If you were Mark Zuckerberg & you were to launch FB tomorrow - how would you promote it?

[Zakhar]

Title above says it all, let's see the type of answers we get floating in - should help some of us.

Thanks in advance to contributions made.

[TheRealDudeman]

If you were Zakhar and you were launching a website soon, how would you do it?

[franktwin]

He kind of did it the best way.... by telling his friends... But if I had it my way I would do a funny parody video, something that would get tons of views and at the end say "sponsored BY"... BOOM... tons of visitors...

Cheers,

[Enfusia]

I'd promote it on Face book.

Patrick

[MKaren]

Be social, promote to my friends then crawl to my friend's friends, family and family friends and so on and so forth..

But if I were a new social website..It would be get my website to all social media,all kinds of promotional websites like and be active for a while.



.....

[laurencewins]

I'd promote it on Face book.

Hey Patrick...you beat me to that answer. LOL.

If FB did not yet exist, there are still loads of other social media sites and forums and places you could advertise so it's still possible for things to go viral. Lucky for Zuckerberg that he was in the right frame of mind at the right time and ,Voila! billionaires galore!

[themezio]

hhmmm probably using the same methods he used... quirky ideas like hot or not and going for those who are constantly online... STUDENTS

[livitweb]

Well, if you were Mark Zuckerberg and you would like to get hits to your website, social media promotion and video marketing would be great avenues. You could promote it via the social sites that were popular then. Like, Friendster, for example, and others. Word of mouth is not a bad thing too. You can start by enticing your friends and family to check out your website and ask them to invite the ones that they know to do the same thing.

[just10bucks]

I'd probably try to promote my site on college and university websites and the campus newspaper.

I'd also promote to military folks ... they seem to move around and often know other active duty folks in different locations

James

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[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by TheRealDudeman

If you were Zakhar and you were launching a website soon, how would you do it?

Plan each and every hour of my day for the next 6 months after launch.

Once developed, I would hit big tech sites such as mashable, tech crunch etc to get myself published

obviously make all friends/family aware - set them a target. "you must get 10 users every week" tell your friends to tell their friends etc.

talk to university lecturers and tell them to give me 10minutes before their lecture so I can talk to their students about something exciting

Social sites that have higher percentage to send traffic outwards such as Pinterest and Tumblr to be used, yes I'd do a little Twitter and Facebook but I wouldn't bother longer than 15minutes a day don't forget YouTube probably the most important platform to sell yourself.

I could probably type another 50 but I'll let this thread continue first =)

[kmanbloquet]

Buy a ton of ads on Google Adwords and just blast my local community through ads.

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by kmanbloquet

Buy a ton of ads on Google Adwords and just blast my local community through ads.

I like the blasting of community part aka classified ads online & this can be done offline through leaflets - decent idea mate.

[Night Owl2]

Invest a lot into PPC

[Dwayne K]

Articles and Press Releases.

[jayapc87]

start it in a university first exactly how he did
copycat marketing

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by jayapc87

start it in a university first exactly how he did
copycat marketing

Yes, can't exactly start in university if you're not attending however definitely do lectures within colleges/universities - a good idea indeed.

Originally Posted by Dwayne K

Articles and Press Releases.

Yes, for sure!

Originally Posted by Night Owl2

Invest a lot into PPC

Depends if the start-up has such budgets but I guess you should definitely put some funds aside to see the conversion rate of the users that actually join rather than just land & leave.

[YasirYar]

1. Write Well and Write Often
2. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines
3. Use and Update Your Blogroll
4. Harness the Power of Comments
5. Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed
6. Use Links and Trackbacks
7. Tag Your Posts
8. Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites
9. Remember Search Engine Optimization
10. Don't Forget Images

[RedShifted]

Originally Posted by Zakhar

Yes, can't exactly start in university if you're not attending

This is somewhat true. I attended 2 universities and both of them I still sneak into from time to time. Some times to use their free printers (to print flyers/ebook/etc) other times to use their gym. I only know of one uni in my state that has impenetrable security. But many of them can't control students walking in and out due to how the campus's are designed. Many students have to get from housing to class everyday and due to the amount of students coming on/off campus every couple of hours security can't check ids. They will stand around looking for trouble, but thats all they can really do. And I've seen tons of people come in just to spam the lots who don't belong there. They will walk in with a backpack on a windy day, lay a few stacks of flyers on the ground, and walk right off the campus. Then the wind blows them all over the campus lol. Many campus's have students who get paid just to pick up flyers all day long thats how bad it is.

Also, unis typically have an option where you can apply for a class, not pay a dime, and it won't go towards any type of degree, but you'll still be allowed to attend classes. Whether you want to learn about something or just spam the campus every week is up to you.

[bravoo]

If I have a lot of money:
1. I will advertise on 150 top news portal sites from 150 countries for at least 1 month, no need more other seo techniques

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by bravoo

If I have a lot of money:
1. I will advertise on 150 top news portal sites from 150 countries for at least 1 month, no need more other seo techniques

Might as well do a TV ad if you would go about doing this.

If your concept is strong enough these "top news" sites will follow you either way =)

[Sean Tudor Carter]

Considering that Facebook is the most successful social networking site ever and made Zuckerberg a billionaire, I wouldn't do anything differently.

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by Sean T Alexandre

Considering that Facebook is the most successful social networking site ever and made Zuckerberg a billionaire, I wouldn't do anything differently.

He had much to none competition at his time, the question is if it were launched tomorrow by yourself how would you go about promoting it out.

Keep in mind there are dozens upon dozens of social networks that are trying to make its way but when Facebook came around it was "something new" that's why everyone jumped at it.

[Justin Lewis]

If I were Mark Zuckerberg I'd have an entirely different perception of how things work in the world. It's really impossible to say what I'd do to promote it because of the sheer difference in our mindsets.

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by Justin Lewis

If I were Mark Zuckerberg I'd have an entirely different perception of how things work in the world. It's really impossible to say what I'd do to promote it because of the sheer difference in our mindsets.

True, that's why the thread title is "if you were" so basically be yourself and put yourself in his position what would you do with such a venture.

Some very decent information so far, for all of us to learn from =) thanks for everyones input so far.

[Zakhar]

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Bump
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Let's see some fresh faces with fresh suggestions, all the knowledge will be published for fellow warrior members to test/learn from.

I believe a social networking website launched in these days would require a big budget in terms of paid advertising - yes they're various different free traffic methods which can be automated such as obtaining through Pinterest, Tumblr, SEO, writing up blogs, forum posting which all can be automated but with that said targeted traffic through Google adsense or FB CPC would do someone well obviously you'd put a budget on the side to test every single different strategy to see what converts best for you.

Keep the suggestions coming guys!

[Tibi Selejan]

I wouldn't bother much on promoting it .
When Zuckerberg first started FB , he just told a couple of people from his college campus about it , they started using it, saw the potential and reccomended it to others.
What i've learned from this is that if you offer a good product with potential, it's enough to tell a few people about it and than just wait and see what happens. If the initial response is weak , it means that your product is not good enough and needs improving.
It's not worth investing huge amounts of money into a product you haven't tested on a smaller target group to begin with.
My best websites/products/pages started out that way.
So bottom line is : have patience , test test test / improve improve improve and it shall happen.

[Zakhar]

Originally Posted by Tibi Selejan

I wouldn't bother much on promoting it .
When Zuckerberg first started FB , he just told a couple of people from his college campus about it , they started using it, saw the potential and reccomended it to others.
What i've learned from this is that if you offer a good product with potential, it's enough to tell a few people about it and than just wait and see what happens. If the initial response is weak , it means that your product is not good enough and needs improving.
It's not worth investing huge amounts of money into a product you haven't tested on a smaller target group to begin with.
My best websites/products/pages started out that way.
So bottom line is : have patience , test test test / improve improve improve and it shall happen.

This is a great answer I can totally relate to this, past experiences with me rushing certain ventures fast so I can launch then find myself continuously marketing seeing minimal results was all due to the website, no loop for people to be forced to invite friends/family.

Now, its pure planning continuously testing & improving.

[sb4forum]

I will promote it...

[Aaron Doud]

Market a Facebook clone?

Easy. Every successful social network has started with a similar pattern.

1. Start network in school that you or your friends are in.
2. Focus on female users get them to join.
3. Spread to nearby schools.
4. Around this time someone at these school should start sharing hot chick pictures from your site on Vesti(IGN), 4chan, and etc. These are the people who will start the viral. Remember make it so only those who have an accound can view the rest of the pictures.

I had accounts on myspace and facebook for years originally just to see the pictures. I didn't actually use either personally till they went mainstream. But that doesn't matter. If they are logging in they are an "active" user.

See how this works?