Marketing for Steem: Let's get to the basics
As some of you might have noticed, the price of steem is quite low. Basically this means there is more supply than demand. Having a lot of supply in the markets is natural in a system like this, because a lot of users earn steem and then want to buy something with it. The problem is in the demand side of equation.
So how we get more demand?
I've been following the work of Dan Larimer for a few years now more or less closely. Before Steem I read pretty much all of his posts at his blog and at Bitsharestalk forum and listened to Beyond Bitcoin hangouts when he spoke. So I know quite well that he is a real genius and can design and deliver great blockchain products.
But Dan's problem has been always marketing. He hasn't been able to do it himself and he has partnered with people who are more or less bad at it also. Of course he can't be blamed for all of it, for example Bitshares has wide variety of shareholders who had different opinions and many of them sucked very badly. That's why Bitshares is in really bad shape currently compared to what it could be.
That's why I think the Steemit community needs to take some responsibility of marketing efforts. Of course we all have been doing it more or less ourselves by telling about Steemit to all of our friends etc. But something more focused and consentrated effort is needed. Decentralized marketing needs sometimes centralized efforts. If we don't make any effort in marketing, the demand for steem will stay low and the price of steem won't go any higher.
Here is my proposal for a few things to kickstart things:
Update the whitepaper
Seriously, this is really important. If we want to have good developers to be inspired and big money investors to believe in Steem, we need to have a solid intellectual foundation. Clear communication is one of the most important things in marketing of blockchains. We can't assume that people will be able to find all the relevant information from hundreds of blogposts in Steem, read the code from GitHub, etc.
There needs to be a one authoritative text that explains how Steem works and why it works like that. Current whitepaper is so outdated that there is no point of showing it to newbies. It needs to be rewritten and then updated after every hardfork if there are significant changes.
Update Steem.io
Steem.io is like a homepage for Steem blockchain. It hasn't been updated since the launch. That gives really bad impression of the project. Like it's totally dead or something.
Explain the launch
There is still some controversy and misunderstandings about how the launch was made. We need to make clear why it was made like that so people can't use it as a weapon against us and claim that Steem is a scam. This should have its own page at Steem.io.
Promo video
Recently many users have been noticing how great job Amanda B. Johnson is doing to promote Dash with her videos. I have to agree. Videos with intellectually sound and inspiring message are something that Steem could use in this point. Video is a great way to communicate how Steem works and what it's capable of. We need to tell the world how Steem is going to change everything.
Because Steem is constantly evolving, we should probably get ready to update the video quite often, at least a couple of times a year. It's really bad marketing to continue to send outdated message.
Video should be translated to other languages too.
If you have any ideas how to get things done in Steem marketing, let's hear them!
I have some thoughts on this, but I'll save them for another blogpost for now.
lets get chatting mate :) get the ideas rolling :) are you up for a chat these days I need some help
You can contact me in Steemit chat. I have the same username.
Really good suggestions!
"Update Steem.io" Steemit has indicated plans to do this. Not sure the timeline though.
"Update the whitepaper" I have heard that they are not making this a priority at the moment. If this is going to get done, I think someone in the community (who is knowledgeable enough to do it right) would need to get it done.
I am working on updates to the FAQ page. I will try to include something about "Explain the launch".
"Promo video" - people in the community can definitely do more of this!
Some really good points. There is a lot of focus on getting steem up and running but no marketing.
I do think because the platform is still experimenting with a lot of things it's probably better to wait till there is a more final product to sell before we try bringing in the masses.
I think in the case of Steemit we shouldn't use it as the main focus yet in marketing, but instead focus on explaining the Steem currencies, and the blockchain technology, linking it back to Steemit.
Then when Steemit is ready, we will have a wealth of marketing content to back it up as we create more aimed specifically at promoting it.
We should of course emphasize that this is still under heavy development. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't sell the vision. We need to inspire developers and investors to come to work with us to build this amazing platform together.
I agree. It's the lean startup model. Sell the vision. If you build it they will come...
But they have to know about it and understand it and see it's benefits first.
I agree with your opinion. In the case of hard fork, even if it is delayed a few days, I think that it should revise white paper and publish it at the same time.
yeah, I'm sure it is much more important to update a white paper than to fix technical issues like, i don't know, maybe the problem we keep hearing about when people are trying to sign up?
I'm guessing that rewriting the whitepaper will take some time and it can't be finished very soon. Very likely the next hardfork will happen first. But after that, the whitepaper should be prioritized.
I agree with this.
I agree with you. I have been here for about two months now and I still cannot explain how steemit.com works to my friends. All I can say is that the community is awesome and that they really really have to try it.
But when I hear things like :
It's just too complicated. I don't have a Facebook account anymore and I don't want to sign up on reddit.
Or
I am hardly ever on my pc. And the app is very bad.
I don't even know why you can't sign up via email or why there is no real app.
And when they ask about how the payout works things get even more complicated.
How can we market a platform where the basics are very hard to get for the average Pearson?
Do you know of any good posts I can navigate them to?
Thank you very much in advance :)
You describe very well how bad the marketing has been!
The reason is that every user needs to have some Steem Power to be able to use the platform. That has to come from somewhere and currently Steemit is paying for it. If it was easy to make as much accounts as anybody wants, a lot of accounts would be hoarded. That would bloat the blockchain (a lot of unnecessary data would be created).
Transactions are free in the Steem blockchain because they are rate-limited. Users can make only a certain amount of transactions in a time period (more SP user owns, more transactions he can make). This is how spam is prevented. Other blockchains use transaction fees to fight spam.
Blockchains have always trade-offs. If we want to have a free-to-use blockchain, we need to make accounts expensive.
I get this. But as far as I remember I did only need a Facebook account but also my phone number. I don't think many people have more than one phone. And more importantly if you really want to you can set up multiple Facebook accounts just like with your email.
But I get its ment to bring value to your account.
The thing with email is that it's very easy to create instantly thousands of new accounts. Fake FB accounts are much harder to make, although still possible.
By the way, it's also possible to buy a new account with BTC or LTC: https://steemit.com/steemit/@anonsteem/bypass-steemit-email-phone-verification-with-anonsteem-over-200-users
I've recommended AnonSteem for potential users who can't or don't want to use phone for making a new account.
Very good to know. I will bookmark it. Thank you very much.
This might be a good place to start: https://steemit.com/@steemitguide
@ash has also compiled some lists: https://steemit.com/steemit/@ash/2mffmv-steemit-how-to-s-the-list-cw-8
But I have to admit that I haven't followed very closely what are the best resources for newbies today.
Thank you very much. I will check it out.
The market will come up with something, IF you give the market a strong incentive, see my suggestion in other comment.
https://steemit.com/promotion/@lasseehlers/1-lifetime-referral-reward-on-steemit-does-that-sounds-good-in-your-eyes-suggestion-for-the-devs-and-the-witnesses-implement
Giving 1% lifetime referral reward of the post reward pool, and burn the 1% if there is no referee. This would give a true strong incentive for marketing people to reach all quality content creators of the world. BOOM in no time, Steem and Steemit is promoted to the world.
I could use 1000 more words to explain why this idea is the best solution, but those are the essens of my idea.
Referrals are one way of boosting the marketing.
If I remember correctly, the reasons why it wasn't implemented in the beginning was to keep the blockhain simpler and there were also fears that referral system would cause steemians to spam the rest of the internet too much.
Roadmap 2017 says steem.io is being updated.
It would be nice if we had a projects page for developers and people working on non-tech stuff like community projects, events, podcasts or marketing. It would be beneficial for the average user to be able to find projects and support them through helping out, or donations.
For getting things done I think we would need to create a media production/marketing group, and use an easy system of communication. And also try to involve the community as much as possible
Yeah, but nothing has happened yet.
The problem has been that most users have made individual efforts or worked in temporary small groups. It's essential that we start to focus and centralize our efforts.
Involving the community is not necessarily a good thing. Many times a handful of motivated/skilled/active people can get a lot more done when they are not distracted by others. We can't use Steemit as a platform for this because here is too much noise. And it's also necessary to have notification system to inform all participants what is being done and when. But if there is a notification system that devs and whales use, it will be used for spamming.
So I think there should be a moderated group that is open only for those who are committed to work for the blockchain. Trolls, spammers, and people who can't respect others have to be kicked out before they distract those who are actually trying to get shit done.
Wider community involvement will come when there is actually something concrete that can be used and shared.
Steem and Steemit are fantastic alpha phase products however I believe this is not the right time to launch a marketing campaign. Too many people are frustrated or do not fully understand the functioning of the crypto and the reward system. Hopefully H17 will bring solutions.
By marketing I don't mean just advertisement. It means also that we start to communicate in better ways how the system works so that people can actually understand it.
I firmly believe that in business all communication is marketing – as is lack of communication.
I initiated ten people. Nine left after two to three months. They understood the system, made a few dollars but did not accept the rules of the game: erratic behavior of some whales, bots, monopolization of certain groups as mentioned in https://steemit.com/life/@kevinwong/dictatorship-intolerant-minorities-and-intellectual-idiots. Their overall impression was: it is a Ponzi scheme in disguise. That's why it's so important to change that perception.
I voted your article not because I agree with your article or think you deserve reward, but because I have no other choice.I think many people will vote your article since you are telling hope and future strategy ( which people will love) so I guess your post will get many vote , so I voted your post. ohterwise I would lose my voting reward anyway! So, I won't say your article is shitty one, but honestly your article does not deserve current reward. Can you see the reason of no steem demand?no? Let me explain it for you.Under current Steem economic model, capital investors are forced to give their capital to dumpers(writers)as a reward of shitty article!
Indeed marketing is important, and the dev team can only do so much. If we want things to grow then we must also do what we can, through team effort of developers and community steemit and steem CAN grow.