Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
A look at our terrible onboarding process and how we should be marketing Hive to normies instead.
Cruising through LeoThreads the other day, I came across a video from @jimmy.adames talking about a topic that instantly resonated with me.
Jimmy of all people, no longer having the will to tell his friends and family about Hive is not only a topic I can relate to.
But one that we need to get right if Hive is going to go anything close to mainstream.
I know we’re not the only ones here to have received countless questions about Hive from friends and family…
Then had downright terrible experiences trying to explain why anyone who's not a loonie bin would need the censorship-resistant, immutable blah blah properties of a Hive account!
So with that in mind, let me share a little bit more about my personal experience of:
- Telling my friends and family about Hive
- Why I no longer talk about Hive itself, and…
- Wrap up by offering my opinion on how we should be marketing Hive to normies instead.
Let’s dive right in.
My experience with telling friends and family about Hive
Let me start by making something extremely clear right off the bat.
I absolutely love Hive and the ideology behind the network.
Building a decentralised parallel system featuring the permissionless movement of money and speech is a movement that I genuinely believe in and want to be a part of.
Did I say I love Hive?
Because yeah, I love Hive.
Yeah okay, you get the picture.
But there’s no denying the blockchain has a branding and marketing issue.
Whenever I try to convey to friends or family my love for the network or simply explain what being on Hive means… it just doesn't work.
The conversation always goes the same way.
(Now make sure you read this following section in your best nerdy Dane voice and really picture the blank, disgusted stares you know I’m receiving back.)
"Did you know I have full ownership of a censorship-resistant account that operates on an entirely decentralised network, meaning I can never be banned."
…
"No no wait, I swear I'm not a drug dealer, I didn't vote for Trump and I'm certainly not pushing kiddy porn!!"
…
“You should check out HiveOnboard.com and choose one of the 5 choices presented to you… some don’t work though.”
…
Seriously, I would get a better reception if I just punched them in the face instead of trying to pitch Hive.
The way we talk about Hive to normies, not to mention the entire onboarding process we nudge them into, MUST change.
Why I no longer talk about Hive itself
In my opinion, we go about branding and marketing Hive all wrong.
To normies I talk to about Hive, all that matters is that the app they’re using works.
They don't care about the base network, how or why it works.
Just that it works.
So with that in mind…
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING EXPLAINING THE BACK-END OF A FUCKING DECENTRALISED BLOCKCHAIN?!
It's madness, right?
I wouldn't explain how Facebook Inc's servers collect and sell their data to advertisers, while pretending to care about giving them a platform to share photos.
I’d just tell them to get an account because photos are fun and their friends can see them.
Again, they don't give a shit how it works.
Just that it does!
Yes, it's the fast, feeless Hive blockchain underneath allowing our Web3 social dApps to outperform the decentralised social media competition.
But down here on planet Earth, that isn’t the pitch.
That is the domain of the developer, not my normie mate and certainly not my Mum.
And this is where the biggest change in the Hive marketing process needs to occur.
The Hive brand name needs never be mentioned to a normie straight up.
Let’s talk Splinterlands marketing
In terms of examples, take Splinterlands as a shining example in regard to how they have onboarded hundreds of thousands of users to Hive…
Without actually talking about Hive!
They’ve got their marketing down to a tee.
I mean do you ever hear Splinterlands mention the Hive blockchain on any of their external marketing channels?
Hell no!
They keep it super simple, calling their accounts nothing more than wallets and seamlessly giving users all they need on the back-end when they buy that first spellbook.
Splinterlands devs understand that without their users all running Hive accounts, they wouldn't be able to have the in-depth crypto economy and p2e gameplay that their game offers.
But the beauty is that the game makes onboarding to Hive as blind and seamless as possible.
Normies are there to play the game, not to worry about Hive tech!
But they still all have Hive accounts and use them every day.
Suckers.
So bringing the discussion back to the social side of Hive, why are we marketing Hive branded social media at all?
Just like Splinterlands do with the marketing of their game, we should be letting social dApps like LeoFinance (whose dev teams see the benefits of having their base layer built on Hive), build seamless account sign up funnels and market their brand.
Their way.
I now tell my friends and family about Hive-based dApps instead
And yep, this is where LeoFinance also gets it.
Right now, they are hands down the social front-end that has the best Hive onboarding process.
Hands...
…Down!
If someone shows interest in crypto, I tell them that they should join the LeoFinance community because it’s a great place to talk about and earn crypto.
That’s all that’s needed.
No jargon, no tech.
They then click sign up at the top where they're told "create an account to get paid for creating and interacting with content".
Thus scratching their itch and solving a problem in the same way Facebook lets them share photos with friends.
From here they instantly sign up with nothing more than a Twitter account (which everyone has) and can start posting right away.
Even better, they can see the crypto that they’re earning for this social activity right there under the wallet tab.
Immediate.
Seamless.
No confusing Hive branding.
PERFECT HIVE ONBOARDING!
Once a user is in and they want to withdraw their HIVE and LEO earnings, only then do they have to undertake the responsibility filled process of taking full ownership of their Hive account's keys.
Their keys are displayed and the account is now 100% theirs.
All done with just a single click of a button.
The difference hre is that by dangling the carrot of cashing out the crypto they've earnt, they're incentivised and thus highly motivated to understand the benefits of account ownership.
The pitch is just as technical, but the money on offer has shifted their mindset and suddenly made them much more receptive.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Final thoughts on marketing Hive
So to wrap up, I'll phrase the point about marketing Hive that I’m trying to make a little differently.
The Hive elite need to stop marketing Hive to normies.
That's the domain of devs.
Remember, it's devs who will quickly understand the technical benefits afforded to users interacting with their social/gaming dApps via a Web3 Hive account.
Once they get it, then it's up to them and their real world problem solving dApp, to handle the end-user onboarding process.
Instead, we all need to focus on marketing the Hive-based dApps which actually solve genuine problems for end users.
This shift in thinking around marketing the Hive blockchain needs to occur ASAP.
Before any more of the Hive DAO's precious funds are allocated to new campaigns that do nothing but piss money away…
Best of probabilities to you.
This is the way.