Steemit Marketing Components : MVP to Proof-of-Concept
Think of Steemit as a Proof-of-Concept
At this point, Steemit has done a lot to establish itself as an alternative to Medium. People think there’s potential but because it isn’t very volatile, perhaps traders stay away. This in turn leads to a very small footprint on social media and within the articles of other publishers around the Web. But it has a mediocre reception in the cryptocurrency community as I have seen it thus far.
This platform still needs to build out a few components to establish Steemit as a finished concept and Steem as a viable solution to other media producers and publishers.
The SMT announcement was just a signal about direction. Perhaps that’s why there was no official date, there are too many other critical elements that need to be fleshed out before Smart Media Tokens would work for a third-party. Steemit is a proof-of-concept, it is living and evolving as we use it but not yet a model ready for adoption by an established media organization.
However, I believe the overall goal of the platform is to illustrate how the token ecosystem can work for those companies. How else will large sums of investment money enter the Steem economy? It won’t be day traders or folks that transfer money out to live.
Hypothetically, even if the goal isn’t to “sell” the token platform to established media organization adopters then how will Steem begin to thrive? The same way all social networks do: advertisers.
Start with Referrals
Many fear a referral system would contribute to a lower overall quality. I disagree and say it would be an excellent mechanism for reward pools. Sure bots could take advantage of this but I doubt they could mobilize eyeballs and users better than established human users spread across the social media landscape. Short of a celebrity jumping onboard, this seems like the best way to get real authentic users onboard.
Just a few days ago @rye05 put together an excellent article on referrals with suitable visualizations, so I won’t replicate any efforts to illustrate how that might work in this article.
Steemit needs to build out an advertising network
It’s the only practical way to immediately begin monetizing internally with external money. Not only for the monetary health of the Steem economy here on Steemit but because the Steem ecosystem will have to prove that it can work with this established component of Web and mobile to an entrenched media company.
These are rudimentary functions that publishers and marketers rely on to drive traffic. They are necessary within this system and for it to translate to existing content channels. In my opinion, this platform has further to go if the Steem token is going to be adopted by third-parties outside the crypto sphere.
Banner ad insertion/placement and promotion within the Steemit community is an excellent testing grounds for data collection as well. Find out how this place competes with the Web at large.
What do you think?
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Personally, I am drawn to Steemit because of NO ADVERTISING. True, you could inject boatloads of money by allowing the media in, but you would also lose some resemblance of control and community. Why not just convert fb to a monetary rewards platform, because that is exactly what Steemit would eventually become, just another facebook. I say stay on course - NO to the media!
I can understand your concern regarding the topic. It's not particularly something I'm in love with either. Obviously Ad Blockers will come into play (which I believe might solve some of your issues at least?).
...unfortunately, I feel like these developments are inevitable either first here on Steemit or eventually downstream within the Steem ecosystem, so I imagine they'd find their way back here. But that seems a little "cart before the horse". I assume anyone giving serious consideration to launching SMT projects is already addressing these concerns, at least on paper.
Your're probably right... media would come in through the back door (downstream) and likely migrate all the way, eventually. Oh well, that's progress for ya! :/
Maybe not banners, but 'suggested' posts in the feed, and in search results?
Like if you have a 10/1 organic content to ads ratio, it might add more money to the reward pool and won't be so uneasy on the eye, I mean you'll basically have to scroll a bit more every few seconds, which isn't much of an effort.
Also, for those haven't noticed, Google Adsense ads appear above the search results, so introducing 'suggested' post ads won't really be something out of the ordinary.
I think these posts will blend in much better than a bunch of banners on every side of the page.
I'm imagining something like author opt-in banner ads only on the actual blog entry pages. Nothing in the actual copy, for the mean time. Maybe test at the top, after post, and bottom of comments sections...just suggestions.
There are already tools we have available to use to send traffic outbound from Steemit. Makes sense to monetize this activity towards the Steem ecosystem instead...
I actually like the fact that there is no advertising on the platform. Essentially, a person is self-promoting and could advertise for an ICO with the promotion feature.
To me, STEEMit is like cryptocurrency as a whole. It is kept up by the community as this decentralized social media platform. Yes, it has its flaws, but how the entire system is governed is what makes it beautiful.
Self promotion is still a form of marketing.
I just see no difference between banner ads, advertorial (that is ever present here already) and click-through animated graphics places in articles. It's all part of the same goal: driving and measuring eyeball traffic.
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That's great - thank you for the approval notification. Looking forward to any ideas this can put into the community.
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It is certainly pleasing to think and say that we love having no advertising in this ecosystem; but what are our ideas about bringing into the space the volume of official money required to keep this ecosystem viable over the longer term? "Will not the SMTs will do that", you ask? In response to this question I recall how my mother would react to the situation in which we now find ourselves: "I want to see that happen; but let us pray".
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Excellent tips for engaging the Utopian community, much appreciate. Also, thank you for the support. Whenever I make a breakthrough here interns of finding a new community or receiving encouraging engagement is really keeps me committed to spending the time on this network creating content.