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Founders: what is your favourite channel for growing your audience?

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I’m pretty sure most founders grow mainly on Twitter. Or LinkedIn.

But I’ve realised it really depends on what kind of product you’ve built.

If you’re a fashion-focused founder, you probably grew up on Instagram or Pinterest.

If you’re a software developer, you’re likely on Twitter.

I even know a guy who runs a digital detox app, and he’s not trying to grow his personal brand at all.

Which social media platform are you growing as a founder, and in which industry is your product?

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Since I’m building a dev tool, I’m growing my audience on X and Linkedin. Focusing on LinkedIn since the engineering decision makers are mostly active there, and they are the primary buyers for us.

 I never could understand how to make things work on Twitter or X, as it's now called. Idk how to post that short. I always have so much to say lol. Do hashtags even work? I need to do a crash course on X I guess.

 haha.. trust me, I also had this similar confusion. What I figured out is that you need to buy twitter premium first with a blue check. It increases your post visibility and makes you look credible. To build an audience, rather than just posting, you need to reply to others’ posts and engage in trending, hot threads. You’ll gain a lot of followers just by commenting.

 Ah ok interesting. So a quick hack of sorts would be to first get that blue checkmark and engage heavily in comments. Interesting, will try doing that. Do you mostly just engage in your relevant niche posts, or just general "Your cat is so cute" comments also count? haha

 I try to engage in niche first, but engaging on industry specific threads also helps. 😄

   Elon said that hashtags are not aesthetic and don't work :D

   nobody uses hashtags anymore, unless your using AI to draft a response for you. so naaa dont use it #oldschooldayz.

     Yep, hashtags don't look good :D

 What's your X handle?

, a newbie trying to grow yet:

   Gonna check out :)

yup same here… it’s interesting though coz it’s different and ya gotta keep your tweet short, just take it as another challenge to overcome!

 Most startups are usually more present on X than Linkedin. It's my personal thought

   Partially yes, but once the startup is bigger and gets traction, LinkedIn is the next stage. This next stage is usually represented by more money.

   Oh yeah. I can relate.

 Yes Tech Twitter and some consumer apps are pretty much the only audience there, and there usually very hard to sell to, but they are there.

   x is hard to sell imo. i think that is what makes it a better UX but just not good for doing outreach etc

I have an AI productivity tool and using linkedin as our ICP is knowledge workers. X can also be used but somehow unable to breakthrough on X.

 don't worry, I gave it up on X :D still cannot get their algo :D

 I really dont like X anymore..

  there are a few people I follow and like so it is the only reason why I am there :D

 ok following you on X, would like to see you on my feed :)

I've worked decently on Reddit so far, and I'm very actively procrastinating on creating more content.

Although it depends on your niche but for building a personal brand, Instagram is quite unsaturated among founders – even your "premium B2B ICP" is starting to consume short form content like a drug.

 What type of post would you say worked the best for you on LinkedIn ?

   I am curious too. :)

   So I didn't really "crack" LinkedIn yet, but the things that got me the best results were mostly posts that disrupt the usual pattern on LinkedIn – I posted in the GenZ lingo a few times, and it surprisingly worked. Images perform well on LinkedIn, too, as long as it's either a funny/real-life picture or an infographic that's understandable and provides value even if it's detached from your text post.

I tried carousels too but didn't really work out for me, might have to experiment some more with it.

   I think, as well, that carousels are not as good as people talk about them.

 How building Reddit content look like? Because this one platform is difficult to understand.

You're absolutely right, Reddit tested my patience more than anything in the world.

But I do have some hacks that are working right now:

  1. Build your karma before you even think of leveraging it for marketing

  2. The easiest way to do it is to trigger some emotions. This depends on the type of community, too. understand the type of posts people appreciate in a subreddit the most, then curate something that is either controversial, wholesome, funny, a question, or anything that could ignite a conversation.

  3. Rewrite your posts for a different subreddit and repeat the same thing again.

  4. Watch your karma go up, and then you could start engaging more heavily in some good conversations around your product. It helps AI Citation a lot.

 Can the same text of the post damage your reputation or algorithm even tho you post it in a different subreddit?

   This is a great question! I’m curious about that too. I have a feeling Reddit keeps a close eye on duplicate posts, and it might look like spam even if the post is relevant. It probably depends on the specific subreddit and how the text is written or adapted to the topic. But that’s just my guess.

 I'd say Reddit has been my least successful platform. I've found it hard to post useful things without my posts being rejected, even if a link to my app would help them (Yeah I know, no links or promotions on Reddit).

For B2B product, still LinkedIn is showing a good result for my products. But for B2C I see more possibilities on any other socials

 What is your product?

  The current product we gonna launch is

 Gonna check out :)

I am using mostly LinkedIn atm but it’s tough tbh coz it takes time and consistency… but coz my product is targeted at job seekers it makes most sense. Dabbling a little on Reddit too but gotta be really careful with it.

 What is your Product's LinkedIn page?

I haven’t really got much going on about the product on SM atm, but will be in the upcoming weeks as we move towards beta testing- feel free to follow me and connect with me if you’d like, as I update more about the product as we move along! Cheers! 😉

 Thank you! :)

For me, since its mostly B2B, would have to be linkedin or reddit. Linkedin has been more like a fast leadgen thing, reddit is more of a slow built up. Basically showing up in relevant threads, sharing info, and letting inbound leads come in. I don't usually do hard core sales-y posts on reddit.

 Reddit is harsher, isn't it? :D

 Oh for sure! They don't like self-promo no matter what. But its also good in a way for that reason. More natural conversations like here in PH. On LinkedIn everyone's trying to be a tycoon lol

 I see also pattern that more people on LinkedIn are cringe :D

I am using X (Twitter) it is cool

 could you please suggest some tips? For now, I find it difficult

 just keep posting and replaying as much as you can

 How big is your audience? And how do you grow it?

 just keep posting and replaying as much as I can, but I am not focusing on marketing at the moment

 Gotcha, I am also a reply girl :D

 nice keep going

You skipped YouTube, where most brands do have KOL campaigns.

 What does it mean: KOL campaign? :)

 But is it easy to build it? Do you have one? I would like to know more about growing :)

 I mean looking for YouTubers to showcase your tools and promote them. To build a chanel, it requires video creation. This needs lots of time and resources, and may not be a good choice at the initial stage.

 That's why I would rather build my socials and people tap on the link with my YouTube. When I have enough subscribers, I will start posting. :)

You can grow your audience on Reddit and Twitter. Mine is on reddit.

 How are you able to grow anything on Reddit :D they are so restrictive :D

I tried Reddit to validate one of my ideas and after a couple of days of good engagement I got my post banned, but I think it gave me good insights and I decided to pivot. Now I know I need to be more careful posting on Reddit, considering every community has their own set of rules that you need to follow. What I've learned is you need to find high engagement days/times for your community because it makes a difference. Identify what other posts in the community are getting high engagement and try to use similar tone while framing your post. But I'm still learning their algo

 And what happened with the product? Did you validate it?

I did get some validation, not enough to consider it validated but I decided to pivot to a different idea/market because I didn't feel, as a founder, I was in the correct market/product. I'm working on validating my other idea, I can let you know how it goes.

 What's that new idea?

I'm working on improving the performance review and promo review cycles for tech professionals. I'll share more in the coming days :)

 Staying tuned :)

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