

Ask HN: What should I do to make this product viral? - abhishekdesai

Recently we have revamped http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.joognu.com and its Android app.<p>Joognu.com allows you to capture, weave and store memories with your child and gift them when your child grows up.<p>It&#x27;s fundamentally private. You store those memories here which you would not like to share on Facebook. But the product essentially has to have some viral features as well so that more and more parents become aware about it.<p>Keeping that in mind we have given few features like below:<p>- Parents can selectively share individual memories (photos, videos, etc.) on Facebook
- Parents can share the entire timeline with their relatives and friends. 
- Relatives and friends can only see those memories which are kept open by Parents on the timeline.
- Relatives and friends can like those memories and comment on them.
- Parents can invite people to get more free space (We give 5GB free space to start with)<p>We are getting some virality due to these features but not enough.<p>What other features &#x2F; benefits you suggest we should provide to make Joognu.com more viral?
======
shawnreilly
In my opinion, building a Viral Product takes more than just Marketing or
Luck. I believe it begins with an understanding of your customer, and their
desire to Share information within the Context of your Product. Taking this
into consideration when designing the Product (or it's features) will allow
you to build a Product that provides an environment that facilitates viral
growth. Weather or not the Product actually goes viral will depend on how
useful / valuable the Product is, in conjunction with your success rate of
understanding your customer, and integrating this understanding into the
Product.

In your example, I would start with some customer validation. Are you
currently talking to your customers? If not, then this is probably an area of
concern as you are likely out of touch with what they actually want. If you
are talking to your customers, then you would want to modify your interaction
with them to include some questions about what drives them to share, and what
types of information they like to share, as well as who they would want to
share it with. Then you basically take what you've learned and integrate it
into your Product.

Going off the top of my head (this has not been validated, just my own
understanding from knowing lots of parents), I would key in on the fact that
Parents like to Brag about their Kids. So when their Children accomplish
something cool, they want to tell all their friends about it. I would
integrate this into the Product by identifying common Accomplishments that
children experience in life (just learned how to walk, just learned how to
talk, learned to ride a bike, etc,etc all the way up to graduated from
college, got a good job, bought a house, and/or started a family). By
identifying these moments / memories as Accomplishments (and perhaps assigning
them a special badge of some sort), you will increase their value in terms of
something worth sharing. Your Product already allows Parents to share specific
moments / memories, but because these moments / memories are special, you will
increase the Customers (Parents) incentive to share them, which becomes a
vertical for potential viral growth. By following this train of thought (which
always starts with customer validation) you can identify multiple verticals
for potential viral growth. Essentially, you just want to learn and understand
what makes your Customers share information, and then facilitate the sharing
of that information. Good luck!

~~~
abhishekdesai
Excellent points. Having badges for the accomplishment can be really awesome
for parents. As a parent myself, I understand what you are saying here.
Personally I don't like to brag about my child's accomplishments but I know a
lot of parents who do and we can capitalize on that in a good way.

I was also thinking of adding instagram like filters in the mobile app to make
memories more beautiful (well at least in some cases).

Thank you for your suggestions and ideas. This helps a lot.

------
onion2k
The problem with "viral" is very simple - virality works through either blind
luck or a _massive_ marketing spend in a short time ( _most_ viral things are
simply well made adverts in disguise). As a startup you can't rely on the
first ever happening and you can't afford the second. Market the app the 'old'
way; go to events where parents go, pay for adverts on websites parents use,
try to get a celebrity parent to endorse the app, and so on. It'll be very
hard work.

~~~
Anonymous9823
Going viral is simple. You send X people to your site, and they on average
send at least X+1.

For example, you link to your site on HN, and receive 100 visitors day one.
It's a great service, and those 100 people share it with enough people to
receive another 150 visitors the next day. Your new visitor traffic per day
goes...

1\. _100_

2\. _150_

3\. _225_

4\. _338_

5\. _506_

6\. _759_

7\. _1,139_

8\. _1,708_

9\. _2,563_

10\. _3,844_

...

20\. _221,683_

Within a few weeks you're receiving a quarter million new visitors a day.

Now, if HN sends 100 visitors day one, and those users generate 80 new
visitors day two, you get...

1\. _100_

2\. _80_

3\. _64_

4\. _51_

5\. _41_

6\. _33_

...

20\. _1_

Now you end up with only one visitor after three weeks.

In one case you're at the top of the world with the next big hit, and the
other you have absolutely no traffic.

You see situation number two happen all the time. You get a spike of traffic
and it fades away over the following week. As you can see above though, the
difference in a spike of traffic fading away, or going through the roof isn't
that large. We're not talking about one site being awful and the other being
the best thing since sliced bread. We're talking about 100 people referring 80
people and 100 people referring 150 people. Not a huge difference in interest,
but the traffic results can be staggering.

~~~
abhishekdesai
Well I see what you are saying. More making 100 people to refer to 150, the
product has to be awesome and should solve some real problems. I guess that's
where the different lies between both the cases.

------
lutusp
> What should I do to make this product viral?

That's easy:

First and foremost, don't ask how to make it go viral in a public forum.

Second, let the news spread through _agents provocateurs_ that it's a terrific
program, so terrific you're having difficulty protecting it from thieves and
pirates, but you've created what you think is a bulletproof protection scheme
to defend your magnum opus against the barbarian hordes, and you're privately
confident about your protection scheme.

Then step back and watch.

> What other features / benefits you suggest we should provide to make
> Joognu.com more viral?

You're way too sincere and eager. You need to adopt the "briar patch"
strategy: "Oh please, mister boss man, don't throw me into the briar patch ...
pleeeease!"

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br'er_Rabbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br'er_Rabbit)

Quote: "In the Cherokee tale about the briar patch, 'the fox and the wolf
throw the trickster rabbit into a thicket from which the rabbit quickly
escapes.'"

~~~
abhishekdesai
Well it will take a while before I can fully understand your suggestions but I
am on it :)

------
jacquesm
Make it so good that people will tell each other. That's really your best bet,
quality, ease of use, a reason to tell others (such as an invitation to share
something from your service directly) all of those will contribute.

Make sure to measure your virality (even if only indirect) by _asking_ your
customers how they found you. That way even if you can't directly measure
virality like this you can measure it indirectly by comparing it to how that
answer was at some arbitrary point in the past.

If the trend in relative terms (%age of respondents) is 'up' then you know
you're on the right road to lighting a fuse, if it is 'down' you are losing
momentum (even when you're still growing!) and it might mean you have to
change your strategy.

~~~
abhishekdesai
"Make it so good that people will tell each other."

\- Yup that was the primary reason for revamp. It's too early to tell if this
is working or not but yes I hear what you say.

And yes tracking is something we are very powerful at thanks to our partners
who are fantastic sales people.

------
debacle
As bad as it sounds, your best bet is probably to astroturf (or whatever the
equivalent term is for social networking - sockpuppeting?) on Pinterest and
Facebook, try and get a mention on popular blogs, etc.

Expending effort into improving your product is not likely to pay off in a
"viral" fashion.

~~~
abhishekdesai
Yes you are right. We are already active on Facebook and should be active on
Pinterest and other platforms very soon.

------
petervandijck
Improve the product. For a site that starts with "The most beautiful way to",
your design needs work, so I'd start there. Good luck.

~~~
abhishekdesai
Hmmm yup. We have a long way to go...

------
sharemywin
Dropbox.com - get more space if you refer a friend.

~~~
abhishekdesai
We already have it :)

