Brainstorm HN: How to Beat Facebook - Non-tech Strategies | Hacker News Reader

Brainstorm HN: How to Beat Facebook - Non-tech Strategies

2 pointsjaytee_clone4 comments

Notes: I want to try out a brainstorm session on HN. The first topic came up in my mind was facebook, probably because it got so much coverage with the privacy issues and Diaspora etc.

Topic: Assume you are Diaspora (or any competitor), also assume that technical issues have been solved. What are some strategies to convert users from facebook?

Rule 1: Be as far-fetched as possible - quantity over quality

Rule 2: Only reply to someone's idea when you can build on top of it. If you really want to express that certain ideas won't work, start a separate comment with your explanation and an alternative idea.

For example: I will start with a few ideas in the comments below.

Organize a national quit facebook day (Sept 1). Build website for it and ask people to publicize the url in their facebook profile, status, twitter, etc.

A good start.

I would also recommend going after a target market.

Apparently the current growth of Facebook is in the +35 demographic, so maybe targetting University students at the start of the term would help.

Being the unfacebook doesn't just mean 'another place to share', it needs to provide an alternative to just privacy.

Sewing the seeds of dissent by targetting University students who made facebook what it is, and possibly are those that facebook is ignoring as it goes forward.

This is one of the things I really like about diaspora. The four guys in the video are exactly where Zuck was not long ago, but they have a better target and purpose, though they still need help communicating what that vision is.

Yeah, college students tend to be more rebellious too. Maybe they will even organize delete-your-facebook parties. Getting one of these parties in the media will be pretty effective PR.

Targeting school newspaper / TV station for that kind of PR is a good first step.

Build a tool so that a facebook user can scrape email addresses of her friends, which can then be used to jump start a new social network.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com