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I don’t know how to position my social network. What would you do?

AAnonymous ·November 28, 2014 ·7 answers

I’ve built a social network/content discovery platform from the ground up. My main goal is for people to find the best of what they’re looking for. It’s like pinterest+reddit where people post and vote posts on specific channels they are subscribed. Unlike pinterest where you see mostly garbage on your feed, the site will give you the best of what you are looking for within your interest.

Trying to grow users, I ran my SEO campaign and targeted the snapchat users hoping they would share their interests on my site. And they all come to my site averaging 15-20k daily from google and 300+ daily signups who create their profile. But all they post are their pictures and some random status posts. They are using my site to advertise themselves to get hookups.

My original plan for my site is to be like a better Pinterest or Fancy. Reading that producthunt.com is funded at $6 million, I am in awe because in my opinion, I have a much better platform than what product hunt is. I just need the right users putting the right content.

What would you suggest?

Stick to my original plan and start marketing. I know if I focus more on products and interests, I get paid more in terms of ad revenune even at a lot lesser traffic than what I get now.
Focus on dating/hookup site to improve user engagement and charge for premium features? Problem here is I’m not sure if users will pay since they are mostly teens and there’s a lot of free dating site and hookup apps like Tinder.

Thanks in advance.

7 answers from the community

AAnonymous· Nov 28, 2014

If they are teens and advertising for hookups, do you mean dating hookups? Because if so, you may want to check legal complications.

In general, You need to build your site around how return and repeat users are using it in order to make money. So pay attention to how they are using it. I agree Pinterest is junkie. I only use it because crazy cat people see something in it... To me it's one big mess. If you're offering Instagram with Twitter and status capabilities, I do know this is something kids like so, you just may have something there. Run with it... Build around it.

AAnonymous· Nov 28, 2014

Not dating hookup per se but hooking up on snapchat. You cannot find random users on snapchat platform. So a lot of these people create their profile on my site and search for other users to add as friend.

Just like you suggested, I actually already built features around these demographics so they can easily find other users. They can search local users, filter by gender, race, etc... just like on dating sites. I even built a matching feature based on their interests. So my site has become like a 3rd party platform for snapchat.

The site as of now is a complete social network where people can follow/friend other users. Right now they use my site like Instagram and Twitter and they all just want to make new friends.

I think I need to create my own chat app to make this really work since all these users are mostly just interested to chat and send pictures. The things is, I don't have the resource to do this.

So now, the user profiles has become the product on my site instead of tangible product that they are suppose to post. I just need to figure out how to monetize.

I really appreciate your reply. Thanks.

AAnonymous· Nov 28, 2014

http://blog.snapchat.com/post/99998266095/third-party-applications-and-the-snapchat-api

AAnonymous· Nov 28, 2014

I dont use api. So i dont access snapchat data. The users registers on my site and create their profile. And they use my site like instagram.

AAnonymous· Dec 3, 2014

Seems like you really need to figure out how you play in the social media ecosphere. On the hookup side, there are many, many many many competitors who are well funded and already have large install bases.

If you don't like this space, or don't feel like you can build up a regional customer base such that you get bought out by one of the big boys, then you really need to find a different positioning and do so quickly before the existing content base potentially drives away the content base you want.

The technology you're offering doesn't seem - at first glance - to be unique in any way. There are any number of geolocating meetup type apps already out there who have also raised considerable funds.

Even this link from 2012 shows 10 competitors - and doesn't even include Tinder:

http://www.cyberdatingexpert.com/mobiledating2012/

AAnonymous· Dec 4, 2014

If you're entirely dependent on finding the right users publishing the right content, you're screwed. You can't base a business model on content provided by random strangers on the web and dictate who uses your site and how. That's preposterous.

Having a "better" product than a competitor (I.e. the same thing, just prettier/faster/more relevant/etc) is not that. History is littered with the corpses of "better" products trounced by competitors. "In my opinion" doesn't mean squat unless everybody else agrees your product is better.

What makes your service unique and remarkable? What are your users doing with it? Sounds like it's becoming a dating or casual encounters site. Cool! Run with that. Can you serve ads? Maybe for local businesses? People need places to meet, so talk to local bars or coffee shops. Are people hooking up around particular topics? Maybe you can show ads for related products.

AAnonymous· Dec 4, 2014

Is not that = is not sufficient.

I don’t know how to position my social network. What would you do?

7 answers from the community

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