Incentivized Social Media vs. Traditional Social Media
For years I worked to build brands and audiences across multiple social networks, and with that experience I learned first-hand just how very little the platforms I contributed to actually valued the work I did. What I also learned was how the lack of reward often leads to a lack of interest, and this is the whole reason why the concept of social platforms taking and never giving back has left the concept of traditional social media laying on its death bed. The traditional social platform is the one who never rewards the creative minds that once made them so great; such as journalists, artists, and others. Its also the whole reason why major social platforms like Google+ were often referred to as a ghost town by the wider media, and others like Twitter have suffered from years of stagnant growth. Here we're going to take a closer look at both the incentivized and traditional models of social media, and why the incentivized model wins out, while the traditional model might as well be gone with the wind.
Incentivized Social Media:
Platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Steemit, are good examples of incentivized social platforms that reward hard working creators for their contributions; although, they reward their contributors in vastly different ways. YouTube typically rewards its creative minds with a cut of the platform's ad revenues, while others like Steemit reward contributors with the use of cryptocurrency.
What sets these platforms apart from the traditional social model is the fact they offer real financial incentives to make use of them, and incentivized platforms like YouTube are living proof the model of rewarding individuals for their contributions works! YouTube is currently the world's second largest social network next to Facebook, and its the world's largest video sharing platform in its own right. No doubt, the enormous growth and popularity that surrounds the YouTube platform today can be heavily attributed to the fact the creative minds of the web find an interest in the platform due to its potential to reward them.
Platform's like YouTube managed to remain relevant over the long term for the simple fact they won the support of creators who saw a future in it.
Traditional Social Media:
Unlike we've seen with the incentivized model, with the traditional social model their is no inherent want or need for creators to pay such platforms any attention, and its for the simple fact their aren't as many direct incentives for them to make use of these platforms. These are the types of platforms that offer no real direct financial reward for work being done, and as a result, they fail to garner the support of creators, and of course the wider public.
As an example, one such platform would be Google+. While this platform has managed to retain a strong niche fan base, who wholeheartedly loves it for what it is, the platform has continued to suffer from long term stagnant growth and a year over year decline in public interest.
Looking back at my own work on Google+ over the last 6 years, in which I built some fairly massive communities on the platform, I have to admit, I've never financially benefited from my work, nor have I ever received so much as a simple thank you from Google, despite my years of contributions to the platform.
As I stated earlier, and I'll reiterate here, the lack of incentives often leads to a lack of interest. This is the whole reason I currently have one community on Google+ with close to a quarter million members that is now staffed with just 3 moderators, one of which is only available 2 days a week. The problem is, there's no incentive for people to do work and contribute to the management of things like communities on the platform.
Now, given the comparisons between Google+ and YouTube, and its easy to see why the traditional social models don't work.
The Challenges of Incentivized Social Media:
While incentivized social media may seem like the wave of the future, such a model also presents many challenges. For one, with the prospect of earning money, also comes the prospect of greed, deception, and fraud. In the case of YouTube, the platform's potential to earn has led to the rapid rise of rogue content creators who produce content with the sole purpose of making a fast buck.
Take for instance the recent fiasco surrounding one of YouTube's biggest personalities, Logan Paul, who posted a video of the dead body of a suicide victim in hopes of scoring a fat payday. YouTube's potential to earn has also brought about the rapid rise in mass copyright infringement, where some channels have sought to monetize on everything from cable TV shows, to music, documentaries, and more. In other cases YouTuber's have flat out ripped videos from other channels, re-uploaded them to their own, then proceeded to dump ads all over them. This is the whole reason we see such strict guidelines regarding the ability to monetize one's channel today, the bad actors have ruined it for everyone else.
The incredible earning potential of YouTube has also brought about the rise of conspiracy theorists who produce sensational headlines and preach wild stories to the public, while providing no evidence to support their claims, and all with the intent of cashing in. The facts speak for themselves, sensationalism on social media has a penchant for garnering a lot of attention, and ultimately earning a lot from ad revenues as well. The fact is, the spreading of misinformation and the manipulation of public thinking have long been profitable business models on YouTube.
And, what about Steemit? Here I am just 2 weeks into making use of the Steemit platform, and I've personally witnessed copyright infringement on a massive scale; even finding one of my own articles being scraped from elsewhere on the web and re-uploaded to Steemit with the hopes of monetizing.
Due to the Steemit platform's decentralized nature, it appears the platform also lacks any real system of moderation or accountability of its users. While Steemit touts itself as a censorship free platform, a social platform where anything goes is a recipe for disaster over the long term. At present, the only system of law and order on Steemit is actually a system designed and enforced by its user base, and often with the use of bots. Albeit, its a system of accountability that, while not being perfect, actually works quite well.
Another thing to note is that creating an incentivized model for social media doesn't always equate to being a profitable model either. Just take a look at what happened to the video sharing platform Vidme, who failed to secure ads, and relied on a tipping feature no one used; as well as Tsu, the social network that touted ad revenue sharing in hopes of building a sustainable social ecosystem. Neither model worked, and neither platform lasted.
Conclusion:
All being said, I've come to the conclusion that the traditional models for social media are not only dying, they're gasping for their last breath! The world has awoken to the ruse of social platforms like Facebook who seek only to benefit themselves, and never the people who've supported them the most. As I pointed out, the traditional models for social media often result in the stagnation or failure of social platforms over the long term due to a lack of interest from users.
While the concept of incentivized social media definitely presents its own challenges, we've seen first hand how such a model often works for the betterment of everyone involved. There's really a lot more to all of this than what was stated here, and I may come back to touch more on this subject in a later post.
Many thanks for reading! Written and published by Daniel Imbellino, co-founder of Strategic Social Networking and Gamers Bay! Connect with me on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DanielImbellino
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Strategic Social Networking is funded by the public, consider supporting our work through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/strategicsocialnetworking
Strategic Social Networking on Medium: https://medium.com/strategic-social-news-wire
very well written and you explained quite well the pros and cons of both styles. I feel like nowadays more and more places are starting to realize though that people for all the time they put in want reward of some kind and being rewarded in the end even if it is small is enough motivation to keep one going on platform. Like steemit I got a few steem dollars and such recently it`s not a whole ton but the feeling of seeing and getting rewarded really felt nice and I will continue.
You are correct though with things such as this there is always not perfection and really what is perfect? There are indeed those will will do stuff just for a quick buck who don`t really have any passion or love in what they are doing and who are just in it for the money those will always be around.
I for one don`t think about just the money though even when I post here I genuine enjoy doing what I do here and on other platforms and the $ is a bonus on the side. You know when I first became a youtube partner I had my vids montized for awhile but then after awhile took all ads off for quite a gap of time and then later I decided to just put all back on. But then again it was at a time where I had not found my true calling what I truly wanted to do what I was truly passionate about so I did not take what I did on youtube as seriously as I do currently. Still really sucks they did this just when I started to begin taking seriously the whole thing crashes.
Also that is terrible someone took your article post and reposted it I have not personally had something like this happen to me yet not even saw one of the videos I did re-uploaded somewhere by anyone else. Hm is there way to mark any of the stuff you write? or something? like uh imprint ''Gamers Bay'' on it or something similar to help prevent stuff like that or no?
Its very true that people have a real want and need to be rewarded for their hard work. Looking at the comparisons between YouTube and Google+ just further compounds the results that can be expected from a platform that rewards its users (YouTube) vs. the platform that doesn't (Google+). As noted in the article, the lack of incentive often leads to a lack of interest, and this is why social platforms fail.
At the end of the day, people have bills to pay, and the average person cannot afford to work for free. Likewise, while the average social user is a passive one, someone still has to create the content the public consumes on social media, and others have to work to manage those platforms. In the case of Google+, I actually fit both roles, though I'm never rewarded for it, and there's no incentive given.
As for YouTube, the incentive to invest time and energy there has somewhat evaporated over time. Its really no longer possible to make a living there with ad revenue alone. It definitely puts creators in a tough spot, how do we sustain ourselves? We recently implemented a Patreon account for Gamers Bay, but Patreon itself is hardly reliable, and there's no guarantees that a crowdfunded approach to monetizing will work. In fact, for most it does it.
As for the risk of content being stolen, we have taken measures to help protect our content, including the use of Gamers Bay's logos in the videos we produce. In the case of the article that was stolen, that was actually from a different brand I operate, Strategic Social Networking. They scraped the article off of Medium and republished it here on Steemit. In that case, we're submitting a DMCA take down notice, and wholeheartedly plan to take aggressive legal action against those who attempt to undermine our hard work.
Yeh you pretty much summed it up well I can relate to the whole (youtube) vs (google+) thing well back before this whole partnership mess came about I had barely used google+ at all and invested most of my time into youtube. The want of a reward in the end is really there. And yeah I imagine Patreon is very hard to get moving in fact I am not even sure how some people make their patreons work out well for them because some get a good amount flowing through.
And that is good you guys are putting a ''Gamers Bay'' logo into any videos you do so that way no one takes them cause you never know I wish you luck with getting that republished article taken down. Also dunno if you know but i wanna give you a hand for ideas of extra ways to get $ coming to any and all you guys platforms you ever thought of opening a merch shop? Where you place any designs onto either shirts or various other items?
I know of 3 such places right now Spreadshirt, Zazzle and Threadless. of the 3 of them from the knowledge I gathered Threadless would be best bet then 2nd Spreadshirt and lastly Zazzle. It would be neat seeing Gamers Bay themed stuff all about I think you guys could possibly pull it off and you have the advantage of having many of you able to do so since Gamers Bay is a huge group of everyone working together.
We thought about using Spreadshirt for merchandise, but I haven't heard of Threadless, that's a new one to me. Merchandising can really help too I think. What I like about such services is that you don't have to handle any packing or shipping, and the produce the products ordered on the fly! It really keeps the process simple.
As for Patreon, yeah, I have my doubts, but we're going to see what happens I guess. We do have over 500 videos, so we've started adding the patreon links to cards and end screens. Luckily we get out patreon links cut off like so many others have. Google no longer allows channels who weren't previously monetized to use them, which I think is scandalous. First Google cuts off everyone's ad revenues, then tells them they can't use crowdfunding, not right.
Yeah that is what I like about those sites too all you have to do is place the custom design and just pretty much make sure the image is correct on it and such so it is set up good that is all. No expense stress on you and your custom item will always be there so is always a source of potential income!
I am thinking of joining threadless soon I do have a Zazzle shop open but Zazzle isn
t so good and so far I have next to no views on my stuff or purchases but is sorta my fault too for my lack of actually actively promoting my store. Lets just say I bit off more than I could chew right now and didn`t fully understand what needs to go into things like this ya really gotta promote,promote and that is something I am not so good at yet.Ah and that is good you know I never really bothered with end screen on youtube never used them are they similar to how outros of some videos are used? sounds like it since you can add links and such to videos. too bad though like you said google is taking away end screens and cards from people who already had them like us I mean wtf? is like adding salt to the wounds bad enough they removing all monetizing and now on top of that all the tools we could use to help with channel growth. It
s almost as if they are sending the message we dont want nor care about smaller channels anymore and all of us can go and burn for all they care.You should use ends screens and cards in as many videos as possible to promote your other videos. End screens have really proven themselves worthy for us. They can keep viewers on your channel longer, and they're great for promoting things like Patreon as well.
Hm I see they are more useful than I thought hmm I should atleast test them out before google takes them away from us there is still a bit of time so I better use it.
I don't think they're going to take them away. You can still use end screens even after monetization ends. It turns out it was just the ability to link to external sites they were doing away with. And even that rule seems to only apply to channels who weren't previously monetized, so you should be good.