Would you recommend #buildinpublic ? Previously I have only advertised.
I see this over and over again. People building an audience/community before launching a product. While this seems right, I know that it requires a lot of time, energy and sometimes money. Creating and Posting content is not enough, you should also interact with other accounts. So what do you think? Is it woth it?
Trending on Indie Hackers
We built our feedback tool ruttl in public and the response was great!
It's always good to have an audience before the launch cause then you don't have to spend too much time getting your first few users, not only that but they can also help you identify which features are a priority and which ones you can pick up down the line.
The platforms we used were Indie Hackers, Twitter and LinkedIn and we still get good traffic from them. The only advice I would give regarding posting on LinkedIn is that you tend to get much better results from your personal account rather than the products' page.
All the best!
tnx for sharing
I think only while interacting with the customers, we would get feedback and we could update yourself.
100% worth it .. it is the 4th week of us building our SaaS product and the response has been epic!
We have been able to socialize and share our idea with others.
If we would have done all this right after launch it would have been really chaotic but now while building we are able to embed our name so it will be easier to get our desired outcome on launch.
Did you have an existing audience? because building an audience takes months and you said you were in your 4th week
IKR! Seems super unrealistic :D
We had zero following or any support when we started.
But check out this post from our two weeks benchmark .. https://www.indiehackers.com/post/upembed-two-week-anniversary-6ce289f4d9.
This is the power of building in public! :D
For the majority of cases I'd recommend building an audience first and share with them the progress of whatever it is the person is building.
These days people not just buy the thing but the person who's doing it. It's more relevant in industries where there are several competitors with very similar offerings.
Everyone is different. For some build in public works better if they are social media savvy. But if you think you can make it better through other avenues, go for it. Most important thing in my opinion is your vision, which can be achieved through several ways, not just build in public.
For posting, share what you think is worth sharing. There's no need to overthink it. I noticed milestones and memes do well.
For interacting with others, it can actually lend itself to making friends. Since the whole world shifted to digital, I think you have to be more intentional with these things. Builders gravitate towards other builders. In a way, no one knows you're a builder unless you share the journey online.
#buildinpublic is a marketing strategy. However, you can also use it as a way to find other makers.
I started posting, also doing some memes. I don't think you can grow by only just posting content. Also how to you stay in touch with your followers?
Building in public is not for sales but for getting support. It shows that you are actively progressing toward your goal.
Promoting your product through posts bores users to death.
Instead, try to engage with potential customers and offer a way for them to see your product through your journey.
Interesting thought! You are right, product updates must be really boring. Tnx for sharing
If you're just starting out and have no marketing budget, building in public can be a great way to hack growth.
However, as you scale up, it may no longer be the most cost-effective option as you'll likely have to deal with more trolls and distractions.
I did once, but not twice. Too much copy cat.
People are afraid of copycats. They are in a way a validation that it is not a totally terrible idea. For many services, the market is large enough that a copycat or two will not saturate it. So I would go for the strategy tell, then do. This ensures early feedback. It can also be a great motivator to have some followers for one's project. it is worth it, I say.
I think the decision mostly comes down to efficient time-usage. Building in public serves two roles simultaneously: marketing + feedback-pipeline establishment.
You're going to be developing anyways and that should entail writeups, planning docs, meetings, etc. You might as well put in a bit more effort to publish that content so you can triple-stack development, marketing, and feedback.
I am doing it, you should do it too.
How long have you been doing it ? Did you acquire any customer from it? I would love to here more about your experience
I started doing it by this month, got 9 followers. No customers since my side hustle is free tool. But I have seen a lot of people doing it and if you have SaaS product, then definitely you should.