Marketing Steemit: The Importance of "Getting Rewarded" vs. "Making Money"

Steemit is starting to take off!

There are lots of new faces in the community. One of our regular contributors who likes to keep his eye on the numbers, Hive account@stephenkendal, reports that the number of new accounts regularly top 1000 per day... just a few weeks back, that figure was closer to 300-400! 

How do YOU tell the world about Steemit?

There's no doubt we have a pretty awesome gig here. And it makes a lot of sense that we should want to share it with the world.

But what's your angle? What's your "pitch?"

As part of Hive account@andrarchy and Hive account@zurvanic's "crowdsourced marketing" initiative, I have been sharing Steemit with more and more old blogging and writing friends from "days gone by." Of course, I get met with some skepticism... especially surrounding the idea that we get rewarded for contributing here.

Funny, that. We go to work and get paid, and that's all good and fine... but if there's a chance of getting paid online, people suddenly become skeptical and think it's some kind of "scam." 

A few days ago, I addressed the whole "scam" objection in a post called "Steemit is a SCAM??? Who ARE These People??? What are they THINKING?" which gently (or NOT so gently) pokes at people who equate rewards with scams.

Today, I wanted to re-examine how we "package" the way we tell others about Steemit. It's pretty simple, really.

"Rewards" are nice; "Money" is for Greedy Evil People...

I'm an old sales and marketing geek. Experience has taught me that sometimes you have to rephrase the same story 15 times before people finally "get" what you're trying to say.

My fairly brief experience in marketing Steemit has already taught me to not even mention "making money" when I talk about our community. 

Why?

Making money carries the wrong energy. "Making money" is what you do when you go to work and your employer hands you a paycheck. "Making money"-- in a psychological sense-- sounds like something serious and contractual; it involves an unwritten and unseen promise that when you take "X action" you will get "Y money." 

Here on Steemit we don't "make money," we create content and "get rewarded."

The term "Rewards" works really well because not only is it true, but it allows us (as those promoting the community) to softshoe around the complex issue of Steem and cryptocurrencies. 

"Money" is pretty much Dollars or Euros or Yen in people's minds. "Rewards" can be anything from dollars to cookies to kitten whiskers. And Steem.  

Terminology-- and Attracting the Right Kind of New Community Members

Not to belabor a point, but I have been playing this gig for a really long time. 

Language Matters!

It may not seem like much, but I can pretty much assure you that if you stand on a rooftop and shout "Make Money!" it will attract a complete different person than if you stand there and should "Get Rewarded!"

Similarly, if you try to sell people on the idea of joining Steemit based on a "make money" argument, you are going to attract a much "lower grade" person than if you are using "get rewarded" as your pitch.

And this is Important BECAUSE...

Observing some 50-60 user-generated content sites since about 1999, I have seen-- over and over-- how too much emphasis on "money" kills sites. Emphasizing "rewards" helps greatly with longevity.

I could write a book about the underlying dynamic... but suffice it to say that the Internet is home to several million people who habitually surf the web in search of Ways To Make Money Doing Things Online. 

I have seen them in action, dozens of times. They descend on sites like Steemit like swarm of locusts, focused purely on "making money" and will use any and all tools-- personal and technological-- at their disposal to "game the system" for short term gains.

They care nothing for the long term life of the community
They care nothing about building community, period
They care nothing about any rules, implicit or explicit
Their numbers are legion
They quickly drive away legitimate users, leaving only a wasteland

And THAT is why I recommend to everyone to "sell" Steemit because we get rewarded for creating content and being active community members who curate each others posts. And NOT because this is a place where you can "make money posting online."

Please trust me on this one! I this we have the makings of something truly awesome here... let's not destroy it by attracting the "wrong" element, by using an ill advised marketing angle!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)