Introducing Steemit to a new audience is not easy, it can be very hard if your audience is a Nigerian. WHY? Easy, Nigerians are used to Facebook because it has been here for a long time and has outlived many.
Recently, we started a campaign to take Steemit to Nigerians with a proposed Steem Meetup READ HERE, and in line with our campaign to deliver 20million Nigerians on the Steemit platform by 2018, we have created a unique tag to spearhead the campaign tagged #project20millionNaija. Naija is a local parlance we use to address ourselves as Nigerians and we decided to adopt this name.
The team #Project20millionNaija have been going into the towns and major city centers to educate people about the new kid on the block called Steemit and how they can spend their time on social media and earn quite some reasonable amounts of monies doing so instead of spending so much on data daily, weekly and monthly to Like, Comment and Connect for no benefit other than the fact that they are there.
Banners and T-Shirts will be released in the coming days and you will be the first to see them.
THE CHALLENGES
The campaign has been successful with quite a number of individuals RSVPing our invite to the upcoming Steem Meetup holding towards the end of the month.
While we have been able to get some signed on the platform, others are still skeptical about this magic that they are being told about; They don't trust Steemit will be there for the long haul; They fear the Federal Government will ban Bitcoin has it has severally warned Nigerians against investing in Cryptocurrencies and they ask questions like:-
What does Steemit really do that they will pay you money to "Like" somebody's post?
How long will Steemit be around for?
Is Steemit not a scam? How do we get our money out?
Has the Federal Government approved the operations of Steemit in Nigeria?
Why does it take long to get registered?
If they are not paying you for bringing people why are you spending your money campaigning it?
The questions most times get really annoying, but we have to answer because they are questions that deserve answers, even if sometimes you are called a scam.
Anyone heard about the MMM scam? Well, Nigerians lost millions in that one ponzi that came at first as a sweet deal. In the last 3 years, Nigerians have been known to lose over a Billion Naira to Ponzi schemes.
Okay, let me tell you a little bit about my people so maybe you can appreciate where the whole apprehension is coming from. Nigerians are passionate people who are ready to support your dreams and programs once they believe it is legit. If the offer comes from a foreign body or organization, it scales through 100%. Apart from being supportive and dedicated to following, most Nigerians are more gullible than smart in every sense of the proceeding transactions they tend to embark on. (I am not going to explain that, just do the math). In other words, Nigerians are too acquiescent.
Selling the Steemit dream has never been the problem and we don't see it being any problem because out of every 3 Nigerians you approach with "a good idea", you are sure to get at least ONE Acolyte with no questions asked.
The challenges are enormous because there is a familiarity of Steemit's too good to be true offerings in our hearts as they come good and the next minute they leave us heartbroken save for one..., Facebook.
SOLUTIONS
From the top of our heads and given our knowledge of our kinsmen, we have come up with quite some few strategies to tackle the immediate apprehension of Steemit being an unknown product. We will still welcome more and work in that pattern until we prevail.
- Continue on the campaign objective by going all out to register one person per time(so far we have been getting some results through this means, but account verification takes time)
- Focusing our campaign more in the University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt Polytechnic, Rivers State University and Rivers State Polytechnic. We already contacted the SUG of one of the schools and planning meets.
- Throw more awareness about the upcoming Steem Meetup. 2 radio interviews is being planned, arrangement has been made to use a small union of skaters to do a one day rally where they will be wearing the Steemit T-Shirt.
- Provide free WiFi for the opening of Steemit accounts. This one we found to be very helpful as the last number of persons we sign on the platform were excited when we offered to use our internet data for them.
- Collaborate with other steemians of Nigeria Origin to get the people excited by using their various other social network platform to share their victory.
- Continue talking until we achieve our goal and that is 20million Nigerians by 2018.
- (This one is for Steemit to do), HELP MAKE ACCOUNT OPENING FASTER AND SWIFT.
We believe that this venture is a good that will surpass its creators and we are committed to this cause. Join us and help make it a reality.
The #Project20millionNaija team is made of young Philanthropic Nigerians who cut across various sectors of the economy in terms of professional qualification. We have jobs, but will like to do this more as a means of giving back to the economy what those ahead of us failed to give and that is the DESIRE TO BE NATION BUILDERS
To contribute your support towards the success of this worthy campaign, PLEASE upvote and resteem this post which will herald the start of over 7.2million daily visits from Nigeria alone.
You are definitely onto something, and I love your ambitions!
I personally think Nigeria has good possibilities on steemit since you have a big English speaking population, and extra smart of you guys going after the young and educated mass in the university's! will be very interesting to follow.
I am trying to get most of my refugee friends with good English to join Steemit too, both as a way of getting them to express themselves, and hopefully as a way of bypassing the racism now boiling in Europe, so that they do not have to work in slavelike conditions.
Hopefully one day soon people will actually be able to break free from their shackles!
thanks for the kind words. I am happy you are thinking of doing some good too for your community despite the very unpleasant conditions that may be hovering around. Do your part and never see yourself as less than the other and you will be the better for it.
Very 9ce work!
This is very nice
thanks. how the rain in lagos, hope your house didn't get swept away in the flood? please resteem this post to your follows and try promoting it.
ok. the flood didnt. i made a post of the pictures from the flood. you might want to check it out
Make sure to tell them about plagiarism.
Unfortunately, most Nigerians I see, post plagiarism.
it in the works, everething to get the best is what we preach on #Project20millionNaija
Have you met me? 😊
I'm not saying all lol. I've just see. An influx of Nigerian plagiarism lately.
Lol. Yeah sure I know exactly what you mean 😄
*smiles
Oneness, togetherness, I concur!
Nice work my brother, happy to meet you here, I've upvoted and followed, lets lookout for our brethren and support them here. ONE LOVE. From @maxdevalue.
Well this seems like a good initiative. Best of luck!
Nice initiative @ejemai..20 million target, that's a huge step you have taken.I believe your problems will be a thing of the past. I'm in Ghana. Follow me at @jakemore. More grease to your elbow
@ejemai you indeed have a great idea in open up this project but I forsee an abusivement in it by Nigerians. Most Nigerians are not good bloggers ...
Keep it up guy but don't forget to create a trend on nairaland.
Thanks
i strongly believe in the steemit platform, i envision it growing to become the number one social media hangout spot. people naturally enjoy networking and socializing online, knowing they can also get paid to do the things they love is an extra boost. the #project20millionnaija sure needs lots of support to hit its mark. let's make this go viral.