Ask HN: How to use social media as an indie dev?

[yathern]

I'm an independent developer looking to launch a project soon that I'm excited about. I'll obviously post it here as a Show HN, and maybe in a few subreddits - but I'm out of the loop on where and how to reach more people. Haven't had a Facebook or other social media for years. I don't maintain a blog, though I assume I should. Does anyone have any resources or can speak to any experience doing this? Of the many hats I now must wear, this is the one I'm most begrudging about.

[skwee357]

You need to ask yourself one important question: are your potential customers on these platforms?

Many people see successful indie developers use social media to elevate their success, and immediately think they have to do the same until you stop and realize that most successful indie developers on social media, actually sell “the formula for success” to other indie developers.

Now, I’m over generalizing but you get the point. There are many indie developers who have little to zero presence on social media because their customers are not there.

What’s your product? Who is your customer and where do they spend their time?

[mooreds → skwee357]

> What’s your product? Who is your customer and where do they spend their time?

This is critical. Go where the people who might buy your product are.

Where are they?

You can ask.

* ask google: "where do <X> business users hang out"

* ask potential customers you've talked to (you talked to some prospects before you built, right?)

* ask google again by searching for answers to questions that your audience might ask

The right place for you could be generic social media, forums, slacks, discords, mailing lists, conferences, meetups or something else.

But having focus will help you get the most return for your time.

[achempion → mooreds]

A lot of good advice in this thread. The problem is that such places most likely prohibit self promotion, otherwise they'll be drowning in self-promotion spam (they're already are anyways).

[waqas123987 → achempion]

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[muzani]

Avoid it totally. Social media has some of the lowest effectiveness by far, and they punish traffic going outwards. They're ad platforms, not organic.

Most of the people you see on social media probably are using another channel that's more effective. You see the one guy go viral when they've already built a following via media, email, forums, streamers, past games and so on.

The exception that seems to work is if you have a community or link to media coverage.

[caprock]

For a start:

There's a nice indie hacking and build in public type community on X. You can find lots of people there and see what they are doing in terms of posting.

Next, just look for communities where your potential customers hang out. Participate sincerely in their communities and offer your service when it's appropriate.

Mostly just have fun, participate in other threads, and generally be active.

[mansoorsheriff]

Social media these days are more concerned with boosting and increasing their sales.

Even Twitter has just started prompting for boosting replies. Thing is there is not much guarantee of conversion too.

If you're planning to use social media for promoting your product, it will take a good amount of time to build a loyal userbase first.

[brudgers]

Don’t use social media as pretend work. Good luck.