3 ms·

I'm one of the first engineers to join Zaarly, I've been with the company since pre-launch (late April). I can tell you from analyzing the traffic statistics my

by ajsharp 15y ago

I'm one of the first engineers to join Zaarly, I've been with the company since pre-launch (late April). I can tell you from analyzing the traffic statistics myself that these traffic bumps are extremely short-term. Tweets from celebrities give you a spike for a few minutes, but that's about it. That's useful for sure, but it won't get you to 100k users by a longshot. Still, if you're looking for a lesson to gleam from the whole celebrity thing, it's that networking is important in business (shocker). Networking and connecting with people -- especially those who are well connected -- who are excited about your business can be beneficial, but only if you do the other things right (building the product, attracting users, etc). But seriously, you're completely missing the point if what you got out of this was "find some celebs to rep your brand".

Klinky 15y ago
Regardless of how you slice it the celebrities were integral to the marketing strategy of Zaarly from the start. They added credibility & interest that would not otherwise be there, not just on twitter, but on a national level. You talk to some news editor and ask them "some tech startup that's going to do some marketplace thingy just launched..." & they're going to say "yeah, so what?" if you respond "well Ashton Kutcher liked it" the editor is going to say "Now that's somethin' we can write about!". Also every fluff piece in the future is going to mention the celebs, who knows what that does for SERPs & traffic. Yes there were other social media & offline marketing strategies. Yes there was a lot of hard work but you cannot escape that the title should have been "Successful & seasoned founder with cash to burn & celebrity connections garners 100k users in 3.5months." It's still impressive & he used his connections & resources wisely. Kudos. My beef is less with Zaarly & more with the title of the article.

by ajsharp 15y ago

Klinky 15y ago

Regardless of how you slice it the celebrities were integral to the marketing strategy of Zaarly from the start. They added credibility & interest that would not otherwise be there, not just on twitter, but on a national level. You talk to some news editor and ask them "some tech startup that's going to do some marketplace thingy just launched..." & they're going to say "yeah, so what?" if you respond "well Ashton Kutcher liked it" the editor is going to say "Now that's somethin' we can write about!". Also every fluff piece in the future is going to mention the celebs, who knows what that does for SERPs & traffic. Yes there were other social media & offline marketing strategies. Yes there was a lot of hard work but you cannot escape that the title should have been "Successful & seasoned founder with cash to burn & celebrity connections garners 100k users in 3.5months." It's still impressive & he used his connections & resources wisely. Kudos. My beef is less with Zaarly & more with the title of the article.