Some time ago I wrote about Hive being a good way to learn about cryptocurrency. It is an avenue which opens up the opportunity for even the most green of us in this area and it comes at no risk of loss for those who can't afford to be making mistakes with their money. But there is something else that Hive can teach us risk-free, and that is entrepreneurship, in particular business marketing.
Building a business is not an easy task. It requires a certain mindset and this is why the majority of us work for businesses rather than own them. It's also why the majority of new businesses fail within their first year. Capital plays a big part, but if you can't market your business and get customers, it doesn't matter how much money you start with or how good your product is, you will go nowhere. Getting customers is the key to every successful business.
So how can Hive help you learn to do this? Well, it's actually surprisingly simple really. It's something communities constantly try to encourage. Quality and communication.
Image courtesy of @borjan
Simple ways to market yourself
If you've come onto Hive as a content creator, then your content is your product. Your customers are the people who upvote your content. Now we're very lucky here to have several curation projects which seek to support newcomers and try to educate them and keep them here. So, as long as you are contributing quality content, there is a good chance you'll get curated by one of these projects. This isn't something you'd get in the outside world. It's a leg up on your journey on Hive, so make the most of it.
Therefore, the first step of your journey is making sure your product is good. However, there is a limit on the votes available from these curation projects, so if all you do is keep putting your good quality posts out there and nothing else, you'll find that not every one of them gets a vote, meaning that the work you put in might not get you an immediate reward. Also, if you make no effort to market yourself, even those rewards will eventually stop coming in. Why? Because people don't enjoy supporting businesses that ignore them.
The simplest way to build your account on Hive is to communicate and build up relationships with others on Hive. Your first rule should be that if someone comments on your content, then you should respond to that comment. This is akin to retaining customers you've already attracted. There are lots of people who want to reach out their hand and support new creators here, but they'll soon give up on you if you ignore the hand they extend. Why would they waste time with someone who ignores them if there are others who won't? If you look at the posts of these people, you'll likely see that they are well supported with lots of votes on them. So, like them, your next step should be reaching out and supporting other content creators. These are potential new customers. Read or view their content and respond to it in their comments section. If they notice and appreciate it, you might even get a vote on your comment and a visit from them on your blog page. If so, congratulations, you've gained a new customer and just need to retain them by keeping up the first rule.
This is a cycle that you should try to keep up. No successful business stops marketing, even the most well known brands continue to advertise and often improve their product. If your content stays good, then you could get repeat votes, if the quality begins to drop, then you could lose those votes. The more regularly you post and comment, the faster and bigger your account and follower base will grow.
Mistakes to avoid
Don't discount small votes and supporters. When you are starting out and aren't getting huge rewards on Hive, then those tiny votes can seem worthless or pointless. I admit that it can be so much more encouraging when a big whale vote comes in, but these are sporadic. In the long run, having more regular small votes is actually the better result. It builds you a good reputation and that is really important. Many accounts that consistently get good rewards on their posts actually don't often get big whale votes, but instead, they have a lot of people supporting them with smaller votes. It can be surprising how much this builds up.
Don't get impatient and turn to abuse like posting content that isn't your own or posting lower quality rushed content. This might work initially, but the moment you are found out, and you will be, you will lose all support. On Hive, that will also mean that some people will remove any votes you have by downvoting your content. This, in turn, will destroy your reputation further and it's easier to retain a bad reputation than a good one.
The benefits of practising on Hive
The great thing about Hive is that you can practise and learn about all these marketing techniques at your own pace without any monetary cost to yourself. If you find that you aren't cut out for it, then you've lost nothing and you should even have gained some insight into yourself and how the business world works. Hint: it doesn't always go smoothly and not everyone is nice and supportive. At least on Hive, you can walk away for a bit and decide if you want to give up or come back with a bit more resilience.
Real world comparisons
I've often read complaints from people on Hive about whales not supporting them or things not working out as easily as they'd hoped. To this, I would say to think about the real world and whether it would be any different there. Hive is open to being used in whatever way you want to use it, but just as in the outside world, your input will only bring the results of that type of input. So if you want to run Hive like it's a business, then you need to input in the same way as you would run a business and your results will be indicative of that.
Have you ever stopped buying a product you used to love because the quality changed and you no longer liked it? If you drop the quality of your content here on Hive, you can expect to see the same results in the loss of your follower base.
Some final thoughts
If you want something to come to you from others, then you should also ask yourself what you have to offer in return. While we may preach that you shouldn't expect things in return for what you give or do for others, you also shouldn't expect to only take and never give. If you want people to vote on your post and give you rewards, then you should make sure that you have something to give them in return. So figure out what your customers/followers want
If post rewards are what you want, then there is a good chance that others too will want post rewards. Let's be real, this is why many people come to Hive. As you may already know, in order to reward posts you need to have Hive Power (HP), the more you have, the more reward you can give. On Hive, this is actually of benefit to both the person you're rewarding and to yourself because up to half of those rewards will come back to you as more HP. It's a very visual representation of how giving to others can also reward you. This isn't always as visible in the business world, but it is there. So, as much as you may want to power down and take this as earnings, try not to as much as possible if you want to keep doing well in the long term. There will be those who won't support you if you do this constantly.
Be aware that if you live in a first world country, you aren't going to be able to make a living purely from posting on Hive. When I suggest using it as practising marketing for entrepreneurship, I'm not trying to say you can make a living with it, although some people in other countries do. If you are in a country where you can build Hive as a business income, then hopefully, this will help you to build your account on Hive and maybe give you some experiences to take into any other entrepreneurial projects.
Traducción al español con Deepl
Hace algún tiempo escribí sobre Hive como una buena forma de aprender sobre criptodivisas Es una vía que abre la oportunidad incluso a los más verdes en este campo y sin riesgo de pérdidas para aquellos que no pueden permitirse estar cometiendo errores con su dinero. Pero hay algo más que Hive puede enseñarnos sin riesgo, y es el espíritu empresarial, en particular el marketing empresarial.
Crear una empresa no es tarea fácil. Requiere una cierta mentalidad y por eso la mayoría de nosotros trabajamos para empresas en lugar de ser sus propietarios. También es la razón por la que la mayoría de las nuevas empresas fracasan en su primer año. El capital desempeña un papel importante, pero si no puedes comercializar tu negocio y conseguir clientes, no importa con cuánto dinero empieces o lo bueno que sea tu producto, no irás a ninguna parte. Conseguir clientes es la clave del éxito de cualquier empresa.
¿Cómo puede Hive ayudarle a conseguirlo? Bueno, en realidad es sorprendentemente sencillo. Es algo que las comunidades intentan fomentar constantemente. Calidad y comunicación.
Imagen cortesía de @borjan
Maneras sencillas de promocionarte
Si has entrado en Hive como creador de contenido, entonces tu contenido es tu producto. Tus clientes son las personas que upvotean tu contenido. Ahora tenemos la suerte de contar con varios proyectos de curación que tratan de apoyar a los recién llegados, educarlos y mantenerlos aquí. Así que, si aportas contenidos de calidad, es muy probable que alguno de estos proyectos te seleccione. Esto no es algo que conseguirías en el mundo exterior. Es una ventaja en tu viaje por Hive, así que aprovéchala.
Por lo tanto, el primer paso de tu viaje es asegurarte de que tu producto es bueno. Sin embargo, hay un límite en los votos disponibles de estos proyectos de curación, por lo que si todo lo que haces es seguir poniendo tus mensajes de buena calidad por ahí y nada más, te darás cuenta de que no todos ellos reciben un voto, lo que significa que el trabajo que pones en podría no obtener una recompensa inmediata. Además, si no te esfuerzas en promocionarte, incluso esas recompensas dejarán de llegar. ¿Por qué? Porque a la gente no le gusta apoyar a empresas que les ignoran.
La forma más sencilla de construir tu cuenta en Hive es comunicarte y establecer relaciones con otros usuarios. Tu primera regla debe ser que si alguien comenta tu contenido, debes responder a ese comentario. Es como retener a los clientes que ya has atraído. Hay mucha gente que quiere tenderte la mano y apoyar a los nuevos creadores aquí, pero pronto te abandonarán si ignoras la mano que te tienden. ¿Por qué iban a perder el tiempo con alguien que les ignora si hay otros que no lo harán? Si echas un vistazo a los posts de estas personas, verás que cuentan con mucho apoyo y muchos votos. Así que, al igual que ellos, tu siguiente paso debería ser acercarte y apoyar a otros creadores de contenidos. Estos son nuevos clientes potenciales. Lee o visualiza sus contenidos y responde a ellos en la sección de comentarios. Si se dan cuenta y lo aprecian, puede que incluso consigas un voto en tu comentario y una visita suya en la página de tu blog. Si es así, enhorabuena, has ganado un nuevo cliente y sólo tienes que retenerlo manteniendo la primera regla.
Se trata de un ciclo que debe intentar mantener. Ninguna empresa de éxito deja de hacer marketing, incluso las marcas más conocidas siguen haciendo publicidad y, a menudo, mejorando su producto. Si tu contenido sigue siendo bueno, entonces podrías conseguir votos repetidos, si la calidad empieza a bajar, entonces podrías perder esos votos. Cuanto más regularmente publiques y comentes, más rápido y más grande crecerá tu cuenta y tu base de seguidores.
Errores a evitar
No descartes los pequeños votos y apoyos. Cuando estás empezando y no obtienes grandes recompensas en Hive, esos pequeños votos pueden parecer inútiles. Admito que puede ser mucho más alentador cuando llega un gran voto ballena, pero éstos son esporádicos. A la larga, tener más votos pequeños y regulares es el mejor resultado. Te da una buena reputación y eso es muy importante. Muchas cuentas que obtienen buenas recompensas por sus mensajes no suelen recibir grandes votos, sino que cuentan con el apoyo de mucha gente con pequeños votos. Puede ser sorprendente lo mucho que esto se acumula.
No te impacientes y recurras a abusos como publicar contenido que no es tuyo o publicar contenido apresurado de baja calidad. Esto puede funcionar al principio, pero en el momento en que te descubran, y lo harán, perderás todo el apoyo. En Hive, eso también significará que algunas personas te quitarán los votos que tengas bajando tu contenido. Esto, a su vez, destruirá aún más tu reputación y es más fácil conservar una mala reputación que una buena.
Las ventajas de practicar en Hive
Lo mejor de Hive es que puedes practicar y aprender todas estas técnicas de marketing a tu ritmo y sin ningún coste económico. Si descubres que no estás hecho para ello, no habrás perdido nada e incluso habrás ganado algo de conocimiento sobre ti mismo y sobre cómo funciona el mundo de los negocios. Pista: no siempre va todo sobre ruedas y no todo el mundo es amable y comprensivo. Al menos en Hive, puedes alejarte un poco y decidir si quieres rendirte o volver con un poco más de resistencia.
Comparaciones con el mundo real
A menudo he leído quejas de gente en Hive sobre ballenas que no les apoyan o sobre cosas que no funcionan tan fácilmente como esperaban. A esto, les diría que pensaran en el mundo real y si allí sería diferente. Hive está abierto a ser utilizado de la manera que quieras, pero al igual que en el mundo exterior, tu aportación sólo traerá los resultados de ese tipo de aportación. Por tanto, si quieres utilizar Hive como si fuera un negocio, tendrás que hacerlo de la misma forma que lo harías con una empresa, y los resultados serán indicativos de ello.
¿Alguna vez has dejado de comprar un producto que te encantaba porque la calidad cambió y ya no te gustaba? Si bajas la calidad de tu contenido aquí en Hive, puedes esperar ver los mismos resultados en la pérdida de tu base de seguidores.
Algunas reflexiones finales
Si quieres que los demás te den algo, pregúntate también qué puedes ofrecer tú a cambio. Aunque prediquemos que no debes esperar nada a cambio de lo que das o haces por los demás, tampoco debes esperar sólo recibir y nunca dar. Si quieres que la gente vote tu post y te dé recompensas, entonces debes asegurarte de que tienes algo que darles a cambio. Averigua qué quieren tus clientes/seguidores.
Si lo que quieres son recompensas postales, es muy probable que los demás también quieran recompensas postales. Seamos realistas, esta es la razón por la que mucha gente viene a Hive. Como ya sabrás, para recompensar posts necesitas tener Poder Hive (HP), cuanto más tengas, más recompensas podrás dar. En Hive, esto beneficia tanto a la persona a la que recompensas como a ti mismo, porque hasta la mitad de esas recompensas volverán a ti en forma de más HP. Es una representación muy visual de cómo dar a los demás también puede recompensarte a ti. Esto no siempre es tan visible en el mundo de los negocios, pero existe. Así que, por mucho que quieras bajar la potencia y tomarte esto como ganancias, intenta no hacerlo en la medida de lo posible si quieres seguir haciéndolo bien a largo plazo. Habrá quien no te apoye si haces esto constantemente.
Ten en cuenta que si vives en un país del primer mundo, no vas a poder ganarte la vida únicamente publicando en Hive. Cuando sugiero usarlo como práctica de marketing para emprender, no estoy tratando de decir que puedes ganarte la vida con ello, aunque algunas personas en otros países lo hacen. Si estás en un país en el que puedes utilizar Hive como fuente de ingresos, espero que esto te ayude a construir tu cuenta en Hive y quizás te proporcione algunas experiencias que puedas aplicar a otros proyectos empresariales.
Excellent post @minismallholding! I loved reading it and have saved it as a bookmark to recommend it to new users, although it applies to everyone.
They are great tips, and although they seem simple many ignore them, they think that just making the post and leaving it in a community is enough....
As for the topic of "giving" that you mention, it also strikes me that many users have communities they like and post in them frequently, they receive support from the community and yet they do not have the attention to support their community with a delegation, following the trail, contributing ideas, commenting on the posts of other users ... in short, in many ways you can support but they remain only in the "receive".
I think it is important to generate this awareness of giving and receiving in a balanced way.
Thank you for this great contribution and welcome to the Entrepreneurs Community.
@tipu curate 8
Thank you! It was a pleasure to contribute to the community. I had a quick look at the entrepreneur communities available and this is the only active one. It's a credit to all the admin there.
I think the extended give and take part of a business is often missed by some people. They grasp that the initial sale offers a product in return for money, but forget about the extra touch which will lead to further sales. Someone impressed by the service is likely to talk to others about it. Somebody who gets bland, unresponsive service will barely even remember the experience.
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What an amazing write up @minismallholding. I love the way you tied in running a successful business with properly managing a Hive account.
I can say within the 7 years I’ve been on this platform that it has opened up many opportunities for me business wise, skill wise and gaining experience and knowledge. It’s helped me practice and learn to be a better listener and helper as well as gaining management skills with running a community. I’ve ran into some difficult situations where I had to make some hard decisions that was for the betterment of our community; much like the same as an employer would do for the betterment of their business. I can truly attest to how this platform helps gain knowledge and skills that would be necessary in the real entrepreneurial world. Not only that but you have real people here who give real advice and share their experiences with you which helps even further.
This is very true. I’ve noticed the more I’m present here and the more I interact, support others and post, the more support I see show up on my own posts. During the times I was more consistent my follower numbers were constantly rising and I had a constant upvote support where my posts were in the higher payout range. Lately, with me not being able to be present as much I’ve noticed that those things have slowed down. I may not have a constant following rise or higher payouts now but I’m thankful for the continuing support I have from so many people who know me and who have followed me for years (you are one of them and I thank you). It’s true one shouldn’t focus on those big whale votes or get discouraged when they don’t receive them. Building support from many smaller accounts who stick by you is the way to go. Even though I can’t post often I still show up to support those who continue to support me.
I hope many read this one ~
Thank you. If I were to go into more detail, something I would have added is how we are more likely to revisit businesses where we are looked after and the people are lovely. This is the reason why I think that you will always have so much support here, because you are such a lovely, welcoming person. Part of what we are selling on here is ourselves, so I guess we've also got to ask ourselves if our character is attractive. It's all very well to comment and communicate, but do it wrong and you put people off.
Thank you so much. ☺️
Certainly! Negativity will definitely push people away. And as you already stated it’s so hard coming back from a bad rep here.
Good morning @minismallholding. Thanks for this contribution you make to the content creators on Hive and especially to those of us who see the platform as a venture where growing and strengthening ourselves involves more than just creating content.
In a dynamic that can be simple: publish, vote and comment, it easily turns into a weakness when we neglect some of these pillars. As you point out, marketing on Hive becomes a school for developing skills.
'Pillars' is a good description. Neglect just one regularly and your structure won't stand the test of time.
Money attracts more money... that's one of the aspects of Hive that I didn't understand when I first started posting on the platform. Posting good quality content will only get me to a point where I could receive some random upvote from a curation group. It won't happen in every content that I have because like you said, "curation groups also have limitations" and there are plenty of other creators who are also deserving of the support.
That's why I agree with you when you also said that the "small upvotes" would be the better source of income here in Hive because they tend to be consistent in supporting you in the long run.
So building Hivepower is a good way to show the community your commitment to the platform. It will also earn the trust of other users who are also committed to building their accounts here in Hive.
This goes in other aspects of life as well. As @ctrpch once said, "I can tell you how to quickly make a small fortune, start with a big fortune." 😆 Failing that you need to put in a lot of time and work. We are often too seduced by the idea of making lots of money fast, but in reality this doesn't happen unless you win the lottery.
This is practical knowledge, I like it 😅
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I really liked your article, it has great teachings. For me HIVE is a great school, here we learn to improve our content and how to make our way in the world of entrepreneurship. The good thing about HIVE is that everyone can advance, it's a matter of putting effort and interacting with the community. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, dear friend @minismallholding . A big hug from Maracay.
It is. I think our approach to hive reflects on our journey here. A positive approach makes for a positive experience, while the negative approach will make it negative.
Hi @minismallholding This is really a very good role model and an important lesson for every hivers where it all depends on how we use and in detail I read very directed and became an experience even being a professor so that all can be learned well
Thank you very much all of this wishing you the best in this business
Hi @minismallholding,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
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Just as I was thinking, that user joins in with money minded, and not taking it as a social media account...you drop this pitch....
The problem what I see, is that some of whales votes are getting too generic, .... they have only set of user and hardly falls elsewhere.
Certain things are not within our control, so we can only do what is within it and let whales do what they choose to do. I don't even think about it much any more.
Any social media account can actually be used as practice for marketing in this way. I recall trying to teach my daughters similar methods with Instagram. Hive is visually better, because you have the crypto monetary side you can see as well. I think viewing it now from a learning perspective, and hopefully enjoying the social side, is a better approach than focusing on the money. I believe that most of the significant income on here comes from investment rather than posting.
Many thanks as always for your support.
Learning and knowing some social aspect is what kept me alive till now, else I would have seen the door much beforr. This year onward I started looking it as a monetory aspect .....and you can understand how it feels when things are not in our hand even if giving best...... if I influx some amount in wallets those whales started running after.... investment matters. No matter if you make quality posts or shit posts... (BTW this is no frustration just my 6 years experince) 😀 I am chilled as usual....wish uou happy holiday times 🥂🎂🥳
Some great advice, it really boils down to consistency and quality plus engagement. Those are simple but not easy to do as the old saying goes.
I actually heard that saying used recently for losing weight. It's very apt. The concepts are simple, but it's not always easy for us to implement them.
Losing weight is easy and it’s got nothing to to with eating less and exercising more, that’s a path to misery
All that you have mentioned in this post are nothing but the true. I have learnt great things since I was introduced to this platform. I have also learned something new from your post. Thank you so much for sharing.
The platform is very versatile. I think there are lots of ways it can be used as a learning tool.
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These are great advises
We can market out products here and the people around us can patronize us
Thanks!
Yay! 🤗
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