Marketing 420 for Decentralized Networks

[LV5]

Marketing 420 for Decentralized Networks

“Good documentation as the best marketing”

I have recently been learning new stuff to migrate the dablock.com portal to a new framework with SSG support, moving away from the current CMS. This will make everything completely open-source, allowing everyone to easily collaborate in managing the site and its content from a public repository on GitHub.

While browsing the documentation of new frameworks, I came across this note that I simply loved and inspired me to start this topic.

Today we’re going to focus on my experience and povs around a few interested topics related to digital “marketing”, a word that unfortunately has gained quite a bit of popularity, not in a good way, and has been overused alongside others overexploited and trending, but not new, concepts such as “community”, “experts”, “kols”, etc. etc.

This topic is being written from the point of view of an individual and indie creator, not a a fancy mkt agency or a big company’s in-house team. In particular, from the pov of LV .

Table of contents:

1. Make it Simple: Culture & Hardcore Niches
   • Technical Enhancements
   • Social Dynamics
2. The Problem with Distribution Channels
   • Twitter as a double-edged sword
   • Audience Who? Influencer Who?
3. KPIs and On-chain/Off-chain Metrics Manipulation
   • Identifying Metrics Manipulation
   • Understanding the Real KPIs

Make it Simple: Culture & Hardcore Niches

Blockchain is hardcore, Polkadot is more, both in the technical side and social side.

Our mission as an ecosystem should be to make this as simple, accessible and friendly as possible for new and regular participants.

Technical Enhancements

On the technical part, aside from good documentation, the best marketing will always be good, easy-to-use products and tools. That’s where some of the most important initiatives in the ecosystem today come into play, from the Polkadot-API (PAPI) and POP Network / POP CLI to improve the developer experience, to the Unified Polkadot Address Format and DOT as Unified Gas Token to improve the general user experience (covered by the UX Bounty).

Social Dynamics

On the social part, this maybe should be better a extended discussion for another future post. In any case, in my honest opinion, it is all a question of incentives, tools, culture and good practices. The goal would be to achieve a greater gamification of interactions in the ecosystem, especially with governance.

More gamified systems that are as non-debatable as possible and fewer management systems and bodies. Replace meetings with tools, clear guidelines and more automated workflows.

Encourage a culture of tips that tries to incentivize all active and productive participant in the most automated way possible. With a culture maybe similar to how WagMedia currently operates with content creation, but in a more general way and range of activities. Clear online reputation systems instead of popularity contests. Open communication channels… This is definitely starting to be a different and broader topic, in any case on the following links you can find a little more of my point of view about it (post 1 | post 2).

The Problem with Content Distribution Channels

Twitter as a double-edged sword

Please, just dont treat Twitter as a content platform, because it is not.

Twitter is, without a doubt, the best communication channel to chat directly with your audience in this industry, generate “engagement”, share announcements, and fast sell a new token or memecoin if you want, but definitly is not the best platform to host long-form content for many reasons: no archival or easy reference, limited discoverability, fast-paced nature…

I may not be entirely right about this (ofc I am), but to optimize the use of resources as best as possible when generating content for a project in the long term, I think it’s important to treat Twitter always as a secondary platform.

• Twitter = communication channel for content distribution
• Twitter != content hosting platform

So, at the end of that fancy thread everyone likes to write, you have to know that it’s always a very cool idea to add a fancy CTA too to the complete content piece at the real platforms prepared for that. And if the thread is generated with AI from the original extended piece, workflow 10/10 my friend .

Short Formats Fever

And also don’t be mistaken with the current fast food marketing world. Modern, fast and short formats are not the solution to adoption of nothing.

Of course they can be put to excellent use! And there are currently media teams in the ecosystem that have added it well to their workflow and are trying to obtain good outputs with them.

But specifically in the case of current and new project teams, don’t be fooled by the new generation of marketing agencies trends… A blog, while it may seem less attractive, is often the best thing to prioritize before doing TikToks. Web 1.0 Good Practices > Everything.

Audience Who? Influencer Who?

Recently, I heard a comment from Guillermo on a podcast. He stated that Vercel doesn’t engage in sponsorships because they have more to lose than to gain. This is why they stopped sponsoring Theo—their only deal in that area.

The latter would seem like the best possible creator and brand ambassador to this type of business, but incredibly, with no clear benefits to both parts from their collaboration, it’s true that they actually had more to lose than to gain.

The same logic applies to large blockchain ecosystems when working the brand awarness area, especially when their deals are public.

From now on we are going to refer to the term “influencers” as creators. Since these two concepts are similar, but different.

This was simply an example I wanted to share to mention the importance of selecting true brand ambassadors or creators. Of course Polkadot needs more brand awareness, marketing, outreach in general, etc. etc. But by whom and for whom?

And btw, since we mention the amb thing… why was it thought in the latest ecosystem craze that trying to turn the HA role into an artificial popularity contest directly related with the old program and try to form a coordinated team of senior BDs from it with more regular meetings can be the solution to outreach anything? o_O Maybe I’m the one who is too radical, but so far it seems I’m not wrong about the less meetings = more action thing :/.

I got the next part of the text from an old conversation, so I asked chatgpt to summarize the 3 main key points of it for you:

1. Empower Developers and Founders as Authentic Creators:

   • Leverage the developers and founders within the ecosystem as the primary promoters and brand ambassadors.
   • Provide them with resources to create personal and informal content that resonates with the audience.

2. Collaborate with Technically Proficient Creators over the Traditional “Crypto Influencers”:

   • Engage with creators who have strong technical backgrounds, even if they are outside the traditional crypto industry.
   • Avoid agencies as intermediaries and creators who lack understanding of the product.

3. Focus on Long-Term, Genuine Engagement Over Direct Promotions:

   • Be cautious with direct promotions and sporadic sponsorships which may pose more risks than benefits.
   • Establish long-term partnerships with selected creators who share the mission and can deliver tangible outcomes.

KPIs and On-chain/Off-chain Metrics Manipulation

After curating hundreds of project profiles and auditing dozens and dozens of creator, media initiative, and influencer social channels, I’ve come to the conclusion that metrics manipulation is the general rule in this industry.

Don’t get me wrong, there is both legal and not-so-legal manipulation. Both are equally important to consider when trying to estimate the true impact of any type of content, marketing action, whatever.

Identifying Metrics Manipulation

The best way to assess the true value of a project’s traffic without an in depth analysis is by examining its traffic sources on it and its associated publications. This approach is often the most straightforward method for detecting a manipulation in the metrics across various distribution channels, especially when considering historical data, patterns, and anomalies.

We could go into much more detail on this topic depending of how to identify this manipulations depending on which platform we are referring to.

In any case…

Is the manipulation of these metrics really a bad practice?

The short answer is that it depends.

Without a doubt, if the objective of the manipulation is malicious in order to present results that are not true, then obviously it is.

If the manipulation of these metrics is due to transparent campaigns to promote the content and product producing, then it can be a good strategy for any team searching to growth their reach, but not a final solution at all.

For example, there are a couple of media teams in this ecosystem that are making great use of these types of platform-native promotional campaigns to grow their impact on platforms like Twitter/X and YouTube. Both are examples of good use of these tools. Just as there are others projects that could perhaps make better use of them. In any case, when analyzing the growth of these media products, it is important to analyze them taking into account these promotional campaigns to understand the real organic impact of each individual publication and initiative growth.

Understanding the Real KPIs

KPIs vary based on the goals of each campaign or initiative.
For brand awareness, such as a product launch, we should focus on metrics like impressions and tweet engagement. When aiming for long-term technology adoption, key indicators include GitHub stars and the number of downloads. To assess the growth and impact of a mature portal, we look at traffic sources, keyword rankings and the quantity and quality of backlinks. When evaluating a creator’s impact, we can even consider both off-chain metrics like organic or social traffic and engagement, as well as on-chain metrics such as the number of individual delegators…

We can look for all kinds of KPIs depending on the objective of each publication and initiative. In any of the scenarios, at a macro level, of course, the real KPIs that interest us as an ecosystem are logically not the number of impressions of anything, but the value of the token, the liquidity, the number of projects products…

And that is a joint effort that must be achieved through a system that works properly, with its clear mechanics, accessible resources, easy-to-use tools and a collaborative environment. So the best marketing is perhaps try to not being an idiot (?) , simplify everything, know how to value the available resources (especially the human ones) and crafting the best way to encourage and use them in the field where they are most productive.

To finish this topic before it gets too long, here you have a random cool tweet maybe a little bit related:

- Optimistic project funding is good.
- More standards, tools and guidelines are good.
- Gamified systems over managed systems are better.
- Clear online reputational systems instead of popularity contests are the way.
- Dont be a dick is the mood. pic.twitter.com/Tyl08nGGeA

— LV (@KusamaNFT) October 13, 2024

Btw, any team or developer/creator who needs help or advice on any related topic, my email is always open for you: lv@dablock.com.

Thanks for reading, good night and good health to everyone .