on Reddit, it might be somewhere else.

    I highly recommend Steph Smith's book, Doing Content Right for understanding how to get attention online, since it talks about every medium:

    https://doingcontentright.com/

    Also Arvid Kahl's book, The Embedded Entrepreneur:

    https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/

  39. 2

    I'm so conflicted about this as well. I hate social media. But I love the idea of sharing my progress. So many amazing stories to tell. I relented and created an IG account for my product but I'm not creating in public on there. I feel like only a small subset of my audience creates about "how the sausage is made".

  40. 2

    How should I use LinkedIn to build in public if I don't want my coworkers and bosses to know about it? Should I create a project's profile?
    In case I'm starting from scratch and don't have "connections" with my audience in LinkedIn yet (different industries), should Twitter be easier?

  41. 2

    I'm trying to test this idea right now.

    I launched this in the form of a mailing to the substack and yesterday released the first issue:
    https://leits.substack.com/p/leits-makes-stuff-1

    So far things are going well: 15 subscribers and 120 views.

    To promote it a bit, I shared it on Twitter, but I only have 71 followers there.
    Then I shared a link here, on a few subreddits, and published a copy with the link on dev.to.

    And yet, I left links in my public profiles where possible.
    I'm not a very public person, so I hope for organic growth.

    1. 1

      Hi Leits, do you have any tips for how I can share my substack on reddit, without it being reported for self-promo?

      1. 1

        Many subreddits allow self promos if you do not abuse them.
        Subreddits on a relevant topic are usually very loyal to people who want to share their knowledge through the newsletter.

  42. 2

    Guys, I'm building something for the build in public enthusiasts out there. It's a tool, where you can create a page for your product and start publishing your product development there. Think the "Build in public" wordpress. With tools and widgets to help you better test, validate ideas, share insights etc. My idea is to streamline the process, because right now it's all over the place. Like twitter, reddit, blogs, communities, etc.etc. Curious what do you guys think. Are you interested in such a product? Here it is - https://haptic.so

    1. 1

      I like the streamlined nature of this but how does it compare to Twitter/LinkedIn's appeal of discoverability?

      1. 1

        Thanks for your question, @uzoma.

        The same way a mac store compares to a huge mall if you want to buy a mac :)

  43. 2

    https://Micro.blog/w4rner has a decent community, but also ability to syndicate out to Twitter if you later chose.

  44. 2

    If you want to be off social media I'd recommend sites and communities like here on Indie Hackers. Twitter is a great place to build an audience though.

  45. 1

    Had the same thought this morning. Going to try the blog route and LinkedIn and see where it takes me.

  46. 1

    I was active on LinkedIn for a bit in relation to my day job as a product owner, but honestly, it was quite exhausting. I did grow by a 1000 followers, but creating content, interacting with followers and actively interacting with other creators costs a lot of time.

    You could blog or launch a newsletter. It will just be harder to create traction.

  47. 1

    I also have this question, after all, twitter is not mainstream in some fields and some countries.

  48. 1

    I am pretty recent to twitter and previously I have used other social platforms like instagram. Youtube and facebook to build public. I can say it worked really well for me. But after getting active on Twitter, I feel that Twitter has much more mature audience compared to other platforms and that makes it a better platform for business owners.

  49. 1

    I'm certainly trying to. I've had success on reddit (a post documenting my first 14 days of failure got over 100k views). Which I'm trying to funnel to my substack. https://faileveryday.substack.com/p/documenting-every-failure-in-my-business

    I've also tried linkedin, I've had less success on there but I would say it's more consistant in engagement and views. With reddit it's normally boom or bust. I also think if you have a good (big + relevant) network linkedin is a really powerful platform.

    Like most of this stuff it comes down to two things in my mind:

    1. Wherever you have an existing audience is probably the best place to start
    2. The value you bring to your audience is probably worth spending more time thinking about than where you find your audience
  50. 1

    I ask myself that all the time, twitter is such a tough crowd. Really its just a matter of taking an interest in others.

  51. 1

    Yes, you can build in public without Twitter. There are other platforms such as LinkedIn, Reddit, and Instagram where you can share your progress and connect with a community. However, Twitter is a popular choice as it offers real-time engagement and allows for easy sharing of updates. For those looking to build their brand and audience, utilizing multiple platforms can be beneficial. Learn more about building your brand on
    rideLicense.com/home-page.

  52. 1

    There many other ways to build a public without twitter like through SEO of your blog and build a organic public as to see for help: https://www.apkeast.com/traffic-rider-mod-apk-for-ios/

  53. 1

    There many other ways to build a public without twitter like through SEO of your blog and build a organic public as to see for help: https://www.apkeast.com/traffic-rider-mod-apk-for-ios/

  54. 1

    Linked in has a huge untapped market, but lots of junk posts in my opinion.

  55. 1

    yes, you can use product hunt, indie hackers and reddit and post about your journey on those platforms while doing a weekly yt video showing your progress and talking ab your journey

  56. 1

    Do you think we over-emphasize the need to build in public?

  57. 1

    Absolutely! While Twitter is an effective platform for sharing your work in progress and receiving feedback from the public, there are other ways to build in public without it. Projects such as newsletters, open source repositories on GitHub, and video updates are all great ways to keep people updated on your progress. Additionally, voc.ai plans to use blogging platforms like Medium or WordPress to share regular updates on their progress.
    https://www.voc.ai/?utm_source=ih&utm_medium=ih

  58. 1

    I've just started thinking about this while launching my startup, a lot of my strategy is to build in public on twitter where I have a network of other builders already. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have twitter... and my following isn't even that big https://twitter.com/iamkgn

  59. 1

    Sharing blog articles works but it takes more effort to plan and write. With Twitter you just need to get your message across in < 280 characters, which is more convenient for you and your audience.

    Just write your daily progress updates there and use the hashtag #buildinpublic .. that would be my advice

  60. 1

    Good question!
    I have met the same question when I promote my startup. Twitter, Ins, Facebook can just bring a little exposure.
    I realized the importance of content marketing, which means incorporate your product into content.
    Now I use Medium instead of Twitter, here is my Blog: https://blog.allset.day/
    BTW, my startup product is Allset, a productive tool for teams. https://www.allset.day/

  61. 1

    We are working on LinkedIn Automation Tool https://linkedcamp.com do you have any strategy or advice for our product how i can boost?

  62. 1

    Yes, You can do this by joining the different community

  63. 1

    I've heard Linked is another good platform to build in public.

  64. 1

    Writing is the hardest part. Sharing and distributing is the boring part (
    equally or more important)

    Just value your time writing and do the boring work sharing in the most varied ways on platforms.

    But I don't see how to get away from Twitter and LinkedIn these days.
    Linkedin is gaining more and more strength and Twitter has a sensational organic reach.

  65. 1

    I'm specifically building something to do this right now with madepublic.io - I found Twitter and other tools weren't powerful enough to help me get the feedback and story-telling I wanted to give while I built my own projects.

    https://madepublic.io/projects/madepublic-io

    1. 1

      How it is different than indiehackers itself?

      1. 1

        Good question! That'll become more apparent as I get closer to launching, I'm still building out super core features right now.

        You can view and filter by techstack and tools that each project uses, it compiles those tools into a view for people to take inspiration of where to get certain types of tooling from.

        Features to come include: polls, a public to-do list, feature requests from the public, live-chat, and more features around marketing your project.

        1. 1

          I am also working on the discovery portal. appbaskets.com launching in. 3 weeks I hope we can support each other in any way.

          1. 2

            Looks cool! Yeah maybe some sort of collab could be possible in the future!

        2. 1

          I really like the UX .. what you have used for designing the UI.. any pro designer or all yourself?

  66. 1

    It really depends on the target audience. If your audience is active on twitter then your product might be the answer to their problems.

  67. 1

    You could really use any site you can post to with active prospects (including IndieHackers). The sites with the greatest amount of active prospects are best, as they increase the ROI of each post you make, which is why Twitter is so popular.

  68. 1

    Few months, my credit was in its low 500s, accompanied with negative items so I wasn't given approval when I applied for a surgery loan. I tried different means to fix it, however I was going through some articles and I came across a comment about a credit repair expert that helped people get their credit and lives back. I contacted the company via EfficientNetHack on Gmal d0t Com. In a few weeks, all my negatives were expunged and my score raised to 785. My surgery loan has been approved and I'll be ungrateful for not recommending it. Great team

  69. 1

    I'm still trying too, i use twitter and LinkedIn.
    Also love to read on IH/PH and making https://fajarsiddiq.gumroad.com/

  70. 1

    Twitter has quite an amazing community of founders but often times I get distracted while surfing on Twitter since there are a lot of tweets which lead you down the rabbit hole.

    So I actually started working on a project with a community of makers build in public & also engage with potential customers. You could have a look if you find it useful https://www.astramind.io

  71. 1

    This is a much smaller forum that Twitter but I would definitely consider posts here to be building in public — though likely insufficient. I found Makerlog pretty nice for just listing off things I'm working on daily, but imagine the interactions happen more on Twitter than there.

  72. 1

    Yes. I made a site called Make.rs https://make.rs where makers show what they are working on.

  73. 1

    Audio Interviews are also really great. This one lets you make pretty cool audio updates and it's got a nice audience in the bay area tech scene. https://listenepic.com/

  74. 1

    I find Twitter exhausting but it’s definitely our most common channel for signups. I think part of the reason is on Twitter people are moving quickly - on Reddit, Discord, IndieHackers, more thoughtful, and maybe less impulsive :)

    I would also check out wip.co!

  75. 1

    I mean you can build in public on Indie Hackers, right? :). But blog would be great, too.

  76. 1

    Agree with previous posters, it really depends on the niche you are working on.

    LinkedIn is also a great source to connect with necessary people and distribute posts.

    Moreover, journalists and media people can be easily reached out there as well.

    Our company uses Twitter just to enrich media presence, however most leads and engagement we get from LinkedIn.

  77. 1

    Haha this is a great question. We split our engagement this month between Twitter and Reddit and saw less traction with less time on Twitter. Twitter is pretty powerful because the emotional state of its users is biased towards impulsivity. I like people's suggestion of trying LinkedIn too - a lot of this depends on your user and their problem.

  78. 1

    I've been building in public in my little paid Substack newsletter.

  79. 1

    There's whole subforums of "progress threads" in business forums.

    For example: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/forums/entrepreneurial-execution/

  80. 1

    I was just joking with someone that Twitter is one of the essential tools of a startup founder.

    But...I love how @farez puts it. Build in front of YOUR audience.

    I am building a tech-ed startup for senior citizens and so a lot of my stakeholders in the agetech and older adults space are on LinkedIn - definitely not on Twitter.

    I do love using Twitter as a form of sharing my initial thoughts but I've yet to really reap the benefits.

    My tips on making sure Social Media doesn't run your life:

    1. Set your self goals. What do you want to accomplish while you're on social media?

    2. Prepare times of the day to get on You can choose which time of the day you want to share your ideas/startup..try to make a routine

    3. Have fun with it When you are building don't be caught up in what people might think about it.

    I hope this helps someone :)

    Always open to learning from others!

    1. 2

      Nicely put! #1 is spot on. Decide on what you want out of it and then dig in.

    2. 1

      I would add "set an alarm" :D

  81. 1

    I sure hope so because I would rather give up than use Twitter ;-)

    I have a love-hate relationship with Linkedin, but with 12k followers many of whom are my target for my new idea, I realise it will be a good platform to sell on.

    Some really great advice in this thread about talking about the problem rather than your product, using the 80-20 rule, etc. So as I start to role out I will go for Linkedin and leave Twitter in the dust.

    One thing I've been doing recently on Linkedin is unfollowing the dross that distract me - you know, the cat pictures, etc. So I can now go to my home feed and see useful posts by people I want to follow back or chat to.

    1. 1

      hundred % - smaller set of people you want to see in your feed. No need to be all things to all people. That just takes away from your sanity (and focus)

  82. 1

    I've been building Limelite in public on Linkedin. At ~16k followers now after posting at least 1x Mon-Fri for the past year! We are at 1000 installs on the app right now.

    My audience is on LinkedIn so it makes it easy to build there. I'm thinking of moving to twitter soon as well, however, I want to stay focused because I think there is still a ton of potential on LinkedIn.

    Hope this helps!

    1. 2

      What kind of things are you sharing on there?

  83. 1

    linkedin can be other option but as you want to stay away from social media then seems tricky I would suggest at least having one or else go with email newsletter or medium or there are many other niche specific communities websites which you can explore

    1. 1

      Do you have a tip for a medium communty?

      1. 1

        as such currently, I don't know any tips for the medium community you will definitely find it on google but one tip which kind of works everywhere is to be consistent and sincere. best wishes buddy:)

  84. 1

    Social media sucks. I hate it. BUT I have accepted that it’s the biggest way to advertise yourself and your product. It’s the necessary revolution everyone should use. Possible without? Of course but you’re missing opportunities if you’re not on social media.

  85. 1

    Yeap for sure!

    I do it via email and share my posts here on IH https://www.indiehackers.com/post/week-25-of-52-to-indie-hacking-behind-the-scenes-8f9eb0f18f

    Twitter is a great tool to connect with people on a more personal level, so I think it's always good to use it as a platform. But not necessary in any case.

  86. 1

    How do you feel about Twitch?

    1. 1

      @alchemist have you seen any founders doing this?

    1. 1

      How exactly? Because there it's mostly about sharing programming knowledge not really business stuff.

      Asking because I am new to dev.to and I probably miss something :)

      1. 1

        The same as Twitter bit bringing Value to your posts.

        I have done it with colorsandfonts.com and I got to 4k followers

  87. 1

    @Pharlap I think you can surely build such a product, but Twitter is an essential tool that will help you scale the brand awareness of the product in the long run.

  88. 1

    Personally I couldn't. But good luck!

  89. 1

    For sure:

    • blogging
    • makerlog
    • wip.chat
    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  90. 1

    I was hesitant to use Twitter but I’m already getting good traction on the platform. Just started a few weeks ago.

    It’s worth checking out. Especially if your audience is developers.

    1. 1

      Kenneth can you share your twitter handle?

        1. 1

          Will take a look.Thanks

  91. 1

    This comment was deleted 8 months ago.

  92. 1

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  93. 1

    This comment was deleted 10 months ago.

  94. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

  95. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 15 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments