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27 Comments

What do you guys think about this product idea?

Hey everybody

I need some help in validating a product idea. I have been thinking about this idea for a while, just got the courage to talk to others and validate the idea.

Problem :

I have seen most of the small and medium businesses and startups create their social media pages in various platforms and dont maintain it actively. When I spoke with few founders (~10) I understood, everyone has the intention to keep their social media pages active but they dont find time or prioritize running business over spending time on creating social media post.

Solution :

A product which automatically generates custom social media posts (images, videos, news on the same domain) which can be shared by business owners and startup founders on their social media page.

for example : You have a new employee joining your organisation, the tool will automatically generate a post welcoming the employee or create a post for christmas which you can share in your social media pages.

What do you guys think about this idea. Do you face the same problem or its me who is assuming it is a problem. Will you be interested in using such a tool ?

Your feedback and thoughts would be very much helpful. TIA

Do you face this problem as a starup founder or a Business owner ?
  1. Yes
  2. No
Vote
  1. 6

    You figured a problem right – yes, even with marketers, startups don't have enough time to run social media. But I agree with guys that notifications post about new member or holiday is not what users need. Plus, for startups, CEO/founder is key. So, it's better to publish content from his/her page than from official accounts. And content should be unique and has storytelling (personal one) :)

    1. 1

      Uniqueness and Story telling is the key.

      One or 2 template based post in between are acceptable.

      Idea of social media is to engage audience.

    2. 1

      Very valid points @NatalieKarakina. Thanks a lot for putting in your thoughts

  2. 4

    Beware because a "wrong" post (no exaclty on topic, with the wrong wording, etc.) can be more harmful than no post at all. Also, I doubt that being on social media with pre-made autogenerated content can be really effective, in this space quality/originality is usually better than quantity

    1. 1

      got it. Thanks @damien_pirsy for your feedback

  3. 4

    It's a nice idea, I built a tool that did something similar... about 7 years ago [1] :)

    The two problems with this space are:

    1. "filling up a social feed" is not a hair on fire problem. It's nice to have. Tools that focus on follower growth tend to do better than tools that focus on feed content, as the former is a more obvious problem for early stage companies.

    2. it's highly subjective. Once you start getting into the space of founders thinking "hmm do I want to post this auto-content or not?" because they are on the fence about the quality, you're in a precarious space. It's too easy to just say no.

    Personally I think this idea would be better executed as a productized-service, not a fully automated tool.

    (1) here's the tool (no longer online): https://www.producthunt.com/posts/beatrix-app

    1. 1

      great insights @yongfook. Thank you so much for the feedback. Cant we solve the problem of follower growth by providing quality content ? what do you think about that ?

  4. 2

    Being in a startup myself, I resonate with the problem. Social media is the last thing on your mind when you're a startup or small business. But I'd be a bit sceptical about leaving the job entirely to be automated. It's your brand and the quality, voice and style definitely come into question here. That's my 2 cents, @suhadevvenkatesh :)

  5. 2

    Even personally it's sometimes hard to maintain all of the different channels.

    Two initial questions come to mind:

    1. How would the system know what is happening at the company?
    2. Which is a bigger factor for founders not to update social media time or small audience/low engedgement?
    1. 1

      Hey @artur124

      1. On a high level, am thinking about getting those information from linkedin. Need to explore their api's yet. If am able to get list of employees for a company, this can be done.

      2. I think having small audience / low engagement is a huge factor. To build a audience base, we have to keep posting quality content and for creating the content, you need to spend more time. This is the problem I am trying to solve. My thought is having a tool which will generate a customised content will solve this problem.

      Let me know your thoughts.

      1. 1
        1. Interesting. I guess it requires brainstorming a list of cases this would work for.

        2. It a valuable chicken and egg problem to solve. But there is more to it then sheer time. Have you gotten feedback from social media experts?

  6. 1

    It's something like managing multiple social media accounts from one place, something like a buffer.

    The main problem is generating content that will be posted on this account.

    You can use the API of bannerbear by @yongfook to make good-looking images & videos based on the contents.

    But will the main problem is getting text content for posts. Any idea on how to solve it?

  7. 1

    I hear you. But tbh a lot of SMEs and startups register the social profile because they need to own the handle, otherwise people will take it.

    It's also not a mandate to activate a social media account, coz not every businesses get customers or build their brand via social.

    I agree there's a small need, just really unsure if the problem is big enough.

  8. 1

    I fear that once they don't care about keeping it up and the world didn't end when they stopped posting that you would have to really convince them they are wrong.

  9. 1

    Interesting idea and outline. Would you wanna post this on Kern.al to see what other founders think of the idea?

    Here's an example of a product idea that was recently validated on there - https://kern.al/idea/newsletter-digest-service

  10. 1

    What value do the types of posts you're talking about create for the small/medium-sized business? I would argue very, very little. I don't think a business should actively put effort into their social media pages unless it is a meaningful part of their channel strategy. And for those businesses, they should be posting more meaningful content than "filler". Social media shouldn't be a thing that people feel some sort of obligation to pump content into just because it's 2021. That's what the social media companies want you to think!

    1. 1

      Interesting thought @ecwilson. My thought was that these kind of posts will create a brand presence for the SMB's. I want to start with generating these kind of basic contents and expand to more meaningful content with help of technology

  11. 1

    Yes, it is a problem for most, not just for startups and small businesses. Creating content for social media takes time and effort. And this exact problem led us to create a similar tool.

    However, our tool focuses on the content discovery in their nice / topics of interest. And then make it easy to quickly queue the content on their social platforms. It is called Curatora.io.

    Internal updates and brand advocacy are also certainly interesting topics for corporates and enterprises. So, I would love to know more about what you learn. :)

    1. 1

      Interesting! WIll try your product for sure @iwpgeek. Thanks for your thoughts.

  12. 1

    Is there a market for such product?
    I 100% think yes.

    How big is the market?
    I don't know.

    Defienetly there is a market, execute it carefully and creatively. Make it simple and get into market quickly, then evolve.

  13. 1

    Seems like there it's already exist https://repurpose.io/
    They look solid.

    Yesterday I've came with idea. "Newsletter hunt" a.k.a "Product hunt" but for awesome newsletters. You know what? It is already exist.
    So damn hard to break trough the noise. Keep it up bro

    1. 1

      I think the product you shared solves a different problem @arturcookiejar

  14. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      It would require integrations in ways an SMB wouldnt even understand.

    2. 1

      hey @Primer I am planning to get the employee data from Linkedin. Havent explored their api's yet. It was just an idea. The tool will create the posts for you, its up to the users to post it or not.

      The tool will get data from around the web and create it as a post.

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

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