Ryan Holiday: Attracting and Nurturing Seed Users

1. Target a few hundred or a thousand key individuals, rather than millions
   1. For example, Dropbox started its initial launch with an engaging demo video. People could sign up but had to wait to use it. Attract users with something ==novel and exciting==.
   2. Similarly, in 2012, eBay partnered with Gogo to provide free Wi-Fi access to ebay.com during flights. The clever part was tracking data to determine whether it was beneficial to continue the partnership.
2. Don’t target everyone - focus on the right people
   1. For instance, Uber provided free rides for years during the South by Southwest conference in Austin, attracting thousands of young, high-income tech enthusiasts.
   2. Tips
      • Persuade media outlets to write about you
      • Post on Hacker News, Quora, and Reddit
      • Write blogs
      • Use Kickstarter for crowdfunding
      • Contact journalists through www.helpareporter.com
      • Invite users for free or with some incentives
   3. ==Big tricks==
      • Create exclusivity with “invitation-only” hunger marketing
      • Generate fake users to make it appear more active. (Reddit used this approach)
      • Focus on a single platform (PayPal and eBay)
      • Spread from one user group to another (Facebook and universities)
      • Attract influencers because they have a broad audience and good reputation
      • Make charitable donations on subdomains of e-commerce sites (Amazon)
3. Focus on new user registrations (acquisition) rather than brand awareness
4. Growth hacking = marketing + engineering
   1. For example, Airbnb created tools while cross-posting on Craigslist.
   2. Sean Ellis once said: “Staying focused on customer acquisition rather than 'building brand awareness' often requires restraint... Certainly, once a company reaches a certain scale, brand awareness/branding makes sense. But in the first year or two, it’s just a complete waste of money.”
   3. Ineffective actions
      1. Grand launches
      2. Wishfully thinking that “the best way to attract users is to let the product speak for itself” (while Aaron Swartz believed that users must be attracted to come).