Steemigram - Monetize Your Instagram Account
Steemigram is a brand new tool tat allows you to monetize your Instagram post by posting them to the Steem Blockchain.
Growing The SteemIt Community
Earlier this week, a brand new app was released. Steemigram targets the 1 billion Instagram users by providing them with an easy way to cross-post their Instagram uploads to the Steem blockchain. This allows them to monetize their Instagram feed on complete autopilot.
Since the Instagram users can post to the blockchain without having to leave their favorite app, Steemigram might be able to attract hundreds of thousands of new users in the near future.
Simple SteemConnect Login
The founders of Steemigram were able to develop a special front end secured with SteemConnect. This means Instagram users who want to use Steemigram will still need to create a SteemIt account to be able to log in to the app.
The app only needs to be set up once, so there's almost no extra work involved.
The App
Once the user as logged into the Steemigram app using Steemconnect, he is redirected to a form, in which just a couple of details need to be filled in.
In my opinion, the landing page could use a little TLC. I think it looks a little unprofessional. The layout could use some improvements, and the spelling errors should be corrected. A little makeover would definitely be necessary if they want to go mainstream.
Here's what the user gets to see:
Click image to enlarge
Fields:
1 - SteemIt username: the username of the account you used to log in with SteemConnect.
2 - Instagram username: the username of the Instagram account you want to use.
3 - The SteemIt Title: this title will be used for every Instagram post you send to SteemIt, unless you log into the Steemigram app every time to change it.
4 - 4 shortcodes that can be used to personalize the title. (I've tried using them twice, but they didn't work.)
5 - Button to activate or deactivate crossposting.
6 - Save button.
That's all there is to it.
Personally, I couldn't get the shortcodes to work, but maybe I did something wrong...
Once you've filled in all fields, click the 'Save' button. Now you can close the app.
Crossposting To The Steem Blockchain
Once the Steemigram app is set up, you can use your Instagram account like you always do.
If you want to monetize a picture by posting it to the blockchain, all you need to do is add #steemigram as your first hashtag.
Here is how your post on SteemIt will look like:
You can see the live post here
Conclusion
The app still needs a bit of work, but the fact that it allows crossposting from an external site will have a major impact on the Steem blockchain. Imagine this being possible with a site like Facebook or Twitter...
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://mysteemworld.com/steemigram-monetize-your-instagram-account/
Hi @simplymike,
Thanks for giving it a try and your very detailed post about Steemigram. The concept is in beta stage, which partially explains the unprofessional aspect of the website, and our mother language is French, so sorry for mispelling.
If you have suggestions (and I'm sure you will) you can get in touch with us on discord :
https://discord.gg/p33ZeA
And stay tuned, we have much more for you in the coming days...
Hey @sebbbl
I've just written a lengthy reply to @algo.coder.
When I visited his account afterwards, I noticed there were two of you (and noticed your profile info was written in French. Are you from France?). So my reply is of course also meant for you. You can read it here
I'll join the Discord in a sec.
I was just thinking.... once the app has been updated and the design has been improved, I think I might be able to help you get the word out about it here on SteemItt. It's not that I know the big guys personally, but I know people who do...
Oh, I just noticed you've already got Joeparys in your pocket. And I think it was hitmeasap who told me about your app. I don't know if you know, but both have been (or maybe still are) professional marketers.
That might be a good thing to remember :0)
(Edit: I guess it was dynamiccrypto who told me about your project, and not hitmeasap)
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 :
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
Lovely post, keep it up. Kryptonia id @chetachi26
Thanks!
I totally like the idea, and think it is a good one...
But, since you need the #steemigram as the first tag, you cannot enter your picture into photocontests and such...
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thanks for your input.
A lot of changes coming this week end, and this will be one of them (the #steemigram tag will be put at the last position, #5 being the maximum, except if users put it in an earlier position in their instagram posts)
Looking forward to Seeing the changes!
I understand the remark @bjornb is making, but personally I think that, from a marketing point of view, it would be better to have users use the #steemigram tag as their first tag on Instagram. Especially in the beginning, when few people know about the app.
I'm not such a fanatic instagrammer - I rarely use it - but when I do, I don't read the tags people are adding to their post. The only one I see is the first one, because that's the clue that the caption has ended.
I think for maximum exposure, both on SteemIt and Instagram, it should be the first tag.
@bjornb: I see your point. I'm not really an expert on photocontests, but isn't it often the first OR second tag? And sometimes you must make choices. I'm a member of a couple of communities that require to use their tag as the first tag to get your post resteemed. I can't use all of them as my first tag, so every post I make, I have to make a choice...
Duly noted.
For the version that is to be deployed really soon, the #steemigram tag will be where the user wants it to be (it will just be put to the 5th place in case it's put in a later position by the user). But if the user puts it in first, it will be in first place.
It's clear that as you said, putting it in first position would help with exposure, but if the possibility of putting it at a greater position can also bring people who can continue participating in the communities they were implicated with, it's gonna be a tight arbitration.
This is just a guess in thd dark, but maybe you could offer an incentive for putting it in first place - I don't know if this could be possible using the curation trail, but I think it's worth checking out
That's a good idea, it could be factored into the curation trail to reward those promoting the project (but you will see really soon - tomorrow I think, monday at the maximum, we're just in the final tests but everything is ready - that there's gonna be a big incentive to promote it outside of the curation trail too).
Exciting. Can't wait :0)
Posted using Partiko Android
That's great. It will help to bring a lot of people on Steemit.
Thank you so much @simplymike for sharing this!
You're welcome. I agree that this is a huge step towards mass adoption.
We are SO proud to have you as a member of our
FANTABULOUS @steemitbloggers family!
uvoted and resteemed!
❤ MWAH!!! ❤
interested in joining the Steemit Bloggers Community?
Thanks again. I know this is a copy/paste message, but it always makes me feel special, lol
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不錯的介紹
steemit的應用程序太多了
就是需要你這種文章
讓我了解了Steemigram應用程序
Impressive! Definitely a lot of people going to jump with joy...
I'm afraid so, lol. I'm not really one of them. On the other hand, it is a massive step towards mass adoption...
Indeed! Imagine the volume.
Hey, @simplymike.
I've wondered if there might be some developers out there that would do something like this, other than steempress. In my opinion, connecting to STEEM from other established social media sites is the fastest way for STEEM adoption, especially when the dApps available, while functional, are not in the same league. Nor could they be without more time and resources.
That said, we've been experiencing an influx of short form media, there's already dApps that are Instagram clones, and while length of a post doesn't automatically equate to high quality, neither does taking a selfie in a bathroom mirror. Somewhere, it would be nice to find the happy medium.
Instagram is owned by Facebook, so maybe that's a next step? That I wouldn't mind. I'm not a fan of Facebook, mainly because you can't ever get your posts out to all your followers or friends, but there's more of a variety of posts capable on it than any other social media 2.0 platform.
I'm dreaming, but I know it. :)
Just the other day I was discussing whether it would be possible to 'plug in' into existing websites. To be honest I thought it couldn't be done. But then just one day later this thingy pops up.
I've had the discussion about the short form media with taskmaster4450 last week. I'm not a fan, although I plead guilty of using Dlike and Steepshot every once in a while. I don't like what SteemIt is turning into. Last week someone called it an 'everything bucket'.
It gets harder to find a decent blog post each day.
But after talking to taskmaster4450, I had to change my point of view: if we ever want to achieve mass adoption, those dApps and their non-blogging content are the way to go.
I just hope someone creates a separate blogging dApp some time in the near future. An interface where you don't have to go through all the meaningless content to find a 'real' post. Then SteemIt can grow further in the direction it's going now, an everything bucket, but I can just enjoy reading and writing blog posts.
Creating a separate blogging dApp, it should be possible - I guess it's just a matter of finding the right person to give that idea to. I think there are plenty of people who would be more than happy to have a way to avoid all that other content and to be able to focus on blogs again.
It would be like the 'old' SteemIt, but then as a side-platform, instead of the main platform.
I think there's different ways to go about doing what you say. A more robust filtering system on any of the blogging apps would be one, where you could filter out tags, since most of these posts are using the dApps tag so they can get the upvotes.
For me, it dilutes the value of everything to have all of these no-thought posts flooding in, especially since I know they're getting their rewards from the same reward pool as everyone else.
And that's probably the reason why we keep seeing them show up. They don't have their own reward pool, so things dump into Steemit/Busy/Steempeak, etc., where we're trying to do some actual blogging.
I'm sure it's also about gaining users. If they're left to their own devices, will they get followers as fast as they do if they're constantly showing up with the rest of the churn? Probably not.
I've been trying to be a part of the minnowuprising that taskmaster4450 wants, but dang it, there's so much dLike stuff in it by the same four or five people over and over again that I got tired of it. I want to support people, but a photo that may or may not have attribution and a simple two line caption does not reach my standard of quality. I can't even say it's original. In my mind, it's just another dMania.
In the meantime, there isn't much picking and choosing going on as far as whale delegation goes when it comes to these dApps. Is there a form you have to fill out? Any requirements? Or do just somehow have to bend the ear of the CEO for a few minutes?
It is true, the reward pool isn't getting bigger.
I am guilty of taking from that reward pool by posting low quality content through apps like dlike, Steepshot and Appics (which is awful btw - you can't even add text in the app, only a title), on my alt account.
But I made the mistake of subscribing to a couple of community bots for a month with that account, so I need to make sure I get some posts out. And I simply don't have time to properly take care of my own account (of which the quality of posts hasn't been up to standard either these last two weeks), the newbiegames account and the alt account. Once the subscription has ended, it will become more dormant again.
But it's like I said, we don't have a choice. If it weren't for those dApps, SteemIt, and maybe the entire Steem blockchain, would be dying, or would be dead already. There are so many things so very wrong with the SteemIt community - even before the dApps arrived - that it was killing itself.
And about the minnowuprising... both the previous time in July and earlier this week, I warned taskmaster4450 the platform would be flooded with those low quality posts. Lol, he did not reply to my comment, but that very same day he wrote this post.
How's that for an answer, lol?
I can't say he's wrong, though. It is one or the other. But I'm not so sure what I'd prefer. I think I'd rather go for a low price of Steem and an improved version of SteemIt like it was when I started 10 months ago, instead of Steem being worth $10, but with loads more crappy content. (In spite of the fact that I have invested pretty much into Steem, and I'm losing a lot of money now the prrice is this low)
Now, since I don't browse through SteemIt that often, I don't see a lot of content that is not a blog post. I have a list of authors set up in Ginabot so i can follow up on them, I read blog posts I find in Discord channels (which I need to read if I want to promote my own links) and I'm spending loads of time on replying to comments or writing posts. So I actually miss most of the other things.
The last part of your comment is not clear to me
I'm not sure I fully get what you mean. (It might be because it is 3am again, and my brain starts shutting down a little, lol)
re: last part
Well, I was just questioning what criteria there might be for dApps to get major delegation from the Steemit controlled misterdelegation or even ned himself. I personally haven't seen much rhyme or reason to it, other than, hey, it's another dApp! Let's fund it! (It helps to smile and make a thumbs up when you say that last part.)
I know it's easy to criticize from the peanut gallery, but I was in business for myself for 15 years. Even without that experience, most of us would say a brand new company or organization should have something going for it before they partner up with an established, fully functioning business, even one as young as STEEM/it, no matter how desperate they are for players.
After DLive, while I'm not upset as most, I think there's a bar that needs to be raised retroactively. You stick with us for a certain period of time, you meet certain user requirements, some standard level of quality, some level of growth (meaning you power up your account) and you can't jump ship. You can open up to other blockchains, but you can't just leave. Unless you shut down.
I agree with taskmaster4450 more than I don't, and I always find his posts relevant and interesting. I like his cheerleading for STEEM. He makes good points.
I probably would have worded the post about the quality issue a little differently, though. There's no need to encourage substandard posts, even for the sake of a minnow uprising. That turns off the long time users who might have some SP and actually vote for the increased posting, and I would hope it would make at least some of the minnows and red fish take pause.
There is such a thing as value setting. We all do it, and that becomes the line we won't cross. I need some words. It doesn't have to be 1,000, but at least 400 would be nice. A photo with attribution that isn't google search or something like that. If it's English, it would be nice to be grammatically correct, spelled and punctuated, but if it's interesting, compelling, timely, thought provoking, I can live with all lower case, all ran together. If it's none of those things, along with being incoherent, forget it.
Plus, I didn't think the idea was to make STEEM into another social media wasteland, but raise the bar. Take it back to the golden age of blogging at least a bit, before anyone anywhere could just simply start sharing the same mindless meme over and over again.
If it were me (and I might even make a post myself) I would say make sure it's original content, shoot for the best you can make, but do it in as little time as possible. Two hour limit, max. I've been breaking my own rule the last few days and I've got nothing out of it so far. it's worth the time to come up with good content to build the audience. It's not worth the time to put out your best stuff that's going to take longer until you have the audience.
People might disagree with me on both ends of the spectrum, but I think there's a point called good enough, and that's where you start.
And besides. There hasn't been a focus on quality since I got here. Lip service, flags, yes. Focus? No. The flaggers tend to pump out the worst drivel, just because they can get away with it. Cult of personality over quality. Lord of the Flies.