SteemUp #2 : Steem Promotion - are we getting it right?

Steem Promotion has always been a difficult task.

While recruitment has not been so hard, retention often seems to head towards the impossible.

Inevitably this is so often because the sales pitch is all wrong.

The overused and over simplified 'write and you will earn' message does not achieve long lasting results.

What then is a better way to promote Steem?

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Promo-Steem 2017

The history of Steem Promotion on any co-ordinated level dates back to 2017 when Promo-Steem UK was set up by @stephenkendal, @starkerz and @anarcotech.

This began with recruitment tours around universities in the UK led particularly by Matt @starkerz.

I do not know how many actual new Steemians were recruited through these activities but they certainly created a buzz on the platform.

Promo-Steem was quickly expanded to cover the whole world and several dozen Promo-Steem Ambassadors were appointed. I was one for the UK.

The Promo-Steem Ambassadors gave talks, held meet-ups, printed T-shirts, handed out leaflets ... and certainly recruited new members.

Promotional activities were rewarded by quite sizeable votes.

Inevitably alas the attraction of these votes led some participants to be less than 'robust' in their promotional activities.

Some activities were little more than holding up a Steemit banner in front of a bunch of friends and claiming it was a promo-event.

This slippage towards dishonesty and fakery led to a loss of trust in Promo-Steem, and eventually it was shut down.

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Steem Promotion in 'New Steem'

Not long after the 'big split' and the rebirth of New Steem, a couple of Indonesian Steemians set up a new Promo-Steem community.

They ran contests and encouraged Steem promotional activities but it never really gained any significant traction.

One of the founders even had grand plans to open a Steem Coffee Shop in Aceh to attract people to join the platform.

His plans were well received and a significant amount of money was raised towards the project but sadly the person left the platform, with the money raised, and the Steem Coffee Shop never materialised.

Probably as a consequence of his departure the Promo-Steem Community faded away and was eventually morphed into something different.

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Since the passing of this second Promo-Steem many individual communities have initiated their own Steem promotional activities often though contests and challenges.

The Country Communities, with their Country Reps, have commonly been at the forefront of these efforts.

They have definitely been successful with large numbers of new Steemians being recruited.

Mentoring from the Country Reps, and with the Achievement Tasks in the Newcomers Community, has also helped improve retention rates.

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The 'Write to Earn' Marketing Dilemma

For the large majority of people on Steem the ability to earn money through writing posts remains very much the main attraction of the platform.

This undeniably is a valid marketing pitch - but expectations must be managed and realistic timescales must be highlighted.

Way too often examples can be found where the recruitment process has not been at all robust.

'Write anything, earn quick' appears to be pitch in many instances.

This can readily be demonstrated by the large number of people who complete just one or two of the Achievement Tasks and then leave the platform. When questioned about this lack of retention their recruiters commonly cite 'disappointment with rewards' as the cause.

Clearly the message has been wrong, the mentoring has been poor and the management of expectations has been non-existent.

This sort of recruitment - often encouraged by contests - is pointless.

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What is the Right Way to Promote and Recruit

While it is easy to highlight the problems and pitfalls of most Steem promotion and recruitment efforts to date, I cannot claim, despite my five years on the platform, to know the answers.

I do not have a bullet proof marketing plan in my back pocket.

Steem, in its current form, is a very difficult sell.

It does not have a modern interface, the audience is very small, and the rewards are variable and never guaranteed.

Alongside that, for the large majority of people, crypto is very complicated. Getting money in and out of Steem is not easy.

But Steem does have potential. Unlike almost all other social media, you can write about your life, your interests and your passions - and, if the winds blow in the right direction, you can earn some money whilst doing so.

However Steem may not be for everyone. Realistically your writing skills do have to be at a sufficient level to produce worthwhile quality posts if you want to prosper.

You also have to have patience. Only a very luckly, and talented, few will earn good rewards quickly.

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These parameters may guide our promotional and recruitment efforts.

Maybe we should be focussing on particular types of people...

• People with decent writing ability.
• People that have skills, hobbies, jobs and passions that they can make knowledgeable and interesting content about.
• People who have time to write and time to wait.
• People who are willing to learn about how crypto works.

Who then should we be targeting - writers, journalists, teachers...

Certainly these would all be ideal candidates for Steem, but we don't need to be so restrictive.

The question then is how do we reach these people?

Open advertising and marketing might work, but signing up and getting started on Steem can be so very daunting this route is likely to lead to quite massive drop off rates.

The most efficient route to promotion and recruitment for Steem is almost certainly amongst people we know.

Our friends, family, work colleagues etc can all be good people to invite to the platform.

We can help them sign up, we can answer their questions and we can assist them with getting started.

Most importantly we then can continue to guide and mentor the people we recruit, we can comment on their posts and we can vote for them.

Many people on the platform of course do exactly this.

This should very much be the focus for recruitment to the platform.

Maybe it would be useful to have some system for rewarding recruitment efforts like this?

However it is very likely that the introduction of 'monetary gain' would quickly lead to the abuse and breakdown of any such reward scheme.

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Writers & Readers

This discussion about promotion and recruitment has by default focused on attracting more writers to the platform - that is where people consider the money can be made.

We must not ignore the need to recruit readers as well. True content creators want an audience as much as they want rewards. That is what drives the success of 'ordinary' social media.

A quick glance at the low amount of engagement on most posts shows that Steem is sadly lacking on the audience front.

Building audience almost certainly needs us to improve the quality and purpose of the content on Steem.

We need to produce content that people want to read if we want people to come and read it.

I will leave my thoughts on this part of the equation for another post.

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In Conclusion

Steem Promotion is a difficult subject.

It is not difficult to identify the wrong way to promote Steem.

It is not easy to identify the right way to promote Steem.

Any messages of the Post to Earn, Get Rich Quick, Easy Money ilk may lead to recruitment success but inevitable retention failure.

We need to recalibrate our marketing to focus on the type of people who can produce useful and interesting content, and have the patience to wait to build up rewards.

That is for the writers. We must not forget the readers.

There is a big role on Steem for people who just want to read good posts, make interesting comments and earn curation rewards. Without the attraction of potentially bigger post rewards, this though may be an even bigger challenge.

I don't know the answers. But I will keep seeking them.

Pennsif

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[ graphics by @pennsif ]