Launch communities help startups get early adopters for their products. With the help of these early adopters, brands get to know how successful their product will be in the market and also get reviews from real customers, which would help them grow with word of mouth.
Launch platforms and communities are online channels exclusively focused on product launches. They may exist on social media platforms or may be independent. You list your product on the platform, market it for your early adopters to find you, and once they use your product you get valuable feedback and take action upon it. This is helpful for both the early adopters and the brand. Early adopters get to know of the product and brand in advance along with sweet deals and premium benefits of the brand and the brand gets reviews and testimonials. Launch communities help the company build a sense of community and togetherness where they discuss everything related to products and the brand.
Some platforms which you can use to launch your products are:
Launch Platforms
Launch Communities
Social Media
Launch Platforms
Launch Platforms are platforms which are specifically built for launching products. You can list your product on those platforms to get your early adopters. Some of the major launch platforms are Product Hunt, BetaList, Launching Next, Stack Share and Slant.
Product Hunt
Product Hunt is a platform which lets you discover and share new products and connect with founders, makers, and other enthusiasts. It is useful for products which are very early in their journey. Products that do well here are consumer focused products that make the life of developers and founders easier. Product Hunt gives badges to top products each day, week, and month. BetaList
Here are the most upvoted products on Product Hunt. The example below is that of Gigster, which can turn your idea into an app. They pair top developers with an artificial intelligence gig. They launched on Product Hunt and now have raised over $10 million funding.
BetaList
The site provides content with daily updates to let you know about all the unique startups that are coming about and what each of these places has to offer for your use. The site divides its startups into many sections based on interests and topics. The content gives you points on different industries, thus helping you find information on different groups without having to jump through too many pages on the site.
Sherbit is one of the startups that was launched on BetaList. It helps health care teams and clinics tackle chronic diseases with real time data and actionable insights. The application generated over 400 signups during the week that it was featured on the Platform.
LaunchingNext
The site helps you find information on the latest startups. It has the newest pages, apps and other tech items. The site also includes information on the best startup tools you can utilize for any tasks you want to work on. Startup books also feature on the site and books that focus on time and work management can be very beneficial for early stage founders and startup employees. The simple yet thorough layout of the site helps you navigate content StackShareeasily and get all the info you need.
StackShare
This is a great community of developers to publish and discover the best tools and software.
Other than discovering software, this is also a great community of like-minded people and connections. They also have recently introduced company profiles, so if you are a developer and recently created any tool/software make sure to list it here. It will help you get early adopters for your product.StackShare
Slant
Slant allows you to discover, compare and choose between multiple products and alternative solutions. You can search for many apps, software programs, websites, and much more.
You can also ask questions on the site when you have very specific concerns or needs for particular programs of value. There’s also the option for you to add comments on anything of value to you through the site, thus providing a simplified approach to managing your work.
Launch Communities
Launch Communities are like launch platforms only, but they are quite informal and not exclusively built for product launches. For example, Slack and Discord are instant messaging social media apps, where there are specific launch channels or ‘communities’ for product launches.
Slack Communities
Slack is a communication platform which allows you to either directly message one another or create channels where communication in groups can take place. Slack communities are meet-up style groups which are very similar to Facebook Groups minus the social media part. These are a great place to remain up-to-date with the industry, and also allow you to attach files from Google Drive and start real-time conversations.
Some of the popular Slack communities are: -
Startups.com
This channel provides education and tools for aspiring founders, from education material to funding and staffing - everything is there.
TechMasters
Here you connect with technologists and founders and get help with coding problems, discuss your startup goals and also learn new skills.
ProductManagerHQ
This platform gives you the opportunity to learn from the world's largest Slack community and chat with people around the world.
SaaSAlliance
This is an invite-only channel for B2B SaaS founders and professionals with strict but straightforward rules for community members.
BotMakers
This is a community to discuss bots and bot makers. Here you can also learn how to create bots and how to use them.
Women in Technology
This is a channel for women who love technology, you do not necessarily have to be a programmer to join this community. Women working in software testing, technical writing, project management and other similar interests would love the channel.
Code Newbie
This is a platform for beginners in programming to chat and connect with each other.
Wanna know more about Slack Communities that help you connect with product enthusiasts? That link has over 400 Slack Channels!
Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms also serve as great product launch tools. You can connect with your customers, get feedback directly and even market your product on your own terms. Listed below are some of the best social media platforms to launch your brand.
Twitter
Twitter is the go-to place for launching something new. Twitter has the most receptive audience. Be it trending hashtags, or creating videos to get attention from your audience , Twitter has made it very easy to launch anything new on the platform.
For example, Chanty’s Twitter account is a great source of inspiration. They advise you to connect with your competitor's followers, engage with your existing followers by liking and replying to their tweets, and most importantly know your target audience.
Take a look at this blog from Chanty to get a better idea of how Chanty did it.
On Instagram, engagement matters the most. If you have a good number of followers or if you pay ‘influencers’ to promote your product or brand it’ll be easier for you to reach a large audience in a quick span of time. You can also gain engagement organically by following the algorithm of Instagram and by being consistent, but it might take you a lot of time. For startups, it is easier to hire influencers to promote their brands.
Four Barrel, for example, has become one of the most popular coffee brands on Instagram with over 41.6k followers. Four Barrel's Instagram strategy includes showing coffee-making photos. They don’t show you the final product but they take you through the journey of how the coffee is made and that is how they keep their customers engaged with their page.
Read this article to see how your favourite brand helps you get over sleep with coffee and their Instagram..
TikTok
TikTok has gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, especially in the Gen Z market. TikTok has a TikTok for Business for people to advertise their product. You can follow some quick tips to make your brand stand out when using their ads, such as : Topview, to show your content on the top of users’ page; Hashtag Challenges, these are promoted hashtags from which you can benefit; and you can also reach your target audience with the precise targeting options.
Crocs joined the TikTok family and gained a lot of new followers.
Crocs invented new challenges and campaigns which became popular and trendy as it showcased the brand’s funny and laid-back personality.
Read this article to know Crocs made it to 100,000 followers within the first week of joining TikTok.
Youtube
Youtube is a video-sharing app and social media platform with a lot of options for advertising your brand. You choose from the wide range of options such as video discovery ads, which come on the home page of the platform; Skippable ads, as the name suggests these ads can be skipped; Non-skippable ads, those which cannot be skipped; Bumper ads, these are the shortest video ads timed at 6 seconds per ad; and there are many others. You can choose from the options suitable for your needs.
Vat19’s out-of-the-box thinking and its ability to showcase normal videos in an extremely creative style have worked for them to make a place on top in the Youtube marketing sector. Another key aspect is being consistent and relevant with the videos.
Here’s some more insight into how Vat19, The Home Depot and Nike have pioneered in Youtube Marketing.
Linkedin is a formal platform mainly used for networking and career development, it also allows job seekers and employers to connect with each other. To use LinkedIn for your business, the first step is to create an account for your business. Create a company LinkedIn page, where you can choose from different types of businesses as per your company type. You can optimize your page by adding the company logo, and tagline. You can also add up to 20 translations, and add keywords to your descriptions and do many other things to attract traffic to your LinkedIn page.
Cledara, for example, is an all-in-one SaaS management platform that companies love, and have created their posts with many details. They have it all from long detailed posts to exciting videos that keep their audience engaged.
Facebook is a social networking app where you can connect with each other, like other people’s posts, or even post someone else’s timeline. For your Facebook business page make sure you have basic contact information. With Facebook, you can know your customers, lessen marketing costs, improve your SEO, and even boost your traffic.
Love Red Bull? We do too. We also love how they have used Facebook to reach their target audience. Red Bull’s video content matches its catchy slogan ‘Gives You Wings’ and they create very quirky and funny videos to match the brand spirit. They use the testimonials from athletes as their strength. They sponsor many athletic events to get more attraction from their target audience.
Read this article to know more about how Red Bull “gives wings” to its marketing on Facebook.
Quora
Quora is an information-providing site where people ask and answer questions. Some tips to ace marketing on Quora are: you need to create a brilliant bio, find the right questions to answer and answer those questions effectively, connect with other Quora users, and review your analytics.
Heard of Unacademy? The founders of Unacademy use Quora to promote their brand. They answer as many questions as they related to their niche; the topic Unacademy has more than 50k followers on Quora; for every question about unacademy there are at least 10 answers available.
Here’s how they use Quora to advertise their brand.
Once you launch on these platforms you would need a way to manage your customer community and grow by word of mouth.
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Casa helps you engage your community. With Casa you can build a customer community of early adopters and customer advocates.
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