Steemit Email Signature Icon With Hyperlink & Comparison of Centralized vs Decentralized Social Media Platforms!

Since we, as a business, have been seeking decentralized systems, migrating away from profiles such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc, seems necessary. But what happens when majority of consumers are still utilizing those applications? Is it really a majority and how do we reach them?

In fact, Pew Research Center came to the following conclusion after analyzing this question in 2015: Facebook 72% of adult internet users/62% of entire adult population

Fully 72% of online American adults use Facebook, a proportion unchanged from September 2014. Usage continues to be especially popular among online women, 77% of whom are users. In addition, 82% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Facebook, along with 79% of those ages 30 to 49, 64% of those ages 50 to 64 and 48% of those 65 and older.

So.. the question remains.. if we, you and I, decide to stop using what we may deem monopolized entities, social media or otherwise, how do we reach these consumers? Especially as a small business? We believe the answer is effective networking. Which, i'm sure, if you know an entrepreneur or two, you've definitely heard this a thousand times. For us, it is true. Effective networking is more of a lifestyle, much like being an entrepreneur in the first place. Effective networking is effortless and fun, it's exciting and adventurous, scary, intimidating and brings you extreme joy all at the same time.

But isn't Facebook, Google+ and all of those already REALLY effective marketing and networking?

Well, yes and no. Depends on your opinion of the matter. You see I recently wrote a blog about what targeted marketing means to you and your data, which you can find on our website here. Essentially what blockchain based applications have been able to provide are true to the nature of the blockchain technology itself, the decentralized P2P network with strong ownership, innovation, freedom, experimentation but more importantly more genuine human interaction. But hold on... I know I just stated that futuristic technology is capable of providing more genuine human interaction, so let me explain.

Recently I and we, as a team, personally decided not only was our business not going to have a Facebook page, but neither would I. After maybe 8+ years of contributing to "my" Facebook it seemed rather silly to just delete it, could I delete it, by that I mean would Facebook even allow the page itself to be deleted? Could I keep all those important photos and memories? Well the search for these answers, plus many many more, has guided my decision making. I do believe knowledge is power.

Did I feel in control of my social media/ online identity? No.

Did I feel as though the only person that should ever be in control of that information is myself? Yes.

Well what should I do? My decision was to seek decentralized systems, specifically blockchain based applications where my identity is my own. I control the information, I don't feel censored or targeted, worried or anxious, I wanted to feel more in control of my online identity, as anyone should. After all, it is my identity... in the 21st century.

So I proceeded with posting something simple to my timeline, allowing friends and family or anyone who wanted to stay in contact via alternate routes to communicate that desire before deleting my profile. Within 24 hours, I accumulated emails, phone numbers, alternate social media profiles and generally alternate ways of communicating with those important people who mutually wanted to stay in contact. Was it 2,700 people I added to my phones contact list... no. Did I want it to be 2,700 people cluttering my address book? Absolutely not.

But what did happen was genuine human interaction. Friends and extended family, family of friends and ordinary people started to email me or text me or call me, curious as to why I decided to leave Facebook, curious as to how my life was going? How the business was going? Genuine human interaction felt positive and real. The description of that feeling is more than 1,000 thumbs up on a random post from random people.

So this leads me to how those Facebook posts, my posts, could reach 1,000+ random people in any given moment. This is the algorithmic breakdown of monopolized centralized systems targeted marketing and what they deem effective networking. That is not genuine human interaction with verifiable or trustworthy accurate information. It is mounds and mounds of data scattered everywhere but in a very controlled manner, monitored, analyzed, interpreted and then those resources are sold as "effective marketing" for anywhere between $1,000 - $20,000 a month. You better believe companies will pay $20,000+ a month in social media marketing... but the difference in my version of effective networking and that version is simple. It is much similar to the contrast of these two scenarios:

1. Walking into wal-mart where there is a high probability employees are not too happy with their careers, under a variety of circumstances and sometimes understandably so. Your entire shopping experience is effected by these surrounding experiences, aren't you also limited in choices with what you can purchase in that store? The source or manufacturing process of those products? The quality of those products? But what if this wal-mart is your only option in the small town you live in? There are a lot of people making a lot of choices for you, above you in this chain, below you and beside you. Limiting the choices, or options, that are presented to you in any given isle on any given day. But much larger than that ultimately limiting your choices on where to shop because this may be the only option and the people around you are also making choices that effect you as your inside that store in those moments. If they're unhappy this does in fact affect you, it is a chain of events, leading up to a collective experience.
2. Walking into a non-monopolized local home improvement store that could have opened yesterday or 30 years ago, doesn't matter. Maybe you go to this store specifically because you enjoy the company of their employees, you know the family. Maybe you go in because you're just driving by this town and needed something before heading home. What makes someone return to that specific hardware store when there could be 10 more in that city? Is it the customer service? A single positive experience? The quality of products? The options of products? The willingness of staff or management to understand your needs as a consumer and try to fulfill those needs in an efficient and timely manner? All of these can surely make you not want to ever shop at that store again, but they can also create loyal customers. Loyal customer who will network for you and with you. Small scale genuine human interactions that are meaningful and when they're positive, they're desired. The sourcing and quality of these products can often be more verifiable or trustworthy, feedback from family and friends who have shopped at this place can be accurate. You as a consumer can make an educated, informed decision, a decision that makes or breaks a business. If you're accurate feedback of this local shop is negative but accurate and you're not the only one, you now have the power to do something about it. If you choose to shop elsewhere because non-monopolized markets offer options and alternatives that is rightfully your decision and if that shop closes down, chances are they could have listened to customers, asked for help or found a route to success. On the contrary, by utilizing effective networking through genuine human interaction these small business have the opportunities to create loyal customers, maybe for generations. Not just 1,000+ random people hitting a like button but genuine people who utilize their power as a consumer, we all have this power as a consumer and we should use it wisely.

Let's take a look at Steem, which is blockchain based. You can earn Steem by posting content that is valued by others. You can also earn Steem by helping the P2P network verify transactions, to verify accurate or non accurate information. Essentially helping build trust in a community. There are long term commitment rewards. (sound like loyal customers?) You have the opportunity to earn large amount of Steem, almost accidentally, simply by reading and expressing your genuine opinions on an article or post. Steem operates off of this idea that genuine human interaction is worth something, something much more important than many people realize today. You have to calculate your options, weigh the risks, pros, cons, should you upvote? If so when?

The weight of your actions contribute to a chain of events, leading up to a collective experience. Did you mean to be the first or 3rd person who upvoted a post that gains a bunch of Steem? Probably not. This is where the power of blockchain technology lies. Now, is Steem a perfect system or application of this technology with no flaws? I don't have that answer but another crucial component of blockchain applications is maturity.

If you're interested in an in depth technical read, here is a PDF published for the 2016 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC 16) titled: Blockstack: A Global Naming and Storage System Secured by Blockchains.

The message of the article is a general overview of current blockchain technology, applications and in depth analysis of maturity's role in a blockchain. Undeniably, blockchain technology as a trusted, accurate decentralized system will be able to provide a vast variety of use cases, everything from minimizing fraud or corruption within a voting system to verifying digital identities while providing valuable ownership of that identity with security and the list just explodes. This and all other blockchain applications are building a decentralized web through creativity, curation, innovation and freedom. As a small business owner, it is important for me to recognize that one single genuine human interaction can have more weight than 1,000 random people mindlessly pushing a like button.

So.. back to the initial question... if we, you and I, decide to stop using what we may deem monopolized entities, social media or otherwise, how do we reach these consumers? Especially as a small business?

The answer, my answer is that I, and we, don't necessarily need to reach the entire population simultaneously and force the majority to understand our passion or desire in that moment. We can and will eventually reach a large percentage of the majority simply through effective networking. Word of mouth, creative email signatures with links to blockchain based social media platforms instead of Facebook or Google+. Talking to anyone and everyone about what motivates you, why you offer the services you do.

If you own and operate a small, local vegan bakery, why is that? Is that message coming across to your customers, every.. single.. one? Do people resonate with you? Do they understand your motive? Do you provide positive experiences to your customers or negative ones? It is not necessarily rational to think that every single person you meet, everyday, will understand your desire or passion, or they'll understand your drive for what you contribute your time and energy to. But it is realistic to think that humans operate similarly to the ideology of Steem, that our decisions hold weight and if we calculate them properly, if we make informed and educated decisions, if we develop genuine human interaction, we could accidentally become wealthy overnight ... or we could also not resonate with a single person... This is a decentralized lifestyle, we have options and our choices are weighted appropriately.

This is our idea of a business model and we do believe decentralized systems have the power to distribute wealth, more equally and freely.

Something we've found extremely useful is contributing to open source projects, sharing and implementing ideas, with like minded individuals all publicly accessible. Open source projects reach all corners of imagination, if you have an idea you can likely find someone willing to work on that idea with you, maybe even thousands of people and you don't need bank accounts designated to payroll. The nature of open source projects is contributing to something because you believe in it, because you want to see it succeed, because it resonates with you, not because you feel trapped or forced into working 50 hours a week.

Believe it or not, open source software is at the heart of huge companies like Apple, Microsoft, you name it. Even Steemit is open source!

In an effort to find icons to alternate social media platforms for our website, app and email signatures we've been digging in that creativity and will share with you what we come up with. Take it or leave it, if it's useful to you, that's great, if it's not useful, that's also great because we would love to collaborate on new ideas!

So here is what we've created for blockchain based social media icons and various uses:

Our website's home page displays clickable links that will redirect you to our social media pages, in this case, Steemit, Onename, Instagram and Twitter respectively.

We created these using a Wordpress plugin called Easy Social Icons, simple enough right? Simple, yet effective.

Next is our business email signatures:

Again the icons are Twitter, Onename, Steemit and Instagram respectively.

We created these icons first by resizing the images of Onename and Steemit to 34 x 34 pixels, this is the size represented in the photo above.

Add an image with link to Mac Mail.

1. Open Mac Mail
2. Open Preferences
3. Click on signatures and click the plus sign to create a new signature
4. Type in the text you would like to be a part of your signature
5. Open a new finder window and locate the image you would like to use
6. Drag the image from the finder window into the signature panel where you would like the image to appear
7. To create a hyperlink from the image, select the image and with the image selected, go to edit, add link, and enter the link url into the box. You can also use the shortcut command K.
8. Click ok, close the preferences panel and you're finished.

Add an image with link to Outlook:

1. Insert the image to your email: while you edit your Outlook email, position your mouse cursor where you want the image to be inserted, then go to the Outlook INSERT menu and click on Pictures
2. In order to add the hyperlink to your image, you need to right click on the inserted image and choose Hyperlink...
3. A new window may popup, all you have to do is to specify the desired URL for your hyperlink image, in the Address field: (i.e. https://steemit.com/@passthepiece would be added to the Steemit image for me)

Add an image with link to Gmail:

1. Gmail inbox, go to Gear Settings General Signature. Compose the text portion of your signature, then click the Insert Image button to add the desired image (i.e. Steemit image 34x34 pixels, or desired size).
2. You'll have to link to a public image on the web. In this case you can find services such as TinyPic that will store your chosen photo and provide a url to that photo. There are many many ways of accomplishing this portion.
3. Return to Gmail and paste the URL into the Image URL field.
4. Now that you have the image in your signature, you need to turn it into a working hyperlink. Click and drag to highlight the image, then click the Link button.
5. In the Web address field, enter the URL of your choice, then click OK. (i.e. https://steemit.com/@passthepiece would be added to the Steemit image for me)

Dimensions: 34 × 34

Dimensions: 512 × 512