Andrew Chen has a great post on his blog entitled “Why Bloggers and Press Don’t Matter for User Acquisition.” I often find myself nodding as I read his posts and this one is no exception. Press & Blogger buzz while it drives traffic, often has no connection whatsoever to driving users and user engagement.User acquisition is a critical part of any startup’s evolution and it’s surprising how often entrepreneurs can fall into the ‘build it and they will come’ mindset. I was at an event recently where a handful of startups were presenting their companies to a panel of VCs and CEOs. After one pitch, a panel asked the entrepreneur what his customer acquisition strategy was - “How are you going to get people to use your product?” The response was along the lines of - “Well, they just need to try it out and they’ll love it.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have a good answer as to how they were going to hear about it in the first place.You need a clear user acquisition strategy and Andrew has laid out a useful framework for thinking about it. He also has other great post on Viral Loops and social network monetization. Happy reading.