The Marketing Value Of "Tribes"

"Tribes" is something that is being worked on which we could see coming into being in the next couple months. I am not sure of the exact time frame or who is the team behind it, yet it is something that holds incredible promise.

In fact, it is a total game changer for blockchain and Web 3.0.

What is "Tribes"?

Source

It is the idea of forming communities on the Steem ecosystem. Basically, it starts with a website which offers a variety of social media applications right from that site. One can blog, post videos, stream live, and engage in a forum. As time goes by and other applications are developed, I am sure will be added.

Obviously this holds great value to users. However, there is couple other aspects to all of this.

To start, communities will have the ability to create tokens. This is not really a revelation to anyone on here. What is going to be different is the use of tokens, at least partially.

@aggroed wrote a wonderful post about the difference between a sink and a faucet. Essentially he was saying there needs to be a use case for the token; something that builds value for it. I agree with this. Creating a token just to create a token is nice but probably will not mean much.

There is another viewpoint on this that few seem to mention.

A token can also be used as a marketing piece. Everyone looks at it from the speculation and value proposition. We are moving into the attention economy, tokens are valuable if they are used as a means to get some eyeballs.

Here is an example. I received some tokens yesterday in my Steem-Engine wallet from Splintertalk. Now this is a project that I know what it is so I didn't have to look into it. The tokens are worth roughly 16 cents total so they were not sending me a ton.

The point here is that if I was not familiar with this project, I would have looked into it. It is a rather cheap way to get my attention on that project. Some might think 16 cents is a bit high yet I am already a qualified individual. Being on here, I am into cryptocurrency so there is no need to find that target. Obviously, I am on Steem-Engine meaning that I use that platform. And finally, if one looks at my blog, it does not take long to figure out that I write posts about new projects on Steem, hence opening up the door that I might post about what they sent me.

Passing out tokens is a great way to get some attention and, perhaps, extend the reach of the project.

A second point to all of this pertains to advertising and target groups.

Companies spend a lot of money trying to fine tune their message. They also invest heavily in making sure their marketing dollars are being directed towards the proper targets.

The Super Bowl get big advertising dollars for a 30 second commercial. It does so because of the fact there are 80 million eyeballs all watching the same thing. This increases the chances greatly that one's audience is there. However, the money spent is not very targeted.

Facebook and Google ads are a lot better in this regard. While your ad will not be seen by 80 million people, because of their tracking, the eyeballs are more likely to be a user of your product.

If we look at the idea of "Tribes", we can see how this all works together.

First, we have a group of people who are interested in a particular topic. Let us use clean energy as an example. Our "Tribe" is based upon clean energy and getting rid of pollution. We have tens of thousands of members who are all using this as a social media center to discuss and promote ideas about this topic.

The group issues out a token which it passes out to others in an effort to get them to come onto the website. Here we see the group growing, expanding the reach.

Now we look at the second part of this.

Suppose I am a provider of solar panels. Obviously, I am seeking people who would be interested in installing solar panels on their homes. Where do I find those people?

Obviously, a group that has tens of thousands of people (or possibly millions) who are concerned about clean energy would have an interest in my product. Those are the people I am more willing to pay to target.

In other words, I know they are already pre-qualified in terms of their interest. This is extremely valuable. We are seeing this being utilized by @steemhunt with technological products and applications.

The group, which could essentially end up as a DAO, could sell the advertising allowing this company to target the membership. Since we have a token, for one viewing the advertisements, he or she is paid directly in said token. This allows the users to earn more of the group token while offering companies the potential to reach target markets.

A final piece to all of this is that since the token is traded on Steem-Engine, it has a monetary value. This is attractive to companies since they could offer to take payment (at least partial) in the token. If there is a group of people with money sitting there that can be directed to me, and I can convert it to the fiat I need, why wouldn't I want to access that?

Ultimately, I am looking at a lower acquisition cost for potential sales candidates since my money is not wasted on paying to put my message in front of disinterested people.

This is a new way to approach commerce. While Facebook and Google laid the foundation for it, they are the ones profiting. With this system, the platform still benefits yet that is the community. The token created now has a sink because of the community that is built around it and the interest it holds.

The next leg in the evolution of Steem is not social media but commerce. This is where blockchain will start to explode. When you have the formation of communities which then can engage in commercial applications, the entire sector changes. Suddenly, a large amount of dollars are diverted away from the present system towards this industry. We are altering the platform delivery system. This is very powerful.

"Tribes" is a feature I believe will allow us to do this. Adding the commerce to the token function greatly enhances the value. Just think about that for a second. We are looking at the potential of a currency not being based upon a government or geographic region but, rather, around an area of interest.

We could see the day where there are millions of micro-economies built around everything we can imagine.

Fortunately, we could see a fair portion of this built upon Steem.