Pineflow · Get users

downloads per channelReddit nicheDiscordTikTok nicheBecome a regularOne-line DMTracked link

Grow

Get users

Bring new users every week from the one place they already hang out.

Start this chapter while you build, not after you ship. A new account takes weeks to reach people, so the posts you make during the Build loop are the audience your launch lands on. Start with How to get users, then open the one channel where your people already are.

3-5 hours a week

How to get users

The hardest part of an app is not building it. It's the first 100 people who aren't your friends. Nobody is waiting for your app, so you go to where your users already spend time, show up every week, and give them a reason to search for you.

VideoHow to get your first 100 users
VideoThe new app content strategy dominating in 2026
VideoOur app makes $30K/month profit using this simple strategy (copy us)

What actually works

  • One channel at a time. A channel takes weeks to work, so five at once proves nothing. Add the next one only when the first brings downloads.
  • Copy a format that already wins in your niche. Its shape, never its photos or words. When a post wins, make it again with new examples before you invent something new.
  • Hooks about a feeling or an identity. "Signs you've become a gym person without noticing" beats "Check out my new lifting app!" every time.
  • A few personal DMs a day. Something only they have, what your app does, one question. The link only after a yes.
  • The same days and times every week. Half the week remakes of your winners, half new tests.

Count searches, not views. A post works if people search for your app the next day. Most downloads come from App Store search, so a post with 5,000 views that makes 30 people search beats one with 30,000 views that makes 5.

  • Make one App Store campaign link per channel, so every download has a name on it.
  • The day after a post, read App Store Search impressions and downloads in App Store Connect. On Android: Play Console, Store performance.
  • Ask new users in onboarding: Where did you hear about us? One optional screen tells you more than any dashboard.
  • At the end of the week, rank posts by searches. Next week, remake the top one.
Prompt
Read docs/PRD.md and docs/research.md. In docs/GROWTH.md, list the 3 places where people with this problem already spend time (a TikTok niche, an Instagram niche, a subreddit), with why each fits. Recommend one to start.

Tools we love

App Store Connect campaign linksOfficialOne link per channel, so you see where downloads come from.TikTok Creative CenterOfficialWhat's trending in your niche right now.

TikTok

The best start for most consumer apps. Photo slideshows reach strangers even with zero followers, and one good post can bring more searches than a month of everything else.

VideoCopy these viral TikTok slideshow formats to promote your product

Best practices

  • Photo slideshows, 5 to 7 slides. Slide 1 is the hook and decides everything.
  • One idea per slide, big text, your own photos.
  • 1 to 3 posts a day at the same times, at least 4 hours apart.
  • Last slide: the app on a phone and "search [your app] on the App Store". Links don't work until you have followers.
  • Judge a post after 2 days, not 2 hours. Remake winners with new examples.

Avoid

  • Deleting posts that flop. It hurts the account more than the post did.
  • Hooks about features or how-to. Feelings and identity win.
Slide 1
Avoid
Check out my new lifting app!
Slide 1
Good
Signs you've become a gym person without noticing
Prompt
Write 5 TikTok slideshows for my app in the formats in docs/GROWTH.md, with my own examples. Slide 1 is a hook about a feeling or an identity, one idea per slide, and the last slide shows the app and says search [my app] on the App Store.

Tools we love

TikTok Creative CenterOfficialTrending hashtags, sounds and posts per country.CanvaMake the slides.CapCutTurn slides into a video for Reels and Shorts.

Want our exact TikTok system? The hook formats, the winner and trend mix, post times and the templates behind 1M+ views on our own accounts. We are writing it up as a playbook. Get notified when it is out ↗

Instagram

A second life for your TikTok winners, and the best place for cold DMs. People here post about their lives under their own name, so you can find the exact person who just had your problem.

VideoI sent 1000 cold DMs and learned this (Instagram cold outreach)
VideoInstagram Reels vs carousels in 2026: what actually grows your account?

Best practices

  • One post a day: your TikTok winners as carousels or Reels.
  • Carousels and Reels reach people who don't follow you. Stories only reach followers.
  • Put your App Store campaign link in the bio.
  • Search your niche's hashtags for people who posted this week, and send each one a one-line DM.
  • Send the link only after they say yes.

Avoid

  • Reposting with the TikTok watermark. Instagram shows those to fewer people.
  • "Love your content" as the personal part, or the same text to everyone.
  • Following up when they never answered the first time.
DM
Avoid
Hey! I built an app, check it out: [link]
DM
Good
That 100 kg bench last week was clean! We made a free app that shows how your lifts rank against people your size, want to try it?
Prompt
Here are 10 profiles with what they just posted: [paste]. Write one DM line for each: something specific from their post, what my app does in one concrete sentence (from docs/PRD.md), and one question they can answer in a sentence. No link.

Tools we love

Instagram for CreatorsOfficialHow Reels, carousels and the feed are ranked.

YouTube Shorts

Reuses the videos you already made. Shorts keep getting found for months, because YouTube is a search engine too.

VideoThe entire Shorts algorithm explained in 180 seconds

Best practices

  • Turn your slideshow into a video in CapCut and upload the same one.
  • Title with the words your users search for, not a clever line.
  • Say "search [your app]" on the last frame. Links in Shorts aren't clickable.
  • Post the same days as TikTok, so it costs you two minutes.

Avoid

  • Giving up after a week. Shorts often pick up weeks later.

Tools we love

YouTube Shorts for creatorsOfficialHow Shorts are made and found.

X

Apps for founders, developers and tech people, and building in public. Weak for most consumer niches, strong when your users are the ones reading about apps.

VideoHow I used Twitter to hit $10K/month
VideoI studied 16,000 X accounts, this is how you grow on X

Best practices

  • Show the work: real numbers, screenshots, before and after.
  • Reply to bigger accounts in your niche every day. Good replies bring more followers than posts.
  • Put the link in a reply under your post, not in the post.
  • Post one thing you learned this week, every day.

Avoid

  • Only posting "we shipped X". Nobody follows a changelog.

Threads

Short, casual text. Good when your users like to talk and give advice, and the replies are what carry a post to new people.

Video5 proven hacks to grow on Threads

Best practices

  • Ask a question people want to answer. Replies are what spreads a post.
  • Post every day, short and in your own voice.
  • Reuse your best TikTok hooks as text posts.
  • Answer every reply in the first hour.

Avoid

  • A link in every post.

Reddit

Great when your users have a subreddit (running, budgeting, ADHD). Slow to start, strong when it lands, and a good post keeps sending people for years.

VideoReddit marketing: how to get your first 1,000 downloads
VideoHow to promote your product on Reddit without getting banned

Best practices

  • Read each subreddit's rules first. Many ban self-promotion.
  • Help in the comments for weeks before you mention the app.
  • When you post: why you built it, what it does, and ask for feedback. Say you made it.
  • Reply to every comment in the first hours.

Avoid

  • The same post in ten subreddits on the same day.

Pinterest

Visual niches: recipes, home, fitness plans, planners, travel, weddings. It works like a search engine, so a pin can take months to take off and then last for years.

VideoPinterest marketing in 2025, step by step plan for success

Best practices

  • Tall images (2:3) with the text on the image.
  • Titles and descriptions with the words people search for.
  • Link each pin straight to your App Store page.
  • Several pins per idea, with different pictures.

Avoid

  • Expecting fast results.

Tools we love

Pinterest BusinessOfficialBest practices for pins and boards.

Facebook groups

Older users, parents, local and hobby groups. Big and active in many niches, and people there ask for recommendations out loud.

VideoHow to use Facebook groups to grow your business

Best practices

  • Join groups where your users ask questions, and answer them.
  • Ask the admin before you post about the app. Many say yes once.
  • When someone asks for exactly what you built, answer the question first and mention the app second.

Avoid

  • Dropping a link the day you join.

Discord

Gaming, creators and tight communities. Later, a home for your own early users, where they tell you what to build next.

VideoHow to use Discord to build a community

Best practices

  • In other servers: help first, and post about the app only in the promo channel.
  • Start your own server only when users ask for one.
  • When you do: few channels, and you answer everything yourself at first.

Avoid

  • DMing members you don't know. It gets you banned.

Tools we love

Discord Community PortalOfficialHow to run a server people stay in.

LinkedIn

Apps for work: productivity, careers, small business. Not for most consumer apps, but strong when your users have a job title in common.

VideoI studied 1,000 founders on LinkedIn, here's what made them win

Best practices

  • Post from your own profile, not the app page. A personal story beats an announcement.
  • Text with one image, and the link in the first comment.
  • Comment on posts from people your users follow.

Avoid

  • A press release tone.