Building in public is the future of marketing and brand building.
In simple terms, it is an intentional practice of creating content and sharing your company’s story as it unfolds — with transparency, openness and vulnerability. This refreshingly gutsy and novel approach allows you to stand apart from the noise in the marketplace and organically attracts other like-minded people people into your channels on the Internet.
Many of these eventually become your customers, co-founders, investors, employees or supporters of your mission.
You can choose to build in public on any social platform (like Twitter, Linkedin, Tiktok) or on online communities such as Indie Hackers or Reddit.
What are the specific benefits of building in public?
The benefits of building in public are multi-dimensional. Here are some:
- Stay in the forefront of your target audiences’ minds (traffic boost)
- Build trust in your community, and sell without actually selling
- Build buzz and momentum for your product launches by getting your true fans involved from the start
- Lightning-fast feedback loops
- Public accountability for the goals
- Allow your story to attract investors, employees and key hires for your business
- Access to wisdom of the crowd and an abundance of inputs across the board
- braintrust/useful network for anytime you get stuck
- loyal community ready when you launch any product
How is it different from building in stealth?
For one, building in public can help create a sense of community around a project. By sharing updates and soliciting feedback, creators can engage with others who are interested in their work, and can even attract potential collaborators or business opportunities. In contrast, building in stealth can often lead to missed opportunities and lack of support.
Additionally, building in public can be a valuable way to gather feedback and ideas from others. By openly sharing progress on a project, creators can solicit input and suggestions from a wider audience, which can help improve the final product. This can be especially useful for projects that are still in the early stages, as it can help guide the direction and development of the project. By keeping a project secret via building in stealth, creators may miss out on valuable feedback and ideas from others, and may struggle to build a supportive network or audience.
Building in public can also be a great way to build credibility and establish thought leadership in a particular field or industry. By openly sharing the process and progress of a project, creators can demonstrate their expertise and knowledge, and can even attract potential collaborators or business opportunities. Building in stealth can often create skepticism or mistrust, as people may wonder what the creator is hiding or trying to avoid.