Author Topic: Is the Official Marketing Team Sleeping?  (Read 27541 times)

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Offline James212

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It is critical that we have enough early adopters to help out when mass adoption begins.

 +5% This right here. It's essential we have more early adopters if we ever hope to cross the chasm.

Agreed, we could have been having marketing focused at getting more core early adopters, during this time before 1.0 released.

I frequently see things like press releases from CoinTelegraph (on CMC), which discuss some positive development in another coin.  Or even fricking bitReserve!  And I think:  We already have something better than that!  Why does not one report on anything about bitshares?  Why does no one seem to care?



I'd rather focus on positive things now, such as:  Everyone who has not yet done so, NEEDS to go vote for matt608's argentina marketing delegate.  I am certain that the value per dollar spent on his campaign will be much greater than the official marketing.

I'm still waiting for a stable update wallet though Dacunlimited so I can vote for matt608 (and Methodx).   4.25 was a mess. 
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Offline Ander

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Thanks BM so much for this post!

* I like that you are going to work on a blog.  This will help us communicate your vision.  This could be very helpful towards getting the libertarian community interested in bitshares!

* I'm very excited about Bitshares TV.  This has a lot of potential.

* Getting more positive media articles about Bitshares in the crypto media world should be a priority!  This could have a strong positive impact.   We need to get more presence in the general mindset of crypto enthusiasts.  Everyone knows about Ethereum, but tons of people out there have never investigated bitshares at all.  That is a lot of untapped potential that we might be able to get to grow our core support base.


I think we all feel that we have overpaid for what we have gotten in terms of those conference connections, business connections, being hooked up with those marketing talents like Max.  But the fact that we overpaid isnt the end of the world.  After all, bitcoin grew from nothing with no marketing budget.   We have the ability to pay people from the blockchain now, so we can continue to fund marketing forever.  We have methodX and hpEnvy and matt608 and others from the community who are now seeing successes in their efforts.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2014, 01:39:08 am by Ander »
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Offline merlin0113

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thanks bm for your hard leadership and sincerity!

charleshoskinson

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The goal is to increase the VALUE of BTS.   Market cap is a measure of this.   

Only if the price is sustainable and also there is market liquidity. Massive volatility and illiquid markets benefit no one. 

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Brian needs to bring measurable results to the table.   We will figure this out this week.

I just want everyone to know that I share your frustration.   

Ask yourself what customer segments do you want to attract and what type of relationship do you want to have with them? Second, get Brain and co on both OKRs and a set of meaningful negotiated metrics. To brainstorm, I'd recommend looking at other projects in the space and listing what you admire and mistakes you want to avoid. Third, you need a china strategy. This is bitshares greatest strength compared to other projects. You have a vibrant, unutilized chinese community. They need to be engaged and leveraged. 

Offline bytemaster

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Bitshares started inflating the money supply to pay people.  What you can pay people in buying power is directly related to the market cap.  The same thing goes with paying for anything by fixed amounts of BTS.  It is still a fiat world. 

Doing a better job at sustainable adoption and increasing network virality will naturally increase the market cap and liquidity. Market cap is a symptom not an end itself. Treating it like an end goal leads to shortcuts that aren't sustainable.

The goal is to increase the VALUE of BTS.   Market cap is a measure of this.   
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Offline Ander

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145 new members joined this forum the other day.

140 fake accounts and 5 new members joined this forum the other day, sadly.

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No marketing person in his right mind would do that before a product launch. Just wait a bit longer.

I dont think any of us want the marketing team to give away any secrets. 
What we want is for there to be any pre-1.0 marketing at all, aimed at getting people out there in the crypto world to be aware that bitshares exists, and to have some idea about what it is.

Marketing about an upcoming product release does not require the product to exist yet, or all its secrets to be given away.  This could have been done, but it wasnt.


Regarding the market cap:  Market cap is a symptom of success, in terms of reaching people, building a community,  getting people interested.   Of course we are concerned about the market cap, because it has been indicating that support for bitshares has been dwindling, not increasing.  This observation matches up perfectly with the observation that there has been no marketing whatsoever, even though we have an official marketing team.
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charleshoskinson

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Bitshares started inflating the money supply to pay people.  What you can pay people in buying power is directly related to the market cap.  The same thing goes with paying for anything by fixed amounts of BTS.  It is still a fiat world. 

Doing a better job at sustainable adoption and increasing network virality will naturally increase the market cap and liquidity. Market cap is a symptom not an end itself. Treating it like an end goal leads to shortcuts that aren't sustainable.

Offline gamey

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however, it's been further complicated by some idiotic desire to increase bitshare's market cap. This frankly is a vanity metric that has nothing to do with the long term health of the bitshares ecosystem.


Bitshares started inflating the money supply to pay people.  What you can pay people in buying power is directly related to the market cap.  The same thing goes with paying for anything by fixed amounts of BTS.  It is still a fiat world. 
I speak for myself and only myself.

Offline donkeypong

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I don't understand the "secret" BS and why anyone is buying that. Outline your job for the community or I and anyone else dissatisfied vote you out...the end. Isn't Bitshares supposed to be viewed as a company? Someone not doing their job, other employees and stockholders peeved, you're outta here.  >:(
They've been outlining it; listen to the past podcasts and forum threads. The story just doesn't change a lot when you don't yet have a product to sell.

145 new members joined this forum the other day. It's been a big week for sign-ups. Which came without a corresponding increase in the market cap. Now, most of those could be spammers and bots. But don't you think it's possible that a few CounterParty, NXT, Ethereum, and other members regularly scout here for ideas? I still don't feel like any of these are full competitors; we have a different niche just like they do. But my point is that not everyone reading this forum has good intentions, and by that I mean BitShares' best interests, in mind. Maybe Brian and company could be doing a much better job at internal marketing (e.g. keeping members informed). But you let the wrong people in on what you're planning and the next thing you know, most of your big ideas have been stolen or neutralized.

No marketing person in his right mind would do that before a product launch. Just wait a bit longer. Or support some more marketing delegates you like; I think we need even more, in addition to the main marketing team and Methodx.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2014, 11:52:54 pm by donkeypong »

charleshoskinson

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Marketing is a game of data collection, analysis, timing, strategy, developing communication channels, and constant feedback. Generally speaking the C-level sets the high level business goals and then determines via collaboration with the CMO what messages need to be communicated, to whom, how to broadcast, the metrics defining success, and what type of feedback systems will be integrated into the campaign. In terms of a product launch, you also have the dual task of branding and differentiation from competitors.

Some of the core challenges facing bitshares is that the marketing team needs to concurrently manage communication about development progress, changes in the social contracts established via angelshares and protoshares, expectation management for released features, differentiate features from other ecosystems like counterparty and nxt as well as increase overall sustainable network population and participation. Not really an easy task; however, it's been further complicated by some idiotic desire to increase bitshare's market cap. This frankly is a vanity metric that has nothing to do with the long term health of the bitshares ecosystem.

Rather one ought to ask what problems does bitshares fundamentally solve, are these problems easy to understand, and is it easy to integrate new members into the community? Also who are the core customer segments you want to adopt bitshares? Saying everyone is a non-answer. There is always a primary target market for every product regardless of how big or small it happens to be. Where do these customers live? How do they communicate and consume information? Who are the key leaders in their communities they have trusted relationships with? I hear things like 'let's get person XYZ into our community because they have a big following..." It's only a valid approach iff this person is a key leader in the particular community you want to integrate.

Furthermore, what happens when things go wrong? When deadlines are missed? Software quality is substandard? Forks and countermovements occur? Who is responsible for managing the crisis and how will they approach these duties? You guys currently have two very different communities with one being an american, libertarian white man 20-35 demographic and the other being chinese with somewhat different politics and goals. How do you manage the needs of each? Recent events show how that can go wrong and how quickly bad information can spread and impact the health of the ecosystem.

A real marketing team asks these questions and then negotiates a plan with the executive team and is held publicly accountable to some set of metrics. Second, with all open source projects and social networks, marketers always try to develop and empower surrogates to vastly increase the virality of the network. What incentives do you currently have to spread bitshares outside of price appreciation? What if someone is bitshares poor, but loves the community and ideas? What incentives does he have to spread the network outside of part time passion?

Finally, when a person has issues, who listens and how are they reached? Forums are universal echo chambers that are easy to ignore and easy to pander. Can stakeholders get better accountability through other means and who's responsible for managing that process?

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I feel that if bitshares had the ethereum marketing team instead, we wouldve surpassed bitcoin already.   

Well you did from July to October :) Levity aside, every project has a different growth curve and marketing demands. Ethereum is a fundamentally different project from Bitshares and it's not fair to equate the two. They solve different problems.

Offline mint chocolate chip

He's been in touch with the nullstreet crowd and plenty of individual members. These guys are not idle by any means. They also don't want to reveal all their secrets before there's something to promote.

Offline Shentist

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He's been in touch with the nullstreet crowd and plenty of individual members. These guys are not idle by any means. They also don't want to reveal all their secrets before there's something to promote.

I don't like promises and no results. I don't like talk and no action.

Nullstreet is doing more in a couple of days then BP has done in months. I am really curious what campaign with 1.0 is coming and maybe we all are wrong here. But i see it in this talking and secret mumbo jumbo. Doesn't fit in an open source project. Just some outlines would be good, but maybe it is to late.

Offline feedthemcake

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I don't understand the "secret" BS and why anyone is buying that. Outline your job for the community or I and anyone else dissatisfied vote you out...the end. Isn't Bitshares supposed to be viewed as a company? Someone not doing their job, other employees and stockholders peeved, you're outta here.  >:(

Offline donkeypong

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He's been in touch with the nullstreet crowd and plenty of individual members. These guys are not idle by any means. They also don't want to reveal all their secrets before there's something to promote.

Offline Shentist

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and the funny stuff is

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4287

he is watching us, but not talking and telling us! Have a nice Chrismas.