
Places to Start Acquiring Users - mattangriffel
http://www.growhack.com/2012/11/12/places-to-start-acquiring-users/
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andygcook
I've never tried it myself, but I've heard people have had decent success
using a combination of Twitter searches + live chat.

You can monitor people on Twitter complaining about the problem you solve,
@reply them to check at your site, and then chat on oLark/SnapEngage to help
convert them into users (or just do customer development).

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jelpern
I've worked with teams at Lean Startup Machine who have done this, but you
have to be careful not to get shut down by Twitter as a spammer. I like how
dools did it: only targeting people with the hashtag, and writing personalized
messages. Think of it from their perspective: if you received this tweet,
would you flag the user as spam?

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patrickambron
I think SlideShare is one of the most underutilized tools out there. It's a
great way to break up a lot of information (people enjoy clicking through) and
they have a vibrant community. I post things up there and routinely get tens
of thousands of highly relevant views.

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francesca
"Meetup.com is one of those services that will do the job of driving traffic
to your meetup if you create one." This is a great point, but I think it's
also important to focus on creating successful meetups. This is a huge time
commitment. Creating a consistent arena for your user base requires
coordinating activities that they would love, and then reaping the benefits of
customer loyalty. It's an excellent idea, but you need to devote a good deal
of time to it (sometimes even a person).

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matznerd
Great article, but in your Craigslist section, you could mention how AirBnB
used Craigslist to get their first houses listed
[http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-
do...](http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-
company/)

~~~
patrickambron
I read about this in the past, and I think it's a really interesting
conversation. Would you consider this spam?

Personally I lean towards no. Yes, you are emailing a stranger, but in a
relevant way and presumably only one time.

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seiji
Every craigslist post defaults to "You are not allowed to email me about
related services." It's not up to them to try and enrich my life with their
new services I didn't ask to hear about.

It's blatant spam. But blatant spam and lawbreaking resulting in money hats is
apparently okay around here. (It's not shady or illegal -- it's _hustling_ and
_hacking the system._ )

~~~
matznerd
I don't see the harm in them trying to help wanting people connect with a
useful service that solves their needs.

~~~
seiji
The harm is you are you and you are not them. They are them and no matter how
much we think we can make their lives better, they are busy and don't want to
hear it.

The problem is when they are kinda dumb (most of the time?) and the targed
spam or leadgen job postings actually work.

"Job in your area paying $175k/year for your exact experience!" -- but when
you inquire, it never exists. Conveniently they happen to have similar jobs
with compensation structures consisting of wobbly jello.

Read the classics:
[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-m...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-
mark.html)

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khetarpal
I like the way you put it - "Put simply, go to where your potential users
are".

I would add - Think about not just users, but power users! At-least in the
begining you are not looking for a regular joe, but somebody who would benefit
the most by your product, and be the cheerleader moving forward.

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chicceo
This is a great article. Thanks so much, it's nice to see new approaches as
opposed to the same tactics recited over and over. Good stuff!!

