How I Managed To Explain What STEEM Is To A Technophobe...

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Explaining STEEM to a Technophobe.jpg

I'm a Genius...πŸ’‘

This was probably one of the biggest challenges I've had with STEEM to date! Trying to explain what it is I do on this platform to someone who hadn't even heard of Facebook until recently and was still using a Nokia 3410 a few years ago... Having said that, I DO miss playing Snake! So how does one even begin to explain something that's quite complex to a technophobe?

Of course, I opened the line with "I've got so much to do with the contest I run on here before Christmas" (referring of course to @yourtop3). I was then asked, "What's the contest?"

Cracks knuckles, a bead of sweat and a slight headache as my brain goes in to hyperdrive thinking of a way to explain everything

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Let's Start With The Basics of STEEM

Brilliant! Good thinking Batman! So actually, what is STEEM? (Bear in mind, I'm coming at this from a content creator point of view):

Well, you know Facebook? They have these "like and dislike" buttons if you like or dislike something someone has posted. On the (STEEM) platform I use, those "like and dislike" buttons have some monetary value associated with them. Currently, the value of my like is 5p but there are some on the platform whose "like buttons" have a value of Β£10 or more! You can grow the value of these buttons if the community likes what you post.

When you post something, the community on this platform has 7 days to decide if they like or dislike something with their "money likes", then once that post reaches 7 days, you get paid something based on how many likes and dislikes you have.

So if you post something that the community likes or finds valuable, then you're more likely to get paid more at the end of that 7 days. Makes sense?

As I was explaining this, I could see it was working as the Technophobe was looking back at me and nodding their head and they didn't have a glazed look over their face.

Oh right, that does sound like an interesting concept. So how does that tie in to your contest?

YourTop 3 3d mockup 1.jpg
Thanks to @gabrielatravels for helping with the logo design - Steemians working together to make something awesome!

Now The Basics of Your Top 3

And this is where I knew I could explain things a little easier about the contest once the basic mechanics of the STEEM platform were understood:

Well, the basics of the contest are:

  • We ask the people of this platform what their favourite 3 things are about a specific topic that we have chosen - I work with 3 other really awesome people (here's looking at you @plantstoplanks, @cheese4ead and @foxyspirit!)
  • They (STEEM community) then write an article about it on this platform. After 7 days, they pay half of what that post paid out as an entry fee to the contest,
  • We then put a poll together of all the entries for the (STEEM) community to vote on their favourites
  • Then we split the prizes up between the Top 3 finishers!

A face looked over at me as if there were more questions... I was ready for them!

How long are people writing for, I can't imagine that they would write more than a sentence and a list of their top 3 favourite things...?

Image Source - Have to admit, my eyebrows raised with a smirk like Mr Bean

In my head, I went "PAH, I've got an answer for this!" But in real life, I said this:

We DO have a requirement that the article must be at least 250 words and we ask them WHY they chose those 3. Some write a couple of thousand words and really tell us everything about why they chose it, what it means to them... we're trying to encourage reasoning skills ultimately. But those who put more effort in do tend to get more recognition from the (STEEM) community - the main thing is having fun with it though

Again, nods were the overall riding motion of the Technophobe and with this response, I knew I had explained STEEM well enough:

It's good that you don't just ask people to list things out, anyone can do that. Sounds like it's a good contest!

I can't deny I was grinning a little bit to myself when the Technophobe seemed to understand what it was I do on this platform. That, and I also added:

It really is a good contest - since we launched in April, we've given away over Β£100 in winnings.

You should have seen the look of surprise and joy on her face:

Keep going with it son.

I will Mum πŸ˜ƒ

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Keeping It Simple To Onboard New Steemians (Content Creators)

Although my mum will never touch social media (and to be honest, I wouldn't want her to), it's approaches like this (where we introduce some curiosity first) that I think we need to consider in 2020 if we want to get more people involved on this platform and (hopefully) increase the value of STEEM (in many ways).

In other words, presenting the very real things that are happening on this platform that are fun, rewarding and developing a skill of some sort - there are many of them about.

One example are the Excel Courses that @paulag organises - learning a valuable skill such as being able to use spreadsheets AND getting some reward for it is where an intrigue can be created.

When we share our posts and initiatives, we shouldn't just focus on the "make content, get paid" marketing of old... that is completely wrong as it implies a guarantee that you can just post anything and get money...

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Bring fun courses, contests, games etc to conventional social media without mention of the technical jargon, "crypto" or "blockchain" (unless your target is developers/technical folks with relevant reasons to join STEEM).

What I've been trying to do with the Your Top 3 Twitter account is to keep it plain and simple posting tweets such as:

"This month, we're asking what's your favourite Holiday Movies",
or
"x chose these 3 as their top 3 Holiday Movies, what's yours?"

Followed by a link to the post and then the hashtag "steem" along with other popular hashtags related to the topic of our contest to hopefully catch other non-steemians' interest. Rather than solely say "join steem, it's amazing! OMG AMAZEBALLS, PURE FIRE" etc!

Obviously, we only just started our Top 3 Twitter account and our following is small atm but as long as we can show the fun side, we'll keep testing things out and hopefully bring more users here out of curiosity when they interact with our Twitter so more people can develop their skills and earn something in the process.

Got to be worth a try right?

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Merry Christmas πŸŽ„ πŸŽ…

Anyway, this may well be my last post before Christmas Day so I'll take this opportunity now to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Stay safe, I hope you've all been good little boys and girls this year haha!

Catch you in a few days

Nicky



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16 comments
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Yes you are a genius. You and me both πŸ€£πŸ€‘πŸ€£πŸ€‘

Thank you so much for the shout out, I hope u told ur pals they can learn Excel here too.

It's hard explaining steem. Keeping it simple is tougher. Sound like you did an awesome job. Well done and good luck with ur contest. I need to find the time to join.

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(Edited)

Hahaha, we are just geniuses hey! No other way of putting it 🀣

I figured if I can share what I found to work then others who have great projects running can apply some of the experiences to their own business and that way we all win (and get to call themselves geniuses)!

We'd love to have you in the contest too! But we are closing down over Christmas period and returning on 1st, starting off the year with a bang!

Feel free to join our friendly Discord and we'll keep you in the loop :)

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Just when you think you’ve seen it allβ€”the 180bpm guy mixes a role of yard stick against the chalk board like β€œhit the lights!”

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Hahaha hey Mr Dan! The travelling man! How are you buddy? Haven't seen you in these parts for a while. Hope you're all good!

Party time begins next month in the new year, loads of new dnb coming up as well, you're gonna love it!

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I’ve tried to explain it to normies and failed miserably there’s just so much going on here and you get so excited about it all it’s easy to overload people!

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Haha I hear you but the reality is, you need to keep it as simple as possible and really small bite size pieces. I always compare the upvote/downvote buttons to the like and dislike buttons on platforms like fb twitter and YouTube as that is what everyone is familiar with.

You get them to understand that bit then you can gently talk about how those apply to you. Let them ask the questions rather than you telling them. Keep it very light and don't go deep. We just want to pique their interest, then repeat πŸ™‚

Dunno, we all need to tailor the chat to who we're speaking to I guess!

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Excellent job with the technophobe (and love & hugs to your mom! LOL!). I agree, keeping it simple, and using tags like that on Twitter are some great ways of getting word out of the awesomesauceness of the Steem platform!

May your holidays be merry and bright, Nicky! πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… ❀️ πŸ’š

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Thanks a lot Traci! Gotta do what we can to keep it simple for any would be steemians!

Have a great Christmas my juju Queen of the gifs friend!

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Good article. I simply say it's a paid blogging site. You get paid once a week, and make sure to be an actual contributor to the community.

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Yea that's a good, simple way of explaining it. Being actively involved always pays off on any network but even more so here. Thanks for stopping by πŸ™‚

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Merry Christmas to you too, little brother! πŸŽ„ πŸŽ…

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And to you Little Romanian Sister πŸ˜€

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have these "like and dislike" buttons if you like or dislike something someone has posted. On the (STEEM) platform I use, those "like and dislike" buttons have some monetary value associated with them. Currently, the value of my like is 5p but there are some on the platform whose "like buttons" have a value of Β£10 or more! You can grow the value of these buttons if the community likes what you post.

When you post something, the community on this platform has 7 days to decide if they like or dislike something with their "money likes", then once that post reaches 7 days, you get paid something based on how many likes and dislikes you have.

This is a great explanation for normies when they know nothing about crypto or steemit. i like a concept that they can understand. The only change i would make is to try and push it in terms of steem power rather than dollar price as we try to get people thinking more about building their account rather than just earning with it.

But as for the wording of it i'm a big fan. Letting the community decide and after 7 days you get a steem payout. Getting away from the old mentality of flags and instead showing it as a post balancing out.

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Thanks a lot for the feedback and yes, steem power and growing your account is probably "level 2 discussion" discusson, I did another blog about that in my Bluffer's Guide I wrote recently which is all about growing your account. Some tips and tricks in there for newcomers to really get the most out of the this awesome place.

The first aim is to get them interested and explain the mechanics in an understandable way and then, if the conversation develops and they want to know more, then can start talking about growth to accompany earnings.

I'll tweak the conversations and approaches then report back and let the steem community how it goes.

If you manage to chat with newcomers then let me know how you explained it, will be interested to know πŸ™‚

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