A few weeks ago I made a poll asking how others discovered Hive. I was quite surprised to see "other" as the 2nd most picked option. First was people found Hive from I friend. I was expecting that honestly. And marketing was 0, I want to discuss all of these findings my post today. Reading the comments was very interesting, and many people found Hive in unique ways. But a few stood out as a common way that people were on-boarded to Hive by its discovery of a certain dapp.
Splinterlands
I realized pretty quickly I forgot to list “Splinterlands” as a pick, as many comments came in during polling mentioning that is how they found Hive. In the comments it was the single most mentioned way of discovering Hive.
Many responses for Splinterlands, it came in second as "other" to the poll option "friend".
Jeff Berwick (The Dollar Vigilante)
The dollar vigilante came up a few times, that is really interesting. They have not had the best reception here on the Hive blockchain. So it is interesting to hear many of his followers found Hive this way. Jeff Berwick has talked about crypto for a very long time, so its great that a few people found Hive this way.
TSU
Another common response was a platform called TSU. I had no idea about it before I did this poll.
Marketing
Marketing got zero votes. This helps to validate my feelings about valueplan, as much of it is spent on marketing. Yet no one in my poll was on-boarded that way. @theycallmemarky did a poll about a week ago and 39 users voted that they found valueplan has not delivered in their opinions.
https://peakd.com/hive-104500/@theycallmemarky/has-value-plan-delivered
I also did a poll on the question about marketing, and should we be using Hive to pay for it.
https://peakd.com/hive-104500/@solominer/does-hive-need-to-pay-for-marketing
Some people support it, but most do not. To me and probably many others, it seems like we are wasting Hive funds on many projects that are seemingly not attracting new users or attention to the blockchain. It would be nice if we could put value plan up for vote and decide what the community wants to keep, and not leave it to the "gate keepers" to approve such spending. As I have said before I see no reason why every single thing paid out on valueplan could not be a DHF proposal. I am not sure if valueplan is just some relic of Steems past we kept using, but the DHF and proposal system seems like where all of these valueplan items should be going.
In conclusion much of the polls results I was expecting turned out to be true. Friends telling other friends is the most successful way of on boarding people on Hive. Splinterlands is a strong second, eight people mentioned this dapp. And I am really glad for that. Splinterlands in my opinion has been a great platform that runs on Hive as a Dapp, it has helped stress test the Hive blockchain with many transactions over many years. If Splinterlands stopped running on Hive we would see a large drop in transaction volume on the blockchain. And since Hive is fast and free with its transactions it just seems like the perfect place for a blockchain based game.
I am thankful Splinterlands has stuck around and moved off Steem after being censored and found a home on Hive.
https://peakd.com/steem/@themarkymark/steemit-inc-now-censors-posts-from-the-ui
Now with their proposal funded, I believe we will onboard many more new users as time goes on just through that dapp alone. And of course the power of "word of mouth" will do its magic as other people tell their friends about this cool platform called Hive.
So tell your friends about Hive, and maybe they will be the next success story. And enjoy the dapps running on Hive, as many of them have helped bring new users onto the blockchain as well.
Value Plan isn't about marketing, i's about Guilty Parties Charity ideas. Because we are doing so well we can spend $3M donating to charity. That and Rally cars with 52yo drivers.
I consider paying for conferences marketing. I see a lot of those in the valueplan expenditures.
My son told me about it. I don't think I would have trusted anyone else, because it seemed like a money scheme. But I know he checks stuff out thoroughly and wouldn't get me involved in anything shady.
I love Hive. It's perfect for me, a long-retired teacher, mother, grandmother. What concerns me as I blog is that when we do onboard someone, we ignore them. I see posts with enormous payouts, and then posts (worthy posts) with 00.00 or a few cents. I think all of us have to put a certain percent of our curation reward interest aside and look for the low curation posts so we can keep the new community members.
Two communities in which I actively participate are good for newbies--LMAC and the Inkwell. In both communities if someone follows the rules and makes a genuine effort, the post will be curated. Nobody walks away with a 00.00 or less than a $1.00 reward if they have made a genuine effort and have followed the rules. I think that should be a goal for everyone. All of us though, have to make an effort to do that, to not only catch new bloggers but keep them.
It's basic psychology. People need at least periodic rewards to reinforce behavior.
I don't understand the finances of the platform. I'm amazed still at how it all works, but it pains me when I see people fall away because they are discouraged.
Yeah when I tell people they think its too good to be true as well. But I tell those people to go down the rabbit hole and really do some research.. Those that take the time to research usually come out more interested.
The communities are very important to Hive that is for sure, thankful we have them now. Early on there were just "groups" so its nice to see us growing.
Those are definitely some interesting results and not exactly what I expected. I can't believe that marketing had zero. I mean I can, but I also cannot. You would think at least one. Maybe they just didn't reply to the post.
Yeah, I'm not sure if 50 votes is statistically significant enough to draw any conclusions from. I definitely think Hive can benefit from marketing but that doesn't mean that what valueplan is doing is the way to go about it. Any marketing plan being paid for out of the DHF should be providing onboarding numbers or have some other way to objectively measure the success of the ad campaign.
Maybe it wasn't statistically significant, but it is really telling that Splinterlands wasn't even included in the Poll and yet it came in as a strong second with almost 25% of the votes!
that was really cool to see
I totally agree. Though the actual active users on Hive is still quite small compared to other platforms, so 50 might not be that bad of a sample size :P
yeah but it is what it is.. maybe next poll we will have more votes.
For sure. I'm not complaining. I think you can only do what you can with what you get and you are asking some really poignant questions.
To be honest, I had never heard of Valueplan until I saw Marky's #snaps about it.
It seems that Dapps and direct recommendations appeal more effectively than their current approach, based on the poll responses.
I would like to see the people behind Valueplan enlighten us more about their work and the impact of their marketing campaigns on the Hive platform.
That is good the word is getting out.. more people should know what Hive/HBD is being spent on without being up for vote.
Yeah dapps seem like a solid onboard solution that is for sure.
I would like to see more transparency as well.
Yes, I really think that Dapps are a way to go in terms of bringing in new users to HIVE. If HIVE had more break-out apps like Splinterlands it would get more adoption. Here is hope for new games like @holozing
I think HIVE funds would be better spent encouraging development new Dapps on HIVE and also making HIVE EVM-compatible.
After all, it is in the best interest of all stakeholders, whether small or large, that the funds allocated to the projects generate more value for the platform.
Thank you for sharing the data gathered and the analysis of the data.😊😊
Yeah.. during summer break , is always the best time to tell friends about Hive..
Yeah it is interesting to go over for sure.
Yeah.. so many things happened.
Thank you for the constant support.😊 I know being a whale you can help more in the community. Have a good day. 😊
It's true that like what you said my friend, interpreting the opinion polls about people finding hives mostly through friends, just like me, my friend told me about hives, thank you very much for also providing information about this great data and analysis my friend.
I still don't understand the pronunciation of the words splinterlands that you wrote.is this one of the webs?
That is great...
Splinterlands is an online card game that runs on the Hive blockchain.
Check out Splinterlands.com for more details.
Damn, missed this one. I Discovered through Youtube back in 2017, on a crypto trading channel. It was THE discovery, because I was also planning to create a blog after returning from a trip -- it all came together, perfect timing.
Ah okay.. that is very cool.
Greetings @solominer ,
What an informative post....enjoyed your commentary and the data....thank you.
Kind Regards,
Bleujay
NB Yes...please ..lets bring the Value Plan up for a vote. ^__^
Ah glad you liked it.. yes that would be nice. I want that.
Only 50 votes on the poll. Is that a fair amount to gather enough data for this?
If value plan is not keeping it's promise why keep it for a second round? Or what is the valueplan's team response to that?
Should hive consider them again and give them a second chance? Or was their "value" "plan" was really just a value menu scheme for cheaper hive and hbd reaping?
Yeah well it is what it is.
I am not sure, just seems like something that has been going on for a long time. Would rather all of it be up for vote.
The oligarchy of hive only believe in might equal right. Their might. Their right. Stake weight is king. He or group with the most stake rules. Everyone else are peasants. With sycophantic "nobles" protecting them as well. You know, "the club". We know who they are.
In other words, you make it it into a vote, but THEY will choose the final outcome regardless with their vote.
The question is, can the rest of hive gather and organize thwir vote to counter theirs? Or are they scared their content will undergo DV if they do?
Fear is on their side. And people scare easily.
Another one from Splinterlands here as a couple of friends recommended it. Went from that to SplinterTalk and then branched out more in to the blogging side through Ecency. Very clear that there needs to be some kind of advertising push at some stage though.
Oh cool.. that is so cool a dapp got you on board to Hive.
I think there is a case to be made for marketing but ValuePlan's approach clearly isn't working.
Also, when you say "youtube influencers" or those people that have mentioned hive on their own or were paid to do so, in which case I would think that falls under marketing?
I meant people that mentioned Hive on their own.. As far as I know there has been no paid Youtube influencers for Hive.
I discovered Hive via Splinterlands also.
Oh cool
This is so amazing summary. Like me, I was introduced by a friend. Thanks for sharing this
Ah nice... yeah I am glad I went over the findings.
I am also a TSU veteran, and @stresskiller sponsored me onto hive. There are many other TSU members on hive.
!BEER
Nice.. that is great groups found Hive together.
Oh yes, most of the group joined hive early, but I took a break and only joined a year later.
!PIZZA
View or trade
BEER.I discovered Hive through a friend @shainemata. It wasn't until later I found out Hive came from the legacy chain which I had created an account a few years back. So perhaps listing a combo of options.
Oh that is great a friend recommended the platform to you.
Some people here fully understand marketing. Everything you mentioned in this post is a form of marketing. It is powerful when used correctly. Just look at Splinterlands who is responsible for most of the marketing in this space. Valueplan seems to be taking advantage of their DHF funding. What efforts are being made to dethrone bad actors?
Yes that is true, but word of mouth is completely free and probably more effective that paying for advertising in my opinion.
That is a good question, I am not sure.. But my posts make people more aware of the issue at hand so that is all I can do.
Word of mouth is cheap and, in my experience, not very effective for the amount of work usually involved. The reason being that most people surrounding me aren't interested in blockchain, crypto or making small amounts of money from social media posts. The most effective form of marketing I have at this moment is targeted advertising through social media. You know those pesky ads that seem to have been listening to your every word and thought? FB and IG utilizing your data finally benefits you if you know this. the minimum adspend is $1 per day. I run ads for services that have a $30 minimum so if even one person hires me then I will have paid for my entire months adspend. I've tried encouraging different projects to utilize this information over the years, but we haven't been able to come up with anything directly profitable to market as of yet.
Just seems like the marketing that has been done already and much of the money spent has seen no return by on boarding users.. Maybe one day I will meet someone that found Hive at one of those conferences or by seeing the rally car but yet to happen.
From that point of view it really makes sense, it seems that a lot has been spent but the return hasn't been the best. I remember my friend @vaipraonde who, at this year's NFT Rio event (which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), managed to get a lot of people onboard, and I don't know if any of them have stayed with Hive since then, but I believe his spending was minimal, he simply went there and showed them what Hive was, helped with the first steps and that was it, people created accounts.
Hi. Yes, hive is not easy to retain new onboarders.
People are not used to write original content and ir require a lot of effort.
Maybe We have to focus on creators, not public in general.
All this discussion on rally car is valid and old. But remember that we vote for the proposals that drive hive forward or backwards
I also found my way here from that Jeff Berwick interview with Dan. Unfortunately took me a while to actually get accepted so I couldn't get in until several months after that interview. Oh well. I agree with almost nothing Jeff Berwick says, so I don't know how I stumbled upon that interview or why I watched it, but I'm glad I did.
Oh cool, I used to listen to him years back but stopped as many things he was saying just did not sit well with me.
I remember those days where you created an account and had to wait for weeks for one to be created.
From the poll's results, more marketing is required for Hive to get a wider reach.
I think the opposite, the marketing now is not working.
!PIZZA
I discovered HIVE through twitter.
Oh nice.. good to know
It's funny to me how marketing got 0 votes... Well, it's really hard to get into HIVE without someone to guide you through it, so marketing has to be really, really good for it to work.
Hah it sure is.. luckily we have groups like the terminal and such that guide newbies..
I read an article in Financial time about the old Blockchain steem, and here we are from those days.
The rest is history.
By the way congratulations for have been a whale, one day I will do it too, coming soon, 2028 I will do.
I learnt about Hive from a friend of mine, on WhatsApp. But then I was almost discouraged because of low payouts, a lot of others were.
So your visiting posts of people like me, is really commendable.
Thank you very much 🙏