Introduction
Hey all, it's been a while since I wrote about Steemit. I've been watching thing goes and mostly remained a silent bystander of what's been going on in the past month...but lately my fingers were itching to speak out about an issue I see steemit.com facing.
I'm not a developer, I don't have a degree in economics and I will never pretend to know what is the best incentive structure to help price discovery, rewards % or any of that.
The tech, both on the back-end and front-end has made incredible progress since I first joined last May. On that front I'm quite happy about what Steemit has accomplished.
But I'm getting frustrated on this front...
Unfortunately, developers make very poor marketers. They are the guys who gets excited about features. Most of them get so caught up in the tech that they sometime forget that the large majority people don't care about what make this thing work. They are like the mechanics who know every little details about cars while most people care about getting from home to work in a reliable manner.
Who Are You? What Do You Want? Why Should I Care?
That's what everybody think when they see any form of marketing or sales process.
Put yourself in the shoes of someone who don't know anything about blockchain or cryptocurrency. Imagine them arriving on some random article via google or facebook and then seeing this:
What does that even mean? Why should I give a hoot about this?
This header only mean something to you IF you already know about blockchain. The cryptocurrency community is a tiny tiny elite segment of the population. Definitely not something one should build an entire social media website on.
But that's exactly what the header is messaging. If you don't know anything about blockchain, you've just alienated your visitor by making them feel stupid.
What is Steemit.com target market?
Seems cliche I know BUT it's not a question that should be overlooked. Right now, there is no message to market match going on.
People make the huge mistake of trying to appeal to everybody in their marketing. When you talk to everybody you are indeed talking to nobody. This is kind of what's going on right now.
Since multiple website can be built on the back of Steem than we have a lot of opportunities for building multiple front-end that caters to different markets.
1. FREE SPEECH MARKET
With the cracking down of "fake news" website by Google, Facebook and twitter, the hairs on the back of the neck of the free speech advocates are raised big time. The free speech crowd usually already go for alternative news websites such as the drudgereport, infowars, breitbart to name a few.
If that's the market Steemit wants to reach then they have to change the message that appear to every single non-user visitor to the website to something like:
"Welcome to the FREE SPEECH ZONE."
"The #1 Social Media Platform for Free Speech."
"The Only Censorship Free Social Media Platform."
etc. etc.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM THAT REWARDS IT'S USERS
Greed is an incredible motivator. It would get people to go outside their comfort zone and try something new. Steemit is the only social media platform that does that and no where do we see any messaging about that.
If that's the market Steemit wants to reach then they have to change the message that appear to every single non-user visitor to the website to something like:
"The Only Social Media Platform That Rewards It's Users"
Other markets...
There are many other "mass market" ready to be tapped into, you are welcome to put your ideas in the comment section if you have more in your mind.
Conclusion
Trying to appeal to everyone is a sure way to appeal to no one. Steemit has to decide WHO they are looking for, have a message to market match and then create a fun and easy on-boarding process.
Once user adoption is back on full force then we can think about boasting about our success, do press releases and attract investors...but right now, I would be skittish to invest in a platform that doesn't have a clear idea of who they want to have has users outside of the cryptocurrency community.