"Building in public" is more than just a buzzword; it's a powerful strategy for marketing, community building, and personal branding. It means transparently sharing your journey as you build your business. Here’s how to do it effectively.
Why Build in Public?
- Builds Trust and Authenticity: People connect with stories, not faceless brands. Sharing your challenges makes you relatable.
- Creates an Audience of Evangelists: Early followers become your biggest supporters. They feel invested in your success.
- Provides Invaluable Feedback: You get a direct line to your potential customers, allowing you to build a better product.
- It's Free Marketing: It generates buzz and interest without a big ad spend.
What Should You Share?
You don't have to share your revenue numbers if you're not comfortable. Transparency is a spectrum. Choose what works for you:
- Metrics: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), number of users, website traffic, churn rate.
- Wins: Your first customer, a major feature launch, a positive review.
- Losses and Challenges: A bug that took a week to fix, a marketing experiment that failed, a tough decision you had to make.
- Lessons Learned: What you discovered about your customers, your market, or your own productivity.
- Product Updates: Show off new features and explain the reasoning behind them.
Where Should You Share?
Choose one or two platforms and be consistent. Don't try to be everywhere.
- X / Twitter: The most popular platform for building in public. Perfect for short updates, asking questions, and engaging with other founders.
- LinkedIn: Great for a more professional audience, especially for B2B SaaS. Good for slightly longer-form content.
- Indie Hackers: A community built around this very concept. Share your milestones and engage in the forums.
- A Personal Blog or Newsletter: The best option for telling longer stories and owning your audience directly.
A Simple Framework to Get Started
- Commit to a Cadence: Decide to post once a day or once a week, and stick to it.
- Create a Simple Goal: For example, "I will share one thing I learned every Friday."
- Be Authentic: Don't just share the highlight reel. Share the reality. People appreciate honesty.
- Engage with Others: Building in public is not a one-way street. Reply to comments, ask questions, and support other founders on their journey.
Building in public can feel intimidating at first, but it is one of the most effective ways to build a brand, a product, and a community all at the same time.