

Ask HN: Promoting your idea - njckname2

Hey,<p>I know there have been talks, blog posts about what I'm about to ask but I've been ignoring them until now so there is a lot I don't know.<p>Here's what I want to ask you HN, if you have an idea, how do you promote it?<p>Say Twitter does not exist and you invent it, how do you promote it?<p>How do you find people who are good at promoting a website?<p>If I want to tell a forum about my website, I have to compose the text in a manner that will make my product appealing to the potential user and all sorts of things at which I'm bad at.
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arkitaip
How does practical marketing work, then.

The non-answer: it depends.

In the early stages, few startups would hire a dedicated marketing person
because the founders or entire teams does marketing depending on your
marketing philosophy. For web startups, working your network in extending
outward circles - tech friends, industry colleagues, specialized media - has
been the established method to from stealth to viral. Working blogs, forums
and other hangout in your industry is another approach by which you can build
a good reputation and find potential customers. But dedicated, high quality
community outreach is resource extensive and difficult to pull of if your
industry is big.

If you are a very tech oriented guy, you might want to partner up with a
passionate business person to get some needed perspective. This way you will
have a co-founder and a more marketing oriented person in your startup.

Twitter exists. Use it. Write meaningful content about your startup, products,
office, thoughts on your industry, etc. Befriend and interact with people in
your business. Reply to their tweets, ask questions.

Facebook exists. Use it. Just remember that dedicated community outreach is
resource expensive. Plan for it.

Never underestimate the Silicon Valley effect. Working=living in the area and
hanging out with the right people can be a tremendous marketing advantage. If
I lived in the USA and was about to launch a serious startup, I would
definitely consider moving to The Valley.

