@ecency-star released a new prompt today, asking us to discuss what we dislike about Ecency/ Hive. To be honest, it'll be a tough topic to talk about as there really aren't that many things I dislike about it, but there are a few things I think could be done, which would bring more people to it, or at least make it known.
RULES
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No Advertisements Fund
I have mentioned this a few times over the last year and a half of being here, but sadly, and this is a slight gripe I have with Hive too - sometimes when writing, or coming up with ideas, it's like calling into an empty void, where you kind of have to hope that somebody reads your posts, and when it comes to coming up with ideas for Hive, you have to hope that the right people read it.
How Would We Advertise Hive
There are a few options and ways we could gain the money to advertise Hive.
- Create a proposal to gain funding to create and pay for promoting the adverts
- Create an account, where all post rewards for that account fund advertisements.
- Allow people to make the Hive Advert account a beneficiary to gain funds slowly if the proposal doesn't go through.
There are countless YouTubers out there, who make money through sponsorships, like Squarespace, Raid: Shadow Legends, and Manscape, I mean come on, if you have followed a YouTuber for any amount of time, you have seen these advertisements.
I was watching someone talking about it before, and they said that these sponsorship deals can pay anywhere from $2,000 - $10,000, sometimes more, mainly depending on negotiations and the size of the YouTubers channel and follower list.
A deal usually has a clause that states that over the course of a year, the YouTuber has to advertise the brand/ product in X amount of their videos. We could benefit from seeking out particular content creators, organising a deal with them, setting them up on Hive, and giving them a crash course in how it all works from basic - intermediate, and from there, they would be able to advertise us, and maybe even produce some content specifically talking about getting started here.
If They Like It Here
They could even opt to create "Uncut" or "Uncensored" content for 3Speak which will release 7 days before it launches anywhere else.
This would bolster 3Speak, and Hive, meaning that someone's fanbase would follow them here to see their content earlier than Web 2.0 services.
There are many content creators out there who are walking a razor edge of trying not to get banned for saying the wrong thing, cursing too much, or even just randomly getting shadowbanned.
It opens them up to the freedom to express themselves, bolsters the economy here with figureheads with a lot of sway and followers, and in the long run, would see way more people in our community who can utilise everything that has been built here.
What Kind of Content Creators
Here is the important aspect of all of this, because we could focus on people who have a "Bad Reputation" in the YouTube sphere and try to get them here, but it could result in negative attention.
Instead, I think we should focus on smaller YouTubers, who don't have too much baggage or negative attention.
There are countless writer YouTubers, who are avid readers too, and who create content centered around creative writing, discussing tropes, and giving advice to new writers.
Those sorts of people would be ideal, as we could cater advertisements specifically for them and their following. Their following are writers and potential authors.
Bringing them here would give writers who are working in the shadows the opportunity to come into the light and write publicly here while earning valuable criticism, building some confidence, and also earning a few bob for doing so.
We need more readers, and with so many great writing communities and so much work going unread, it would benefit the creators already here, while also welcoming a brand new batch of authors.
Not Just Writers
There are plenty of musicians out there, producing content, and discussing their recording techniques who we could target too.
There are film critics and reviewers producing videos of their film, and tv show reviews, who could be brought into the many film communities here.
In that same vein, gamers, and game reviewers, bring them into the fold too, and they would be able to get sponsorships that cater to gamers and reviewers.
In essence, we could produce a few different adverts, which focus on a particular aspect of Hive, showcasing creators and communities that would interest that particular group.
How Much Would It Cost Us
For argument's sake, let's say we want to produce four adverts, intended for a particular audience each. If I was to guess, I'd imagine we could get a professionally produced 30 - 60 second ad for anywhere from $1,000 - $2,500.
There would be a few things to consider, like hiring a voice actor, perhaps some real actors to be in a scene, sitting down at the computer, and writing their posts. Throughout the scene, we could then cut to graphics, screen recordings, and all that kind of stuff
We'd need a composer to create some music for it. Which, I have a good mind for who we could get to do that right here on Hive.
With the adverts in hand, we would need to then find the people to give the sponsorship deals to, and each sponsorship would be anywhere from $2,000 - $10,000 depending on the following each one has.
But, all of that would work in our favor by bringing more people to Hive, those people building up their stakes, purchasing liquid Hive, etc.
It wouldn't be hard, and I would gladly take on this project, reaching out to the creators, and creating the ads with a small team. But, that's another thing that I dislike about Hive in a way.
It Seems Hard To Gain Proposal Support
I don't know if I would be seen as trustworthy enough in the eyes of the community to achieve a proposal, because I think that projects seem to only get funded for people who have already proven themselves by gaining funding and achieving previous projects.
Not that it's a bad thing mind you, I do believe that the funds have to be protected and that only trusted people should gain funding so there is little to no fear of someone running off with the money.
There seem to be multiples of everything here on Hive, and I feel that what has been created here is great. There are a lot of choices for the active community here, but to justify so many choices, we need to get more people in here. Advertising ourselves should be one of the forefront goals of our community.
TL:DR
We need to spend more time, energy, and resources on promoting ourselves in a professional manner. Too much time is spent using places like Twitter and Reddit, or commenting on videos on YouTube trying to gain eyes.
What actually happens in most of these cases, as far as I'm concerned, is that we're talking to other people who are already on Hive, instead of drawing in new eyes.
With an advertisement fund, we could promote ourselves just like every other product or brand does. We shouldn't be trying to reinvent the advertisement wheel. You don't see Raycon, Manscape, or Squarespace telling people on Twitter and Reddit about their products hoping that people check them out, instead, they set aside a fund to sponsor content creators with a vast community of followers, and that's what we should do too.
Lots of people have asked about the lack of marketing. There is some. I have seen ads in the Brave browser and a couple of other places. There is also the Hive rally car doing the tour right now. We can publicise such campaigns ourselves. I am no marketing expert, but just getting more eyeballs on the brand is the main thing.
I have said many times about getting small scale creators on here as they may make little elsewhere. If a small band brings in their 100 fans that is a big deal. The issue is that they have a much bigger potential audience elsewhere, but they can be on Hive too. We need the pioneers who give it a chance.
What we don't need is people chasing away new users for minor mistakes or breaches of Hive etiquette. We need to be forgiving whilst dealing with the real scammers.
!HUGS
The rally car is great, and a good idea, as is having adverts in brave and other browsers, and I think showcasing the logo is great for brand recognition; if we see a big yellow M on a red field, instantly we think of food. The only thing is, when people see the Hive logo, only Hivers or people in the crypto space know what it is.
Hive is a great place for musicians and content creators in general, in the sense that it's another outlet to post their work and meet people. With more people, it would become a much more viable option I think.
Targeting content creators on YouTube would give us the pioneers we need, who have a large enough following to bring some big numbers. Especially if they decided to post their videos here first, we could snag some people due to that, and once the audiance is here they may explore and hopefully create content of their own.
I agree we should be more forgiving of people who make mistakes and focus on the actual rip-off merchants. I think having a crash course of some kind to show people the ropes would be the best bet. Bringing people here is tough, and it puts a strain on people, I can't say how many times I've answered the same questions over and over again to people I know, who regardless of my enthusiasm don't join.
Scaring people away isn't good, as we don't really have enough people here as is. I mean, the amount of content produced here each day that goes unread is staggering, we need more people in general and I think the best way to get them is sponsorship deals to small/mid level YouTubers, who have gained the kind of community that matches us.
We need people to keep discussing these issues. I was disappointed there was not more that came out of the last Hivefest. A few people are doing good stuff, but we cannot just be selfish in caring about our own stuff. We have to promote Hive as a platform. It is stagnating rather than growing.
Having a ton of more people using our tools would be lovely.
It certainly would, more people would be better on so many fronts, but especially to really use what has been built here.
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I would support a DHF proposal for this. Just like I support the bore hole project in Ghana. Also great advertising..
Thanks, I've been thinking about it for a while now and since putting it all into this post it has my mind working overtime. It is the big hurdle we have to get over as a community.
That is a very good point! I think that question was raised several times. Today, most people come to Hive from word-of-mouth marketing)
Word of mouth marketing is great, especially for indie projects, but personally, I think this is a big town with a small population and we need marketing that matches our value as a whole.
So much money has been spent creating everything we have here, and as a community it's a shame not to put that same effort into making ourselves known.
It is going to be a very one , let's go there !
You have put a lot of thought into this. I hope the powers that be get some ideas here.
Interesting ideas! I love that Hive is an ad free space (apart from whatever people are promoting in their posts, but I can decide to read them or not - they're not shoved in my face when I'm reading something else.) Having people promote Hive outside Hive sounds useful, but I think most Hive enthusiasts don't have time to spend on youtube and other such places.
Good luck in the contest! 🍀