

Ask HN: Any ideas about increasing traction for a socially-oriented app? - hbansal

I have developed an Android app facilitating Augmented Reality to ease the users. But I dont know how to market it? Any ideas?
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hiddenemail7
Have a read of this person's experience marketing an iPad app:
<http://www.shindigital.com/blogpost/74>

Check out the other posts on his blog, too. They might be helpful.

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pbreit
For starters, consider an iPhone app since that's where much of the traction-
generating action is. It's hard to say though given how little we know about
the app. What does that mean "facilitating Augmented Reality to ease the
users"?

~~~
hbansal
It means that it uses a Layer (not literally) to show AirTags (or
GeoLocations) to show religious places augmented on the camera...

It's just one implementation, we are planning to add onto it, on the social
theme (like initiating causes, and getting following in real time)

So, how should we go with answering tough marketing questions like:

How are you gonna earn, revenue model? How will you generate traction? How
will you tackle with your competitors? ...stuff like that...

I hope it's clear now...

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aorshan
[http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-online-
marketin...](http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-online-marketing-
with-giant-infographic-11928)

is an amazing resource

------
revorad
For starters, tell us what it is unless you want to keep it under wraps for
now.

~~~
hbansal
Basically, it removes the need of Donation (money) boxes completely. Those
(boxes) are geolocated and viewed as an air tag in the Augmented view, so
that, there is no room for thefts, and people get instant proximity alerts (if
they want to), to give charity through PayPal, instantly, and from anywhere.

There is even no need to be at that place, just from your home, open your
camera and see all donation boxes.

It will be a huge hit in India, since people give charity for religious
purposes here, on a large scale.

Any more clarity, please ask me...please help us with critical marketing
issues...not a broad help, just some ideas...

~~~
revorad
Sounds interesting for sure, but still hard to imagine without seeing a demo
or illustration. Do you have a website?

How many people in India use Paypal? My immediate and extended family gives a
lot to charity but I don't think any of them have heard of Paypal.

Have you tested your product with some people in India? Don't assume it will
be a big hit.

I'm still not clear what problem you're solving though.

~~~
hbansal
It's still in infancy, pitching in a competition here for $5k seed money (it's
on Friday), with the first prototype.

Not launched a website now, but it's in the pipeline, will be out soon.

How many ppl in India have PayPal? Good ques, had let a survey out, will show
you the results soon.

We r planning to channelize it through established trusts, distribute to their
followers (QR codes on their sites)

Any other feedback or marketing idea???

~~~
revorad
Sorry, I'm not able to give concrete feedback or marketing ideas because I'm
not clear about your product.

What problem are you solving?

~~~
hbansal
Actually, we have 5-6 ideas, this was one of them, we r launching as a
prototype, other ideas are big and harder to be sought out, in terms of
marketing etc.

They are basically related to creating social communities instantly for
solving a local/global problem, and provides suggested measures for solving
that.

Eg: There is a trash zone near your house, what will you do? Just fire in our
app, and immediately, you will get a following of people, who think the same
as you.

So, our such ideas will be good for solving problems...basically we want to
brand ourselves as a community (company) that actively creates products that
initializes social changes and helps people solve them, using latest mobile
technologies.

How does this brand sound to you? Good/Bad/Depens If Bad/Depends, what
changes/value should we pitch on Friday, to our brand image, to get $5k seed
money, to start a startup, and (maybe) bring a revolution.

~~~
revorad
That reminds me of The Point. Have you seen this talk by Andrew Mason of
Groupon? - <http://www.justin.tv/c3oorg/b/272030648>

I think your marketing problem will be solved if you stop thinking so much
about your product and brand and instead start thinking more about your users
and their problems.

Have you thought of starting by focusing on one specific type of social
problem? What if you helped people all over a city or state report and rally
against garbage dumping near their house? If you just focused on that, you
might get some momentum and actually change things, which will then give you
the credibility and userbase to do other things.

But I'm still not clear how technology helps here.

