Vinicius Vacanti

User Acquisition: The 5 Keys to Acquiring New Users for Free

Ooo this is exciting.  I am always looking for a good tv series and find it hard to find them.  For example, I am a person that watches stuff like "Game of Thrones", "Walking Dead", "Glee", "Smash" ( very polar )... and if Crowd TV said something like: "Find TV shows to watch from people like you!".. I'd be all in!

The truth is I don't know how many people "read" TV show reviews, I don't know any myself, but I know that EVERYBODY looks for the next TV show to see.  

Just my personal testimony =)
James

Great thoughts. I agree about the TV show reviews. The main focus is the 1-10 average score, and people can certainly write longer reviews and people could upvote the best reviews.

Interesting! Not sure if you want feedback, but I think your background image in your Launchrock page isn't optimal :)  I won't burden you with more detail on why I think so, unless you want me to. Just let me know.

Have you thought about targeting just a very few specific tv shows to start with (like ones with really devoted fans like True Blood, Breaking Bad or Girls)? Or even specific genres? It might help attract attention and improve response to the signup page.

Hey Kirsten!

Very open to hearing the rest of your feedback. I threw it together very quickly for this class.

I have thought about that, but wouldn't know how to go after their fans directly. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear it. Main challenge is overcoming looking like nothing more than a landing page hosted on a Launchrock subdomain.

My first impression of the image was that it was a little cold. Then the longer I looked at it, the more it looked like a rather lonely guy with only his computer to keep him company. He seems overly intently focused on the computer. 

Hopefully you're reading this with a dose of humor.

Your image should convey the end result that your user will experience from using your product. It should also depict your target user... ya, so that's hard to do until you settle on an early adopter and know the characteristics that describe him/her. 

I definitely would consider an image with more than one person. Even though rating tv episodes may very well likely be a solitary activity, it is done to be shared with like-minded people. So the image would be more effective, I think, if it showed a couple of people giving thumbs-up at their tv/monitor or something like that.

It's going to be easier to go after specific fans directly, I think, than just everyone generally (never do that!). 

There are bound to be blogs and forums that are the hangouts for the fans of particular shows. Become a *genuine* participant in these. Just join as yourself and join the conversation in earnest (so it might be best to start with your own favorite tv shows to target). Just include a simple, modest link to your Launchrock page in your profile (most forums and blog comment systems allow for a profile). Don't promote - at all. Seriously. Be a great participant in the conversation.

Same thing with Tumblr and Twitter. Look for people on Twitter who list the show's name in their profile, or who just Tweet about the show a lot. Look for people live-Tweeting while the show is going on! Then, again, just become a member of the community authentically. Converse. *Retweet* your target users (best technique IMO). Tweet your honest comments about the show. Again, have a link to your launch page in your Twitter profile and describe yourself as the founder and describe the service.

Look on Pinterest and do the same thing. I'd bet money there are Pinterest True Blood boards :)

If I were in your shoes, I would start with my own favorite one or two shows. I would join in the online   communities for those shows in a very real way, not promoting my service at all. Create an about.me page for yourself and link to your launch page from it. 

I wouldn't worry about looking like just a landing page. Leverage it. People who find it are getting in early on the most exciting thing ever! Right? People love being "in the know" and in on the newest thing. Write your copy accordingly :)

Hope that's helpful! I've been using these methods very minimally (an hour a day or less) and getting a nice little stream of signups to Kuratur from it. Conversion rate is really good because the right people are showing up and they don't feel suspicious because they feel like they found it on their own.

Thanks! All great notes. Except this is really just a fun project as part of the Skillshare class. It's an idea I like a lot, but I'm committed to my actual startup, Laffster. So I can't go around changing all my social media pages to list me as the founder of CrowdTV.

i like the idea. who is your target audience?

Thanks. The audience would be fans of TV shows as well as the type of people who go read reviews of episodes before/after watching a show.

i was thinking more along the lines of:

age group, gender, urban vs suburban, other interests they are likely to have, where they likely "hang out" offline &amp; online.

stuff like that to get "inside the head" of your 'ideal user'. that way you can speak to those people and know where to find them.


anyway, sounds like tv critics, tv bloggers, pockets of twitter users who live tweet various tv shows, sites like the AV Club and such are your "Dream" PR people.

maybe also facebook pages with lots of fans devoted to television and/or fans of individual shows
(example: this Sons of Anarchy page has over 5M fans and there is a button right on the page to message whoever runs it:
https://www.facebook.com/SonsofAnarchy
whether they answer you or not is a total shot in the dark though....better have a good subject line)


if you watched the lecture videos, maybe if there was a good way to make it cool for the celebrities of the tv reviewing niche to join your site (and have them want their readers/followers) to do so as well would be money for you.

i'm sure that's all obvious advice but i thought of it &amp; figured i'd share it in case it does add any value for you in this course.

cheers,

steve

Yep you totally nailed it. The problem is it's really hard attract any real attention with just a landing page. Especially since it's hosted as a subdomain on Launchrock.

<p>CrowdTV is TV ratings powered by the people. &nbsp;Rate TV episodes of the shows you watch and discover what's really most popular on the air.</p>
<p>http://crowdtv.launchrock.com/</p>


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