Podcasters/YouTubers influencer sponsorship
I have taken this long to write up about this because it's stating the obvious. I'm sure the good folks at Steemit Inc have this in mind already, but thought I'd reinforce the idea anyway. This is not some revolutionary brainwave, but a tried and tested approach that has been successful for nearly every company with a good product that has tried it.
Getting influencers on board is key to driving growth. This can, of course, be accomplished at a lower cost in terms of money, but it takes more time. Sponsoring their shows/blogs is a surefire way to get an influencer's attention.
For those unaware, podcasters, game broadcasters and YouTubers have a unique form of advertising.
Sponsorships and influencing, not advertising - The advertisements these channels run are personalized and demonstrative. It's not just formulaic copy written up by a writer, but the podcaster or creator uses the products themselves and talks about their personal experiences using it. Most podcasts and YouTube channels have a dedicated following, and their audience pay close attention to the creator's opinions. The end result is the audience pays attention - they don't see it just as an ad, but a possible recommendation for a product they may use themselves. As a result, this type of sponsorship has very high rates of success - often over 50% of the audience buys some product or the other.
Network effect - The audience of these shows are themselves influencers! If you have a show about, let's say, computer hardware, the audience are the geeks who mom and pop will call every time their laptop breaks down. If there's a truly disruptive product, the word will get around very quickly around the circles.
Cost effective - Podcasts and YouTube don't have large budgets, and thus sponsoring them does not cost a lot. Many of the smaller shows are small, part-time, one man operations whom you can sponsor for a few thousand a month. Yet, they have a million subscribers. It's possible to reach out to millions of engaged audience for five figures.
Success stories - Harry's, Casper, Blue Apron, Mack Weldon etc. These started off as small mom-and-pop manufacturers who simply don't have the financial might to compete with the likes of Gillette. However, they offer a better product and have made strong and sustainable businesses driven in a large part by podcaster advertising. They have seen significant word of mouth, and Harry's is starting to challenge Gillette in many regions of the USA. Let's not forget it all began with podcast sponsorships on a low budget (this is before they received VC funding). Mid-sized companies like Audible, Squarespace and Shutterstock have seen considerably success too, to the point most of their advertising budget goes to podcasts and YouTube channels.
Cons
Well, it costs, it's not free. However, if you have a disruptive product (which Steem arguable is) it has always been a no-brainer. An investment of $10k could potentially increase Steemit's active user base by an order of magnitude, and push the network's market cap orders of magnitudes over the $10k investment. Of course, this will need Steemit Inc's support.
This is a medium term play that won't be effective till Steemit.com reaches MVP. Certainly, it won't be make sense till the Communities feature is live. So I can't see this getting started before end of 2017, then ramping up well into 2018-19.
Possible targets
Start off with smaller, mid-sized, technology focused podcasts. These have audiences that are very engaged, highly tech-savvy geeks, who love conversations, and who'll almost certainly be all over an innovative new website. Good examples of this would be the TWiT network, a technology focused podcasters who generate a lot of discussion on Twitter every time there's a new episode. They boast of a startling 80% of its audience making a purchase, which is orders of magnitudes higher than expectations. I hear they have discussed Bitcoin and blockchain in the past, so definitely a good target. Maybe even start with a smaller tech focused podcasting network like GFQ.
Other targets would be game broadcasting channels for obvious reasons, and educational/sci-tech shows like CGP Grey (They are Reddit enthusiasts) or ColdFusion TV (They have been intrigued by blockchain tech lately).
Were the network to grow, it would then be worthwhile targeting large tech focused channels which do smartphone reviews etc. From there, more popular podcasts like Marc Maron, Neil Tyson etc.
Further reading (be warned, these links are podcast advertising agencies pushing their agenda. Their metrics are solid though) -
http://www.artisanalagency.com/
http://www.midroll.com/
https://www.podcastone.com/podcast-advertising
To echo @steevc and as a Podcaster myself I thought I'd chuck in my twopenneth. Here in the UK the vast majority of podcasts are not subscription based and very few have sponsorship deals. There are the odd ones who may have some sort of free hosting arrangement in exchange for a shout-out but on the whole most of them, like our show, is supported by donations.
You're absolutely right when you say presenters are influencers although I personally would prefer to be known for informing rather than influencing someone's choices. Steemit like any social network platform is great for building your [podcast] community and there is the added bonus that steemit can benefit too with increased membership.
I have to say that I would suspect the main motivation in this instance for any podcaster to promote steemit would be to build their own community of followers rather than increasing the membership of steemit unless there was some sort of incentive from steemit which kinda defeats the whole object. So it's actauly a Chicken and Egg situation with regards promoting. :-)
I have seen several podcasters and YouTubers sponsored by Squarespace and Wordpress, which are platforms just like Steem. Never really been an issue. To be clear, I do mean targeting mid-sized creators that have a subscriber base over 100,000 to 1 million. They have much a larger active subscriber base than does Steemit in its entirety, so it would be very much a case of them bringing users to Steemit instead of building their follower base. The incentive would be a sponsorship fee paid by Steemit, as well as revenue generation from upvotes. It's a win-win-win deal!
Of course, for smaller podcasters, who I know are the vast majority, it might be a different equation altogether.
I'm going to introduce my audience to Steemit within the next few days, and will also try to get some of my YouTuber friends on board as well. It seems like we've all been hit the hardest as we're in the drugs/marijuana niche so Steemit helps make up some of the lost profits due to the ad boycott and changes. Steemit is exciting and I agree that influencers are the way to go. BUT, it needs to be targeted. Shoutouts and all of that can get expensive since some of this stuff is extremely overpriced if it's not carefully researched.
That's great! Yes, it's definitely a great opportunity targeting the niches hit hardest by the YouTube ad boycott. This is the right time to strike.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees influencers as a natural path forward. I also agree that focus should be on relatively niche communities. If we can build a critical mass for certain subject matters, network effects will carry us from there.
But you seem to understand that Steemit needs some more preparation before we can absorb those users. At that point, outreach can begin at scale.
I upvoted, your thinking about this is clear and correct. Great post.
Glad to know we're on the same page! Sure, no point rushing while the site is not ready. I do feel sub-communities are an important milestone - a good time to start off slowly. Of course, scale up when Steemit hits MVP, though I'm not sure when/what that is.
thanks