My project APPICS, the very first Smart Media Token, was officially announced and I just hit 5,000 Followers on Steemit!

2 amazing occasions. First, let's start with my 5,000 Follower milestone!

I have been blogging on Steemit for about 1 year and 3 months now. Looking back, this platform has grown and evolved so much, and being quite an early adopter, I feel like my blog has grown with it.
I have written a total of 549 Steemit Blogposts (so this one will be no. 550!), and have been blogging actively with an average above 1 post a day.
During this time, I have connected with so many supportive Steemians, who follow along with my blog and comment under my posts. I've got to know people from all over the world, who were all so kind and interesting.

Now, my follower base has grown to 5,000 - a big number!

I'm grateful that so many of you are interested in my blog and are following it!

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As APPICS was recently announced, I thought I'd use this 5,000 follower milestone to tell you a little bit more about APPICS, how the project came to be, and what the philosophy behind APPICS is.

APPICS - THE VISION

Creating my own App has been a goal of mine for several years.
I actually taught myself how to code in Swift, the programming language for iOS.
Considering my global digital marketing agency We Care 4U, I have also always been involved with social media, promoting global brands, helping companies improve their reach and Influencers grow their audiences through unique marketing strategies and tools.
Being an artist myself, I have experienced both: running an Instagram account account as a personal brand, and as a seller who uses Social Media as part of their advertisement strategy.

But I always felt like there was something missing.

As Social Media grew over the years and Influencers started to become a real business, I noticed how big Social Media corporations were expanding their business without returning any value to the users.
So-called "successful" Influencers often receive nothing, or just a fraction of the shares.
And the majority of small users never even received the opportunity of getting rewarded for their time spent on social networks.

Then, in summer 2016, I stumbled upon Steemit - and everything changed.

I have been involved with cryptocurrencies since 2011 - trading, mining, and learning more about this topic.
So when I discovered a Social Media platform that was built on Blockchain Technology and cryptocurrencies, something I was already so amazed of and involved in, I knew Steemit was for me.

After a few months of using Steemit actively, I felt like the platform was really lacking a mobile app (eSteem wasn't around yet).

So I started to think about an App that would work similar to Steemit in some ways - but also different in others (like the focus on visual content). I was just playing around with some thoughts, but I couldn't help thinking how amazing it would be to have your own social media app, and to have your own cryptocurrency.

This was over a year ago, Steemit was still new and I had no idea how all of this would develop in the future - but still, I was passionate about the concept of the App, so I decided to just go for it.

So we started writing down the concept, creating the whitepaper, etc.
A few months ago, things then got real: we started shooting our official promo video, finished up the whitepaper, and released the homepage.

As our project and our vision evolved, our team also grew. The APPICS team is a group of passionate Doers and Thinkers who aim to make a change!

We were under discussion with different Blockchain developers and companies, but hadn't quite decided how to proceed yet.
When Ned announced the concept of Smart Media Tokens on the STEEM Blockchain, we knew that STEEM would be the ideal concept to build APPICS on - and now we're here!

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APPICS - THE PHILOSOPHY

There are so many talented people in the world. Countless of people who are amazing singers, artists, actors, comedians, or athletes - but unfortunately, they lack the medium, they lack the voice to share their talent with the world.
Unfortunately, money can have quite a lot of power over your lifestyle.
There is a number of countries where the majority of the people live in poor conditions, but still have access to internet connection.

It's about time that people get rewarded for all the time they spend online - rewarded for their passion of sharing, communicating and connecting digitally.

And that's where APPICS comes in. An APP, a smartphone, and an internet connection - that is all you need.

APPICS is an opportunity. It gives people a choice to get rewarded for something we all do anyway - spending time on social media and sharing content.

Social Networks nowadays profit from the activity of their users, but don't give anything back in return.
Some Influencers may gain deals with brands, but they don't always identify with every product and want to keep it real for their audience, so they can't accept every brand deal.
And on top of that, some of the new Algorithms prevent users from seeing the content they followed!
Influencers spend years growing their Instagram- or Facebook accounts, but now due to these algorithms on Facebook/Instagram their followers don't even get shown their content.
Instead, the Social Networks are making them pay for promoted posts so that their content will even become visible for their own follower base.

APPICS wants to change that - and offer the people a fair reward for their time spent on Social Media!

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APPICS EVENT

Last weekend, we hosted a Cryptocurrency Meetup / APPICS Launch Event in Hamburg, Germany!

Last year, I organized the first Steemit Meetup in Hamburg - and now, I have rented the exact same conference room again. But instead of only representing Steemit, this time I could also announce APPICS!

The event was aimed at anyone interested in cryptocurrencies (whether Newbie or not), and also to introduce APPICS to a new audience.
The conference room was absolutely packed, over 60 people attended - thank you again to everyone who showed up!

We heard some speeches about Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies in general, Blockchain, Mining, and of course Steemit and APPICS! The feedback was very positive, everyone really enjoyed themselves at the event and learned something new.
The audience was also very excited about APPICS - and it's amazing to see how your vision is slowly coming to life and how people are reacting to it!

Here is a little sneek peek from the event (a detailed post will follow from the @appics account soon)

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Once again... Thank you for 5,000 Followers, thank you for being such an amazingly supportive community, and thank you for such a warm welcome and positive feedback for APPICS as well!

5,000 Followers on other Social Media platforms might not be all too much - but on Steemit, your followers are truly like one big family. Instead of being "ghost followers", steemians really read, support and comment under my posts - and I'm grateful for all the engagement!

My journey on Steemit continues, and a new journey with APPICS starts...

STAY PASSIONATE & STEEM ON!

P.S. ... See you guys at Steemfest2 next week! 😉

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© Sirwinchester