You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Steemigram - Monetize Your Instagram Account
Thanks a lot for mentioning this app !
I'm the developer behind it, sorry the site looks unprofessionnal, a new version is coming out this week-end and it will be better (not yet perfect in terms of design as it's not my specialty, but it will at least be a little more "pleasant" to the eyes and better organized).
For the shortcodes (personalization of the title), the system I chose wasn't really good as a lot of people didn't manage to make it work. You have to put the word in question (STEEMIT, INSTAGRAM, DATE, DATETIME) in between 2 underscores and in full caps. For example :
__DATE__will be replaced by the date when posted on Steemit. The system will change with the new version that will be pushed in production this week-end.
Stay tuned as a lot of new features are coming this week-end, I'm hoping to make your experience using the app more simple, fluid and easy.
Two days ago I had a conversation with someone about whether it would be possible to turn things around and 'plug in' SteemIt to an existing site instead of creating a dApp and plug it into SteemIt. I don't know anything about coding, but I didn't think it was possible.
And then yesterday, someone showed me your app. Obviously I was wrong, and it is definitely possible.
Although it may not be perfect (yet) - I did use the shortcode 'STEEMIT' in caps and with underscores twice, without success - it is definitely the biggest step towards mass adoption I've seen so far. All other apps are working from the inside out (from SteemIt to the world outside), while you have done the exact opposite: with your app, you're targeting Instagram users, inviting them to start using the Steem blockchain.
Once the app is fully-featured, and the layout has been improved (if that's not your specialty, you should be able to find someone who can help you out with it or do it for you - I think finding someone can't be that difficult), it's a matter of setting up a good marketing campaign to get the word out. Personally I think that the promotion should mainly be focused on Instagram. After all, the more Instagram users know about the app, the more people will start using the blockchain.
When the price of Steem reaches a decent value again, I really think this could go viral and have a huge impact on the number of people signing up and the amount of transactions happening on the blockchain.
I've always believed in the strength and the possibilities of the Steem blockchain, but now I have seen it is possible to connect to Instagram, one of the most popular social media sites around, I think the possibilities are even bigger than I could ever imagine.
This could be the start of a very bright future for this blockchain.
If I'm not mistaking, Instagram is owned by Facebook. Would it somehow be possible to implement the same system for other popular social media sites in the future??
Anyway, even if it's only Instagram, we're talking about 500 million daily active users...
If you can set up (or get someone to set up) a good promo campaign and are able to reach like 1%, or even just 0.1% of those users, that's an aweful lot of people.
I think the idea you ececuted was pure genious!
Thanks a lot for your extensive answer. Some of your concerns were already ours and will be resolved in the version that is to come.
For the shortcode, I don't know why it didn't work. I modified the system and I hope the new one will be easier to use. As you modified your post to correct the titles, I can't see how you did it to understand why the current system didn't work for you.
For the layout, of course it wouldn't be hard to find someone, but the fact is that I want to improve myself in that area, so even if it takes a little bit more time (and isn't as good as an expert else could do at first), it's really something I want to do by myself to get some new skills.
You're not mistaken : Instagram is owned by Facebook. For the version that will be deployed this week-end (it's 2 days maximum from now on), Twitter will also be functional (so exactly the same system, but with Twitter) and YouTube will come maybe 3 or 4 days after that. We will ask the question then to know what social media outlet(s) users would want to see next, and in what order (priorities).
Yes any pecentage of Instagram users coming to Steem would mean a x times price increase on Steem and I think that's something we all want.
Yes, sign-up process is now the biggest problem for mass adoption, but it should be resolved soon with HF20. A tutorial explaining Steem simply and not requiring a 20-minute read would be a God-sent !
I guess I have found my new heroes :0)
I hope you do realize what an impact this app could have...
Yesterday, I told your colleague that I noticed you had already convinced joeparys. He used to be a professioal marketer, you know. Could always come in handy.
I'm dropping some notes here and there, because I think when you've got your final product, you guys deserve a promo campaign of the same professionalism as steemmonsters... at least.
I can understand you want to try to get the design right yourself - I would feel the same - but the project deserves a huge , professional promo campaign.
And for the design, i'm not an expert, just know the basics, but in the past I earned a living from buying unstyled scripts , give them a makeover and built a website around them.
As I say I am not an expert, and my knowledge is limited, but if you need help figuring out how to get the design done, I would be happy to maybe brainstorm with you and share my limited knowledge with you...
Maybe I should start looking for existing easy-to-follow guides people can use to get to learn how exactly they can earn money through the app - or maybe I should start writing some myself.
It would be a shame to lose potential users, simply because there's not an easy tutorial around. I might have an idea for a quick and informative intro but for that, i need to find out more about HF20 and the changes that come with it first...
We're still far from a "final product" but the idea is taking shape. I also think that it's the marketing that will make the difference (but that's not my area, I'm a developer not a communicator, that's more @sebbbl's subject). But I'm very happy about the returns we have and the encouragements we're getting. We have no doubt about the potential "game-changer" this app is and that's why we're spending a lot of time on it and won't stop until the product is "finished".
For the design, I was really occupied with back-end programming so I couldn't spend too much time on front-end, but that will be changing next week so I will have much more time for that. But let's speak on Discord to see if you have some general idea about what you'd like to see, what is your idea of something that could be "marketable".
And for the guide, we're gonna make a quick and easy-to-follow video explaining how to use our service (once the design is a bit more "established" so we don't have to make a new one every three days :D ) but nothing on Steem as a whole (at least for now).
I don't know a lot about coding, but experimented with some simple scripts a couple of years ago. It's perfectly normal that you need a script to work before you spend time on the design.
When it comes to promoting it once it's finished, I think it wouldn't cost a lot of effort to convince some 'big guys' to help you out with that. They will see the potential.
But there's no need to rush into things: you"ll be better off with a finished and working script before you start a huge promotion. You don't want people to find bugs, because that has a negative effect on the user experience and will effect your credibility.
One step at a time will brinhg you a long way.
I already decided I will be delegating some SP after the offical release. It won't be a huge deal, but I assume every little bit would be useful once you start with the curation trail.
I think it would be a good idea to post about improvements pretty often, so people who have enough SP to give out bigger delegations can follow up. Plus, it'a a way to grow your own SP
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks in advance for the delegation.
You said it all. For now, we're focusing on having a viable and finished product to ensure a smooth user experience and no annoyance that could make us lose a lot of users as the smallest bug nowadays can make a "customer" leave at once and never come back. Here, being already part of an experiment, people are much more open and understand that nothing is perfect at first try.
When that is done we will focus on the marketing side (making the site as beautiful and pleasant as we can and promoting it the best we can, and of course we will solicit all the help that is offered to us).
For the updates, as there's is still a lot of things to do, they will be regular, don't worry about that.
Wow man. I’m going to be following this project and trying it out. I personally might not use them as much since I don’t really use social media off the Steem blockchain, but this is obviously huge.
Brilliant work.
I agree that the developers are opening a lot of doors for mass-adomtion with this tool. And they told me that Instagram was only the first major social media sites. If everything goes according to plan, we will soon see an implementation with sites like Twitter abd FB too :0
Posted using Partiko Android
(European Central Time :D )
Thanks a lot for your encouragements !
Now all we need is that SteemIt simplyfies the signup process, and makes sure there are some easy-to-find, non-techie tutorials available on how the system of earning Steem works... Maybe that will be the biggest hurdle of all, lol