The correlation between 2008 and 2020 cannot be understated. These have been recorded as tumultuous points in history that has affected Trust in our various political and social institutions.
2021 has seen a general public awareness to be more invested in their financial, physical and social arrangements. It mustn’t be understated that these disruptions spark new opportunities for blockchain Technology.
There is a notable barrier of entry for the adoption of blockchain technology to the wider public and although awareness of cryptocurrencies has been enjoying continuous growth thanks to the price breakthroughs of Bitcoin and Ethereum, there still seems to be an overshadowing misunderstanding of the vision behind many of these blockchains.
Most blockchains communication can be quite lethargic to the average reader. You hear allot about Smart contracts, Defi instruments and solutions. Explanation of these terminologies are often deploying jargons that stem from financial environment and are assumed to be understood by the reader. This makes the barrier of entry more difficult, that you find people losing interest the moment they are thrust into this environment.
The Volatility in the Price function
Whether one is a conservative or a radical, a protectionist or a free trader, a cosmopolitan or a nationalist, a church or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena
George J Stigler
There is an underlining risk in any undertaking. Economics informs decision making and in turn teaches one that there is always a trade-off in every action and that can be explained through corresponding outcomes and consequences.
Imagine the first time you boarded a commercial plane and the flight was riddled with a allot of turbulence during journey. There are no host or hostesses on board and the plane was set on autopilot. Now let’s imagine the plane is set to crash and you had no parachute, safety devices or protocols to mitigate the unavoidable outcome. You ask the passenger next to you and they point you to several books stashed in various overhead compartments for you to read. I think most people will find themselves requesting for some kind of spiritual intervention to remove them from this predicament.
At the same time, imagine if booking the flight on an airline came with various barriers and very little coordination in directing the customer. The signs are in different colours, fonts and branding. You are constantly directed to various access points.
Managing the Experience
Aviation companies understand their corporate responsibilities to ensure the trust and confidence of its customers are always maintained. This is simply because their business is directly linked to the mortality of their clients. I believe there is some level of responsibilities blockchain institutions need to take that will enable them to mitigate some of the regulations that will be coming in the near future.
Financial Suicide is also a mortality threat
So what can blockchain networks learn from these business attitudes?
Tailoring the Experience
Since observing public awareness and methods of access by which people seek or look into a blockchain and cryptocurrency, I have noticed that the chains that are doing extremely well have a stronger centralised or consolidated marketing strategy. You can see this in their effort to control the branding at all access points.
I was in the process of undertaking some of these problems but I realised that there is a current rebranding in the pipeline for ICON republic, therefore I have decided to put some of my thoughts on this issue and I hope this write-up serves as an open letter that I will like to apply myself and help the team that is currently trying to make this process streamlined.
At the moment, I believe ICON’s biggest issue is visibility and a controlled brand strategy.
The Icon experience needs to be tailored towards comfort, clear communication and guidance at every checkpoint of the journey. Marketing plays a primary role in brand awareness, controlling the experience and perhaps the most potent negative impact: price volatility.
INFRASTRUCTURE CAN BE DECENTRALISED; MESSAGING REQUIRES CONSOLIDATION OF COMMUNICATION; TO PROMOTE THE VISION
Official Telegram channels are constantly flooded with ‘how to’ questions. I was tallying up the frequency of these kind of questions and it became apparent this is a serious management problem.
Questions like:
How to stake?
How do I convert ERC20 Token?
Where do I buy ICX?
What are the current projects in the pipeline?
The voting mechanism and how to decide where to place one’s vote?
What kind of wallet to use and if it is one that can be trusted?
This means most people are not getting or able to access the required information from the project’s landing pages or they are not getting directed to the proper channels. Information is very decentralised in blockchain and a coordinated effort to demystifying these conundrums will help improve engagement.
How do will better communicate the VISION of ICON
Awareness and Interest requires VISIBILITY
There is allot of information around the developments of ICON but often, these information are buried in forums, messaging chats, different outlets and social media with different branding schemes that It can be very disrupting to a ‘new citizen’. Right now, I believe it requires a committed individual to locate the necessary information on getting started in ICON and I believe this goes against the vision of making ICON the blockchain for everyone.
Strategic partnerships are very important but I believe ICON should be targeting people who simply have no clue about cryptocurrency and not just people within the ecosystem.
Dogecoin trading is primarily attracting very new audiences thanks to celebrities interventions. There are also those who simply want to make a profit, therefore people are simply buying doge for its low-price entry and potential financial gains around its popularity. There is little consideration of the value of a blockchain network and a marketplace of decentralised applications. I look at every dogecoin owner as an ICON customer if we can tailor our experience properly.
The attention economy is all about eye acquisition and that is why Spartan’s Node MEME competition made me visit the connection I could see with celebrities and influencers that drive market activity. The quick videos I made was directed at dogecoin owners with the intention to give ICON a serious look.
I consider it a tremendous success because there is a time correlation to the initial price pump before the announcements of binance. Social media is the battleground for more percentage gains in our market acquisition so I believe we really need to look at how we intend to release some of the product launches in the pipeline.
VIDEO MARKETING
Video is a strong acquisition instrument because most social mediums have videos set to auto-play and this already makes interactivity effortless.
VISIBILITY IN THE BLOCKCHAIN
The announcement of the rebranding of ICON republic means this is a great opportunity to design and deploy new guides on the landing page:
A definitive Video Guide Series on many of the most common ‘How To’ Questions including a governance structure explainer. Ledger sends a video guide series to new customers over the course of a week once purchase is made. If you visit Ethereum’s home page, you can see that there are several call-to-action boxes positioned as pathways getting started with the network. This is a form of marketing that shows that the company is dedicated in ensuring that the process from intellectually curiosity to purchasing the cryptocurrency is clear and guided.
Social media: Avoiding TL DR
Reading newsletters are for mainly for those already in the network. Monthly or quarterly creation of the newsletters in a video format for better circulation, promote milestones of the network.
Example:
VISIBILITY IN THE MARKETPLACE
I believe that we should also spend some effort in supporting every application launch. Ensuring that there is an integration of visual identities.
For example, Reliant Node just released a new myiconwallet but the twitter banner, a key billboard isn’t being utilised. Myiconwallet needs its own twitter channel for people to easily post their queries or seeking support.
I have also noticed some of these apps don’t have notification support. For example: although iconex wallet isn’t being supported anymore, I remember how daunting it felt to see my balance at 1 after staking most of my coins. Then I tried to unstake but there was no pop-up information to let me know the duration for unstaking was 8days. It would have also been nice to receive a message notification that ‘Your funds have been unstaked’.
These little touches provide tremendous confidence that needs serious attention.
The chain support will boost confidence and trust in the utilisation of the dapps. This support should include video guides prepared and P-reps should assist with any product launch.
We seriously need to operate and control our messaging the way any reputable business or banks care about their identity.
VISIBILITY IN GOVERNANCE
Updates on P-PREP projects should be in the governance subsection and possibly in the landing page of the website as some form of sliding ticker. This will encourage people to look into the activities of a P-reps. Any P-rep that doesn’t update their progress journal after X-pass time should be sent a warning before a considerable penalty if we are to increase awareness and create incentives for participation.
HOW CAN I HELP:
I personally will like to undertake the video digitisation of these guides but I don’t think it should be disassociated with the new rebranding. I think there is tremendous opportunity in getting ahead with the importance of controlling the experience. Is there any way to get more information on the proposed rebranding of ICON republic besides the teasers? It would be great to get some brand guidelines if I were to put this through CPS @ICON_ADMIN @BennyOptions_LL @minhx @ricky_dodds