Let me crystal clear about the 'expertise' of Jongo....
I'm pretty much, the world's worst investor. Literally, everything I ever put my hard earned money behind, didn't always pan out. And don't ask me about when I sold $BTC at $500 each because it as never going higher...So I thought.
But something I have always believed in...Is short form social media content.
Here's an example...
That's when I joined X (or Twitter) pretty much the year after it started to take off. The first time I saw it, I 'got it'. It made sense. This was were people were going to talk, and communicate. This wasn't bulky long form posts, or catching up with friends that was popular on things like Facebook. This was a real time conversation. Sometimes between friends, and sometimes between strangers. But the point of it was, there was conversations.
Fast forward to what we have been seeing on Hive over the past few years and I can't help but think...This is where our biggest (or one of our biggest) opportunities are. And here's why....
People.
Hive has always been about the people on chain. The communities that have been formed. The apps that have been built by said people and communities.
So where did we go wrong?
I think it comes down to a few factors. One, and please don't take this the wrong way, but Hive has been and continues to be managed and overseen by people that aren't the biggest communicators. They are mostly (not all) tech people. They code. They bang out amazing things on the back end. But overall, most of them have remained silent, in the background.
And for whatever reason, short form content wasn't celebrated here for years. It was actually shunned.
It was considered low value, it didn't bring anything to the table and it looked like at first glance, short form was a haven for reward leeches.
Completely understandable. And at times, I agree. Because there is nothing worst than a bunch of bots, or AI accounts, doing nothing but spewing nonsense.
But this is where I think Hive made a mistake in it's approach. We have zero fees, we can operate in a real time conversation. It's literally designed for...Short form content. Especially with all the hype and hoopla around #web3 this blockchain could be positioned to really attract outsiders.
The allure of rewards is not a marketing strategy, but I'll tell you what...If I was brand new here and I saw that after a few weeks of chatting with people, I was getting 10 cents to 50 cents per 'snap' or 'thread'....I'd be telling all my friends about it.
And this is the old truth about building a social media platform on #web3 .....People will never go to a platform where their friends aren't.
So how do we get their friends here?
A couple of suggestions, and please just take this from someone who isn't technical. But is just a user of this chain for over 8 years and continues to hang out daily and chat with people....
1. Celebrate The Apps!
Things like InLEO Threads, Waves and Snaps have been pushing short form content for a while now. This needs to be celebrated and talked about more. I've been spending a lot of time on LEO over the past few years and only about a week on Snapie / Snaps and there's literally a fraction of the Hive community using them daily. Tell your Hive buddies to get using these apps. And of course, I highly recommend right now because it's absolutely epic!
2. Start & Keep The Conversations Going
While using the apps, post a few threads and snaps. And while you are there, go and answer or reply to others as well. If people come and respond to you, follow suit! There is nothing that will drive user loyalty more than getting replies from others. It shows that our content is valued and appreciated.
3. Upvote Content
For the love of everything that's good, vote up content that you enjoy! I know we have had a culture of downvoting 'low value content' since this chain began, but if you see stuff that sucks, either ignore it or reply that it's not welcomed here. We can self police our own chain and at the same time make it attractive to outsiders. Remember, we want to attract people and years of chasing creators away, can be fixed....We just need to support good content or creators that are trying to improve.
4. Use Graphics, 3Speak Shorts, Snapie Audio
Make your content stick out! No one is expecting Picasso type stuff here, but my goodness we have some awesome apps and tools on chain. Use them! Make your content pop out from the crowd and more people will engage with it!
5. Talk About It, Everywhere!
Traditional social media is still a great audience to bring over to the good side of the force. Tell the world you have an amazing #web3 experience to share and go and show them the amazing features of this chain. More specifically, share the apps!!! I've been telling people I know recently about and so far, they have not only joined the chain but they are starting to use it as well. Slowly, people will come if they are having a great experience and can be onboarded with ease.
Hey look, I'm just a user. That's all I've really ever been. Sure I brought some people over to the chain over the years, but when push comes to shove I've always believed of being a product of your product. We have some amazing potential here and for years I've always said, I believe it will always come down to attracting people with easy to use applications.
We're starting to see that now more than ever.....Let's just keep pushing and celebrate short form content! It worked in web 2, I cannot help but think it'll work in web 3.