
Marketing hacks to boost your startup - benjlang
http://www.slideshare.net/benmaxime/10-marketing-hacks-to-boost-your-startup-15573937/#
======
Peroni
Point 4: 'Hacker News'

    
    
        Get to #1 spot on HN & you'll get tons of page views.
    

Reminiscent of 'How to draw an Owl' - <http://i.imgur.com/Z1oTC.jpg>

In all seriousness, Point 7: Share Buttons - are these actually effective?
It's a genuine question as I've seen such a mixed response to them. We've
chosen not to include any obvious share buttons on hackerjobs.co.uk as I
figured no-one would want to share a job on their facebook account so lets not
ruin the minimalism of the page. Thoughts?

~~~
benjlang
Point 4 - well in person I went over how Hacker News works etc (these are
people that have never heard of Hacker News)

Share buttons - yes they're effective, I've measured the conversion rate on
different sites and it's proved worthy to have them. Here's a good article
about share buttons - [http://socialmouths.com/blog/2012/05/08/social-media-
buttons...](http://socialmouths.com/blog/2012/05/08/social-media-buttons/)

~~~
jacques_chester
> _these are people that have never heard of Hacker News_

Then I feel that you are contributing to the dilution of the value of the
site.

~~~
polyfractal
I hate this attitude, and it's prevalent all over HN. What makes you so
special? Because you simply found this site before someone else?

I imagine there are plenty of brilliant and interesting people on the internet
that are not aware of HN, but could contribute nicely if they became members
here.

This "age elitism" issue is wearying. It happens in other places too
(SomethingAwful, for example, went through a hilariously horrible period where
the year you registered was the most important part of your post).

But this is supposedly an intellectual forum, not a comedy forum. Grow up and
stop thinking the number of days since joining makes you better than someone
else.

 _(Yes, I joined after you. I am also diluting this forum. Get off my lawn.)_

~~~
jacques_chester
When I first got here, people were complaining about the new guys. I only seem
"old"-ish because I joined to make a comment like 3 (edit: actually 4, crikey)
years ago and then didn't come back until this year.

My problem is not the new guy. It's that he says he found non-HN readers and,
in so many words, said "fill up their page with stuff".

He didn't say "join HN and hang around for a while".

He said: "Get your page on the top of HN".

Those aren't the same things.

~~~
polyfractal
> He didn't say "join HN and hang around for a while".

> He said: "Get your page on the top of HN".

Fair enough, I see what you are saying. Sorry for the rant, it's early and the
coffee is still settling in. =)

~~~
jacques_chester
Perfectly understandable. In text I frequently convey an air of breathtaking
arrogance (in person only occasionally so).

------
jacques_chester
Tip number one: tips are no longer popular. Call them "hacks" instead.

~~~
carbocation
I agree with you. It is particularly crass that we see this trend occurring on
Hacker News. I would encourage PG to add a temporary rule discouraging the
misuse of the term hacker, and the mods to rewrite titles that likewise misuse
the term.

~~~
jacques_chester
It's marketing.

Hear about a horse.

Flog horse to death.

Continue flogging.

------
benologist
I hate the way HN is emphasized every time I see something about growth
hacking. If the only way you can get your startup on HN's front page is by
writing about _something else_ then this obviously is not your market and you
are doing a terrible job even if you "win".

------
Charlesmigli
Very interesting and actionable. One thing I disagree is point #5 because your
previous users could feel screwed.

Here are the 10 hacks

1\. Guest post (send editor email with post and short intro)

2\. Offer premium giveaways

3\. Use Rapportive to find and connect with anyone

4\. Use Hacker News (~10k to 50k visitors for #1)

5\. Drop the app to free after a regular pricing

6\. Create one day viral projects to promote your brand

7\. Use share buttons

8\. Distribute on AppSumo (+730k subscribers)

9\. Reach out bloggers (provide value before asking for something)

10\. Use Dropbox style to incentive and gamify signups

Accessible on this link <http://tldr.io/tldrs/50c74e31babbb5f813000b32>

------
knes
Pointless slides with no real tips or hacks. These are here just to promote
Ben "Branding".

for example Guest blogging: The tip is "Guest blogging is great, write stuff
and send a small email to important people so they publish it on their blog".
Social proof inside, " Look how i wrote an article for TC" ... Woopidioh!

Everybody know it is important to do guest posts. That is not rocket science.
What would have been great is actually tips on how to write awesome guest blog
post? The process, the research, etc .

Leo Widrich of Buffer wrote a great "Guest Post" on Guest blogging ( I know,
so meta ^^ ) somewhere but I can't find it anymore.

The only thing I agree with the slide is the last comment.

"In the end none of this matters if you have a crappy product."

~~~
benjlang
Thanks for the kind words.

Guess what, this is a presentation not a blog post. Maybe in your presentation
you write blog posts but I don't. When I talked about guest posts I went over
mostly how to write a good guest post and how to get it to the editor of the
blog.

Same for every other slide....

~~~
octaveguin
The parent's complaint is valid. You may have given a talk with more detail
but the slides are what you submitted.

Honestly, I'm a little tired of these marketing posts that have no new
information and only serve to market the author's product.

How are they getting upvoted?

------
zefhous
How about focusing on making the internet a better place? These tips generally
do the opposite.

Funny that notification control's goal is to prevent web services from
spamming you, but all of this advise is about how to spam other people on the
internet.

The focus of all these things seem to be entirely self-serving, without any
focus on really providing value to people. Instead, figure out how to help
others so they actually want to share your content. If you can't do that, the
work you are doing is not worth doing — and indeed harmful.

------
interg12
Can we stop calling everything that worked for someone a "hack" ?

~~~
Ellahn
Yes, please.

------
talmand
I fail to see how much of this is that useful to most startups. It seemed more
about how to create and push mass amounts of spam in the hopes of hitting it
big. I didn't see much in the way of actually increasing your interaction with
potential customers. It's just a numbers game about how many eyes can I get in
front of hoping something works.

I'm sorry, but I just cannot possibly take someone who uses the term "growth
hacking" serious. Much like job postings using "ninja" or "rockstar"; it's
just a blatant attempt to appear cool or hip in a strange way.

------
patrickk
Any video of the presentation available?

~~~
benjlang
Not yet very soon.

~~~
patrickk
Thanks. Look forward to it.

------
talGX
Great presentation Ben, thanks for sharing

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reuvenlivn
very good tips!!!

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alanweinkrantz
great, practical advise.

~~~
benjlang
Thanks Alan.

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igalp
Great work Ben!

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miriamyoung
Really really great. Thanks for posting!

~~~
benjlang
Appreciate it.

~~~
pc86
You know what @jacques_chester said further up the page?

This is what he was talking about.

~~~
talmand
Yes, especially since there appears to be a set of almost new accounts with
little or no karma and no comment history being positive in response. This is
an old marketing trick and is also a serious dilution problem.

Your favorite deity of choice forbid HN turns into a marketing gimmick that
plagued Digg.

~~~
benjlang
Sorry that I recommended a few people at the presentation to sign up for
Hacker News and they saw that I posted this here and commented. Didn't
realized Hacker News was closed for registration in your opinion.

~~~
talmand
I don't think I said anything about registration being closed and that new
people shouldn't get involved.

What I pointed out was that there were a few fairly new accounts with little
or no history here at all with positive responses to your article. This is a
known marketing gimmick to, I shall use your word, "hack" a site in an attempt
to game the system. Considering the subject of your "hacking" article then I
don't find it wrong to consider that possibility.

If this is not the case and it is as you say, then I will gladly apologize and
say good for you. But you are the one that suggested spamming sites in an
effort to boost visitation numbers.

