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13 Comments

Looking for Advice on building in public - What should not be shared?

I've just started building in public

I find it to be highly rewarding

I just thought to share my progress only but I am having strong desire to tweet everything

Not just progress but

  • Goals for coming days
  • Personal & professional struggle I face
  • How I am doing it. My thought process behind it
  • My learnings

My question is. What should be shared? I also want to build relevant audience on my tweeter as well. My audience is "Creators" & "Curious minds"

  1. 3

    I think you should start asking yourself why would you share. If you know the why, it'll be easier to understand the what.

    Many people building 'in public' share progress and achievements, but not frustrations (or a very little amount). This broadcasts an image of success which may serve your purposes. Sharing insights such as how you achieved something is always valuable, and you can see that those threads 'how to reach the front page of...' are often shared a lot, which can help you building an audience. This is not 100% related to what you are building but to the learning in your path.

    Do you want to build your personal brand? Do you want to increase the visibility of your product? Do you want to genuinely help others with insights of your process? Want to validate if those insights have enough value as to be sold?

    1. 1

      Thank you for your input @aqui_c . It makes perfect sense.

      Ultimately I want to create products that people want. I have built 2 products in stealth mode before and without any audience and both of them failed.

      Now, before building 3rd product. My goal is to build audience first. Generate insights via talking with them. Build relationships with them by helping them. Even without an agenda I like talking with interesting people so this comes naturally to me.

      I intend to create product that help millions but before i do that, I would want to genuinely help 10 people first, then 100. Then I would want to go for building product.

      1. 1

        It is a valid approach, just bear in mind that while building in public you may attract an audience that may not be the target customer segment. For example, imagine you are developing an app to track the exercise you do every day, and you start posting about setting up a server, using X framework, the problems you face with approval of the AppStore, etc. that won't be interesting per-se to your users, but is still a valid approach to building an audience around you as a developer.

        Building in 'stealth' and 'building in public' are two extremes that in any case are not related to validation itself. You can still build in private mode, but validating your asumptions in order not to waste resources, which is what apparently happened to you. The correlation you found does not imply causation. The products failed not because you didn't have an audience, but because you built despite not having validation (apparently).

  2. 2

    You’re doing great stuff :)

    I think you’re overthinking. Go share what you’re comfortable, your strength, your progress or even some funny moment while building product.

    When I was building my ]side project](https://ventureslist.com/), I often talk about my ideation progress, numbers (waitlist, sales, traffic etc) and I will share my brand philosophy as well.

    So literally anything.

    Go and build your audience!

  3. 2

    Hej Apurva,

    I talked about this topic in one of my episodes of Bruno Talks With. My guest was Danny Postma and he shared his experience. You might check out the video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwInRG-EpRg

    1. 1

      Hii Bruno,

      Your podcast look really good. Will see the video. Thanks :)

  4. 2

    My opinion is to only share stuff :

    1. For which you seek feedback, like if you want to know if there's a better way of doing something.
    2. Best practices which you found out, and which you think would help somebody else.
    1. 2

      So mainly tweets that provide some actual value or genuine interaction.

      I initially thought doing only that...but I feel sharing bit of other behind the scene struggles or wins will help in establishing stronger connection.

      1. 3

        "but I feel sharing bit of other behind the scene struggles or wins will help in establishing stronger connection."

        You're right. I'd go with that.

        1. 2

          You do the same? How much it has helped you so far?

          1. 2

            Yes. I do the same on twitter. (https://twitter.com/basakbuilds).

            It has helped me be 100% me, which is so refreshing after trying to be perfect all the time in my old mindset. The is the most important benefit I get from it.

            Also, it allows people to help you, pitch in with ideas, get to know you better, relate to your journey, connect as a human being, and more.

            I'm sick of hearing the words value and audience. When I'm me and when I share things about my journey, I check both boxes without having to think about it. That being said, I keep my twitter profile dedicated to my building journey and don't share other subjects (like fun kitten videos, food recipes etc.) but I think it goes without saying.

            1. 2

              Yes. I agree 💯 with you. Being relevant & real has to be the answer. Thank you.

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