What's your thing?
Before you answer.
I don't mean your kink.
What is it that differentiates you from others?
Part of building a brand is being different to competitors, even if not in direct competition, because this is an attention economy and people only have so much focus available. So, being able to grab even a sliver of it is a challenge.
There is a thing in business called Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), which likely people have heard a fair bit about, but don't think that much about most of the time. It isn't a difficult concept, all it tells is what resources are needed in order to gain an additional customer and it is going to change depending on the industry and business.
On Hive, there is a cost to acquire new viewers too, but it isn't quite the same as what a business will go through, but it is worth considering. First, foremost and most obviously of course, the cost is effort to produce content and engage through comments, which requires time, a valuable resource in itself - if not the most valuable - as every movement requires it.
However, there are other ways to acquire viewers too and I was reminded of this by one of my own in a comment about growth, @dswigle, who took a unique path to customer acquisition. Here is an excerpt in regards to her account growth over time:
It feels like it took forever, but, on the way to growing, I tipped every single comment. Well, it put a damper on the growth, but, everyone knew me as the tipper. :) So, even if it was tiny, people got to know me.
This isn't about paying for viewers, as some people might imagine even though there is an obvious cost involved. It is about that last "people got to know me" part that is important - it is about brand awareness or in the case of humans since I don't like "people branding" - personality awareness.
As I have said many, many , many times on Hive, personality matters far more than the content, because of the exact thing I am talking about here - market differentiation. People can plagiarize and spin content, but it is a tall ask to steal a personality. As hard as they may try, no one else can be a @meesterboom, @nonameslefttouse or @galenkp other than they. They are unique.
For me, it was a bit different as originally I had very little personality at all and relied solely on my content, namely, the variety, quality and volume of content I could produce. While people would say, "Too long, Didn't read" often, those that did read kept coming back and most still do every day. and even if not everything is to their personal preference, they also know that I have put in the effort, some people will find it valuable, I am dedicated to the platform and the content is absolutely original.
This was my market differentiation and what helped build a foundation that I could build upon. Once I started learning more about the platform, I was able to double-down on what interested the audience and meld my own interests into a hybrid, which is why my content is often only loosely tied to any single community. I don't write a manual on how to use something, I don't talk about the news of the day, I do not focus on trading, gaming or anything specific at all - it is all a blend of my experience, with my experience broaching all of these things, as all of our experiences do in some way.
With regards to Customer acquisition Cost, rather than tipping, I have been a strong proponent of rewarding readers who leave comments and I have been doing this for years. I don't pay attention to their reputation or stake, I pay attention to the comments themselves and try to answer each one.
Some people think that this is "paying for comments" which it could be perceived as, but the platform itself is designed for precisely this where there is an economy that allows for multiple earning paths and even those who have no stake, can get a little HIVE by leaving a thoughtful comment related to the post, thereby also building relationships and their own "personality awareness".
Over the years, I have personally distributed several thousand HIVE through comment voting alone and have "spent" up to 40% of my voting power at times on comments only. These days, it is a fair bit less I presume, since I post less and therefore get less comments in a day, but I am still putting a fair bit out there.
This is only part of the "cost" though, as the major part is actually engaging with the comments themselves, not voting on them. I don't know how many times it can be said, that answering comments in a timely fashion is critical and something that I currently struggle with, as after writing I don't have that much energy to spare to dive into comments immediately - but I am recovering slowly in this area.
There are many ways to build market recognition on Hive, but I feel that a lot of people are in such a rush to earn, they do what is obvious, which is generally by definition, not going to differentiate them. However, a lot of what does work is either counter intuitive or takes a lot of work, things that people are going to shy away from, as both cause discomfort.
So, while you have been reading this,
What is you kink thing?
What sets you apart from others on the platform, what makes you unique, what attracts viewers to your product, what makes them stay?
Why should they care about you?
It seems like a tough question to ask, but on the internet we are pretty much all strangers to begin with, so it means that if we are looking to build awareness around our good and services, we need to build a network of relationships and if we want to keep those relationships, we need to build some level of loyalty. Trust goes a long way and much further than many people seem to realize.
But if you don't care about them, why would your audience care about you?
And this is where I will leave it, since it is too long and most people aren't going to get this far anyway.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]