Conclusion of Social Experiment – Can I Giveaway 5 SBD total in a Gift Economy
You would think the answer to such a simple question would always be a resounding yes. It’s a “gift economy” after all. Surly you could give away 1SBD each to 5 people.
Why is it so hard to give away things for “free?”
I did a bit of research beforehand to see if this was even a worthwhile endeavor. I soon realized that a lot of contests had very few people entering them. Why could this be?
- Initial social outreach
- Reward vs time invested
- Size of the reward
- Ability to promote contest
- Fun factor
- Reoccurring or not contest
- Do contestants gain something out of it if they did not win?
The usual hashtags themselves used for contest are so flooded that expecting to get a lot of views from this seems hard. People’s contests often seem almost invisible they just did not temp enough people to promote it to their friends. These contests offer a high chance of a reward and often times do not ask much in return. Sometimes we are talking 100% chance of winning since not enough people enter for a small reward. On the other hand, there are very large contests out there where the prize pool can get insane, and massive amounts of people talk about it and enter. Some of these I have seen less than half a percentage chance of you winning it. They either require a lot of work to enter, or require multipliable steps spread out of days or weeks to compete.
What I Expected to Gain
What is a gift economy? For this experiment I define a gift economy as: Giving something away without ANY expectation of receiving something in return. This means most contests on Steemit even my own are not in the spirit of a gift economy. For someone to enter they are expected to give me something in return. It is true I was not requiring any monetary gain for entering in my contest but I still expect certain things making it not free to enter.
- Share a blog or comment you had enjoyed writing
- It must be older than 7 days
- Short description of why you enjoyed writing that blog or comment
I ask for something far worth more than the SBD I was putting up. I expected knowledge, and a better understanding of why people choose to do what they do. In addition, what do people enjoy writing about. I also was looking for interesting people to follow as you see I am a bit different than most on Steemit.
I generally start the curators’ process at home first with the people I choose to follow. Since my follow feed moves at a pace I can follow; I usually have a good idea what most of the people I’m following are up to.
Finally, I was wondering what type of content people were looking to promote. Once in a while I make a blog ‘Projects That Inspire Me to be a Better Steemian.’ Naturally, if I found an interesting project someone choose to share with me during my contest, and it meets the requirements for that. I would consider including that in the next one. This however was not a main objective; therefore, I was not directly asking people to share that kind of blog with me.
Hypotheses
Can I give away 5 SBD total in a gift economy where I expect something back in return?
Controlling Factors
Try and limit engagement directly with those entering the contest I would:
- Answer questions if ask
- Upvote those who enter correctly
- Reply back directly only once if I was unsure people were getting what I was truly asking to a comment that met the requirements
Promoting the contest
- I would not require resteem or upvotes to enter
- I would promote my contest in the proper channels in discord but only once
- I would promote my contest in the channels I had access Steemit.chat
- I would not directly pay for promotion
- I would use minnowsupport to try and stay in hot hashtags longer
My Experiment Failed
I got 4 entries in total and only 3 meet the requirements. As I was expecting the limiting factor of “it must be older than 7 days” to play role. I wanted to prevent those who did fully read the contest from winning and it did just that.
First person to enter into the contest shared there blog that was only 3 days old at the time. Since I had posted it multiple times in the contest what I was looking for. I did not directly inform this person they did not qualify.
Next person to enter was @oleg326756. He shared a project he was doing ‘Feed Your Minnows’. He also took up the bonus objective of replying back in a positive way to another contestant. Just by observing an experiment we change the outcome of it. As a result in wanting to get 5 people who qualify to win I pointed out he was the first to meet the requirements. I also upvote everyone who enter correctly to create positive reinforcement without replying back to each one during the contest.
@alphacore shared a very interesting blog ‘AI will change gaming forever’ I love gaming and technology so I really enjoyed reading it. This person also took up the bonus objective.
@cryptopet shared a blog ‘Majestic and beautiful mountains’ that shared a wonderful road trip in Norway making me wish I lived there. This person also took up the bonus objective.
Results
Well I’m not a true believer of such things as “true randomness” but that a very long and boring topic I won’t go into!
Congratulations to the winners!
I was already following alphacore, oleg326756, and just stared following Cryptopet.
I got one project I will consider for my next ‘Projects That Inspire Me to be a Better Steemian.’
Contest is now closed and can be found here
What have your experiences been like hosting a contest?
Wow. Great analysis on the contest!
I´m having my own contest going on right now and I´m experiencing some of the same things you are.
I have a bit bigger prize (10 SBD, winner takes it all), but I think I´m having the same issues with promotion and that the contest basically is having a hard time finding it´s way through all the other contests. .
Will be interesting to analyze when the contest is over. :)
I’ve check out the contest. Over the weekend I will have more time to read your blogs and decide which one I like the most. It’s an interesting way to gather some analytics for what your followers like the most. 10 SBD seems like a generous price point. A lot of times its trying find where to share your blog to get it some extra eyeballs. Like the contest section in the minnowsupport discord channel.
Great! I´ll be looking forward to your entry and to see what kind of content you enjoy the most :)
Yeah, I´ve shared it in the contest section on minnowsupport. Dont know how much effect it has though..
thanks for the prize enjar ^_^
I think contests are a paradoxical thing where people want to share it but then imagine that sharing it reduces their chance of winning, so then some go the route of requiring a resteem and get less entries because people don't want to do that part, so I'm not really sure what the best way to do a contest is. The only ones I think I have done are 1SBD prizes for naming runes mostly as something fun to do for a post that otherwise is hard to say anything about without sounding like a generic copy/paste comment. The way I thought of it is if I just post the runes without the little prize game most of the comments on that post would be super boring, lol. Anyway, I think for a contest like yours the return might be different than some other more shallow games like the lotto things. In the case of yours the returns will probably be long-term :)
I have the same feeling toward resteem I tend to avoid contests for most part that require it unless I like really it. I just don’t want fill up my own blogs with resteem contest content. I have seen a better way to go about it for a while now. A contest that requires you to write a blog with your answer and it also is required to state where you found out about the contest. That way people keeping seeing on their feed and in the different hashtags your contest keeps popping up. They tend to have their own hashtag everyone has to use, have name as part of the title. I find I to be a medium happiness vs having to resteem.
As far as your rune contest I really like it. I think over time you will get some repeat traffic if you have not already. People will know to expect it. It’s not a lot but you are also not asking a lot either. I assume it could even pay for itself each week as well.
I like that way of doing it. Think I´ll try that next time!
I think you are right about the sharing thing. It´s like a catch 22.
In the contest I´m doing right now I have resteem as an optional. Off course I´d love for people to resteem it, but I thought it would be more people joining if they didnt have to resteem.
Feel free to join the contest by the way! :) It´s a 10 SBD - winner takes it all.
Not too many have joined so far so as of now the chances are quite good :)
The catch I think is having them make there own blog instead of requiring a resteem. I put more details about it in my reply to alphacore if you want read it. I am at least more willing to do a contest if I have to make a blog over a resteem.