It definitely depends on what your startup is doing. Since it is addressing a need (hopefully) you should try to find people who have this need and target them. A local B2B company will do vastly different marketing from a social B2C company. Friends and family are great, maybe sponsor local events and go out with an iPad and show off the startup. Or maybe try advertising on stumble or facebook.
At my startup http://louderr.com we have been trying out as many ideas as possible to see what generates good CTR and loyal visitors. Word of mouth is working best, along with strategic advertising on social networks. Im looking forward to writing a blog post with lots of information about what worked and what didnt for us.
tl;dr: Guess and Check. Repeat. This is the hard part.
At my startup http://louderr.com we have been trying out as many ideas as possible to see what generates good CTR and loyal visitors. Word of mouth is working best, along with strategic advertising on social networks. Im looking forward to writing a blog post with lots of information about what worked and what didnt for us.
tl;dr: Guess and Check. Repeat. This is the hard part.