How to actually cold DM ?
When you're pre-launch with zero audience, the generic "hey, check out my product" DM just doesn't work, people can tell it's copy-pasted to 200 others.
What's worked better for me:
Give value before asking anything (a real comment, a resource, actual context on what they built)
Skip broad cold DMs, join niche communities instead (Discord/Slack) and let the product come up naturally
One follow-up max, then let it go
On platforms: X is decent if you engage publicly first, LinkedIn works for B2B but needs to be hyper-targeted, Reddit can backfire if it reads as spam (i got banned on 5 accs lol).
The one I'm most curious about right now is YouTube, I barely use it myself, but unlike a DM that disappears, a video keeps bringing people in months later, but's it's very time consuming.
Still figuring this out though.
How do you get your first users without it feeling creepy or spammy? What platform actually worked, and what made your message land?
Replies
Five banned accounts is the number worth sitting with. That's not a wording problem, that's outreach that doesn't fit the channel. At zero audience a cold DM is a volume game and volume is the one thing you don't have, so every send costs a lot and teaches you nothing. Public replies compound instead, a comment under someone's post keeps getting read by whoever turns up later. Three people in these forums told me my credit pricing made no sense before I'd written the billing code, and none of that happens in an inbox.