How do you grow without twitter?
I see a lot of entrepreneurs saying that they tell about their software initially to their twitter audience. I have gone through many such case studies and it does work. I don't know-how they had a twitter audience beforehand but it seems very hard to start without it.
You have no one to tell about it, especially when your software is not for your family and friends.
Not only twitter, but we need to have some following to get noticed on every social media.
Should I focus on building an audience then? Or it is better to start promoting my product and convert customers to followers? Which way is good?
Has anyone grown their product without twitter promotion?
(Let's keep aside the product hunt for a while bcoz its just one day opportunity)
Trending on Indie Hackers
Lots of places you can announce off of twitter:
There are endless options!
Excellent list. Depending on the target demographic out reach on LinkedIn might be worthwhile.
Building an audience is nice when you don't have a product yet. It is like developing an asset that can be used later (when you have a product to launch). But if you already have a product, you can start talking about it and building an audience then.
I'd pick a few places to promote your product from the list above based upon where your target demo hangs out and what you are capable of. If you can't create 2-10 minute vides, I wouldn't do YouTube for example. If you can produce visuals, such as info graphics, you could do Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the same time.
Regardless of what platforms you pick, make an account on all major platforms, so you secure the username you want. Try to be consistent with the username if you can.
Start with a piece of content that solves a pain point for your target demographic then give it away. This will be your lead magnet. Promote it on the channels you selected.
Instagram requires following to get noticed
Tiktok requires the following to get noticed
Email newsletter requires emails gathering
Dev.to (i doubt as I haven't got any reach there)
WeChat (never tried, will explore)
YouTube (requires following to get noticed)
Hackernews (can't post using the new website ie. low authority websites)
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Only feasible options are Reddit groups, Fb groups Slack channels (all with strict restriction of no promotions, tried dozens of them)
The good way is to promote your product is to hack post each of those platforms so that it doesn't look like a promotion. Loll.
Am I doing good?
Rajan, there are lots of ways to grow without Twitter. There was a similar question posted on a different thread. I am including my response below. Audience or no audience, get out and hustle!
Participate in Facebook groups, Reddit, and other niche communities that service your market.
Reverse engineer your competitor's plan with these tools:
-- See traffic sources: @SimilarWeb
-- See email templates &flows: @mailcharts
-- See ad designs w/ FB Transparency Tools
-- See ad spend: @spyfu
Search the Competition: Look up your competitors in G2 (the other similar services). See what customers are saying about your competitors - the good and bad. Use that to make a better mousetrap. Create content that addresses common issues they bring up and post it in a blog for example.
Create a waitlist with a twist - separate tire-kickers from serious buyers. IF you really want to separate the tire kickers from the serious customers, ask prospects to pay a small fee to jump ahead of the waitlist. Charge something small - $1 for example. You'll quickly find out who really wants the product vs people just kicking the tires.
Be Personal: When you onboard your first customers, handwrite a note, share a personalization video message or email. Use a service like SendSpark to create personalized videos so you stand out.
Use Quora: Figure out what the most questions on quora are related to 'your product category' and address them on your blog:
Step 1. Go to Hrefs (or similar tool)
Step 2. Go to “Organic Search” — “Positions”.
Step 3. Input quora.com into the search field.
Step 4. Scroll down to “Organic search positions” and add 3 filters:
a.) Include Keyword Containing = YOUR_KEYWORD
b.) Include Pos. = Less than 10
c.) Include Volume = Greater than + 100
Step 5. Hit “Apply”
Step 6. Scroll down to the keywords.
Step 7. There you’ll find a list of keywords where Quora is ranked on page #1 of Google.
Step 8. Open each URL and add a valuable answer with a link to your website.
Step 9. Your answer is instantly on page #1
Give Thanks: Take advantage of the thank you (confirmation page) after someone signs up, upsells, invite to a webinar, link to most popular blog posts, ask for a social follow, ask for a social share.
Create an ebook/lead magnets by repurposing your best (insert your business category) tips - if you have enough content do it by each custom niche. ie. "25 Productivity Hacks for College Students." Better if the content is evergreen.
Partner up. Find complimentary blogs/newsletters where you can cross-promote
ImPRESS: Subscribe to HARO and respond to reporter's requests. https://www.helpareporter.com/
Add 'click-to-tweet' to each article so readers can easily share your content with their readers.
Guest post on other blogs, find a relevant podcast to get interviewed by.
Add a sign-up URL to your email signature, LI profile, Facebook - anywhere you have a social profile
Hope that was helpful. Have you tried any of these?
-Bill
https://www.FixMyGrowth.com
That's awesome. :D
Why would you specifically exclude Twitter?
It's considered the "gold standard" for building an audience for a reason.
Definitely build a Twitter audience regardless, even if you currently don't have one.
Do it as you build and release your MVP.
If you need some pointers, I've written a blog article on how to start from scratch: https://zlappo.com/blog/how-get-more-twitter-followers-ultimate-10-step-growth-hack-2020/
At the end of the day, it's not Twitter, Slack, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. etc. that grows your business -- it's direct word-of-mouth marketing (e.g. recommendations, affiliates, referrals) and indirect word-of-mouth marketing (e.g. in-built virality) that grow your business.
You need to be present where these conversations take place so you can respond and engage with your potential and paying customers.
Thanks for sharing!
Nice writeup, saving it!
Haha, that's a nice compilation. specially buttering things. Lol..
Hi Rajan!
Building an audience in advance is a good strategy, but definitely not mandatory for most products.
You can grow your audience after launching the product via lots of channels, as others have suggested as well. You can use social networks (and communities), SEO, Ads, and more!
We managed to grow our startup user base to >1M users/month, and I have never had more than 300 twitter followers 😄
That's really inspiring. I reckon that growing the following is actually a very good idea but it requires separate efforts which I think, I should better put in my product development and marketing.
More than the following its more important that they should be in the same domain as you are in and must be active on twitter. I currently have 110 followers and hardly 2-3 interacts. Lol..
Can you tell me about your product? it seems interesting
We mostly grew with SEO, creating content that was relevant for our space. That was the best strategy (we could find) to get scalable growth in the long run.
You should consider that consumer travel space (our space) only works with massive volumes — it's hard to get there only with your personal audience.
However, there are a ton of situations where building the audience in advance is killer:
– when you are speaking to a small, well connected niche
– when your target overlaps significantly with your professional background
– when you are targeting few high paying users, as opposed to lots of low paying users.
– and more
At the end it really depends on your product and how you want to grow it 🙂
I published my NL on 9th Sept and have close to 800 subs now - my primary acquisition tool has been Instagram. I launched this early July and have close to 700 followers.
My only concern with an Instagram first approach is the lack of reach if I was to do an Product Hunt launch as its so skewed to Twitter.
Are you trying to say the internet has broken and we are only left with one site, twitter? I've never opened an account there yet. (I think)
growing a following beforehand in any platform is an advantage and if used currently is an integral part of the ideation itself and any step after.
but is not the only strategy that exists.
Na, I am just saying every social media requires some sort of following. otherwise, no one will see your offering no matter how good it is.
I am trying to build the following beforehand as advised.