

Ask HN: How to gather early adopter customers for mobile project?  - nvmdhar

Hello,<p>I will soon start work on a side-project that involves building a app to allow users to share messages about a specific "vertical" with each other. ( I know this is a pretty vague description - I plan to present it to hacker news after getting it to beta stage).<p>Challenge: How do I make the app popular? Specifically, how do I get the initial adopters? I believe that once we get critical mass and power users on board, then network effect will take care of ensuring that more customers come on-board.<p>But how to get the early adopters? Any suggestions?<p>There doesn't seem to be a clear answer about how instagram accomplished it:
http://www.quora.com/How-did-Instagram-get-so-many-users-so-quickly
http://www.quora.com/Instagram/How-did-Instagram-get-its-first-25-000-signups<p>Thanks,
Dhar.
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hackrocket
A good starting point is to make sure that your app is optimized for App Store
SEO. Here are a few articles I would recommend:

[http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2169475/4-Ways-to-
Help-...](http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2169475/4-Ways-to-Help-
Consumers-Discover-Your-Mobile-App)

[http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2152859/App-Store-
Optim...](http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2152859/App-Store-Optimization)

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/28/aso-app-store-
optimization-...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/28/aso-app-store-optimization-
is-the-new-seo-and-heres-a-tool-to-do-it/)

<http://www.slideshare.net/kolinko/app-store-seo-tutorial>

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SuperChihuahua
Look through these: [http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-ideas/Finished-
ideas/Media-...](http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-ideas/Finished-ideas/Media-
about-sales-marketing/)

(including: Kevin Rose - Taking your Site from One to One Million Users)

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AznHisoka
Contact people in that niche and ask them for their input. Maybe have a list
of credits and offer to put their name in there.

Feed into their ego, make them feel special and they'll be more likely to
spread the word when you tell them it's done.

