Sndbox Summer Camp Philosophy or Psychology or Sociology - Task 1

Task One: Analyse a Steemit situation

The topic chosen is Retention rate - Explore this idea considering that user retention is below 20%. Projects like OCD have a user retention above 80%.

Own picture - adapted from @anomadsoul's post on the summer camp challenge

1. Background

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Some small talks or even debates have been going on that if Steemit can take the place of Facebook and the like. This boils down to a fundamental question: if people are going to write on Steemit regularly on a long-term basis. To possibly succeed, user retention on Steemit is of importance.

Exploring user retention often falls into the branch of consumer behaviour, which is under the study of psychology (Kimmel, 2012; Srisuwan & Barnes, 2008; Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). With this in mind, this post is going to explore what may affect the retention rate on Steemit through a psychology point of view.

I am a small business owner, one of my business routines is understanding consumer behaviour and then acting on findings to sustain my business. On some occasions, I incorporate what I acquired from school (only useful and applicable learning) into my understandings of consumer behaviour, through which I may understand my existing and potential consumers better and formulate business/marketing strategies that specifically suit them. In this post, I am going to apply the same practice to try to explore the idea central to retention rate.

2. Aim of this post

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With help of credible sources and proper referencing in APA 6th, the aim of this post is to try to discover what constitutes and may affect user retention on Steemit. That being said, a major limitation of this post is that a discussion to be done is purely theoretical; user data collection from existing or potential Steemit users is not possible (Deadline of this SNDBOX challenge is 10th April, 2018).

3. Exploring the idea

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3.1 What is user retention from a psychology point of view?

User retention is an indication of a person's willingness to stay with a service provider and use services (Kim et al., 2012). A potential user may have impulse to irrationally register for a Steemit account and use for a certain time; however, long-term user retention is not likely to be related to impulse considering that the willingness to stay or quit is likely to be a response from some cognitive decisions in a Steemit user, suggested by Chen and Wang, (2016) and Khalifa and Liu (2007).

In psychology terms, anything that needs to be collected, absorbed, evaluated, and acted on by humans can be known as cognition or cognitive science, which is central to the development of social psychology (Griskevicius & Kenrick, 2013; Watson & Spence, 2007).

Inspired by Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013), Kim et al. (2012), and Watson and Spence (2007), it is logical to claim that if a Steemit user regularly participating, this being the high willingness of being retained, is a cognitive outcome of the user having collected, digested, and evaluated information concerning Steemit. Then, what constitutes and may affect user retention on Steemit in cognitive science terms? I am going to discuss in the next section.
 

3.2 Applying two psychology models to analyse what may affect user retention

The willingness of remaining long-term on Stemmit is likely to be driven by a chain of cognitive development in a Steemit user. The chain is initialised by how a user collects, digests, evaluates information on the actual use of Steemit, and finally take actions (e.g. the willingness of staying or leaving) (Griskevicius & Kenrick, 2013; Watson & Spence, 2007).

The hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) by Lowry et al. (2013) and the Cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) by Festinger (1957), belonging to cognitive science, are adapted and applied to a theoretical exploration of how the retention rate may improve. Personally, these two models have been practically applied by me to business/marketing problem-solving. I reckon these models to be workable in real-life business situations, hence the theoretical application here.
 

3.2.1 Perceived ease of use may affect user retention

High levels of perceived ease of use, theoretically, are supposed to improve user retention (Lowry et al., 2013). An online system with high levels of perceived ease of use, users are likely to find it easy to learn and adapt to the new environment (Curtis et al. 2010).

On steemit, publishing a post does not take a steep learning curve; the user interface is neat and clear and it does not take long for a new user to be familiar with the interface. That said, successfully publishing a post does not mean a user can survive. The level of perceived ease of use may drop when a user may have found a lack of socialisation.

The decentralised nature of Steemit makes it relatively hard for new users to locate fellow users from a same real-life community or with similar interests. Unless a user is willing to engage enormous efforts 'digging and sniffing around' fragmented information scattered over a sea of Steemit posts for the purpose of finding people/communities with which the user can interact.

The perceived ease of use may decline quickly because of the decentralised nature of Steemit where fragmentation of information may discourage users from collecting useful information to sustain long-term activities on Steemit. Once users have found themselves hopeless on Steemit, they are likely to quit. This implies that how large communities like SNDBOX or OCD or local communities like CN can improve their visibility to users? Would community moderators actively invite new users? Or Would there be easy-to-find pinned messages or FAQs on the front page of Steemit for users to help them get through?
 

3.2.2 Perceived usefulness may affect user retention

High levels of perceived usefulness, theoretically, are supposed to improve user retention (Lowry et al., 2013). This usefulness indicates how users find Steemit to be beneficial to them (Purnawirawan, De Pelsmacker, & Dens, 2012).

It is personally believed that a prime motive of signing up for Steemit is content rewards and the potential growth of $SBD. Cryptocoin mining by way of content contribution is probably one major motivation. The recent dip in $SBD, which is usual in highly speculative activities, may have discouraged some from Steemit. This is certainly out of what ordinary Steemit users can control. Setting the $SBD fluctuation aside, if people believe in a long-term surge of $SBD (a belief in the cryptocurrency), this is probably not an issue.

What may concern most users is that constantly low payouts may reduce levels of perceived usefulness. Original content does not guarantee high payouts; however, it may deliver some satisfactory rewards if one regularly partakes in contests or challenges. Financial encouragement is one form of motivation that is valid in explaining why people keep blogging on Steemit, said by Chandler and Kapelner (2013).

The paragraph above implies that how users can be easily aware of these contests or challenges in this highly fragmented environment? How easy it is for users to locate communities that regularly hold these contests or challenges? Would it be possible that large communities as SNDBOX or OCD could increase the number of talent scouts who can actively find quality content? Would it be also possible that large communities as SNDBOX or OCD could work with Steemit officials to officially co-promote contests or challenges? Less fragmented distribution of information to users on Steemit can make the chain of cognitive development productive.
 

3.2.3 Joy may affect user retention

High levels of joy, theoretically, are supposed to improve user retention (Lowry et al., 2013).

Joy probably comes from interactions with people/communities with similar interests and recognition for inputs, suggested by Stavros and the research team (2013) and Treem and Leonardi (2013). If users can regularly develop pleasure out of having rapport with peers, learning from them and being admired as someone valuable. This forms a sense of achievement that can keep users perceive themselves to be desired by their communities. This is likely to increase perceived self-worth and maintain long-term existence on social networking platforms, pinpointed by Valkenburg and the research team (2006).

Joy may come from a surge of $SBD. However, this post has no intention to discuss Steemit in this aspect. Anyone interested in this may explain.

3.2.4 Control

High levels of joy, theoretically, are supposed to improve user retention (Lowry et al., 2013).

Control here means if a user has technological equipment (e.g. tablets, smartphones, or computers), knowledge (e.g. navigating the site, writing skills, and publishing posts), and time (Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015). Technological equipment does not seem to be an issue; most people on Steemit seem to be having their own smartphones or tablets. Navigating the site and publishing posts do not seem to be an issue either; 3.2.1 discussed that the learning curve is not steep.

While writing skills and time seem to be two potential problems that may hinder user retention. To win in a contest or challenge and be organically upvoted (the sole use of upvote bots is not discussed here), a user, to a large degree, has to have interesting topics to write about, have decent English writing and editing skills (most contests and challenges seem to be in English), logically and coherently present ideas, and effectively send all messages across. Lacking either of these does not seem to create pleasing or eventful experiences, which can diminish the willingness of being committed to the platform. What can be worse is that if a user finds no spare time blogging on Steemit anymore or finds time devoted to Steemit cannot be financially justified, the user may bring all blogging activities to a halt.

It is a personal matter of giving time to and engaging oneself to Steemit, this is not what large communities as SNDBOX or OCD can do about. Perhaps, exceptional posts may be reblogged and circulated as learning materials and periodical writing workshops, non-critical ones, may be given to people in search for inspiration and guidance? Would it be possible that Steemit officials would co-promote these workshops?

3.2.5 Expectations and disconfirmation may affect user retention

A match between the reality and expectations, theoretically, is supposed to improve user retention. This indicates what users have expected can be met by the reality (Saha & Theingi, 2009; Wolniak & Skotnicka-Zasadzien, 2011).

The front landing page of Steemit, with posts worth at least USD 200 each, is tempting yet may create unrealistic expectations. Once users, sooner or later, have discovered that each of their posts may be worth no more than USD 1 (from organic upvotes), this mismatch between what they have perceived and have actually experienced soon will disillusion. Their answers are probably to quit and never return.

Would it be possible that the front landing page would be changed dramatically and another mechanism in how popular/trending posts can be interpreted would take place? Optimistic bubbles burst soon once disillusion has emerged.

4. Conclusion, limitation of this post and recommendation

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Blogging alone on Steemit is likely to be frustrating and uninteresting. Even worse, a sea of fragmented information scattered over the blockchain might make blogging on Steemit uneventful. Would it be possible that large communities as SNDBOX or OCD could work officially with Steemit officials to make access to useful information user-friendly?

This post has not collected real data from existing or potential Steemit users as to how to retain them on a long-term basis. The discussion has been made here is purely theoretical based on some research sources. Lacking a large sample from existing or potential Steemit users and some statistical tests, I cannot generalise the claims I have made. Perhaps, people interested in what I have discussed may conduct large-scale research where they can collect a large sample and do some statistical analysis.

Text is original and supported with book and journal sources.

References

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