I've been intending to write more about social on here, so I thought I'd spitball my initial thoughts about the new #vero social surge I've been seeing all over my Instagram... Will Vero Social take over Instagram?
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+ A self portrait of me courtesy of instagram stories. Writing out my thoughts in lines of words so they don't only live in my brain. And because Vero doesn't let me draw on photos... yet!
Of course I signed up. The promise of a chronological timeline, no ads, new way to connect personal vs public, links, music, shows + content sharing? Sounds great! Everyone else is doing it...
Initial thoughts— no, it's not as beautiful of an interface as instagram. And yes, their server has been making it hard for us to even post. I'm hoping that they'll invest in servers that can handle the recent influx of new users, and then keep making UI updates. The UX isn't horrible, but it does take some getting used to after being so used to the ease of Instagram.
There's really no advertising? It's free?
There are articles swarming that the creators of Vero Social fully intend on transforming it into a subscription model app. Assumedly, this means that you'll pay on a monthly or annual basis what kind of account you want. For example— free: you see all the ads! Not free: you don't. That's one way that it could look in the future.
I'm privileged enough to actually be willing to pay an annual subscription to participate if it means that I have more control over what content I see and am following. I mean, if you really think about old school media— you paid for it. You pay a monthly subscription for that magazine or newspaper content source, etc. The eventual subscription cost for Vero is rumored to eventually be equal to few coffees a year. Is a chronological feed and no advertising worth that to you? I see that being a deciding factor if not THE deciding factor in the mass adoption of this platform.
You can share links, music and more.
What most intrigues me is the ability to actually add shopping links. It took a long while until Instagram provided the ability to monetize accounts— this is a whole new structure. The ability to share links right from the start; a long term commitment to a chronological feed might be what users have been looking for all this time: an ad free, algorithm free social platform. Basically, add a subscription model to old school Facebook, prove a new interface and voila! The number of new users crashes the platform in a day.
The UX is a lot more like instagram in the feed, wherein hashtags, photos and captions appear very similarly. But, you can post link based posts right in your feed on Vero, and I think that's a biggie that people have been missing on Instagram.
Now, my actual thoughts.
I'm a believer in blockchain technology. After being exposed to the potential here on #steemit, I think that's where the future is at. I truly don't think we're ever going to have full control over anything we see or consume if the data is privately owned. I've been blogging and creating content since 2009, and professionally worked in social media for other companies for 5 years now. In that time, I haven't loved what I do any less, but I have gotten so worn out by the reliance on social media itself. Being essentially land locked into platforms and so reliant on something that we never really had control of in the first place... Getting totally consumed with the ever growing popularity of the platform, and people on it... I leave the apps less inspired than when I got on.
Now, I also don't even fully understand the ins and outs of steemit, but I know that you totally have the ability to promote posts on here. This is where all my questions start to spill. Business's and content creators pay to get in front of their audiences on Facebook and Instagram. That's why so many people are unhappy with the platforms today. Small businesses can't afford to advertise to the audiences they've earned organically, and are now they're loosing business because that free form of advertising to their communities has been totally taken away.. Meanwhile, ALL it feels like we see on Facebook these days are ads, and the number of ads on instagram increases day by day.
So! Future thinking here.
How do you see steemit in the future in relation to true content #marketing?
Do you think that brands will immerse themselves blockchain content platforms?
How will content marketing evolve as new social platforms like Vero become more of a realistic possibility?
Will it steemit or Vero be more of a content feed like RSS or Feedly where you "subscribe" to peoples blogs? Purely creator based?
I have so many questions! Here I am just spewing thoughts from my fingers onto the keyboard and I'd love to chat this topic here with all my fellow steem-mates!
In the meantime...
Vero looks interesting, but in short: I think the era where you have to pay to use a product is 'over'. The new era is: we get paid to use a product / produce content. Steemit is an example, but if we're talking about Instagram alternatives, take a look at steepshot.com (still in alpha, but on the STEEM blockchain) - or https://appics.com/ - another 'Insta alternative' with STEEM based crypto rewards :-)
I strongly believe the 'tokenization' of the internet via blockchains even means we will get paid to see sponsored content / ads in the future :-) Or watch a movie, or... Anything really.
These are exciting times and it will change the way we think about what 'social' media actually is :-) And what the worth of the content makers is.
Exactly what I was going to say + Smart Media Tokens
Yes, + SMT's indeed :-)
I'm with you here. While content creators (film + tv creators, recording artists, authors, digital creatives, etc) should still earn for their production, the consumption of content is no longer a one-way road.
Content is Created ---> Content is Hosted ---> Content is Delivered ---> Content is Consumed
Now, it is more like Content is Consumed and Data of Consumption is Produced Simultaneously
Therefore, the value of data produced is value-equal to or greater than the cost of content consumption outright. I can't see myself paying to be on a social network because I already pay (exorbitantly for a phone plan that allows me to share with my closest), I have Steemit, and the free social networks ridden with ads don't serve me anything beyond visual inspiration and the occasional item from a distant internet friend.
I simply can't see myself investing any time into things that don't give back anymore.
@ameliabartlett, totally agree. No reason to be on a platform that doesn't serve us anymore.
So, my question though is thinking ahead a bit— So would there be some sort set up similar to AdSense on this platform that allows brands to run content ads on other creators work here?
What would the divide / difference between a product selling business for example, a jewelry company, and a content creator (personal brand)? Would it be just like blogger, were you can allow sponsorships, ads etc? You'd have that stream of income in addition to the engagement / steem power?
Just thinking out lout over here! Still a newb to some of this.
You know, I've thought about it but I've concluded that I'm not sure... and I'm not yet creatively open enough to imagine what is possible beyond advertising. What's special about the blockchain is that it's different from what we have now. It's true innovation. If we were to put ads on this, we are devolving it into something that already exists. *As I learn more about Steemit, I start to get ideas as to how this can grow and molt... but try looking at past versions of Steemit (check out Hardforks and understand the journey) and see how it's evolved over time.
Super interesting perspective. I never thought of the idea that advertisers could pay an individual to see their ad, instead of that ad money going to the host of the ad. That's kind of how Adsense works already, isn't it? Content creators can elect to have ads running before their video or on their website, and they get paid for it.
But when it comes to a social platform, the platform just pockets that money. So, that distribution of advertising money would go right to the content creator, instead of the platform host?
100% see it now.
I do see more short therm before blockchain technology is adopted by the masses, different categories of products. In this case, access to media and content. For example, Netflix, Hulu... your favorite print or online magazine subscription. All those things you pay a fee for to access, and/or pay for less ads. So, I almost see Social Media being something similar?
But! I am about to go check out steepshot and appics because I haven't looked into those yet!
Thanks for your thoughts, @soyrosa — really made me think!
I totally agree! Just gave my opinion in a post as well by the way. The future is here on Steemit, but it can't hurt to sign up for Vero :) I'll add you!
Thanks for your post! I just read about Vero today and also registered, because it looks promising. I'm really tired of not seeing posts of people I follow on Instagram. But I have to say that for me the Steemit idea is much cooler!
Are you still on Vero? The hype seems to have died down. So many block chain platforms coming such as ONO and APPICS. We will be spoilt for choice and these old systems will seem like outdated relics.