Social media is a major component of the Internet and has already transformed how humans communicate and interact. Looking to take things to the next level, a few projects are trying to combine social media with the blockchain.

sources:https://news.bitcoin.com/facebook-next-gen-social-media/

Blockchain-based social media platform Steemit  has gained quite a following in the past few months. The project was  built by Daniel Larimer, the founder of Bitshares, using graphene  architecture. The company is also led by Ned Scott, who is a technical  analyst with a background in financial data.  Steemit launched in March 2016 with  moderate enthusiasm from the community and a small following. It has  since been a hot topic in cryptocurrency circles and social media.  During the summer, Steemit attracted a lot of artists, writers, and vloggers to the platform because it pays people  for sharing content. People have been paid thousands of dollars  per post in some instances, with the most popular articles netting close  to $15,000 USD

The platform, which combines the concepts of Facebook, WordPress, and  Reddit, operates on the Steemit blockchain and uses three types of  crypto-tokens: 

Steem Power gives users the ability to throw their  weight around on the platform. The more power you have, the more  significant your vote will be when you upvote a post or even a comment.  Comments have been seen to be upwards of $20-40, so all interaction is  rewarded. 

Steem is a token that powers two smart contract protocols similar to Ether’s gas,  and is tradable on cryptocurrency markets. The token is supported on  exchanges like Bittrex or Poloniex. However, holders also have the  option to use their coins to boost their Steem Power.. 

Steem Dollars are designed to be pegged to $1 USD  and be the equivalent of one dollar’s worth of Steem for conversion over  the platform. On cryptocurrency exchanges,  SBD’s can be seen trading for a dollar or less depending on the current  market value. So, in essence, it makes more sense to use the system’s  seven-day conversion over a third-party exchange, though lots of people  cash out their content earnings elsewhere.