@Steemonboarding: The Marketing Tool for the Steem Blockchain You have Been Waiting For
Every Steemian has invited a friend, family or acquaintance to be part of the Steem blockchain as a content creator, an investor or a miner - but 99% of the time, the onboarding process fails them. The person we invited becomes skeptical or loses interest and then never ends up joining.
Where does the money come from?
I don’t believe a social media can pay you for posting.
These are only some of the questions we face when inviting someone to the platform. The problem is, most of us aren’t an expert on these topics and most of us are not a salesperson, so the results are understandable. If not even our best friends trusts in the platform and what we can achieve with the blockchain; they will never join the platform.
Even if they end up joining the platform, most of these new Steemians lose interest because finding a community they are interested in being a part of, a Decentralized App that fits their needs, or a tutorial account to get tips from - is almost impossible due to the browsing interfaces we have. There are two possibilities:
- The person who invited them has to spend hours explaining how to post, use tags, browse, find a community etc, or...
- The new Steemian ends up lost in an ocean full of plankton, minnows, communities, DApps, a trending page full of useless posts and too much information to process.
What is Steemonboarding?
@steemonboarding is the first coordinated effort to bring Steem to the masses with a concise marketing strategy. We will provide the tools for the community to sell the idea of Steem to potential users in an organized and focused way. Starting with 10 languages and looking to expand to more than 20, our team will work towards mass adoption.
We know there’s already a lot of tutorials in the Steem Blockchain but they get lost between hundreds of posts, and new users end up finding a mismatch of information that is not in any kind of logical sequence. There are many great initiatives on the platform to help new users, but there has not been a coordinated effort to give them a smooth onboarding process. We look forward to working alongside these efforts to strengthen the overall new user experience. We will mix all of these ideas and bring some of our own to develop the ultimate website for anyone who wants to join the Steem blockchain and its different front ends, communities and DApps.
In other words, the Steemonboarding website will be the perfect tool that any Steemian can use to successfully invite, onboard and even train their grandma to become part of the Steem blockchain.
Step One:
Through a series of 2 minute video tutorials (in the user's preferred language) displayed in a friendly and simple interface, any outside potential Steemian can understand the basics of the crypto world and the Steem Blockchain. Anyone who wants to invite a friend, can point them to our website and we will make sure they are well taken care of and have access to all the information they will need to get started.
Each video will have its own text explanation below (in the preferred language) for those who are more keen on reading rather than watching videos
Step Two:
After watching the videos, if the user is interested in being part of the platform, there is an option to take a ten question test (out of a 250 question pool) regarding the subjects of the videos. If the user passes the test, we give them an account for free. We’ve been claiming accounts for a long time and we already have around 500 ready to give away.
We are currently working out a way of avoiding bots answering the test and mining accounts from us. We were thinking of a 5 minute conversation through a pop-up window on our website or perhaps asking to cross reference another social media account. If you have any suggestions please let us know.
The User is now a Steemian!
But only a rookie Steemian who only knows the basics and has no idea about how to blog, engage, join a community, use a DApp or the basic non-written rules of social interaction in the platform.
Step Three:
There will be an option to login to Steemonboarding using Steemconnect. When the Steemian logs in, they will have access to a new batch of videos.
These videos will explain what is a community, what is Steem Power and Voting Power, tips for making their first post, how to use the tags, how to use an exchange etc. What every Steemian should know before immersing into the blogging community.
Step Four:
In the website, we will have a specific tab dedicated to explain how each of the DApps work, how to use them, what benefits they offer to the Steemian and why people should use them.
There will be one final tab that will feature every community on Steem that wants to be featured. To browse this tab easily, the Steemian can order the communities by topic, by alphabetical order, or by specific language.
The Mindset of the Onboarded Steemian
One of the most important parts of the onboarding process, is the mindset the new Steemian will have when their journey begins:
- Long term thinking: the rewards are not for grocery money next week or the summer holidays in 2019. They are their retirement in 2030. Holding and Powering up is the best long term thinking.
- How to get started from scratch and build from the ground up - but also present the idea that investing fiat in Steem can be a potential growth path to help build influence.
- Community engagement and DApp usage is key for a satisfying and meaningful user experience.
- Avoidance of Bid Bot usage except for when visibility is key. Clarification of when visibility is key.
- The role plagiarism and abuse have in the community.
Long story short: We will onboard people with a long term, non abusive and community engaged mindset who will know the importance of investing as a way of contributing towards the Steem blockchain.
Investment from Steemonboarding
In order to successfully onboard someone, we will support them through their first month on Steem while they adapt, find their own niche and become part of a community. Essentially, we will help them find their place in the platform.
To be able to support these users, we invested 10,000 Steem out of our pocket and powered them up to have some significant voting power. We know it won’t be enough if we do things right and onboard tens of people daily but at least it’s a start.
A Steem Power delegation from anyone who believes in this project, would be of tremendous help to be able to support these new Steemians. We brought them here, we want to see them succeed and become a positive and healthy member of one the DApps, be part of a community and actually invest money and time in the platform; we will support them through a very small curation team.
This potential delegation will be used mainly to support the users we onboard and any posting, curation or liquid rewards will be powered up to grow the account. That way in the future, we'll be able to support more recently onboarded users. Since we are a new project, part of this delegation will serve as leverage to fund some development and a team.
Business Plan
After several conversations with some people in Krakow during this past Steem Fest, we are currently considering several options to make this project profitable and self sustainable and so far we have several options. We will make a post very soon regarding this specific topic.
Road Map for 2018 and Q1- Q2 2019
This is the announcement post and we are already including a short term road map because we want to be transparent, but we also want to be held accountable. After all, this project is focused on helping the communities and the DApp. We want to work for you and for a common goal.
- November 16, 2018: Announcement of the project. Whatever feedback you have about this idea, please leave it in the comment section.
- November 20, 2018: Translators and Video makers recruitment process. We already have English, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean and Filipino. We are searching for at least 5 more languages. Details of this process will be posted on this date.
- January 15, 2019: Beta version of the website online, testing phase begins. All the basic intro videos in all the languages will be available. The DApps and communities section will be browsable.
- Q1, 2019: Website fully running and onboarding through our website available in ten languages.
- Q2, 2019: Marketing Campaigns, onboarding contests and more to come. This will involve the Steem community, so each and every one of us can successfully onboard potential users in a matter of minutes.
The Team
First of all, we want to thank everyone who took the time to have a conversation with us and give us feedback, tips and recommendations during Steem Fest. We already had the idea but you guys helped us a lot in making it a reality. We want to thank @andrarchy, Steemit Content Director, @starkerz from @oracle-d, @elear from @utopian-io, @fredrikaa from @steempress, @blocktrades, @heimindanger from @dtube, @hansikhouse and @voronoi from @sndbox, witnesses @gtg, and @crimsonclad from @followbtcnews witness team and @kevinwong. Thank you all for all your input.
Congrats @steemonboarding team! Now that's the power of SteemFest. Meeting in person to identify complex pain points and then pushing forward (together) to solve them. You have our support and enthusiasm!
With respect to feedback - you're tackling some of the biggest issues that this blockchain faces - onboarding / education / retention. Leveraging IRL users (of multiple languages) to relay information is a powerful thing that most other blockchains simply don't have the opportunity to assemble. Luckily, Steem has that opportunity. But it's also incredibly challenging to organize. Due to the overwhelming diversity of this community, boiling it down to simple points and perspectives will be very difficult. It's totally doable though, and you guys are the best out there to make it happen.
As you begin establishing the rules for your videos and website - we want to stress the importance of a user interface to properly relay complex topics. Keeping video quality and your website clean and simple is key - which will ultimately help you guys - because new apps will be coming out or updating all the time / it will be important for you to maintain up-to-date content.
Kudos to you both! Our team is excited to see your hard work come together. We'll DM you a few precedent websites that might be useful to look at for inspiration as you continue storyboarding and building! Steem on!
Thanks so much for all the input and feedback we got from you in Krakow, definitely gave us the courage to try and tackle this issue.
Indeed organization will be one of the most difficult parts of the project, luckily Lea is a master of organization! We are grateful to count with some "important" users in some of the languages we want to attack first, we hope it´s enough to be able to regionalize the onboarding content without it missing the key points.
The easy to use and simple interface is on our minds but we know you guys have a lot of expertise and experience in that topic so we will definitely be reaching out to Sndbox for advice there.
I´m so proud to be a Sndbox ambassador and to count with your support in this odyssey. Steem on!
Could not have said it better myself! This ain't no small potatoes.
Really pleased to see the announcement after our discussion~ this is something that I and many others spend a lot of time trying to help after the fact when we have new users join! I can say that though I'm nothing special in my efforts and between the hours spent in off-chain communities, delegating, radio shows, mentoring sessions; it's still not much of a candle to all of the stuff forward facing community members like you guys do... it's harder to shift someone's momentum than it is to simply help them get moving.
While we manage to turn and rejuvenate a few people (or maybe even a lot), starting people from all over the world out with a better idea of what might be really different cultural and steemy societal norms in mind is the perfect idea for underlining that this isn't just any social site. It's also an interest driven way to get people used to the idea that there needs to be a bit of "proof of brain" and that there is an underlying cost to be able to use the tools this blockchain affords without scaring them away or making it too high.
Please let me know if I can help with any content or liaising! You guys are taking on an exciting task that deserves a ton of support.
Oh pish posh. You're right up there at the top, Crim. No one holds a candle to YOU. And that's a fact. But yes, these two are doing something pretty unbelievable, and I'm excited to just be breathing the same air.
Yeah they are right
Thank you so much for your support of this project @crimsonclad! You are one of those great community leaders that does so much to make the Steem world go round and we are excited to hear your enthusiasm for the project.
This comment means so much, especially coming from the master of the minnow orientation and plankton onboarding. Thanks so much Crimi! We would be delighted to attend one of your radio shows and speak more about the topic and listen to your opinion about it!
Definitely, if we can be more in touch and get your continuous feedback we would really appreciate it!
We´ll get in touch with you soon, there are some topics I think you might be more than delighted to jump in and help us! :D
this is amazing for anybody, i hope you can show to entire world
What a great initiative! Getting new users is definitely not an easy job, and we deeply respect the fact that you are taking small steps towards this mission!
Partiko is focusing on the lower end of the onboarding funnel by building a world class user experience that can retain new users and help them more easily become successful, and we see huge potential in us working together.
We will support your mission every step of the way, and please keep us updated for your latest process!
Onwards and upwards!
Posted using Partiko Android
It means a lot to have your support, we will strive to do the best we can to onboard people and channel them towards the different DApps of the blockchain!
Again, thanks for the support!
Gg
It means so much to have your support @partiko!
Thank you for the great introduction. You have a very good concept and are aware of the issues which need to be solved on the Steem blockchain. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet you in person at Steemfest³.
I think one of the biggest issues we are currently facing on the blockchain is the low price of SBD/Steem and the difficulties that come along with joining Steemit. I really like how certain initiatives have grown out of the ground the last weeks and @steemonboarding is a very good example.
From personal experience, I can tell that most of the new Steemians loose interest fast, as the platform is simply too overwhelming. Every good app, website or game has some introduction of how things are working. Steemit, Busy.org, and Steempeak are lacking of it.
I think there has to be much more done in order to establish a successful blockchain. However, steemonboarding is a very good initiative, which I fully support.
If you need a translator for German videos, it would be an honor for me to serve with my knowledge. I've done several translations for Utopian already and I'm quite sure I could handle them as well. Have you ever thought about making steemonboarding open-source and let you help through the power of Utopian.io? For a well established German community, which you might integrate on your website, I think @theaustrianguy would be a good contact.
It would have been great to meet in Krakow but there were so many people and so few time! I guess we have an appointment then next November :D
Right now is the best time to onboard people because think about it, if we onboard them during a pump, their expectations will be huge and when a decrease in price comes, we´re going to face a lot of quitters...
The key here is to work together with the DApps, we onboard the people with the right mindset and we channel them to a community or DApp, which in turn will show them they can be part of something bigger and that they have a place in there, sense of belonging is more important tan short term rewards. If a new user feels like they belong, they´ll stay no matter the rewards.
Thank you so much for the offer for the German translations, soon we´ll make a post regarding that topic, please, make sure to apply there (which we´ll be very grateful for).
Thanks for the huge comment!
#mindblown #themasterplan #loveit
Rofl at this GIF :P
The Gif king is here!! hahah Thanks so much for the support on this post my friend! <3
hahah!
I want to smoke that role too :D
You had me at 'Marketing'! :-)
What an awesome approach, presented by two of my favorite steemians. Love it! In fact it's something we've all been waiting for: a sustainable onboarding and education concept. However, sometimes it just requires people who don't only talk about it but start to take some actions.
Great to see that Steemfest was apparently able to help sparks of enthusiasm jumping across and turn brilliant ideas in real concepts.
Count me in for whatever type of support needed, I'd be delighted to contribute to such a great project!
Loved and resteemed ❤️
Your support means so much to us @surfermarly! Thank you for showing such enthusiasm towards the project.
You're more than welcome. WE have to be grateful for you putting so much efforts into such an important topic :-)
Thanks Marly! We´ve had this idea for a couple of months and after some talks at SF we knew it was the perfect time to drop the dice :D
Thanks for the offer, we most definitely will be reaching out to you soon :)
Simple STEEM videos in multiple languages are absolutely needed. Thank you for starting this effort!
I want to point out one key element of the mindset of the Onboarded Steemian that was missed.
Popular YouTube, Facebook, etc. users risk being shut down without warning or forced to pay fees to keep blogging. While that doesn't affect most people, it is always a threat to everyone on a centralized platform. Instead of focusing on earnings, one focus is that the user OWNS their social media account. It can not be taken away despite their political beliefs and they will not be forced to pay to continue to use their account or simply denied access to their account for reasons determined by the centralized social media platform.
This is important to onboarding by justifying to those popular bloggers that they need a forever account that can't be manipulated by centralized platform. Models, actors, popular bloggers, youtubers, etc. are under this threat. Many of them have multiple accounts in the event that one account is shut down or they are denied access. If they are onboarded, then they bring many users with them.
The key to onboarding is leveraging the following of popular social media icons. Convince them to join and you will have huge numbers flooding into STEEM.
This is so true and thank you very much for pointing it out. The lack of censorship we have in a decentralized platform is one of the most important aspects!
Thanks you for giving us the idea of doing a programm focused solely to get "youtubestars, instagramstars etc" to our ecosystem.
Just started following you!
I'm so excited to see organized informational STEEM videos, I'm about to jump out of my skin. Thank you for doing this.
One recommendation about censorship. STEEM still has a form of censorship from the community. I wouldn't advertise it as a censorship free environment. Instead focus on the ownership of the account that it cannot be deleted or the user cannot be denied access. That in itself is a major stressor for popular bloggers. They still get censorship from users that choose to ignore them for inappropriate content or respond negatively. I know I'm splitting hairs. Just choose your words wisely when creating videos.
Anyway, exciting time to see a @steemonboarding effort. You should ask @ned to use his bridge studio to film the videos...
This is a fantastic project and hopefully will see new users come in and get up to speed fast. What I am hoping is that SF this year will be marked by community actions such as this.
AS you know, I have been pushing on another front that supports smaller users and those new onboards which would compliment this process greatly. What we need to be able to show is a community where content matters and develop healthy expectations without taking the 'user at any cost' approach that the youtubers push.
If then as they come in they are able to be shown toward the various dapps and communities that support them, they will very quickly connect and find a home among users who are much more seasoned. This doubles down on the onboarding process and provides additional users getting accustomed to the various dapps without needing to ever try blogging for reward unless they choose. Not everyone is a blogger after all.
If the development of the 'new wave' of Steemian is one that looks to embed them into the community first they are much more likely to become the community orientated actors Steem so desperately needs more of and their organic growth gives them earned buy-in which drives connection and the the sense of ownership.
What is going to be interesting is that this will not only be a support for new users, apps are able to leverage the process to find users who are suited to and encourage usage of their platforms.
Great work @anomadsoul and @coruscate
Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm of this project @tarazkp! It was so great to meet you at Steemfest and your input means a lot to us.
Exactly. Our focus is not necessarily to get 1 million random users for the sake of "growth", but to help build better Steem Citizens that will contribute to the eco-system.
You are most welcome and in this city we are developing we need to create valuable suburbs of healthy users. It takes time and trial and error but I believe we are able to make it work.
Slow clap
Awesome guys... precisely what we have been needing... I'm very proud of you both!
Thanks so much @meno!! We are so excited to have your support. We look forward to featuring Helpie as a community for new steemians to get plugged into!
As discussed in „Cracovia“, count with our support for this great iniciative.
Thanks so much for the support! The talk we had was great.
Thank you so much for your support of our project @cervantes!