3 ms·

I despise how twitter and facebook have become the de facto gatekeepers for marketing an app. The web is littered with millions upon millions of "Share this on/

by fjabre 13y ago

I despise how twitter and facebook have become the de facto gatekeepers for marketing an app. The web is littered with millions upon millions of "Share this on/Log in with Twitter / Facebook" and for a lot of apps that are successful at this marketing approach they are little more than a house of cards and uninspired vaporware. How about this, send a link to your site to all of your friends. Ask them if they'll share it with their friends - via email or text -> novel idea right? If people really like what you've made then you won't have to go around doing shameless self promotion and being a slave to Twitter and Facebook status updates on every little detail about your app, your company, or your team. When did marketing an app become so ego-centric? I don't give a shit what you look like. I don't care how many people are on your team. I don't care whether you have 50,000 twitter bot followers. Does your app make me want to use it more? Does it fulfill a real need I have or invent a need I never knew I had? If it's reliable and I like it or need it then guess what: I'll use it. Source: Google, Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc... Astronomical successes that didn't have the 'benefit' of a glitzy social platform to share their special sauce with the masses.

austenallred 13y ago
While there's no marketing tactic that can make up for having a crappy product, the notion that you can just email a couple of friends and a product will take off works in maybe 1% of cases, even for good products.
- pstuart 13y ago
  It helps if you have something good....
  - austenallred 13y ago
    Even if you have something good, the chances you'll be successful without marketing are way worse than the chances you'll be successful as a startup in general (which already suck).
    - rholdy 13y ago
      ...and if you don't have something good, you'll figure it out a lot faster with marketing than without. With a short runway, like when you're living out of your car or something crazy, figuring that out is pretty important.
rholdy 13y ago
Did you even read the article? He mentions emailing friends and family as a good place to start but anyone who has actually tried to market an app, or a brand or anything else has realized that leveraging your personal network will only get you so far. OP then suggests you use twitter to find people who are posting on the internet that they have a problem your product might be able to solve. That sounds like a bad idea to you? Also, listing a couple companies that became successful without using tools that didn't exist when they started doesn't prove anything. That is like saying "Union Pacific, GE, Ford and PacBell all became astronomical successes without using the internet, so you shouldn't use the internet either." There is no reason to handicap yourself when trying to get off the ground.

by fjabre 13y ago

austenallred 13y ago

While there's no marketing tactic that can make up for having a crappy product, the notion that you can just email a couple of friends and a product will take off works in maybe 1% of cases, even for good products.

pstuart 13y ago
It helps if you have something good....
- austenallred 13y ago
  Even if you have something good, the chances you'll be successful without marketing are way worse than the chances you'll be successful as a startup in general (which already suck).
  - rholdy 13y ago
    ...and if you don't have something good, you'll figure it out a lot faster with marketing than without. With a short runway, like when you're living out of your car or something crazy, figuring that out is pretty important.

rholdy 13y ago

Did you even read the article? He mentions emailing friends and family as a good place to start but anyone who has actually tried to market an app, or a brand or anything else has realized that leveraging your personal network will only get you so far. OP then suggests you use twitter to find people who are posting on the internet that they have a problem your product might be able to solve. That sounds like a bad idea to you? Also, listing a couple companies that became successful without using tools that didn't exist when they started doesn't prove anything. That is like saying "Union Pacific, GE, Ford and PacBell all became astronomical successes without using the internet, so you shouldn't use the internet either." There is no reason to handicap yourself when trying to get off the ground.