How does one create a community?

[Empiric]

I've have complete, running startup that is a social media with a specific use.
I don't know if I'm allowed to share it here, happy to answer in DMs.
I've seen something similar in different niche doing $62m revenue/year at 16m users. And I belived I could do "this to that" approach

The niche I've build it for is much bigger with more monetization opportunities.
Now I'm strategizing how to crush the marketing phase of it.

How would you build a community of creatives?.
I'm facing a cold start problem here. I'm obviously doing what other successful startups relying on the network effect did when they were starting out, which is: fake the activity, fake the engagement, make it seem like it's already established platform with lots of users.

 

[Martin Everson]

I don't know if I'm allowed to share it here

Your not.

 

[diatessaron]

Your startup is an answer to what problem? Does it even solve anything or bring something new to the market?

I'm obviously doing what other successful startups relying on the network effect did when they were starting out, which is: fake the activity, fake the engagement, make it seem like it's already established platform with lots of users.

This is wrong.

 

[Empiric]

Your not.

That's what I thought

 

[wellington]

Wana buy some raybans?

 

[Empiric]

This is wrong.

You might wanna check out those;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1228149470589669378

https://twitter.com/x/status/1086738156840308736

You're not there unit you're there brother!
The thing is, 99% of the time nobody cares to check if you're actually there.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Just replace “fake reviews” with “loyal customers” and the plethora of perks they get. Whatever works in business is good, there’s no moral. If the product is not good, it will die anyway.
A pumped discord/reddit is still morally better than the fake news we are all fed with every day. You can also make it entertaining and informative, who cares if the users are real.

 

[polonieth]

I think your concept of faking it is the best option. Honestly, you probably don't need that many fake users, just a handful that are easy to manage, and you might capture a few real ones. I post in niche forums even if there aren't a ton of members if I have an interest.

 

[diatessaron]

You might wanna check out those;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1228149470589669378

https://twitter.com/x/status/1086738156840308736

You're not there unit you're there brother!
The thing is, 99% of the time nobody cares to check if you're actually there.

Those are success stories, not failed ones, and where there is a successful business, there are 1000 dead ones. You can hire people to fake users but that money is better spent elsewhere.

 

[polonieth]

Those are success stories, not failed ones, and where there is a successful business, there are 1000 dead ones. You can hire people to fake users but that money is better spent elsewhere.

Where would you spend the money?

If a user arrives at a community site and there is no activity, they simply hit back to search or close the tab. So you have to have some engagement.

 

[EliasIT]

Those are success stories, not failed ones, and where there is a successful business, there are 1000 dead ones. You can hire people to fake users but that money is better spent elsewhere.

I completely agree with you, it's an uphill battle, and unless you have 300-400K euros to invest in your community from the start, you need to have a timeline of at least 10 years before it really takes off. 99% will have dropped out before that time period is over. It’s simply not worth the effort.

It takes enormous resources to get it up and running, it just doesn’t look that way!

 

[diatessaron]

Where would you spend the money?

If a user arrives at a community site and there is no activity, they simply hit back to search or close the tab. So you have to have some engagement.

I'd put that money towards the platform, it might not be much, but it is better than nothing.

If a user joins the platform it will take them less than 5 interactions to figure out what's going on. I used to bot a lot of my stuff back in the day and it never ended well.

Automated bots are too stupid and hired bots (people who roleplay as community members) are not good enough to fool anyone into thinking that they are people who are interested in this brand new platform.

No activity is better than botted activity. Bots are seen as signs of an unhealthy product or even worse, a scam.

If his thing is good then the people will come.

 

[SixOkallahan]

I don't know much about specific social media development but I can tell you that "creatives" are some of the pickiest people there are out there, they like classes... It's all existential for some of them and they get OCDd regarding labels and niches ( and pseudo niches.) I would suggest marketing that without being woke: and not delivering. It's sort of a DeviantArt competition but with a better index: think Reddit with the opportunity to become exclusive like mastodon. Plus a market place that guarantee them selling online products and possibly some stand alone / company backed services ( like partnerships, joint ventures, etc. ) with third parties that could serve key production service or support in said production process for particular artists.