Nike On STEEM?
Dreaming Big
Okay. Let's think about this for a minute or two.
Nike wants a way to get their products directly to the consumer without dealing as much with the middlemen. They tried Amazon for a couple of years, didn't like the way things were going, and ended the sales part of the partnership. They're looking for different ways to "seamlessly serve our consumers globally."
Enter STEEM. If Nike wants to sell directly to customers on STEEM, they can. All they need to do is set up an account, and they're off and running. They could allow STEEM payments on their existing website, or they could have a STEEM-based dApp directly connected to the blockchain. Heck, they could even simply take payments made directly to their steemitwallet.
STEEM has a built-in marketing/social media tools—blogs, video, polling, etc.,—that Nike could take advantage of. It could use STEEM influencers. It could form it's own community, or create its own SMT (once they're available).
The transactions would be free. They would only take three seconds for money to transfer. Win-win for them. They would bring users to the blockchain. Win for us.
Back To Reality
Are we ready for a Nike to come along? What's it going to look like six months after SMTs come out? Will we be crowded with a bunch of SMTs that have no chance of going anywhere, or bringing middling value at best, or will they actually attract larger companies with more potential for investments?
I'm not sure. I get the sense that Steemit Inc., and whoever else might be behind things are expecting the members of the whole STEEM community to onboard their friends, acquaintances, family members, etc. While word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing tool there is, it would be nice to have a cohesive, coherent message, and something to sell.
I know I'm not the only one to say this, but at the risk of being redundant, I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to be selling. Not yet. I could say, there's some cool things coming, but then I would be guilty of doing exactly what has already been done. Promising things that are yet to be delivered. Even if things seem imminent, I don't think I can tout something that isn't already here and functioning satisfactorily.
So, opportunities are sitting out there. What are we as individuals expected to do with them, as opposed to some kind of coordinated, perhaps even professionally designed and targeted marketing campaign? It seems like individuals have taken the initiative before with some effect, but because they either hyped the wrong things or were too early because promises weren't fulfilled, results have not been so desirable.
Taking A Breath And A Step Back
I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like I've been waiting for something the entire time I've been here. Waiting for someone to discover my posts. Waiting for someone to deliver on some cool feature like Communities or SMTs. Waiting on the price of STEEM to bounce back. Waiting on that so-called dApp to end all dApps. Waiting for whatever.
In the meantime, I'm doing what I know to do (posting, commenting, curating) and as much of it as I can with the time I have available. Beyond that, I'm not sure if there is even something more to do. Do we need the cool video to attract the Van Halen's of the cryptosphere, or do we need Van Halen in order to make the cool video (killer dApp, better Steemit features, whatever applies in this Bill & Ted analogy). Which comes first, the marketing or the cool stuff?
Meanwhile, Nike's looking for a more direct way to connect with consumers, and I feel like we're all sitting on the means to their end.
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What a nice way to start the day, a reasonably bullish post about Steem and SMT.
If Nike turned up, I don't think they'd need to collar Steem's influencers, we would certainly know they were here as the opening post would be all over Trending (where posts of the sort should be) and have been Resteemed by all 1.2 million of us ;)
That's the idea though, a cheap place to market something we have - be it products, or yourself. I think the big company's will use their own tokens in time, and think Steem is best targeted towards smaller outfits who are up against others for those important market share %'s.
I expect it will be on us to market SMT, to anyone who will listen, and think those in touch with businesses of any size looking to use a friction-less payment or reward visitors to their review/feedback/discussion areas is the place to start. Not yet though I feel, save the campaign until the product is ready :)
Most recent, reasonably related post: https://steemit.com/steem2020/@abh12345/smt2020
Hey, @abh12345.
Glad I could get your day started in a reasonably bullish way. :)
re: influencers
Oh, probably not. I guess I was just thinking in terms of what was here and available. Amazon provides reviews and answers to questions and video and so forth along with the products they sell. That's more or less where I was going with all of that.
What they can't provide is the zero cost of transactions.
re: marketing SMTs
Which I guess means I will have to finally understand the SMT fine print, if I'm meant to sell it. :)
re: related post
Yep. I'm just echoing what's being said, with the additional real life use case, and my own personal quandaries. :)
Ah right, yes I can see that now after a coffee :)
Sounding out personal quandaries on chain has served many rather well and I enjoy reading this type of content.
Rest well and enjoy the weekend :)
I think they may be looking for a bigger market than 135 active users though.lol
I can't work out yet, why , SMT are gonna be this big thing, tbh.
One of the most annoying things - and a massive lost opportunity, was the likes of styxhexenhammer, and stefan moyneux, (and others....), coming and then leaving the platform..
I think maybe because of steem 'lefty ideology' BS..... but these 'big' you tubers were a Christmas present never opened.
The could have brought enough users here just by themselves if they were given the support, somehow.
(their audiences alone would increase our active users ...10x)
...I think TPTB are very out of touch with reality.
Not bashing them, just saying it as I see it...
Hey, @lucylin.
We have 136 active users, thank you very much. And they're pretty loud, too. :)
To your point, though, Nike definitely commands a larger active user base that we don't have yet for however many reasons we care to enumerate.
But if I'm dreaming big, Nike's situation is the kind of thing that gets the ball rolling, if we weren't dealing with woulda, coulda, shoulda scenarios.
I don't know what to make of SMTs either. I get Communities. I understand what they want to do with SMTs. I haven't seen the value of having hundreds of blockchains cluttering the space, a lot of them doing similar things, and now we want to go and clutter it more with STEEM-attached tokens. If the tokens we already have are any indication of how things are going to go down (which they can't be, can they?), it's going to get more cluttered, but without much boost to STEEM or the tokens themselves.
re: You Tubers
I've wondered whether or not an audience on free social media would translate here. Even if STEEM could get users onboarded quickly—are people following a YouTube channel going to pay money to get up and rolling (so they have enough RCs to do something), and then figure out ways to increase their stake, so they can keep on upvoting Youtubers content here, without doing it at $0.001 at a time ad infinitum?
Maybe? I kind of think that a lot of users follow anyone on social media because its free and its easy. If they have to stake to play, well, it's not the same.
I thought when RT joined it would grow things - but that didn't happen..
When i realized communities were still at the mercy of external down voting...it kinds dampened down the potential of them changing things, (for me).
SMT's? Yeah, I'm kinda thinking along the same lines as yourself.
The big you tubers are getting hammered, and are moving elsewhere - bitchute being the main one, i think (for non lefty).
The thing is, these big (medium) sized channels - have active supporter paying them through patroen, subscibe star, etc.
They are being actively supported.
I see no reason why they would do it here, through crypto exchange.
If fact (just thought of it) - I would see AN ATTRACTION from the independent channels (Molyneux and Styx, and a thousand others), and their followers to bypass 'traditional' payment processors by using crypto.
MY point being , there are thousands of people actively spending money to support these people - and with the right incentives for them, could bring them this side.
BUT (and this is a big 'but', I think)....
I think the motives behind this whole 'steem experiment', are not 'it they say on the tin'...and onboarding anyone that isn't left of Stalin, would be counter productive to their aims.
See my post yesterday.
I got a 100% downvote on that one, from a serial leftist...
https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/the-attention-economy-is-a-flawed-leftist-theory-the-authoritarian-wolf-in-social-media-clothing
edit: ...and I just came across this post with alex jones...it would grow the platform 10 fold overnight with just him alone! , but the ideology...blah blah blah
https://steemit.com/infowars/@infowarslife/now-that-alex-jones-has-been-deplatformed-and-youtube-is-considering-removing-all-non-commercially-viable-sites-and-alex-is
Okay. I'm not familiar with any of these folks (don't watch Youtube for much more than football highlights), but if they are getting some backing via Patreon, et al, that's much closer to what's happening on STEEM than basically getting entertained for free while volunteering to be a target for YouTube ads.
Maybe there is leftist or similar ideology involved in all of this. Kind of hard to tell which way the philosophical winds are blowing at any given time. Seems like "what benefits me the most" is more the ideology, with a heaping side of intolerance for anything "I don't like, or doesn't benefit me." :)
100% disagree with this. They are very sjw, lefty (to put it mildly), leaning.
Start local meetups like what we are doing at [Steem.com.ph](https://steem.com.ph] and consider starting a Steem-basef business with the members who show up 👍
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Hey, @chrisrice.
I like the idea and the intent, and it's cool you all are doing that. I really hope something comes out of it, and that it not only helps STEEM, but that it proves to be worthwhile to you all.
I'll have to see just who all there is around, too. There may be a couple of us, at least and gauge interest. :)
Much will be possible if NIKE should think Steemit in their quest to poll vault over middle men to reach direct consumers!
But does steemit actually fit the bill, where Amazon failed??
A million dollars question,I think!!
Nevertheless, a trial would do the magic! So , welcome to the steemiville , if you will @nike!
Hey, @whyaskwhy.
A very good question. I think the main issue was Nike wanting to have more control over who sells their shoes. That kind of cramps Amazon's style since they make more than half their revenue off of third-party sellers. If they started cracking down on Nike resellers, than they would need to do it with everyone else.
On STEEM, at least not currently, there isn't quite that problem. That's not to say it wouldn't appear in a heartbeat, given how spam/scam/phish schemes have abounded, but where Amazon is slow to go after third-party resellers, or to do it more delicately and over time, STEEM has basically done the opposite, even if it could be considered to the detriment to new users and to STEEM's reputation.
Regardless, it seems to me that Nike would have much more control here over who sells their items than they would anywhere else, simply because the amount of revenue they would bring to the platform would far outweigh what smaller resellers could bring combined even if they could get off the ground.
Thanks to my bro! Well explains. It is understood completely!!
Howdy sir glen! I'm still waiting to see if steemit is a viable option to create another income stream. Plus the SMT's and everything else. What about communities, I assume you can go with the fff group when they get it put together.
Hey, @janton.
Haven't heard what the fff group is going to do regarding Communities, but I would like to continue to participate, regardless.
I guess I'm kind of in that same quandary about income stream, too. Either higher rewards on posts, higher STEEM value, or some other means of earning STEEM. I've got ideas, but none I can really do alone, and one that I'm not sure if I trust the main players enough to not find a way to mess it up. :)
Lol...laughing at your last sentence. I understand. Well everyone is saying that in the future the best way to earn will be in communities so I wondered if you had any picked out. I don't because I don't seem to fit anywhere. lol.
Well, that's just it. I'm not going to want to be in any one particular community. Are folks already announcing what communities they're going to form? Or are they already doing it through the closed beta? Seems kind of unfair to give some folks the headstart on that, especially since there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to who's testing it other than Steemit likes them, maybe. :)
So, as of now, I'm not aware of any communities to even pick out. I've never fit in completely in one place. I like to cover more topics, and would probably burn myself out if I got stuck in just one.
However, if there's a quota on how many posts need to be made per week or some other kind of rules I'll have a hard time living by, I might just take my chances and stay out of any community all together. Wouldn't that be something! Especially since I'm hoping Communities can solve the content discovery problems we've had from the beginning.
There will be sir glen out in the cyberspace of steemit by himself. lol. Nah, a few of us are like that, I have no idea where I'd fit. I know the photography people have a token and will be forming a community.
Sportstalk is already a strong community. But the others are still in beta testing with some communities being formed like featheredfriends for bird lovers and a shadows community for people who like to take shadow photos.
I don't know how many there are but I assume lots of them are being set up and tested. You might end up being with none or many because of your many interests.