

Ask HN: Using Twitter to market a SaaS product - tedj

I&#x27;ve built a software tool, for personal use. My tool automates a certain procedure that&#x27;s time-consuming, unpleasant and error-prone. During last year, I came to face this &#x27;pain&#x27; 4-5 times, and the tool came handy every time. I now consider transforming my tool to a modest web-based SaaS.<p>For the last 10 days, I&#x27;ve been monitoring a live search on Twitter. My search catches 2-3 new tweets &#x2F; day, from users complaining about the exact same &#x27;pain&#x27; as they&#x27;re facing it. (That&#x27;s only from one set of search keywords, with high specificity &#x2F; no false positives). Some of the tweeting accounts seem to be influential, and their rants produce &#x27;Me, too&#x27; responses, or retweets.<p>Questions:
(1) Could I use the Twitter search result counts to draw inferences about my market size? 
(2) Once I&#x27;ve launched, can I engage in (real, non-automated) conversations with each one of these tweeterers, and introduce my product? Or that would be spam?<p>Additional information:
a. My product is not specific to any single niche, such as &#x27;developers&#x27;.
b. It&#x27;ll probably be pay-per-use, as opposed to subscription-based: I believe most users would only need it occasionally.
c. This would be my first SaaS venture.<p>Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read.
======
gk1
> (1) Could I use the Twitter search result counts to draw inferences about my
> market size?

Sure, but be aware that "has similar problem" is not the same as "is willing
to pay for solution."

> (2) Once I've launched, can I engage in (real, non-automated) conversations
> with each one of these tweeterers, and introduce my product?

Of course, why would you need permission for this?

