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RE: The Greatest Trick Steemit Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World It Didn't Exist
I think at first it was more about a proof of concept. Once it was proven that this model could work now they go about scaling it. Once it is scaled they will launch a massive advertising campaign... that is my understanding at least.
If that is true, that is the equivalent of starting a Formula 1 racing team and saying; "we'll get sponsors once we're world champions."
The time to market and advertise is at the start; especially with Steemit, when there was a lot of interest and money flying around.
Cg
What good is it to bring everyone in if the site can't handle that kind of traffic and the currency is not distributed enough to get the site to function more normally? In my eyes it seems like both of those need to be fixed before we try to bring the masses in. The lack of steem distribution is the system's major flaw in my eyes. That has to be fixed, and fast...
Now, I didn't say I agreed with it or that it was the best strategy, but that seems to be the plan at this point. At least from my understanding. If there is no plan for major advertising at some point then the site is in trouble...
If Apple adopted the same policy, they wouldn't even exist as a company. How many times have you heard that this iphone, or that imac has so and so flaws, needs to be recalled, etc. They put stuff out, then let their users tell them what is wrong, but all the time, they keep on marketing.
Cg
This is in reply to your latest comment, due to nesting limit.
Look nobody is disagreeing that marketing is important. We get it, everyone gets it. However, what good is marketing if you bring in millions of people if they all leave? Now you have millions of people with negative impressions of the site telling all their friends how terrible it is. Please tell me how that helps the site long term?
You build a viable product and then you market it. We are still on step one right now. Will that be steemit's downfall? Maybe... but that is the better option then bringing in the masses right now. They won't stay... the current numbers prove this. For every new user we bring in, we lose an older one. The numbers aren't constant right now because everyone is staying, they are constant because we are losing roughly the same number we are bringing in. If we were keeping more of the users we are bringing in right now I would agree with you, but we aren't, so I don't.
I don't believe that would have happened, this in my humble opinion is a quite credible timeline of events.
July - 1st Steemit payout - app launched
August - Market cap hits $100 million dollars - Last 30 days has been a flurry of in-app advertising and Facebook advertising (boosting quality posts to target audiences) Upshot of this is a demographic map of new Steemit users.
August - MNBC, and The Guardian newspaper write articles about Steemit - More targeted Facebook advertising and Google adwords. Upshot is a groundswell of users, possibly leading to the first million.
September - Negative feedback about the UI is overshadowed by the new "Steemit millionaires" making big in the blogging world.
OK, I won't go on and obviously I've oversimplified, and ignored the hack. However what I'm trying to get across is, if Steemit HQ were properly prepared. They would have prepared for a huge influx of users and got together a tight marketing plan.
The strategy should always be, if we make X, we will spend X - Y on marketing. Because it is advertising that generates custom.
So what do we have now instead? We still have a dwindling audience and disgruntled users; we just don't have enough to absorb the bad times.
At least with more users, there are more annoyed ones; however that means there are more happy cheerleaders spreading the good word of Steemit.
Cg
Comparing Apple to Steemit is ridiculous, and I mean that nicely, but Apple is a very mature company that is also the most valuable company on the planet. Steemit hasn't even been around for a year yet. Apple first built a product that they felt was ready for sale, once it was ready they marketed it. Steemit.com is not ready for sale. When it is the marketing will come. It would have been nice if all of this could have been found out before it had thousands of users, but this is the hand we are dealt at this point. All we can do is make the most of it going forward.
Oh dear, you're completely missing the point. If you know any successful business people, either personally or via forum or blog, ask them how important they think marketing when it comes to new ideas and products.
The unanimous answer you get should enlighten you to the plain simple truth of the matter. No marketing = no business.
Or we can make a bit of noise and demand change; I know which I prefer.
Cg
reply to your latest response...
You make some good points and maybe had Steemit.inc had you when they launched this thing we would be sitting pretty right now ;)
However, since they didn't and we can't go back in time... what do we do now?
We go on the offensive, all is definitely not lost. Steemit has a war chest of millions of dollars, so it can use a tiny fraction of that to make a huge difference.
For instance, I get a lot of New Scientist stuff on my FB feed and things like it, as they have figured out I'm into that stuff. So you take some of the quality science articles on Steemit and post them on the Steemit FB page and pay for them to go to certain people.
Start with males 20-25 and go from there. Rinse and repeat with different categories of articles.
What this does is it gives you data on who is liking and sharing Steemit content. Which means that you can target those people big time. It becomes like a snowball rolling down a hill, the more people you target who like your stuff, the more shares you get, the more people likely to be into your stuff, see it.
This will lead to a greater brand awareness; this may not increase users initially (especially as there is no "subscribe" feature), however it will get a greater number of people coming to Steemit to read articles.
Here you can have much clearer "calls to action" making people aware of the benefits of signing up and becoming part of "the community". A well thought out Adwords campaign will lead to an increased user base.
The problem most new companies have with implementing strategies such as these, is budget. However Steemit does not have this problem, their problem is expertise, and possibly willing.
If I was in charge, I would be hiring people who could make the above things happen.
#mytwocents :-)
Cg
@cryptogee, I wouldn't mind talking to you via PM.
I think you're on to something, and I'd like to discuss it further.
Just message me via the steemit.chat website. I'm Kitten on there.