Unless you've been living under a rock, it's a good bet that you've heard that "things are really happening" at LeoFinance.
At the moment, the LeoFinance community is thriving in large part because of the engagement level of the community, which reminds me a lot of the engagement levels people experienced on the old Steem(it) platform in the second half of 2017.
There's little doubt that communities thrive on engagement. But let's take a deeper look, starting with the nature of content creation on the web.
You Need "Creators" AND "Consumers!"
A common marketing strategy — and this extends well beyond just blockchain/crypto social venues — of web venues that offer rewards is to emphasize that people can get paid for their content.
Fair enough.
The often overlooked part of that equation is that it's ultimately an unsustainable approach unless you also have content consumers. Perhaps this points a little bit to the issue we're seeing on Hive proper... there's endless creation but not very much consuming.
It's easy to make the argument that people like to get paid for their but there's more to it than that: Most content creators you'll ask are also motivated by knowing that their articles are read and appreciated by an engaged audience.
It's a pretty safe bet to say that there are about 600 million blogs on the web... BUT only a little over 30 million — 5% are active. A very large percentage of the inactive blogs end up that way because their owners got the sense that they were offering a message... and NOBODY WAS READING IT! So they threw in the towel and quit, after 3, 11, 23 posts or whatever.
The power of the intangible reward of simply knowing that "someone read and liked my post!" is often underestimated, particularly in terms of its importance in retaining an active blogger in the long term.
Hence the importance of meaningful comments on web content... and why I am really excited about what's happening with LeoFinance!
With LeoFinance, That's not All!
Whereas rewards and engagement go a long way, they do not represent the be-all, end-all answer to anything.
One of the other things LeoFinance is getting right is the continuous development and updates that creates the sense of "things happening." Add to that having a genuine focus and roadmap — presented with a good degree of transparency — and you have another key element in making a venue "sticky."
Yes, sticky is a scientific term!
Let's face it, we all like to be part of something that feels like it is alive and going places. And when improvements and new features are continuously presented, it's part of what drives brand loyalty. We might not admit it openly, but we want to stick around to be part of what happens next.
In some ways, that was a significant part of the decline of old Steem... there was this sense of stagnation, like nothing was ever going to happen to move the community forward.
Yes Virginia, this blog really DOES contain a cat...
All it Takes is WORK... and More Work...
I only created this account some seven weeks ago, as an "alt" to my primary account. I actually was never planning to create top level posts; this was simply an effort to contribute to engagement.
SteemLeo — as it was called back then — was the second "SCOT Tribe" I grew interested in and staked a few tokens in... and I have followed it ever since, because it made sense as a niche community.
And that's the final point I wanted to make here, before I go back to my usual commenting pattern: You have to start with a good and meaningful idea, and then you have to constantly WORK it.
I have been part of web communities — and web community building — for over 20 years, and the common denominator for thriving communities is that you must start with a focused and meaningful core idea, and then you have to work at it, every single day! There are no "vacations" in community building... at least not until the community reaches "critical mass" where it becomes self-sustaining. And, trust me, that takes thousands of loyal regular contributors.
As part of the Hive-Engine extended universe, I see a fair number of communities that could follow in the footsteps of LeoFinance. Sadly, many of them have never moved beyond the "let's create a community and a token and see what happens" stage... I am not wise as to why, but often the discovery of just how much work it is to build and grow something is the deterrent.
And that's why I find myself here on LeoFinance... and even shilling it with a post like this!
CuratorCat out... 06 NOV 2020 21:48PST
All photos are my own