How to market and promote something like social network if you are an introvert?
I have a crazy idea about a social network but I'm afraid it may be not for me because I'm total introvert. Should I give it a shot and if so how to survive?
Thanks!
I have a crazy idea about a social network but I'm afraid it may be not for me because I'm total introvert. Should I give it a shot and if so how to survive?
Thanks!
One of my favorite quotes is from a guy named Jon Acuff. He says, If you ask Fear if something is going to work, the answer will always be 'no'.
I'm an introvert as well, but I practice extroversion. It takes time, and you'll get better. Don't let it hold you back.
And you can always bring others around you, to help with marketing. Study it, find a mentor, etc.
Oh I love it.
Yeah, but in this case, it's not like I'm afraid of something, I'm just trying to look at the practical point of view: being an introvert, it's hard for me to bring others around me, having a mentor etc.
I'd actually look at it differently.
It's not like you don't know how to do stuff, you just have your own way.
Which usually has a lower to almost non reliance on other people.
That means preferring to read and learn vs ask others for help.
But that is not to say you can't solve most things an extrovert would.
What it does say due, your not as focused on things that make other people congregate in the same way, which might be an issue with something like a social network for the general population, the extrovert population depending on how you cut it is between 15%-50% I think, and most eng. are introverts, I don't think anyone would call Mark Zuckerberg an extrovert, in a way it's all making a system to avoid direct social...
It does I think more affect on the marketing side, it's harder to understand what the bigger common group would find cool/remarkable and what would make the system self infecting, making others distribute it to each other. But again since it's not a first ever approach all the info is available in one way or another. If you do have the need to come up with something totally new to make it infectious, you'd probably need to get some psychology/social learning in ^^.
Thanks! I will think on what you said...
Couldn't agree more!
Zuck is an introvert!
And a robot, according to some 😏
What happened to the "him being a lizard" thing? xD
The Anti-Social Social Network would be awesome.
There's already a club.
Haha interesting :)
Actually my idea is something like that.
Surprisingly, but social networks are a great way to socialize for introverts, and for many of them it's the only way to communicate with the outer world.
Let's talk about the idea first. My first question would be, do you mean a general social network like Facebook (i.e. for family and friends), or a community network like IH (for people who like to build stuff). If it's the first, the big challenge there is that you need a 'snowball effect', (i.e. to be able to convince people to move over to your network, and also bring their friends and family over too). Many, many social networks have died because they couldn't attract people from their existing social networks, (which is why you don't see too many challengers to Facebook). In that sense, it doesn't matter if you're an introvert or extrovert, instead it matters how you plan to overcome that first challenge.
In my opinion, community networks are more interesting and a better bet. Find a group of people that are really interested in a particular thing, and who currently use general platforms like Reddit or Facebook to talk about stuff. Then contribute to their community. Find out what is most useful to them, and how you can help that community grow. IH contributes to our community by producing podcasts, giving interviews with founders, letting us track our product process, and giving us a space to talk together and ask questions. All this helps the community and is the reason we come to IH. You need to find a reason people will come to your community.
Thanks for your comment.
The idea of the social network I have in my mind is for builders, something like wip.chat but open for everyone. But it will not be only for showing projects' status and launch actions, it will be for asking/giving feedback, sharing tech stack etc. Pretty much what IH, Reddit, and others networks do but in a more formal and structured manner.
Of course, it's a big question if people would be interested in such type of "social network" but I desperately want to try.
As for the contribution, I'm a pretty old contributor of IH, Reddit, and some other communities, and long for some features they don't have. My mind loves everything structured and the structure is what they all lack.
I started thinking that "it's not for me" because I saw how people promoted their startups/projects - like "Hello I'm Mike, let me tell you why I built this project" - and this always worked. People love real stories, "behind the scenes" and it may be a great way to promote - but this is definitely not for me. Several years ago I tried this approach but it was crazy tough (psychologically) and I'm afraid now when I'm older and became more introvertish it would be even tougher.
Got it! I think you should just go for it (if you've been thinking about it for months, you're probably overthinking it) but be objective and give yourself the shortest timeframe you can think of (e.g. a few weeks to max two months is reasonable). Look at it as an experiment, if it works, then great, if not, well at least you've scratched that itch, learned something by testing your idea in the real world and have launched something (and then you can mentally release from the idea and move onto something else). The most important thing to do your idea justice is to launch.
Don't try to build an entire social network in one iteration (most likely a recipe for burnout, and you will probably spread yourself so thinly over the many features that you may never launch). Instead, be very clear on what you're going to build in the time you've set yourself. Focus on the most important / interesting tool you have in your head (e.g. the project tracker), build it in its simplest form, and just let people start using it for free and see if they find it useful. It might be so simple that you might almost be embarrassed to release it, but it's much better if you release something that's incomplete, because if people tell you what it's missing then at least you know they're interested! Keep providing these little nuggets of value and you may find people come back again and again to use your tools. Then you've got a good foundation for a community.
Probably a good place to launch something like this is on ProductHunt (lots of builders there). Don't forget to place a feedback form (or a contact email) somewhere in your product so people can leave you feedback or get in touch.
Good luck on your journey! Keep us updated!
Oh, thanks for such a motivating response and tons of advice! I definitely have to think in this way.
A surprising number of successful community builders are introverts. Don’t let it hold you back.
Thanks!
I'm trying to think in this direction :)
The more I think on it the more I conclude it can't be fixed.
I noticed the not true introverts usually deny the existense of introversion and suggest "to get out of box" and something like that.
But we, true introverts, know it's not about a box and getting out. It's somewhere deeper in our genes and only a good luck may help (like with Zuck). To exclude the chance as a solid factor we need something else. Right now, I see only one normal solution - it's to find someone, non-introvert, who can help.
Do you agree?
But, boy, it's so f##ng hard.
We already know what's going to happen when you have a lizard person running the biggest social network. It's a net negative game.
Am I the only one wondering if the introvert / extrovert separation has any meaning at all?
By definition, I'm an introvert. I like to read, learn by myself, doing stuff by myself. However, when I'm around people, I pass most of the time a good (and interesting) time IF I don't think of myself as somebody who likes to be alone (or, in another words, as somebody introvert).
I'm just wondering if we don't put ourselves in boxes here and create behaviors which shouldn't exist if we didn't think about it.
Hmmm... it doesn't make you an introvert. Where did you get this "definition"? Google is closer to the truth saying "a shy, reticent person." It's only about your personal attitude towards the outer world but not about "liking to read or learn by yourself".
And it's not about putting yourself into a box, it means the box was created by nature and when it's time to get out it's pretty hard because the true introvert should overcome some his/her own natural traits.
I'm also an introvert, and I spend my spare time building a tiny social network (https://midnight.pub)
I find that it's easier for me to express myself when I'm typing on my keyboard than when I'm actually speaking in reality.
Me too, but there are still things it's hard for me to do: