Is it Worth Getting Followers on Product Hunt?

I’ve often been asked is it worth getting followers on product hunt because I set myself a goal this year of hitting 200 in 2022 (which I smashed!). So I have a deeper look into Followers, and why they are or aren’t important.

What are Followers on Product Hunt?

On Product Hunt as with the social media networks you can “Follow” someone. People will usually follow someone because they have either created products, or they are active within the discussion forums.

To that end you tend to find the people with the biggest follower counts are those that fit these categories:

• Makers – People that have launched products on the platform
• Hunters – People that have helped the makers with their launch as a “Hunter” (these are usually Makers too)
• Active Forum Members – These are people that are actively starting or participating in discussions on the Product Hunt Forum
• Influencers on other platforms – For example people with a large Twitter or Indie Hacker following

People that follow someone on Product Hunt will get a notification that they’ve either “Hunter”, “Launched” or started a Discussion in the notifications page either on the site or the Product Hunt app as shown in the examples below.

Note that for all of these notifications they can appear as either emails, or push notifications on the Apps so they can be powerful!

So is it Worth Getting Followers on Product Hunt?

There are four main reasons to build a follower base on Product Hunt:

1. To support you own future launch on product hunt – if they know you and see your product launched then they’re more likely to vote for you.  This is especially important as Product Hunt gives more value to the votes of “existing” “active” members of the community.
2. Exploit Follower Notifications
   1. You either post a new discussion in the community, potentially increasing engagement on that post
   2. Launch your product – potentially increasing your upvotes, discussions and reviews, hopefully getting you to the number 1 spot!
   3. Hunt a product – as with a launch it will potentially support the product in terms of upvotes, discussions and reviews
3. To network – Like Twitter and Indie Hackers, Product Hunt is a great place to meet fellow Indie Hackers.  Most people on the platform are in a similar place – looking to launch a product in the future so there’s a lot of opportunity to network. Engagement will form new relationships with other Indie Hackers that might come in handy in the future 
4. Accounts with a large following come across as having more Personal Brand Authority in the Indie Hacking space.

Your Long-Term Product Hunt Goal

It’s also worth considering your long term product hunt goal – is it just to launch one product and then forget, is it to launch multiple products, is it to become a Indie Hacking influencer?

For me personally I want to help people launch products on Product Hunt and become a Hunter.  I think to do that I’ll need a big following, so building my follower base over time will help me towards that goal. You’ll have to decide on your own direction but it’s worth thinking about before you get started.

Do you Need Followers to Launch a Product?

The easy answer to this is NO! There are plenty of examples where products have been launched by Indie Hackers completely new to the platform and been successful. That can be for a number of reasons:

1. Established product with an enthusiastic customer base (including Product Hunt users) – willing to help out and support
2. Trending Product/Market Fit – products that are hitting that trend at the time
3. Makers and Hunters with followings with following elsewhere (e.g. Twitter)
4. The product is for Entrepreneurs/Indie Hackers, Startups – inevitably get more votes as that’s the audience on Product Hunt
5. Luck!

Conclusion – Build a Following on Product Hunt?

If you are going to take anything away from this post then I’d think about the following things in this order:

1. What are your Product Hunt Goals
2. Are you launching something that’s likely to get traction on the platform organically?
3. Is it worth you time building a following compared to you other options to promote your product?

If you’ve enjoyed this post then please feel free to share it and give me a follow on Product Hunt!