5 ms·

Facebook pages are worthless for your startup. Go where the early adopters are.

86 points by g0atbutt 16y ago

bpeters 16y ago
You should not just focus on twitter, but leverage community sites like HN. Also, social media is just one ends to a mean. There is always the good old fashion hustle in the streets to get that initial traction.
- g0atbutt 16y ago
  Absolutely. Twitter helps to cultivate relationships, but meeting people in real life is where it's at. Twitter is a great tool to make that happen.
mattholling 16y ago
Your points about your Facebook network of friends not being your target market is many times true, and something I had not thought about. Good insight Paul.
- g0atbutt 16y ago
  Actually this post was written by Robbie Abed, one of our new writers.
  - gplaya2323 16y ago
    I'm the one with the professional alias. gplaya2323.
mayank 16y ago
Just a general comment about the site: I love your logo and headline styling, but why is the body text so unreadable? I know I can just ctrl+ it, but it seems that if you're building a better TechCrunch content-wise, why not shoot for better readability [reference intended] of the actual content? The emphasis looks like links and the graphic takes up a lot of room for an element that doesn't add anything.
- Andrenid 16y ago
  The article text definitely needs some typography love. It's way too small and packed together (no idea what the legitimate phrases for that are, sorry typography-guys). I find it amusing that the comments are more readable than the article itself.
- g0atbutt 16y ago
  Thanks for the feedback mayank. I'll get this fixed.
  - tblancpain 16y ago
    agreed. something like 12pt/1.65 for .post-content works much better.
rcavezza 16y ago
Most startups need to focus where their market is. If you're in B2B or focused on selling something to startups, you need to be on Twitter. If you're more of a general consumer product, you should be on facebook, but not on a fan page, you should be trying to get users to "Share" your content. Fan Pages can be a good way to communicate with existing customers or blog visitors, but it's not really an acquisition mechanism.
- gplaya2323 16y ago
  exactly. It's not really an acquisition mechanism. I still think you should be on facebook, but focusing on building a facebook fan page isn't going to get you anywhere. If anything, just use it to reserve the URL.
- erikpukinskis 16y ago
  it's not really an acquisition mechanism Sure it is. We have 1000 fans on Facebook, and basically none of them have converted to our paid service yet. It's people who came to our site and hit "Like". Many of them don't even use our free service. Status updates we post there can absolutely convert users. And when those users like an item in our feed, or comment on it, that potentially goes into their feed, which is outreach to their friends (i.e. new customers).
- rudiger 16y ago
  B2B startups need to be on Twitter? Based on my experience with B2B, you don't even need a website.
  - scrrr 16y ago
    Rüdiger, yor nick sounds like you're from Germany. Care to chat? If yes, email me pls (see profile).
WillyF 16y ago
My Facebook page allows me to broadcast content to my fans. That's valuable. I've found that it's not all that effective when I'm promoting content that my readers get through my e-mails, RSS, or website, but it's actually really great when I'm promoting a sponsor (I'm in the employment space). I can usually send some extra clicks to my sponsor, and that makes the campaign look better.
kirbman89 16y ago
I am with the author. I deactivated my FB account back in December. I don't trust friend's opinions and don't trust facebook to securely store personal data of mine or prospective users. Before adding the pretty bells and whistles, make sure your site attacts users and works correctly before wasting valuable design time.
mkull 16y ago
Be careful here, you are talking in absolutes. If you are b2c you should definitely take a close look at facebook as a part of your marketing strategy. No, not for your friends / family but so you can pay for targeted facebooks ads to show to your potential customers to get them to like your page. My startup now has over 35,000 'likes' on our facebook page, all in our target demo / market. This is huge. We now have a captive audience we can market to. I would put this just as high as building an email list and consistently marketing to that list. YES it drives revenue, and more importantly awareness.
- jeremydavid 16y ago
  I have to agree with you. 35,000 likes are very valuable. And it's not just the 35,000 people that like you. You can advertise on Facebook to "friends of friends who like you", using the "friend" as a testimonial of sorts. "Blah blah blah - Jeremy Likes This!". This significantly increases conversion rates on the ad, and I would suggest all websites use Facebook pages as part of their marketing strategy.
- silverbax88 16y ago
  I'm impressed. Can you share how, or what kind of response those likes give you? Do you post updates regularly and see visible results?
  - mkull 16y ago
    We post when we have relevant content, which typically is a mix of new products / sales (we are eCommerce) as well as 'interesting' on topic content (funny videos, blog posts, etc from across the web). We also run contents like 'caption this picture' which are very popular We see a good amount of likes and comments back and forth amongst the customer base, and as mentioned before it drives traffic to our website as well and keeps our 'brand' top of mind.
junkfruit 16y ago
Great article - makes sense for many businesses, but not all. Getting your friends on Facebook could be very valuable if your friends ARE your target customers.
agaton 16y ago
I've worked a lot with PR, marketing and user acquisition methods for different startups the last couple of years and I can't agree with this article. My experience is the opposite, work with Facebook as much as you can, even if most of the "Likes" comes from friends. There's two (combined) reasons for that: 1. It's really hard to acquire users. With or without budget, the most important part of a startups success is the ability to find and get onboard new users/customers. Facebook might only be one method of getting people sign up for your service but hey, it's one of the most effective ones. If 200 people click "Like" on the same day, of course it will go viral if it's a cool startup. Friends or not, it 's people and most of them have great networks of other people around them. People with many friends are more likely to succeed not only with your Facebook Page but with the business itself. Guess why? People know people, even if they're not themselves in the right target group. Get many people like you, and they'll like what you're doing (and their friends to, hint). It's no rocket science, really. Facebook is very effective for marketing. Use it. Tips: start the page as fast as you can. Growing the amount of fans takes time, with many invited friends or not. If you get pre-launch press, use it for something. To have 200 FB fans when you launch for real are very valuable. 2. Retention. Facebook is great as a reminder to people. If you have many FB fans, you have many people to remind about your startups existence. Facebook is useful for getting long-time value of a initial interest/hype/launch. Actually more effective than newsletter subscriptions for some of the projects I'm involved in.
malloreon 16y ago
What about early adopters who "like" your site, come to your fanpage, and get their friends to check it out?

86 points by g0atbutt 16y ago

You should not just focus on twitter, but leverage community sites like HN. Also, social media is just one ends to a mean. There is always the good old fashion hustle in the streets to get that initial traction.

g0atbutt 16y ago
Absolutely. Twitter helps to cultivate relationships, but meeting people in real life is where it's at. Twitter is a great tool to make that happen.

mattholling 16y ago

Your points about your Facebook network of friends not being your target market is many times true, and something I had not thought about. Good insight Paul.

g0atbutt 16y ago
Actually this post was written by Robbie Abed, one of our new writers.
- gplaya2323 16y ago
  I'm the one with the professional alias. gplaya2323.

mayank 16y ago

Just a general comment about the site: I love your logo and headline styling, but why is the body text so unreadable? I know I can just ctrl+ it, but it seems that if you're building a better TechCrunch content-wise, why not shoot for better readability [reference intended] of the actual content? The emphasis looks like links and the graphic takes up a lot of room for an element that doesn't add anything.

Andrenid 16y ago
The article text definitely needs some typography love. It's way too small and packed together (no idea what the legitimate phrases for that are, sorry typography-guys). I find it amusing that the comments are more readable than the article itself.
g0atbutt 16y ago
Thanks for the feedback mayank. I'll get this fixed.
- tblancpain 16y ago
  agreed. something like 12pt/1.65 for .post-content works much better.

rcavezza 16y ago

Most startups need to focus where their market is. If you're in B2B or focused on selling something to startups, you need to be on Twitter. If you're more of a general consumer product, you should be on facebook, but not on a fan page, you should be trying to get users to "Share" your content. Fan Pages can be a good way to communicate with existing customers or blog visitors, but it's not really an acquisition mechanism.

gplaya2323 16y ago
exactly. It's not really an acquisition mechanism. I still think you should be on facebook, but focusing on building a facebook fan page isn't going to get you anywhere. If anything, just use it to reserve the URL.
erikpukinskis 16y ago
it's not really an acquisition mechanism Sure it is. We have 1000 fans on Facebook, and basically none of them have converted to our paid service yet. It's people who came to our site and hit "Like". Many of them don't even use our free service. Status updates we post there can absolutely convert users. And when those users like an item in our feed, or comment on it, that potentially goes into their feed, which is outreach to their friends (i.e. new customers).
rudiger 16y ago
B2B startups need to be on Twitter? Based on my experience with B2B, you don't even need a website.
- scrrr 16y ago
  Rüdiger, yor nick sounds like you're from Germany. Care to chat? If yes, email me pls (see profile).

WillyF 16y ago

My Facebook page allows me to broadcast content to my fans. That's valuable. I've found that it's not all that effective when I'm promoting content that my readers get through my e-mails, RSS, or website, but it's actually really great when I'm promoting a sponsor (I'm in the employment space). I can usually send some extra clicks to my sponsor, and that makes the campaign look better.

kirbman89 16y ago

I am with the author. I deactivated my FB account back in December. I don't trust friend's opinions and don't trust facebook to securely store personal data of mine or prospective users. Before adding the pretty bells and whistles, make sure your site attacts users and works correctly before wasting valuable design time.

mkull 16y ago

Be careful here, you are talking in absolutes. If you are b2c you should definitely take a close look at facebook as a part of your marketing strategy. No, not for your friends / family but so you can pay for targeted facebooks ads to show to your potential customers to get them to like your page. My startup now has over 35,000 'likes' on our facebook page, all in our target demo / market. This is huge. We now have a captive audience we can market to. I would put this just as high as building an email list and consistently marketing to that list. YES it drives revenue, and more importantly awareness.

jeremydavid 16y ago
I have to agree with you. 35,000 likes are very valuable. And it's not just the 35,000 people that like you. You can advertise on Facebook to "friends of friends who like you", using the "friend" as a testimonial of sorts. "Blah blah blah - Jeremy Likes This!". This significantly increases conversion rates on the ad, and I would suggest all websites use Facebook pages as part of their marketing strategy.
silverbax88 16y ago
I'm impressed. Can you share how, or what kind of response those likes give you? Do you post updates regularly and see visible results?
- mkull 16y ago
  We post when we have relevant content, which typically is a mix of new products / sales (we are eCommerce) as well as 'interesting' on topic content (funny videos, blog posts, etc from across the web). We also run contents like 'caption this picture' which are very popular We see a good amount of likes and comments back and forth amongst the customer base, and as mentioned before it drives traffic to our website as well and keeps our 'brand' top of mind.

junkfruit 16y ago

Great article - makes sense for many businesses, but not all. Getting your friends on Facebook could be very valuable if your friends ARE your target customers.

agaton 16y ago

I've worked a lot with PR, marketing and user acquisition methods for different startups the last couple of years and I can't agree with this article. My experience is the opposite, work with Facebook as much as you can, even if most of the "Likes" comes from friends. There's two (combined) reasons for that: 1. It's really hard to acquire users. With or without budget, the most important part of a startups success is the ability to find and get onboard new users/customers. Facebook might only be one method of getting people sign up for your service but hey, it's one of the most effective ones. If 200 people click "Like" on the same day, of course it will go viral if it's a cool startup. Friends or not, it 's people and most of them have great networks of other people around them. People with many friends are more likely to succeed not only with your Facebook Page but with the business itself. Guess why? People know people, even if they're not themselves in the right target group. Get many people like you, and they'll like what you're doing (and their friends to, hint). It's no rocket science, really. Facebook is very effective for marketing. Use it. Tips: start the page as fast as you can. Growing the amount of fans takes time, with many invited friends or not. If you get pre-launch press, use it for something. To have 200 FB fans when you launch for real are very valuable. 2. Retention. Facebook is great as a reminder to people. If you have many FB fans, you have many people to remind about your startups existence. Facebook is useful for getting long-time value of a initial interest/hype/launch. Actually more effective than newsletter subscriptions for some of the projects I'm involved in.

malloreon 16y ago

What about early adopters who "like" your site, come to your fanpage, and get their friends to check it out?