

Ask HN: How do I grow the user base of my "creepy" photo-searching Facebook app? - dshap

The Background:<p>I guess it started out as an arguably pretty creepy personal project - I wanted to browse photos of kids (alright, mostly girls) at school who I wasn't Facebook friends with.<p>I'm talking about those people who are in your extended social circles and friends with some of your friends, but whom you haven't formally met or hung out with.  You know who they are, they probably know who you are, but you're not "friends" so it might be weird if you added them on Facebook.<p>I realized that while I couldn't view these people's Facebook profile pages, in many cases I could actually see a lot of their photos in our mutual friends' albums.  The task of finding those photos was often daunting (e.g. 50 mutual friends, avg 8 albums/friend, avg 30 photos/album), so I built an app to do it for me.<p>I've since put it together in a somewhat presentable/user-friendly fashion and released it to the public.  Given a target user, the app searches your mutual friends' albums and aggregates all photos of the target user and shows you a breakdown of which photos were found through each specific mutual friend.<p>Most of the reactions I've gotten have been along the lines of "sooo creepy", which I can understand, but I also think there is some social value to being able to see how you/your friends are connected to others through photo albums - so far that's been a tough sell though.<p>The Problem:<p>I really think this is something that a lot of people want, but no one knows about it.  I've posted on some college forums and spread the word through my own social network, but that only goes so far.<p>Given the "creepy" nature of the application, I haven't been able to come up with any social features within the app that might result in organic user growth.  I made it so you have to "Like" the app if you want to see past the first few photo results, which I think is starting to get it out there but not at anywhere near the level I'd like.<p>Right now I have 1,000 monthly active users and I am reaching out to HN to see if anyone has any ideas or advice that I can use to boost that number as much as possible.<p>Would really appreciate your thoughts.  Thanks for reading.<p>EDIT: here is a demo video I made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09klp_Lw6w8
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kmfrk
You don't write how you've "posted" about it; did you drop a link, give them a
tagline, or did you give a demonstration? Maybe you told, but didn't tell. If
this is the case, make a usage case and describe it step by step. You could
also do this with video.

People shouldn't have to try your service to see its use and potential.

There is nothing creepy about your app that isn't creepy about Facebook
itself. So tell that to anyone who says that about your service - I don't have
a Facebook account, but I am well aware that Facebook is the best stalker tool
out there. Friends and acquaintances tell me all about it.

Hell, you can also embrace the controversy and market your service this way
instead; this will intrigue people to explore what people outside your
immediate social circle can actually access about you and vice versa.

(I would market it both ways, as if they were two different services offered.
You could also tip off a school paper or something of the sort - say,
Techcrunch - and give them either angle to write about.)

You could also market it as a guide to unlocking "secret features" of
Facebook. That kind of rhetoric often seems to work in the software world.

Always remember that your service is an implementation of Facebook - not an
extension beyond its basic functionality.

~~~
dshap
Thanks for your thoughts.

In the "advertisement" posts that I've made on some college/university forums,
I've been describing it as a tool to find photos of people you're not Facebook
friends with - the "creepy" marketing version if you will.

I also made this demo video, which I admit is extremely amateur but I guess
serves the purpose of demonstrating the use of the app
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09klp_Lw6w8>).

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nametoremember
I'd use it but wouldn't want to let my friends know I am using it.

