No matter what you do, your job is to tell your story. - Gary Vaynerchuk
Steem is no fast-selling item. Not yet. That's why we need (coordinated) storytelling.
Many of us have been in doubt whether Steemit, Inc as centralized birth attendant of the blockchain should be in charge of it, or the decentralized community themselves.
I argue that it actually doesn't matter who takes the initiative as long as someone does.
In theory, we can all become marketers of Steem.
During the past almost three years there've been infinite use cases being created and success stories being celebrated on Steem. Now it only requires a team of creative volunteers to pack those pearls into an appealing marketing campaign and make some noise.
Telling a story is no rocket science - many of us do exactly that all the time when blogging on Steem.
Now it's all about bundling those efforts in order to make the communication the most efficient possible - aiming to strengthen both the network and the coin STEEM.
Here's my proposal of how to do Marketing for Steem.
Tell a story.
The actual aim of Marketing is to reduce the need for Sales.
Marketing campaigns - if executed efficiently - can actually save you a lot of money.
This is why any stakeholder - and it doesn't matter if you're time invested or holding a huge amount of Steem tokens - should have an interest in promoting this project to the world in the best way possible.
Now the single most important thing before everything else is that you have a vision from where you start. That doesn't only apply for Marketing initiatives but actually for everything you do.
Contrary to popular belief, decentralization doesn't mean that everybody follows their own vision. It's rather the other way around.
If you believe it or not, decentralization follows a clear structure.
The big difference between a centralized and a decentralized system is that in the latter you don't only have one centralized institution but multiple of them. However, all of those entities still follow the very same dream.
The more participants are in the game, the more important becomes structure.
A vision is something that's completely seperated from the way you organize your staff or (here) a community, it's basically the untouchable umbrella under which you build up everything else.
One possible vision for Steem could be:
Become the best blockchain based host for tokenized digital communities in the world.
What function does a vision have - not only in the context of Marketing?
It provides orientation.
Furthermore, if the goal is clearly defined we all become accountable for our doings and success becomes measurable.
Once you've defined what you're striving for, it's hard to loose track and waste time, since everything you'll be doing from now on will 100% pay into that one account.
Now how could we manage to translate that vision into a Marketing campaign?
The overall strategy would be to recruit as much new members for our vibrant communities as possible.
Why focus on growth? The current number of Steem users (~ 40,000 daily accounts transacting) is not relevant in terms of influence, and influence is the currency dealt in the market we're part of.
Whether you'd want to sell Steem to a potential advertiser or an investor, the influence in terms of reach would always be a critical factor.
No advertiser in the world would run a campaign on a blockchain that is only used by a few thousand people.
Now how could one specific Marketing campaign for Steem look like?
Remember that Marketing is story telling and that products offer solutions to real problems.
Steem offers a solution to people and businesses who aim to connect online with audiences of a specific field of interest, while the network is able to provide them with attention and financial rewards.
Think about the music industry, for instance, which is one of the toughest battle-grounds in terms of competition. The music community on Steem offers a stage to talented singers and song writers they can easily access and exploit. It'd be much harder for someone to build up a music community from scratch.
That's a clear solution to a real problem in one specific target group.
Now since you want to be efficient, you wouldn't create one campaign per industry, but you could generalize the message as follows:
Find your community, access your stage, monetize the attention.
That'd be a clear call to action - underlining the fact that being part of a community is no self-seller but requires efforts from both sides.
Remember: we offer solutions to real problems.
Do you think we should launch a Marketing campaign like this?
I do.
We've got a lot of voluntary promoters who're already teaming up in communities like @oracle-d and @promo-steem.
Also no too long ago @timcliff organized the fantastic initiative called Steemblast, where members of the community were invited to promote Steem in their social media networks on a specific date and time.
I'd really love to see these type of community efforts being reactivated. What about you?
Let me know in the comments.
Happy weekend!
Marley -
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This blog was created in July 2016, aiming to provide thought-provoking content for open-minded people who go on adventure, step out of comfort zones and embrace the new.
Thanks for being part of the journey!
PS: All my blog posts are created and submitted via eSteem Surfer - my favorite Steem desktop client that was developed by @good-karma's @esteemapp team. Check out their account for more information.
Original content. Cover found on pixabay, Brogran qoute found on cubicleninjas.com
@surfermarley great ideas. In reality, a successful business only needs 3 parts: 1 A product that works, (cheaper/better/or both)
2 Sales and marketing
3 Admin
That’s it. Before we really get to marketing, Steemit is still in beta, and getting customers to use this product requires jumping through hoops. For instance, we have customers who want to learn music - we teach them - they pay us - no barriers to entry. I mean there are other needed fixes, but that is a big one that seems to come up a lot. Great article!! ✌🏾😊
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Hey @melbookermusic! Thanks for the feedback :-)
Well if you have a product that sells for being absolutely unique, you actually don't even need marketing.
Steem has no beta logo, it's just the app steemit.com :-)
@surfermarley “Steem has no beta logo, it's just the app steemit.com :-)”
A couple of others mentioned that as well. Makes sense. I haven’t tried to get anyone signed up in a while. The last 3 people that I tried to sign up, never got in. I would be wary of having a unique product - that no one knows about. We were fortunate that we mostly had word of mouth (and now social media) marketing. It does indeed work, but the product has to be solid first. I say they make you the head of marketing 😊 You’re one of the best here, Steemit hero for sure✌🏾😊
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Haha, thanks for the flowers - you're sweet! I'm actually fine with my current job and don't even aim to be head of something, it'd be just great to team up with some volunteers and launch a fancy marketing project.
IMO there is no reason to wait. The product will never be perfect, but more and more competitors are entering the market now. If we wait, we'll completely miss it to position Steem accordingly.
In my eyes we already have a great product, we just need to stop living up drama and get to work.
Great post and very valid points.
Personally i feel like marketing steem still faces 2 big challenges to onboard lots of users.
Does any of you guys know what the steemit marketing team is acutally doing? I have yet to see any efforts by them.
Thank you, Meaty! ;)
These are some valid points! I hope that projects like @steemonboarding will help us to significantly improve the onboarding process. Fast access to the chain is definitely a must, fully agreed!
Steemit, Inc has priorizized steemit.com again in their Mission/Vision Statement, however I wouldn't want to wait for them. There are many other apps that already work fine. My favorite desktop client is the eSteem Surfer - i create all my blog posts with it and have basically no complaints here :-) You can download it HERE on Github if you want to test it. I'm still with the version 1.1.12, since the 2.x had some major bugs, but they may be fixed now (need to catch up by myself).
Not sure if Inc still has a marketing team, but i wouldn't want to wait for that either. We can plan a sweet marketing campaign with or without them - there's actually no need to make a difference between a voluntary marketing person that comes out of the community or a paid marketing person from Steemit, Inc. All we need are some brains to tap :-)
Btw next Thursday @pennsif will host another show on the PAL discord server where we'll explicitely talk about Marketing, Onboarding and PR.
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Sweet!! Thanks for the support Chris 🙂
Is it possible to sell the story of Steem not as a solution to the problem but as a dream? Without too complex words...
In the context of marketing, isn't the fulfillment of a dream also a solution to a problem? :-)
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Yeah, man...
I like very much your image about decentralization and vision... It tells so much about STEEM concept. Everyone should do the job with 100% effort and we will succeed.
.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.
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Thanks and have a great day!
Thanks for your positive feedback! I truly believe that one of the core characteristics of decentralization is the will power of the individual to contribute to the whole.
Common interest > indivicual benefit.
Hey, @surfermarly!
Thank you for your contribution to the crowd. We are the Steemit project dedicated to empowering The Wisdom of Crowds. You can find more about us on our official website or whitepaper and you can support us by voting for our witness and joining our curation trail on Steemauto . We are also inviting you to join Crowdmind Discord server. Don't forget to use the #crowdmind hashtag and happy crowdsourcing!
Thanks for your support!
Remember when Gary V had more to talk about than his dumb shoes? 🤘🏻
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I like what you text here ... so I go read it 3 time more :)
And soon I am back to see what more you post.
Hehe, you can read it as many times as you want, it's gonna be here forever :-)
Ah :))) ...I not know how... but I was feel you say this words :)))
@surfermarly, Yes, at this moment Steem Ecosystem have less Active user base and as you said, advertiser will not directly jump in after watching this user base. So, we have to boost the exposure of Steem Blockchain so that more and more users can be on boarded on Steem.
Yes, it's an collective effort because everyone hold the different reach and different communities, this way we will going to see the effective diversification too. Let's make it. Stay blessed. 🙂
Absolutely, @chireerocks - it's a collective effort.
Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts :-)
Welcome and have a blessed time ahead. 🙂
Should I go back to the other social media platforms? Hmmm, I might have to and bring more people to steem 😂
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Other social media?? Haha - let's bring them over, Charles!!
I think all my followers forgot about me jk haha... my last post on facebook was almost a year ago 🤣
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Ha! There’s no way back to the old media for you though 😉
I’ll “try” to back on it next month (maybe) 😅
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I think Steem is going through it’s difficult teenage year. I go away for a few months and within days of comping back people are going nuts. Power downs by @steemit and talk of forks. It’s as if people want to watch this magnificent place burn.
Oh what would we be without the drama? Haha. I try to stay away from it and focus on how we can improve this place.
You're pretty sharp for such a young gal. This old fart is now you're newest follower. Check out our new business and learn about us at http://ppmsilvercosmetics.com/About.html
We accept Steem, SBD and several other cryptos :-)