05.01.08

Anatomy of a Failed Launch

Posted in Best Practices, Social Tools, Web Business at 10:51 am by Mosey

A few days ago I had an idea, a brilliant, can’t fail, idea no one has tried before… ok, maybe not, but it seemed like a good idea. Using the @zappos genius of twitter-marketing as a reference, I thought I saw a market opportunity.

Create a site that sells tweets. I know, sounds unethical but stick with me. People buy tweets, the followers can get deals. Offers of discount codes for 45 minutes or free things, etc. It is a micro-economy to a specialized group, but what it a few more tweets. When I don’t have people buying I’ll even donate or do good for non-profits based on replies or new follows.

There are rules, all sign ups are voluntary, no information (not even a sign up) is required to follow, and a limited number of tweets a day. On top of that, hold daily drawings for cash. You follow, you can win a few bucks. Simple enough.

For buyers, you get a captive, technology saavy audience who follows and recognizes good products who you can ask to take surveys, give things away to, promote discounts to, etc.

Simple model, I built the website. Welcome www.tweetbag.com Or I should say, 24 hours ago welcome tweetbag.com

Now, I knew that there is no way advertisers will pay to talk to 10 people, not at the prices I am asking for. I need people to follow, literally thousands of people. I figured that is tough, but not impossible at all. I am on some nice mailing lists, have friends, have twitter addicts following me, just tell them. I did a little social seeding on “deals” sites, and started a couple topics on twitter forums.

And.. sit back and wait for people to follow and tell others… still waiting…. still waiting…. damnit.

This launch was a failure. An utter and complete failure that fell down so hard I think I may need to take it to the emergency room.

Luckily I did this site as more of an experiment than a venture. Worst case it fails I am out a couple hundred bucks and some of my time.

It’s not dead yet! Since I am sure I am not the first person to fail on a site launch (people told me it is an “interesting idea”) let’s look what went wrong. Something obviously went wrong. Hopefully this will help you do things better.

Viral is needed:I know, it isn’t exactly a good business model something needs to become viral among thousands to work, however, if there is any place that could happen with some sort of relative success is a good idea on Twitter. It’s not just for twittervision you know. Twitters are obsessive, addictive and love new things. They recognize a good idea and don’t mind a little “noise” to learn or get something new. Still, making that your business model, not recommended.

No one uses Twitter: I use it, my friends use it, but more of my friends don’t. I am working in a medium which is used by a minority (last I heard about 10% of regular internet user are on Twitter). Everyone has email and a browser, so the deals site work well. But even when I get into those areas, I am still fighting that 90% of the readers say “what is Twitter?” with my social seeding to an audience that should have high interest.

Twitters didn’t notice: When I told people I got a few personal responses, but even friends didn’t really sign up. I bet with a little pressure they would since people sign up to things like @amazondeals and whatnot. Maybe it isn’t trendy, maybe it doesn’t seem real… not sure yet. This is the “mystery” to me, why are people who do know not following?

Takes money to make money: When uber-social guy and twitter’r @jowyang got back from vacation he got more hits and comments on his vacation photos than I get in, well maybe ever. My network isn’t nearly as big. Unless one of the super users of Twitter picks me up, I can only do so much. I can say it, say it again and if it fails, well that is it.

You can’t buy a jump start: You can’t buy twitter follows. There isn’t a mailing list that gets people to follow you. It has to be spam free, free will and on purpose. As far as I know there isn’t an auto script to get people to follow you (wouldn’t use it anyway). It isn’t a product launch that, for example, I can buy ads and hope traffic shows up. That isn’t the market, it isn’t the strategy.

Maybe the idea sucks: Possible. Not sure. Amazon only has a couple hundred people following. This is amazon.com, yeesh! Not that 3000, or 5000 users is impossible, it just needs to get out there. But, what if it gets out there and still no one cares? For the record I don’t think this is a cause but I have to consider it.

Can things still turn around? Sure, there can still be a viral bump some place (lend a bother a follow?) a little press a blog here and there and it could go big… but it will take some help, assuming the idea doesn’t suck.

Oh yeah, did I mention I am giving away $10 in cash every day to someone just for following