Have an idea. WYT?
Idea: An experience sharing app. ON the app you would be able to share posts which would be experiences, made up of images and videos and location data to show where it was. One could even think of this as a dedicated app for posting stories (created on our app).
Would any of you guys use this? Know anyone who would?
Any other suggestions or comments?
Instagram does this job very well. I wouldn't switch.
I agree with others who are pointing out that existing social networks already do this. In your comments, you seem to make a distinction between experiences (which your app would facilitate sharing) and moments (which you say IG/FB/etc highlight), but you could do a better job explaining the difference between these two things and why they matter.
For example, I can open up IG and often see an entire story/experience from a friend, whether it was a wedding or a night out. They aren't limited to sharing a moment in isolation. They can share a succession of moments if they want to.
I'd also argue that it's better to allow people to share individual moments. Those are significantly easier than having to tell an entire story every time you want to use the app. This results in more usage, which results in more familiarity with the app, stronger habits, more content, and more engagement.
It's also worth mentioning that trivial feature changes aren't what make a social networking app work. The value is in the network, i.e. the people you know who are using the app and providing value to you via their usage. Thus, the primary difficulty is growth: how do you get people onto an app where all the value comes from other people when you're starting with zero people?
Even if you came up with a 3x better Instagram, your chances of success are slim unless you have a very effective user acquisition strategy. That's the weak link in the chain, so it's practically the only link worth thinking about.
Thanks for the advice @csallen. I agree with pretty much everything here. I only disagree with the idea that this platform cannot be unique enough. Even if this does not work as a competitor, if you will, to insta, it would be very usefull as a runners/bikers/hikers social network.
Also I think to go from 0 to n I would make the platform useful for even the 1st user. How? Well by making it like a photo album for a kind of content not found anywhere (Expereinces made up of vids and images, as well as location of the place or places).
Does IG not let you include images, video, and geo-location? An IG post can include all three.
Yes, thinking in terms of niches is probably the right answer. But you should start there. Instead of saying, "I want to build a way for people to share experiences, and then apply that to runners/bikers/hikers," start by looking at these athletes, talking to them, and workings backwards from there to find out what kinds of things they like sharing. It's not necessarily true that the answer will be "experiences."
In fact, arguably Strava is a good example of an app that's done this. In their case, athletes want to share their workouts, times, routes, finishes, etc.
Or you could say that IH is a social network for indie hackers, where people want to share their products, milestones, questions, and advice.
Isn’t this the intent of every other social media platform? Twitter, Instagram, MySpace or even blogs and email are built around this idea.
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What is the definition of an "experience" if not moments?
For example, you could write a blog post with lots of pictures and descriptions. Or you could write an email to your friends describing what you did. Or you could create a Twitter thread, complete with photos and geotagged locations. Or you could use Facebook like millions of people do - post lots of media, descriptions, and tags in all sorts of locations.
I don't see any unique selling point for this idea, honestly. There would need to be something new or revolutionary in order for it to catch on beyond any other Snapchat/TikTok/Facebook/you have it.
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I think social network platforms is a market that bootstrappers/indie hackers should stay away from. Networks are more valuable the more people that get on them. It takes a lot of money and people to get that off the ground typically.
But What informs your comment regarding the people and money?
Mainly from hearing the stories of how the social medias that succeeded did it. Instagram is the only one that stayed pretty small before selling. Its also hard to make money from a social media platform unless its at a large scale.
I use Instagram Stories for this. Any thoughts on how your idea would be better or different?
Well instagram stories is a random grouping of moments throughout your day. Additionally you cant post their stories (sure you can do highlights but still there is little to no emphasis on them). On this app all the focus is on these experiences, in addition they would not be random like on insta but rather would tell a true story. I would make sure to make there be a global map as well because I think location is a fundamental part of such an idea.
In my mind, combining images/video/location is something that Instagram already does fairly well, but I get your point about things feeling random and highlights not being emphasized. It might be worth reaching out to people that travel a lot (maybe via https://nomadlist.com) and see if they like this idea.
Just to increase your sample size — I agree with all of the feedback here. Would need a better understanding of the value prop to make me want to use / would be unlikely to add another social network to my world.
made something similar: phoroll.com
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What is the value of me being able to see moments on a map? Iphoto already does this — you can see your photos or "moments" on a map.
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