For many years I've been invisible because I don't market myself. I barely self-promote. I don't "engage" on social platforms and "build followings." For years I almost actively avoided connection with most humans. I was blunt, prickly, and gave the unvarnished truth... and most people will avoid that sort of thing. It took me way too long to realize that no matter how great a product is, it needs someone who's full-time job is getting eyeballs on it.
That's why I partnered up with @cynshineonline, because she promised to get me eyeballs, make my value more visible, and make my teachings more palatable to others.
So yesterday when I read a post by @anaclark about Hive needing more active, focused marketing, I had some strong feelings. I saw myself in Hive. I saw my marketing ignorance about to be repeated.
Basically, I agree with her.
But her post also left me wondering why. Why is Hive lacking marketing? And my instincts say it's simply because no talented, passionate marketer has discovered Hive yet.
For example, I know quite a bit about marketing, and I'm talented in many fields. So at first glance, it seems that I might qualify... but I'm not passionate about marketing. I have other passions, like teaching. Will a talented, passionate marketer be brought onboard? Only if there's enough desire and intention for it from the people behind Hive, in my opinion. Perhaps if someone started a community called /c/marketing or something. (Does /c/DigitalMarketing count?)
All that said, Hive seems a bit of a hard sell for even the best marketer right now. Because two of the key qualities for marketability are missing. Hive is intimidating and user un-friendly. I'm not confident I could convince any of my friends to jump through the hoops I had to jump through to get posting on here. From cumbersome private/public 'keys', to needing multiple accounts, platforms, and 'dapps' just to get things going, plus even more weird sign-in stuff from hive-signer & hive keychain messing with my Last Pass... it's just too big an ask.
None of my friends are going to jump through those hoops just to post on a relatively quiet, empty social platform.
My point is, even if I like it here, and can see the potential, the majority of people won't... until the issues I'm mentioning are fixed.
If I take the rose-colored glasses off and look at the pros and the cons of Hive, it goes something like this:
Anyway, although I'm new to Hive, knowing little about Sun, Tron, Steemit, etc., I figure that qualifies me to give me a 'newbie' perspective, lol. I wanted to share my thoughts on this issue, however naive, and if you'd like to see @anaclark's much deeper, more passionate post on the issue, check it out here: Wake Up, Hivians!
Thanks for reading, I appreciate any attention and wish you all a great day.
I've been creating content here, forever. It's quiet. Not so much in my neck of the woods but I'm not blind. I spend a lot of time now playing the role of consumer. For years we've worked on attracting new members in the form of content creators. Never once focused on attracting consumers and marketing the benefits. So we built this stage and forgot to put butts in the seats. Then they started building numerous stages, and once again forgot to put butts in the seats. So we have all these little clubs that are nearly impossible to navigate. Little clusters of humanity here, there, maybe everywhere but not really. And of course content is a product and the pay depends on a token, but not only the token but the value of the token. They're constantly looking for 'investors', and forever not realizing when you have content, the consumers are the investors. I've been talking about this problem for years though. It doesn't seem to click. Even those with a big brand following on the outside don't even realize their consumers supporting their work here get a far better deal than anywhere else. They simply use the platform like they do the other twenty platforms they use. As just a way to milk a few pennies here and there. They play for crypto handouts rather than an audience.
Due to the lack of dedicated and interested consumers, Hive loses out on the benefits of free advertising when consumers share content on social media to their peers. Regardless of subject matter, each 'unit' of content escaping into the wild becomes an advertisement for Hive. Youtube found success and part of the reason is because early on, people were sharing Youtube videos on Facebook. That's your free marketing when you attract consumers who realize they can earn here for consuming, even if they pay a bit.
There are two distinct branches of social media. One, like twitter or Facebook, is a distribution tool mainly used by content consumers. The other branch is something like Youtube and various other platforms (Hive) where the content is created with social elements mixed in. One is the paper, the other is the paperboy. For some reason many using Hive don't even recognize this difference nor know how to use social media distribution tools to their benefit.
It's also kind of ridiculous to expect creators to play the role of consumer as well. Only so much time in a day. New people show up to create content and expect the existing consumer base to be able to support them. Even as a consumer I only have maximum ten votes to hand out per day. People quit feeling ignored not realizing there simply aren't enough eyes to go around.
Wow, fantastic reply, @nonameslefttouse, thank you.
And I can tell a lot of energy has been poured into attracting content-creators, and I love that. And I myself have built way too many stages with empty seats, and it was heart-breaking for me every time. Your description of hard-to-navigate clubs is spot on.
As is your view on content, consumers, platforms, and investors. The paper vs. the paper boy. Well said. Playing for an audience seems a better choice than playing for crypto-handouts, and I imagine eventually they'll be closely tied together.
I didn't know about the ten votes a day, that throws an interesting wrench in things.
Thanks for giving me so much food for thought, and making my first 'real post' on Hive feel good. This makes me want to check out some of your other writings. Wishing you a great day!
Roughly ten votes per day, at maximum power. I could lower the percentage to 50, give out 20, but those would be smaller in size as in, less value. For your response I'll give you a 10 percent vote.
It's limited simply because if there were no limitations, someone would create a bot that votes for their own spam all day, making money each time for nothing. So it's needed.
If you have a lot of staked tokens, you get to give more in a day than someone with fewer staked tokens (Hive Power).
Each time I vote, I get a return. Some went to you, some goes to me. I got paid to read this post, because I voted. If I was donating, like they do on other platforms, I would have been down money. Here, we're both earning; consumer and creator. That's why I said it's a good deal. A consumer could spend $100, stake tokens, support their favorite independent creator over time with votes, and forever, and end up leaving with more money than they started with. When a creator tries to attract thousands of consumers, then they set up a solid and permanent revenue stream for themselves. That part has yet to be attempted to its full potential. They just come for the 'free' money. And leave when it doesn't arrive.
Very interesting. I've read quite a bit about Hive recently, but often, I ended up more confused than when I started.
On the other hand, your explanation here is the clearest one I've come across, and I appreciate it.
I learned about:
A. Voting percentage
B. How the system stops voting-bots
C. Staked tokens/Hive Power
D. The more 'balanced' earning of consumer and creator.
E. Untapped potential of 'fully attracting' creators on this platform.
Extremely insightful, @nonameslefttouse!
You've given me a lot of value today far beyond your '10% vote' (though I'm grateful for that too). Thanks for injecting more joy into my early Hive experience.
And now, resource credits (RC). I see you're getting low. Under 50%. That'll take three days to charge up. Hive Power is what's needed to have more resource credits and a vote worth money. Everything you do costs RC including voting, commenting, posting, etc, all of it. If you power up your earnings when you receive them after seven days, that'll help.
Try this out:
https://peakd.com/@ryzeonline
That's what I use to browse Hive. That's where I found out your RC was getting low (by hovering the mouse over the 'i' next to your reputation score). So take it easy. I'd suggest avoiding hitting the vote button, since it's kind of pointless right now as it's not really a 'like' button. That'll save on some RC. Leave too many comments and you'll get a warning telling you you need to be quiet for a few days while it charges up LOL!
Oh my... now I'm scared to even reply to comments, lol. I'll try to power up my earnings after 7 days, thank you.
I signed up for PeakD, it has a nice look and some nice features, again appreciated.
I've learned so much about Hive just from a few comments from you, I agree with @slobberchops, you could totally rock some tutorials if you felt up to it. Or as I learn more, perhaps I could make some, just to help out other beginners like myself. :)
Anyway, I may use up all my remaining RC replying to people in this thread, so I'm off to figure out a way to get more.
I could see you producing some nice tutorials using your own twisted slant, I'm off the boil for the moment.
You are quite right, it is invisible. The name does not help at all, in fact the ashes of where it was born.. STEEM has a better name. I was scouring though the shit-pile of newbie posts and found you.
It seems you can write, so you are in the right place. I am surprised you have not been noticed yet. Welcome to HIVE.
I appreciate the 'name' insight, @slobberchops! Interestingly, I wonder if steem will have to go through a major name-change eventually since the 'Steam' gaming platform is so big and well known already?
As for writing, I appreciate the sentiment! I'd love to 'be noticed,' and you've given me that feeling already, just by commenting here, so thank you for that and for welcoming me to HIVE!
I hate to say this, but you need some brain to do OK on here. The 75 IQ bunch just won't cut it. If that alienates a percentage of the population, then so be it. As you say... too bloody complicated.
STEEM at least was spelt slightly differently than our beloved pay and play Steam gaming platform (I am a gamer). I am wondering whoever thought of the name HIVE, now has regrets.
Your comments here inspired me to write a companion piece to this post. In it I use some messaging that specifically targets people with 'some brain.'
I agree with you. And 'genius,' intellect, and the 'dumbing down' of society is a subject I'm passionate about. (I once wrote a 15,000 word article about it, in fact.)
I'm a gamer (and game-dev, technically) too! Interestingly, because I spent so many years playing League, my steam wishlist is a huge backlog now.
Many great projects and companies go through name-changes, so that's always an option I guess, lol :)
But can the name not be changed or something. I've been giving it a thought lately
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I love how this encourages Hivers to tweet. So cool, @poshtoken ! 🙏
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This is so well written and true. All the things you mentioned...being passionate about marketing, loving your product, making it easy for the customer, are important processes for marketing. Without those things you can't successfully market anything. And ALL businesses (from Art to nails to plumbing to coaching to t-shirts) all need eyeballs. Without them you have no business.
I love the points. Love the meme. It makes a lot of sense and I hope Hive can find someone who is as passionate about marketing them (and helping them fix those not so user-friendly things).
Great post. Thank You, Jay!
~Love, cyn
PS
I'm still working on making your value more visible. I intend for it to go faster but that's 100% on me. <3
Thanks for the kind words! Yep, those are essentials that apply to all projects, including Hive. Without them, you have no fans/users either. And I'm grateful for all your marketing efforts, thank you. :)
True content and engagement is never easy. The community is a hardcore blockchain enthusiast. We consume content. We learn and enjoy from it. This challenges are but natural(slowly they are fixing it)is a test for real value creator. By staying on Hive, you contribute to its value. Content posting is just one of the many use cases for Hive. It characteristics it might be cumbersome to newbies but that is a small price to pay to enjoy security and decentralization and freedom. Its economic value as a content platform and soon as defi gives you and me so many opportunities to excel in this blockchain. Explore more enjoy more.
I'm grateful for consumers who get value from my content, and I'm grateful for creators who allow me to consume. So I agree.
That said, everyone makes their own choice if it's worth the 'cumbersome' onboarding or not. The easier it is to join, the more people will feel it's worth it, and make the leap.
Fingers crossed! :)
@lordbutterfly, et al is coordinating a marketing campaign with a professional firm. There might be hope yet.,
Thank you so much for directing me to his campaign! It opened my eyes to a lot of things, and inspired me to write a companion post to this one, talking about Hive taglines & messaging. You rock!
if you only been here few years ago :D
Leofinance.io made an easy sign in using twitter accounts, you don't need to download keys until you want to.
The thing is, Hive is complicated for first few steps, that a lot will not do. But if you compare it with other crypto, it is really easy.
lol, yes, I bet it was quite an experience here a few years ago. Good for you for navigating through it!
Ah, that is very smart, I'll have to check LeoFinance.io out.
Yes, the first few steps are a major barrier to entry in my opinion, even if it's easy relative to other cryptos. Guess we'll see how things go in the future, thanks so much for the comment! :)
yes there are 3 things that somehow need to be explained for people that know nothing about crypto. ok maybe 4. as the first one is why do you need all this keys. it is money and you don't want your money to be unprotected.
later learn everything else.
Yes! Those 4 things would've made my initiation soooo much easier.
Perhaps I'll make some beginner tutorials, for other beginners like me. We'll see :)
Very well put and I like the graphic you made - lays it out pretty clearly. I believe there is a marketing proposal being funded to try and bring more eyes on but it is not at the "one click sign-up" phase yet, although Leo is trying to make it easy to sign up via Twitter.
I think it's getting there and is in a much better place than a few years ago, still a way to go but a vast improvement. Thanks for sharing your new perspective, I think once you get set up and have been around for 3 years like me, you do forget sometimes the technicality and mindset change joining a new social platform.
Welcome to Hive anyway and glad you took the time to figure out how the mechanics work.
Thanks @nickyhavey, I really appreciate it. It took a bit of finesse to get all those words to fit in that little square without being cramped, glad to hear you like it.
I'm thrilled to hear a marketing proposal is being funded and that Leo is trying to make it easy. (To be honest I have no clue what 'Leo' is, but I see the name everywhere. Is it like Dapplr or PeakD?) And I imagine Hive's marketing will keep improving, but I guess we'll see.
Wow, you've been around for 3 years, I've been around for ~3 days, I feel like a newborn, lol.
Anyway, thanks for the warm welcome, and I'm glad I figured out enough of the basics to join! :)
Leo is here, yet another dApp into the HIVE ecosystem (https://leofinance.io/)
Thanks so much for all the info, clarifications, and for taking the time to link it for me. I appreciate :D <3
Haha, sorry I should have mentioned a bit more about what Leo is!
To give it's full name, LeoFinance is like Dapplr/PeakD in the sense it's another way to "tap in" to the Hive network, except it's a community dedicated to posting about financial related content. They have their own website at https://leofinance.io and a plethora of crypto related things going on, including their own user-friendly Decentralised Finance called "CubDefi".
No worries man, I know what it's like, I can share with you two posts from my own experience that I've made that you may find really useful to help you get started:
3 Years on Hive - Forever Learning - this is what I've learned in the 3 years I've been here.
Evergreen List of Communities - which is all the communities and their topics that I'm currently aware of.
If you have any questions, just tag me and will be happy to try and help!
All good, I'm grateful for any tips and info. I'm happy to do my own research and no one's ever obligated to 'tell me more' or explain things to me.
I do appreciate this extra detail and clarity though. I checked it out and now I understand it much better. Like most people, I'm a fan of money, but I'm not extremely financially focused. Thinking I'll stick with PeakD over Leo for now, but the Twitter thing is huge for bringing new people in. Hmm.
Also... wow... That first link is SO much of what I needed to know when I joined. Have you ever considered hosting it on another social platform? Because when I needed to see it, I wasn't ON Hive, I was on other platforms, googling, researching, and doing everything I could to figure out all that stuff, lol.
I've subbed to a bunch of communities but I'll check out your list too, thank you!
(P.S. pretty nice trance tunes you got there!)
No, as they say, this is the wild west and the land of "doing your own research" but as I say, feel free to ask, no worries here!
Yeah I mostly stick with PeakD but don't mind trying out the new community websites. Been enjoying watching them develop and help out with some words of encouragement where I can!
Thanks for the feedback - I haven't posted that link elsewhere actually. I was going to do a full on ebook type thing with the guides but a lot of other things took over and it went by the way side a bit!
And thanks for listening in to the tunes! You a bit of a trance fan too? I'm mostly in to liquid drum & bass but Trance was my first love. Some nice memories from the early 2000s!
Agreed, and thanks for encouraging me!
I'm enjoying PeakD so far.
All good, it just seems like the people who'd need it most are primarily searching other platforms for it. Either way, you served it up to me, so I benefit, and I'm grateful.
Yeah, loved trance back in the day, and still do. I still play "As The Rush Comes" like once a month. It's such a beautiful genre of music, imho.
Unfortunately, marketing and advertising aren't my strong points but I do like teaching/educating/helping out where I can and break things down in to easy to digest chunks!
If you mean this track then it's one of my favourites and most iconic tunes in my eyes, vibes that strike right through the heart and brings back nice memories of my Uni days... bringing a tear listening to this... whew! 😊
Well at least three cons are better than four!
Totally agreed! And some of those cons seem to be headed for improvement, so... fingers crossed! :)
Hey welcome to the blockchain @ryzeonline. 3 articles in four days. First four days actually. I encourage this type of ambition.
Thank you so much, @dandays! Warm welcome's like this mean a lot to me! And I appreciate any and all encouragement :)
P.S. I believe technically it's 4 articles in 4 days. But I'm so new, I think I screwed up. I posted it in /c/OnChainArt but had no idea what I was doing or how to get it on my blog or in my feed. I think I figured it out now, but I'm not sure if my 4th post (Quinn's Butterflies (From Day To Night)) is showing up only for me, or if everyone can see it. LOL. #growingpains
Well excuse the fuck outta me Mr. Four for Four!
That's my way of saying keep it UP.
Five for five! Wooooo!
And it's partly thanks to you! Because you encouraged me to keep it up, and partly because @meesterboom delegated me the HP to make it possible to keep creating content even though I'm new :)
#feelingblessed #contributing #bestican
"Partly?" C'mon dude, it's me you're talking to, who are we kidding?
Keep an eye on that @meesterboom guy, last time he spotted someone HP he made him put on both..... never mind.
Considering how well written this is, you do have potentiële to theive here honestly. But i get it, the sucking up and commenting isnt for everyone and that will make it more difficult or at least it will take more time.
I didnt forget the technicalities. When I started i nearly shat myself on my first transaction even if it was only 5 bucks. The whole newbie ia just really difficult in general, aaide even from having blockchain experience or not. Back then I was a lot of discord where people were more than helpful to explain stuff which made me survive.
Hoenstly i dont know if this is not the case now still. But back then there were more users in general, so I dont know if comparing is reasonable.
But still. Make of it what you want, nothing is perfect so make it work for you as good as you want!
Good luck dude!
I appreciate that so much, @karinxxl! I love thriving as much as possible, wherever I am, and it'd be great if Hive and I were a fit, so I'm glad you think it's possible for me.
And yes, that's why I partnered up with someone who can handle a lot of that for me, hopefully that's a reasonable solution, but we'll see. :)
I'm glad you remember the technicalities, I'm not sure I've made a transaction at all, lol. I could see a discord being helpful for people, good point.
Hive had more users back then? Interesting. And yes, I'll make of it what I'm able to, thanks for the encouragement and the kind welcome!
:)
Well STEEM had a lot more users at the previous crypto boom in 2017/2018, a lot of them around were trying to make it work, and a lot of them were there for the quick buck and also disappeared fast when the bear market came, while actually then the comments and interaction was more genuine.
So I even went to 2 editions of STEEMfest (one in Poland, and one in Thailand) and it was really cool to meet people who were working on the same grind as you. I found it insightful and interesting to see who other people were who were so enthusiastic about this project.
The thing is, I dont look too much at the economics and sustainability and development here as I am 'just'a user who just uses this to write stuff which is on my mind. Not everyone can create the awesome content (or the cool images like yourself) and if that is monetized that is cool. In the bear market my posts often made only like $0.30 and that was still cool.
So greetings from the girl next door who shouldnt never reply on her phone again as I see from my above comment (djeeez)
Very interesting! I didn't know much about the history, but it's making sense.
I love that there's a fest where people who are into this stuff get together. Does Hive have one?
And I believe that we all play our part, whether consumers, creators, or both. For example, my post would be sitting unread and unengaged if it wasn't for awesome commenters like yourself. I love when people earn, whether $0.30 or $300, for whatever they're contributing.
Thanks for the info, greetings, and warm welcome. I appreciate you.
P.S. The phone thing was kinda funny, but I was able to read and understand what you meant, so it all worked out. ;)
Hive isn't a social media site.
Think of Hive as an operating system.
The biggest app (so far) on the operating system is social media (blogging).
So my question to you would be: when's the last time you saw marketing for Linux OS? It's interesting how much emphasis people put on advertisement when it's not that necessary. The dapps built on Hive need to advertise themselves. Hive itself doesn't need advertising as an open source operating system.
Also, when blog posts are paying out 4 figures at the end of the year that will be all the advertising we need. Every four years we get to stress test the network and capitalize on the mega-bubble. We likely don't even have the capacity for that many users. The entire network currently operates off of 22KB/sec max blocksize. Everyone on the platform has to share the bandwidth of a 56k modem.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Thanks for the clarification, @edicted ! Understood, Hive is more like an OS.
I'll answer your question with one of my own: What is the goal of Hive?
Because according to Wikipedia, operating system marketshare looks like this:
If Hive is aiming to be Linux, it's already close to succeeding. 2% market adoption is a laughably low bar. If Hive is more ambitious and is aiming to be the 'Windows of blockchain', marketing and advertising will be essential. Windows didn't get to where it is by staying in the shadows and relying on it's apps to advertise for it.
As for your other point-- I'm not clear how blog posts will be paying out such large amounts with such a tiny amount of humanity using the platform, but I'm new, so perhaps there's something I'm missing.
Either way, I appreciate your contribution and thanks for getting me thinking deeper about this stuff.
Wishing you a great day!
The amount that posts are payed, depend upon the price of $HIVE, the cryptocurrency that the platform is based upon. 4 years ago the community was on STEEM, one year ago we "hard-forked"(basically it's a copy) to a new blockchain: HIVE. Why we forked? let's say an individual tried to centralize the blockchain, and the sole purpose of this community is to build a decentrilized blockchain for web 3.0. 4 years ago, 1 STEEM achieved to be valued 8 dollars. Now 1 Hive is worth 0.70 dollars. The price of HIVE is highly dependent of the overall cryptocurrency market. 4 years ago there was a bubble that drove prices high. Recently we've started to see prices go higher, that is thanks of bitcoin starting to go mainstream, usually all cryptocurrencies follow what bitcoin price does. For example one HIVE was worth $0.15 4-3 months ago.
A lot of people speculate that bitcoin price will go higher, because of being more adopted, and hence all cryptos will go higher too. That is the narrative behind the at the end of the year we will see posts paying 4 figures. 4 years ago there were people that were payed > 1000$.
Now you will be asking... where the heck comes all this money?
HIVE is an inflationary cryptocurrency, it currently has around 6-7% of inflation per year, the inflation is lowered each second.
From this 6-7% inflation, around 32.5% goes to a reward pool (from this pool is how people are payed to post or comment), another 32.5% goes to curators (the people that vote the posts, the higher HIVEPOWER you have you have more control of how much each post/comment can earn rewards from the reward pool, also you can earn higher curator rewards (the theory is if you vote a post and later that post becomes more popular and its voted by more people then you earn even more curation rewards), also you can choose which witness should secure the blockchain or what projects we should fund), another 15% goes to those that stake HIVE (HIVE POWER), another 10% goes to pay witnesses (the ones that secure the blockchain) and another 10% goes to the development fund/DHF/DAO. From this DAO is how the community is paying the marketing effort organized by lordbutterfly, and many other projects.
Well, that was a hell of information. If in doubt of anything, reply😀
There are even more things to know, but more on that later.😁
This is a very helpful comment, @marc5 ! Thank you for taking the time to share it. I'll do my best to incorporate this valuable info into the guide.
Stuff about share price, STEEM, fluctuations, etc.
And I'll definitely include a section about inflation, because a big question for beginners is "where is the money coming from."
Same for rewards pool & distribution.
I've written a lot of the guide already, and I'll be making an update on my progress tomorrow, as well as asking the community to help answer some of my 'tougher' questions. Thanks so much for everything you've contributed already, I really appreciate it.