#steem

Marketing, Advertising and #newsteem, OH MY!

Hello Steemians…

It’s been a few days since I appeared on the Witness Chat and wanted to update you on progress made from the suggestions, comments and overall conversation.

Community Marketing Effort

As we all know, Steemit needs a lot of marketing help. Without a solid budget, the time has come to get scrappy. Community engagement and support will help turn our lack of awareness, messaging and storytelling into a grassroots effort that will take things to a new level. Some of the things we have been working on include: a new brand strategy, marketing plan, updated messaging and a consistent voice. With Head of Communications, @andrarchy, and the community, we can develop a real plan, with goals, objectives, target audiences, delivery channels and finally start to implement marketing tactics to turn these weaknesses into positive ROI.

Next steps for this endeavor include: creating a document for community review and input, a call for marketing ambassadors to help lead the charge and then publishing an official Steem Brand Guidelines for anyone to use to promote the mission. By creating a detailed plan with actionable items, we can all begin spreading consistent marketing messages to get people excited about Steem/Steemit and what the future holds. So look for updates next week on how you can get involved.

Advertising Update: Sponsored Posts

Many of you may have seen the new “Sponsored” post feature starting with a post from @amfeix. As our first “Sponsored” advertiser came some new learnings. Amfeix is advertising on steemit.com, which brings in revenue to Steemit, Inc. This is a good thing. The question was raised by @yabapmatt (thank you) about how can we support our advertisers to give them the best ROI. Does a particular advertiser want to build their community here, or do they just want eyeballs, awareness and click-thrus? We discussed this today and definitely think there is a place for both types. As we continue to work out these scenarios, we again, welcome feedback. For example, if an advertiser just wants awareness and not community engagement, then those ads/posts become more of a Native Ad. No comments, users immediately see it is a paid advertisement and then choose whether or not to read on. The “Sponsored” post could be reserved for projects and businesses wanting to onboard their users to Steem, build their community and further support the Steem ecosystem. The main takeaway here is, we want good advertising partners that bring value and grow the community that is beneficial to all. More updates on this to come.

#newsteem

I really enjoyed the New STEEM... It's not like OLD STEEM post by @whatsup. A perfect example of how we will embrace the community and tell our story to the world. I agree things are new and different, but I also wouldn’t discount the leaders and team that brought us this incredible platform. It says a lot for Steemit’s leadership to make these changes in order to get where we need to go. No, I am not a blockchain engineer (I did make a B in Computer Science 101 at Texas A&M), but I do know how to create a sustainable, healthy business that is inclusive, transparent and listens to our community. We all have learned a lot since 2016, so I ask we take those learnings and only focus on the future.

Great things are coming, stay tuned… -Eli

Comments · 33

@steemitboard(66)· 2486d
Congratulations @elipowell! You received a personal award!

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@michaeljn(68)· 2604d
This is all great - but with regards to @steemit onboarding new users you guys need to work on making it easier and with a much faster turn-around time.

I have referred tons of friends who reported back to me saying they tried opening an account and either they gave up since it takes forever and has too many hoops to jump through, what platform takes 2-3 weeks for you to create an account, it really is a bit ludicrous to expect someone new to wait that long to get onto the platform.

@elipowell @steemit @steamitteam They either then simply forget they even wanted to go on the platform or just decide it is not worth all the effort. Please try to make it easier to get onto @steemit I think that would make all the difference with increased adoption.
@crypto.piotr(65)· 2604d
Dear @elipowell

As we continue to work out these scenarios, we again, welcome feedback.

I tried to reach out to you few times in the past and I never received any reply, so my hopes that this time it will be any different are small.

Amfeix is advertising on steemit.com, which brings in revenue to Steemit, Inc. This is a good thing.

Indeed it's a great solution that some businesses may advertise themself here. On daily basis I see some ads on my feed and I'm glad you guys are making some extra profit.

However I would like to ask one simple question: why STEEEM blockchain and Steemit.com community is pretty much excluded from those advertising opportunities? Why we cannot use our own STEEM to pay for our ads to be displayed on the platform?

Wouldn't it benefit entire eco-system if Steemit would allow to do that and burn received tokens (the way promoting post to 'promoted' tab does it)?

Right now I managed to introduce few different businesses to Steemit and all of them are already gone. They all had the same complain: powering up STEEM doesn't help them get any extra visibility (so it's worthless for all of them) and STEEM doesn't have any value since they still would need to pay in USD for ads to be displayed here.

Did you guys consider doing something about it?

Yours Piotr
@steemitboard(66)· 2605d
Congratulations @elipowell! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 50 as payout for your posts. Your next target is to reach a total payout of 100

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@skramatters(67)· 2608d
Public access front end so that normies can test drive the steem blockchain.. If there's a wall built around us it drives away potential users and leaves them feeling like steem is an insurmountable skill set and exclusive crypto clubhouse, they would not be wrong for feeling this way.

Also mobile first design, I'm also not a blockchain engineer but I am a human being on earth nearing 2020 and guess what!? Catering to desktop and PC users on a supposedly innovative technology is an extremely impotent approach. That doesn't require an MBA or even a kindergarten diploma to figure out.
@arcange(79)· 2609d
Congratulations @elipowell! Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
- Comments - Ranked 10 with 55 comments
@enjar(79)· 2609d
For those of us who spend time driving external traffic to our content on Steemit.com. It be nice to have a better understanding of how that is going on our ends. There is only so much I can derive from other platforms if they show how many link clicks I get. Other sources of traffic are unknown to me.

People being able to see their actions having some kind of successful impact might cause others to want to put more effort into driving traffic to their content. While also allowing people to try and make adjustments to improve their strategy for doing so.

Many just seem focused on spamming discords 24/7 with their links that are forever lost in the spam of sharing channels. While others put more focus on farming daily votes. This is #oldsteem way of thinking.

I can only hope under #newsteem at least on the website Steemit we will get a better understand of how our content is performing even beyond the 7-day window for traffic. As if you create written content it take some time for it to build up.

I even share my older content from time to time as it still holds value. Which many rarely seem to do. This is however quite important if this platform wants more eyeballs and for adversities to be happy with the results they get.

I would hope such a thing would only be good for advertisers in the long run on Steemit. If more content creators focus on acquiring traffic. The site itself has a decent ranking and packs quite the punch behind it from limited understanding on such subject matter.
@asaha(47)· 2609d
yeah, truly
@valued-customer(75)· 2610d
Old Steem

Stake-weighting enables the ninjaminers to extract practically all the value of the content created.

New Steem

The value created by the users is allowed to inure to the token by ninjaminers no longer extracting ~90% of all rewards into their wallets.

Only allowing the value of the content to inure to the investment vehicle through allowing the rewards therefrom to inure to the creators of that content enables capital gains, which has proven throughout history to best encourage investment and the increase in value of platforms that creates.

"As we all know, Steemit needs a lot of marketing help. Without a solid budget, the time has come to get scrappy. Community engagement and support will help turn our lack of awareness, messaging and storytelling into a grassroots effort that will take things to a new level. Some of the things we have been working on include: a new brand strategy, marketing plan, updated messaging and a consistent voice. With Head of Communications, @andrarchy, and the community, we can develop a real plan, with goals, objectives, target audiences, delivery channels and finally start to implement marketing tactics to turn these weaknesses into positive ROI."

Steem has a huge marketing department, incessantly advertising Steem to all who discover their content: all it's users. The profiteering that has extracted almost all of the funds capable of supporting that marketing effort has continually and inexorably caused the creators to cease their efforts after they came to grasp that instead of producing growth and prosperity for them and the society Steem promised, their efforts simply provided profits to the largest stakeholders.

Is it coincidental that whales extract ~90% of all rewards, and that Steem faces ~7.5% retention YOY (last I checked. Given that user numbers have declined since then, it's probably worse now)?

If you wish to improve marketing for #newsteem, simply allow the rewards of the work of content creators to pay them. Should you prefer to add some institutional centralized marketing mechanism reflective of legacy business models, I'd recommend a progressive tax on stake, that reflects the proportion of rewards stake-weighting enables them to extract via self-voting or delegation to bidbots.

Since Stinc cannot do that without committing hari kari due to disrupting the extant flow of ROI to the profiteers that command the stake that is endowed with control of the witnesses, I expect that Steem Engine will, although it will be the tokens and communities produced through that mechanism that actually become #newsteem.

Even the fastest horse in the world will win no races is it killed by parasites. Steem could win the race for a society based on freedom, but it never will as long as practically all the value it creates inures to ninjamined stake. All that power content provides cannot propel it to the finish line if it never reaches the ground.

Capital gains FTW, or continued decline in token price, market cap, and users. It's not rocket science, and all of history reveals the basic incentives that impact platforms.

The mean payout was .01 SBD last I checked. The average payout was ~15 times greater, and this is probative that the marketing content created on the platform is largely parasitized rather than funded to encourage Steem adoption.

Fix that problem and #newsteem arises on Steem. Fail to, and #newsteem arises on a different platform.

The proof will be in the pudding.
@jaki01(77)· 2610d
Thanks for your recent posts, @elipowell, all were really interesting to read! I am looking forward for your furture posts.

Concerning needed sources of income, beside other measures, I suggest you to take the opportunity and register steemit.com as content creator to be able to earn BAT always when users are visiting steemit.com using the Brave browser.
@aggroed(80)· 2610d
you should consider using some of the steem-engine tokens so we can get this other types of rewards too. palnet is a good tag to start with.
@malikkashif(66)· 2610d
please do something for steem price
@organduo(73)· 2610d
I think you should try to land an interview with Bad Crypto Podcast. They have massive audience.

Posted using Partiko Android
@newageinv(74)· 2610d
Great to see the team embracing the community’s need for more marketing! Excited what the #newSteem can bring to all of us that have remain committed!

Posted using Partiko iOS
@hungryhustle(68)· 2610d
@elipowell, I want to propose one more practical method which can bring more revenue to STEEMIT INC., upload daily or weekly videos on STEEMIT's Youtube Channel. Grow your subscriber base. You can simply do a blog post here and everyone will join the YouTube channel if they haven't. Probably make a separate id to upload videos on @dtube and leave the YT's link as well.

Ways to make money on YouTube:
- YouTube Monetization. 1000 Subscribers and 4000 hours watch time in past 12 months. Apply for it.
- Once you have enough subscribers let's just say 10,000 - it will open up a new arena for you guys to market other projects and products online. You could get sponsorship or investors who would like to put their money in for the services you can provide through social media channels you have.
- You can even promote your other product and services in future.
Why this is beneficial
- You will get paid for talking about Blockchain, DApps, Cryptocurrency, STEEM, Steemit and what not.
- Steemit as a brand will stand out. I think no other Blockchain project is focused so much on Social Media like we are.
- You will build assets outside STEEMverse as well.
- Livestreams on YouTube have option for viewers to donate money. So when you use Vimm or 3Speak or Dtube to live stream, do it on YT as well. You need to set this up first.
Honestly speaking, you can run Youtube Ads and get even 50k Subscribers quickly. The question is, would you guys be able to put up regular content on YouTube? If you are regular, you will start getting views since we already have an audience who can give you decent watch time.

We are in a social media ecosystem and STEEM is not the only one. Target other's as well. Use its full potential.

This is what you guys can practically do which can benefit not just Steemit Inc., but the whole community.

There has been 2 videos uploaded in the last 10 days. Upload probably 50 or 100 by the end of this year. What if we hit a million views on YouTube? How massive that would be.

#NewSteem
@itstime(61)· 2610d

but I also wouldn’t discount the leaders and team that brought us this incredible platform
@niallon11(77)· 2610d
I think that it's great that we are going to start a concentrated marketing effort to promote the steem eco system.

I would also say that before we do this we need to fix our entry point to steem.

https://steemit.com/palnet/@niallon11/delete-steemit-com-we-can-do-better

I know that you own steem.com and would implore you to get that set up as a proper portal to the steem blockchain with steem.ninja to open accounts and a live feed with the best of all our apps to entice users. At the moment I can't bring friends to open accounts as it is too complicated and unappealing.

I feel we need to have a portal into the blockchain where we can sent interested people that gives them the best possible introduction and shows us in a positive light. First impressions are hugely important and until we get it sorted I think we are fighting a losing battle.

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@chesatochi(73)· 2610d
Another great new on the pipe, now the markething effort is moving forward. You need not to forgot the 777 challenge movement on Twitter.

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@michealb(67)· 2610d
'Great things are coming, stay tuned…'

nice!
@kentroot(42)· 2610d
Nice one

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@jayplayco(76)· 2610d
I suppose it was @yabapmatt and not @yabbpmatt :)
@nextgen622(76)· 2610d
Thanks for keeping the community updated Eli. In terms of marketing and PR, @jrcornel had a great post on some things we can collectively highlight. Have a look at his post here.
@marki99(62)· 2610d
Hey @elipowell, I suggest you use the "decline payout" option when posting about business information, and not simply blogging. I have seen this done in the past by other Steemit members and some witnesses. Some authors like to have the rewards pool all for themselves...
@ats-david(75)· 2610d
That Community Marketing Effort sounds just like what @justineh proposed a while back.

Good job, Justine! Your voice was heard!

Now...let's see if it actually gets done this time...or if we just end up with another Steem dog park.
@davidfar(70)· 2610d
Keep up the good work @elipowell , and thanks for the hard works, again I mention here, you guys need to create an app for mobiles so then there will be more users, also features which people would like to use like how many people just join Instagram only because of the features it gives to users.

thank you so much! :)
@battleaxe(70)· 2610d
super cool, I remember Justine saying this about like an ambassadors program in slacks months ago....teamwork makes dreams work Steem on!
@steemitqa(64)· 2610d
I started a TokenBB for NEWSTEEM . A place to gather resources and thoughts.
@aaronhawk(57)· 2610d
Glad you picked that up! @whatsup is making positive changes for this blockchain! i love it!
@guruvaj(67)· 2610d
Glad to hear those “hints” of plans. Keep us posted. Thanks.

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@kaylinart(76)· 2610d
I look forward to increased marketing on Steemit. Thank you for the update!
@resiliencia(75)· 2610d
It's really nice to see you sharing your insights with the community. Have a great day!

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@uyobong(78)· 2610d
Thank you Ma for speaking out. This approach gives me hope about Steem. On #Newsteem, it's time we spread more of the awareness.

However, it's sad that some minnows put in so much efforts to promote steem, yet, they rarely gets noticed. We may not hold much powers that show how much we invest on Steem, though we know how to make the noise. I wish that the marketing system coming Will give everyone a levelled playing ground and allow all to get rewarded irrespective of Steem power held.

We hope @andrarchy speaks soonest. I am personally co-hosting a business summit which steem will be topical. It is a personal NOT a community project. It is Borne out of my love for Steem and a desire to empower my people on this innovative platform.

Thank you.

I
@coininstant(69)· 2610d

All I can see is the "FU" in the blocks! LOL!

Is that supposed to be a secret message or something?

P.S. Just kidding!

What Does FUTURNIE spell, or acronym for?? You could choose any letters for the sides??

OK!

Community Marketing Effort

Advertising Update: Sponsored Posts

#newsteem

Comments · 33

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Old Steem

New Steem

Ways to make money on YouTube:

Why this is beneficial

There has been 2 videos uploaded in the last 10 days. Upload probably 50 or 100 by the end of this year. What if we hit a million views on YouTube? How massive that would be.

OK!

More from @elipowell