TL;DR All of the SBD awarded this post will be immediately transferred to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, upon sign up and verification to Steemit

Bringing in TTT (Top Tier Talent)

Now that @wingz has brought over the YouTuber @allasyummyfood (a huge win for steemit IMO) I want to take it to the next level. I want to bring over someone even bigger. Not huge mind you. Justin Bieber isn’t joining Steemit any time soon (thank goodness!). What we want is someone with a lot of influence, but who themselves can also benefit tremendously from joining the Steemit community. My candidate is Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert.

Dilbert is syndicated in 2,000 publications in 65 countries and in 25 different languages. He also has 46,000 Twitter followers.

And He Blogs ... To 3 MILLION People

Even more important is his hobby, what he does for fun and with respect to which he has repeatedly mentioned generates practically no revenue: BLOGGING. That’s right my friends. He’s a blogger. Not just that, but this blog that makes him no money? It attracted 3 MILLION visitors in June alone and it’s been rapidly, but steadily, increasing over time. As recently as January his blog was receiving only 1 million visitors a month (“only” hah!). Plus, he loves technology and is even involved in a stealth-mode startup, so I think he will really appreciate the innovation behind Steemit. I even think his politics are a perfect match for the Steemit community.

How Much Would HE Make Here?

So, do you think a blogger with 3 million fans could make a couple bucks on Steemit? I would predict that his introduceyourself alone would break every record on Steemit. But that’s not enough to bring him in. For that we need an extremely attractive carrot.

So here’s the plan

Phase One: The Carrot

I am hereby committing ALL of the SBD awarded to this post to Scott Adams for receipt immediately upon sign up and verification of his identity.

A simple tweet of his steemit username would be sufficient. I don’t want him to feel he has to advertise Steemit to earn this reward. His verification can be in a code only we understand as far as I am concerned, we just don't want to give his money to some faker.

So just to be super clear, he would receive all the SBD solely for signing up. It's a gift with no strings attached. It's a fair price for his time and consideration. Of course, the larger the number, the stronger the appeal and the more likely he is to appreciate the value of Steemit. Whatever the number, I believe he would actually be worth far more than that. This guy has the potential to bring millions of people into Steemit! He would be priceless for the enterprise and I have zero doubt that the Steemit community will prove to him how valuable we find him with every single new post he makes.

Phase Two: The Pitch

That’s all well and good, but even if the pot grows to an amount he would find appetizing, if he never finds out about it, he can never take advantage of it. We have to get his attention.

I certainly do not have the influence to get his attention on my own. But maybe all of us together do. I’m open to suggestions, but I want everyone to be free to pursue whatever medium and strategy that they think is best. I would merely suggest we take extra care to be kind, courteous, and brief (another reason Twitter is probably ideal). We want him to like us, not be annoyed by us.

We don't want to spam him or waste his time. I think before we reach out through any social media platform like Twitter, we should check to make sure that he isn't being besieged. His blog has some contact links, but they don’t necessarily seem like the type of thing that gets in front of his eyes. You can check those out here: http://blog.dilbert.com/contact. My suggestion is we tweet at him with the hashtag #steemitlovesdilbert something along the lines of:

@scottadamssays #Steemit users want you bad! There is now $X waiting for you just to sign up! #steemitlovesdilbert

Feel free to experiment, but remember we want him to LIKE us. That is RULE #1 of the Science of Persuasion (a science he is a BIG fan of). Even if he knows what we are doing he will appreciate our understanding of his sweet science. I think the tweets, in the aggregate, should also convey some information about the site that he would find appealing like: it’s a blogging platform, it’s decentralized, it’s like bitcoin … In fact, I think my tweet might be something like:

@scottadamssays Steemit users want to pay u $X to sign up. Steemit is like Bitcoin and Facebook had a baby #steemitlovesdilbert

And of course I’d add a link to the post. We should be cordial and considerate, making sure to be our best selves as representatives of the Steemit community. See what other people are posting and decide for yourself what would be ideal in that context. I trust your judgment more than my ability to predict exactly what people should do in the future :)

That’s pretty much it! Mind you, I honestly believe that Scott Adams would be perfect for this platform. Not only does he seem philosophically aligned with our ethos, but he is a master persuader with a strong moral compass. This means that his reach is much farther than his audience would suggest and so the value he would add to Steemit would be truly priceless. But in order to attract him we will need to be our most persuasive selves. Not only because we are attempting to persuade him to join our platform, but because he appreciates the art of persuasion, and so even if we’re not being good persuaders, he’d at least respect the effort.

That’s why I’ll end this post with a summary of the laws of persuasion from Robert Cialdini's Harnessing the Science of Persuasion, which you can choose to use or not use in your efforts to get his attention (or anywhere else in your life).

It should go without saying that persuasion is not about lying to people or manipulating them.

Persuasion is about using science to more clearly convey your perspective to another person. If you believe in what you are doing, obey your moral principles, and pursue virtue, then you should have no qualms about leveraging these powerful rules to persuade others or to call out people who are using them for evil.

The Principle of Liking: People like those who like them

Uncover real similarities and offer genuine praise. Maybe you’re a fan of Dilbert. Maybe you just like cartoons. Or maybe you too, are fascinated by the art of persuasion.

Reciprocity: Give what you want to receive

We want Scott Adams to give to Steemit, so we must give to Scott Adams. This is the principle behind my little slush fund. The more we give to him, the more he'll give back to the community

Consistency: People align with their commitments

From the article: "Make their commitments active, public, and voluntary, if you can do this they will do everything within their power to remain consistent with those commitments."

I have no idea how we could use this to persuade Adams to come to Steemit, but that doesn't mean there isn't a way! If you know a public position he has held that coincides with the ethos of Steemit you could point that out. For example, if he had said something like, “I love cryptocurrencies.” You could say, “Know you love crypto, check out Steemit, it’s built on crypto and there’s $X waiting for you.” Something like that might work. Note, we’re not trying to GUILT him. We’re trying to prove that Steemit conforms to his philosophical beliefs.

The Principle of Authority: People defer to Experts

This is something I think Adams can offer us more than we can offer him right now. As a successful entrepreneur with a far-reaching platform and mainstream success, as well as his mastery over the art of persuasion, his authority could do wonders for Steemit

The Principle of Scarcity: People want more of what they can have less of

Again, no idea how this could be used in this case 😃 But maybe you do!

That’s it!

I really, really, REALLY want this to work. I love this guy, I love Steemit, and I think they would be a match made in heaven. That’s why I have no ego attached to this post. If you have suggestions on how we can maximize the persuasive power of this post, please share in the comments. If people agree, I will make the change. Not only do I want as many other Steemians to read this post and get on board, but I also want Adams to be able to read it and appreciate where we are coming from. We would value him highly. I believe that, in the end, that's all he will really need to know :)