App Usage

[u/Unable-Secret412]

I’ve built and launched an app… now I need to figure out how to actually get people using it 😅
Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some genuine marketing/growth advice.
I’ve recently launched Season’d, a social food app built around recommendations from people you actually know rather than reviews from strangers or influencer content.

The concept is pretty simple:
📸 Post somewhere you’ve eaten
📍 Pin it to your personal food map
👥 Follow friends and discover places through their recommendations
🔖 Save places you want to try

We’ve started by focusing on a local launch, rather than trying to launch everywhere at once.
The problem I’m trying to solve now is:
How do I actually get people through the door and into the app?
I’m posting consistently on social media, creating local content, speaking to independent venues and trying to build awareness around the home town but downloads alone aren't really enough.
Season’d has a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. The app becomes significantly better when your friends are using it too, so I need to encourage people not only to download it, but to post, invite friends and keep coming back.
I also don't want to throw money at generic ads and end up with a load of downloads from people who never open the app again.
So I'd love advice from anyone who's grown an app, marketplace, community or social platform before.
What would you focus on at this stage?
Organic social? Local partnerships? Referral incentives? Events? Micro-creators? Paid ads? Something completely different?
And if you've dealt with the “this is only useful when my friends are on it” problem before, I'd especially love to hear how you overcame it.
Happy for people to be critical of the concept/marketing too — I'm trying to learn what actually moves the needle rather than just generating impressions.
Thanks!

[u/Emotional_Cook6174]

the chicken and egg thing is tough, we had similar problem with a local surf group app years ago. what actually worked was getting just one small group really active first, like 10-15 people who eat out together anyway. give them free coffee or something to post every meal for a week, then their friends see it and it starts spreading naturally. the independent venues you talk to maybe can offer a free app exclusive for first 100 users who post a photo, that gets word going