Build a Product
With Your Community
Loic Le Meur - Seesmic
@loic

Why bother?

You Could Sell Creme Brulee
• twitter.com/cremebrulee
• 2,726 followers of
Creme Brulee on Twitter
• sample tweet: “Creme
brûlée cart on 22nd and
Guerrero. Are you
coming?”

Advertising
PR
Marketing
matter much less than
word of mouth

What your friends say
matters

“1,000 real friends
could tell 1,000 other
friends that your
product rocks”
(link)

“you just got 1 million
people talking about it”
Seth Godin - Tribes
1,000 true fans

LeWeb.net
#1 conference in Europe
no marketing.

1.5 million downloads
no marketing.

Start by sharing.
• Don’t ask for any help before sharing
• You don’t even have to blog, just tweet!
• Share also what you would share around a
dinner with friends or you’re boring.

Your community is
what matters the most.

Product?
Identify an exciting
“white” space people
talk about

Ship it as fast as you can
even if it’s not perfect

Get Feedback

Twitter Search

Get Satisfaction

feedback.seesmic.com

If nobody talks about
your brand it’s dead.

Answer especially if it’s
negative.

“Seesmic is a pile of ass”

“I’ll have to tone down Irish
language”

“This is exactly what every
company should do”

What the new
customers look like

They want everything
for free

No advertising,
it’s intrusive.

If you suck
they tell everyone

No loyalty, they switch
to your competition

and...
they tell everyone too!

They want everything
immediately
24hrs a day

There is good news.

It’s the same for your
competitors

and testimonials come too

What I learnt
• get closer to your real fans: launched team
seesmic (email list, Ning site coming soon)
• ship as soon as you possibly can
• get your “public roadmap” executed as fast
as possible
• be transparent and honest with issues
• never criticize your competition

Don’t forget to
innovate

“Making users happy is a
suckers game. Imagine if
Steve Jobs let other people
add features to the iPhone.
It takes a dictator to change
the course of an industry.”
Michael Arrington

“A Porsche would be a Volvo
if they let their users decide
on features”
Robert Scoble

Truth is in between
listening and being a
dictator.

thank you
Loic Le Meur
@loic
loic@seesmic.com