Today I came up with a potential future model for advertisers entering Steemit. Of course, my first assumption is that the platform's mechanics will operate on the same principles as they do today. Without that, it' anybody's guess.
So, what's so interesting about us being served ads on yet another platform? Well it isn't, who said anything about display ads :)
This is a more subtle approach and it costs are 0.
Real live image of Chief Marketing Officer of SkepticalCat Inc. losing patience. Image source
Its concept already exists today and if we are speaking about social media platforms, we can see it being implemented on Instagram and YouTube. It's called product placement, but also takes the form of promoting a specific service. Basically a company pays an individual in order to promote their product/service through the content they produce and share with their followers. It takes various shapes and forms and the amount paid out of course depends on how many people that individual can reach (there are other factors, but keeping it simple here) .
This model has always existed offline, think about sportspeople, celebrities, etc - they promote stuff all the time.
Now a straight forward way to think about how a company can already advertise/promote itself on Steemit today is by thinking oh their content will appear in the promoted tab or maybe they'll include ads being displayed on the platform. You know, the way we are used to ads being shown to us online.
Another way of course is to transfer what they do on Instagram and YouTube to Steemit as well - pay people to promote their brand.
However, there is a much more effective way to do things around here. The thing is Steemit offers advertisers a revolutionary new way of branding.
The zero cost model.
That's right, a company can promote itself by paying absolutely nothing at all. There's a but however, as with everything in life. It needs to invest into Steem, so it can ensure itself a sufficient amount of SteemPower and thus influence to shape things around here.
So basically the company can go around voting for the content it perceives as promoting its brand. Or it can recruit brand ambassadors that it will be sure are working on promoting their content, same as it does on Instagram for example. The difference here is that it doesn't cost anything to do that, beyond the initial investment.
On other platforms that investment is of course depleted and the company needs to allocate new funds in order for its promotional activities to keep on going. But on Steemit the marketing budget that was initially allocated is an investment into the platform that not only does it not disappear in correlation with the level of its activity, it actually increases due to curation rewards and steem power allocation.
A real time capture of the Chief Marketing Officer of CatSeeFood Inc. Image source
Basically a good old perpetuum mobile :)
Why isn't it happening yet?
Maybe it is and I just haven't noticed, but most likely it isn't. There's a simple answer really and it's the fact that this post I wrote will probably be read by something like 9 people in the next 24h. Even if it somehow manages to attract powerful votes and becomes the most trending thing out there, it can count on maybe a maximum of 2,000 views (which is what the nr 1 trending article got at the time of writing and its age of 23h).
And there you have it, the reason this model has not yet entered Steemit and will not for the foreseeable future. But who knows, perhaps when the nr 1 trending post on Steemit reaches a 100,000 views in 24h, then we can slowly start talking about the introduction of this marketing model's feasibility on Steemit and keep our eyes opened for signs of this activity.
Cause you know, the views of content popular users on Instagram can offer the advertisers are immense. At the end of the day, ad revenue will go where the masses spend their time on.
There you go, another reason for the powerful users of Steemit (I just cant get used to using the word whales, I feel like a freaking subculture doing it) to keep their eyes and their votes on the long run. The only way forward is to massively grow the user base and that's where their efforts should lie, if they want to really make money.
Oh and just a note: I in no way want to constantly see in someway lobbied content coming up top, but hey that's what is going on anyway with the undemocratic voting system. And besides, it needs to start making money one day in one way or the other.
This post is prompted by my developing thoughts on the matter of Steemit's long term viability as a popular social media platform:
#1 - Why Steemit needs to evolve as soon as possible
#2 - Why earning 1USD a day on Steemit can mean a world of difference