Attention Economy of Steemit
Exciting changes are coming to Steemit! At the recent Hackathon in Oslo, Steemit co-founder Ned Scott talked about how Steemit will pivot to take advantage of the time and attention of users to drive marketing opportunities which contribute to the overall value of Steem owners and rewards going to content authors, and curators.
I think this is brilliant!
Let’s be clear, this will mean advertising on Steemit. I know many will have heartache with that concept. Steemit began as a grass-roots blockchain social media site, in direct competition with the big advertising-driven platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. No, @Ned and @Dan are not turning to the dark side.
Hear me out. In the new model, as I understand it, ads would be allowed but it would require advertising clients to pay with Steem cryptocurrency. This will drive more use for Steem and increase the overall investment in the system.
This investment would then be split three primary ways:
- Authors of the Blog which has the ad attached
- Curators who bring attention (upvote) to the Blog
- Split among Steem holders, by ‘burning it’ as part of the dividend to currency holders
This is a great advancement for a number of reasons. First, allowing commercial parties to buy advertising space on Steemit blogs requires the purchase of Steem, the cryptocurrency. This will boost the value and meaningfulness of Steem. It infuses more money into the economy, which is at the heart of every currency. Second, the dividend model, which pays authors, curators, and Steem holders, will divert money back to the users of Steemit and holders of Steem. More rewards, represents a greater financial incentive to bring in more participants, into the community, thereby growing the overall value of the system. Such growth then attracts greater marketing and the cycle continues to feed itself. Brilliant.
Ned proposed forming a non-profit corporation which would manage the advertising revenue to ensure the money is redirected back to the users and not to the pockets of corporations. There will likely be a percentage which is taxed to pay for the infrastructure and operating costs. But as a non-profit, the legal entity would work toward a zero-net gain, by returning money to the Steem community.
https://youtu.be/aQQmaxbkiis?t=8m45s
I imagine a non-intrusive, perhaps elegant, advertising banner at the bottom of Steemit posts. This area would be reserved for advertising.
A process and tool to connect advertisers and authors must be developed and managed. A system to pair authors and advertisers must be flexible to accommodate tastes and optimized distribution. Authors may want to choose what kinds of ads can be on their blogs. Advertisers may want to filter the topics or authors where their ads will be presented. Then there is cost aspect. Some authors may be more valuable than others. Competition among advertisers may also be present which might be the foundation for a supply and demand auction activity to bring in fair prices. The non-profit should manage such tools, processes, and technology to maintain an easy, effective, and productive experience for everyone: advertiser, author, curators, and readers.
One of the most significant challenges will be, how to best quantify the consumption of ads. All advertisers and their clients demand metrics. They want to know as much as possible about the impact of their campaign. This will require Steemit to facilitate at a minimum the number of views and at the maximum a validation system which proves ads were read. This may be a combination of blog views, session time, ad-clicks, up-votes, re-postings (re-Steem), links, and aggregated data from viewers (reputation, followers, Steem Power, etc.). For privacy, I would expect this data to be handled off-blockchain, again by the non-profit.
The structure of Steemit, which is founded on the Steem blockchain, may represent an advanced platform for better advertising. With ID verification, followers, and a reputation system already in place, Steemit can apply several different value-add algorithms. The value of someone with many followers and a high reputation system may be considered a much more valuable ad-viewer than a new account without much influence. Such mechanisms may be necessary to mitigate against Sybil attacks (attacker creates multiple accounts to gain an unfair advantage). These factors may also play into the ad cost determination.
I expect this to be developed and rolled out slowly, to guarantee robustness. The developers recognize the great potential value, which both contributes to the value of Steemit and increases as the platform grows in popularity. It is time for Steemit to embrace the Attention Economy, for the benefit of all!
Let us not put ads into blog posts! I believe there are much more obvious and healthier ways for Steemit to connect to advertizers budgets!
A static ad banner embedded in primary content is more or less how advertizing started in the Internet - we all know how this evolved. Let us not follow this path!
Providing metrics to enable advertizers to convey their messages to the "right" audience is only the beginning of what is increasingly percieved as spying and stalking out there in the web. For Steemit this could mean that our upvotes will eventually be monitored, so that we will see "individualized" ads based on our preferences, whenever we open a post of our interest.
Let´s not go through this again! It will not evolve into something good, I´m afraid.
Steemit has already the right logic to do this much better. And if it´s done right we will not only appeal to advertizers but also to the ~200 Million websurfers that have adblockers installed - a significant market opportunity.
What are advertizers actually paying for? Advertizers are paying for exposure!
Exposure is precondition for getting messages out, for getting and directing traffic and for engagement with customers. Steemit has exactly two means to provide exposure to advertizers (and to any other user of the platform):
1. Making content that is perceived as valuable.
Instead of intruding into third party content, every advertizer can start his own blog. If their content is valuable (unique, entertaining, funny, emotional, informative, etc...) they will be seen!
2. Buying vests
Advertizers don´t depend on third party content in order to gain exposure on Steemit. To ensure that their content and messages will be seen, they can simply buy a sufficient number of vests. Aside from content, it´s vests that attracts followers, incentivizes user engagement and makes blogs been seen.
As I understand it, the Steemit mechanics are already ideally suited to attract advertizers and to provide them with exposure in a healthy and non-intrusive manner. What we are lacking so far are is a sufficiently high number of active users. Let us focus on getting this number up and nobody needs to worry about how to attract advertizers money. It will simply flow-in in a self-driven manner as our network effect grows. But then, let advertizers run their own account like everyone else does. This would be very different to the situation we meanwhile have out there in the Internet. And it may even prove to be more effective for advertizers than the poisoned promise of targeted advertizing.
Intrusive advertising sucks lumpy brown sewer water.
I hate it when I'm trying to read text
... and stuff is wiggling, jumping and
...POPPING OUT to distract me.
I hate it I say.
Advertising is fundamentally deceptive.
It's lying for pay.
People whore themselves by saying things that they do not believe.
Advertising on Steem should be thought of and handled in the same manner
as nuclear waste or bio-toxins.
It's Satan, it's cancer
The Cronies will slowly ingratiate themselves to those in power then slow, gradually take over.
Think of it as a virus.
Protocols designed to keep the rest of Steem safe from the virus must be designed and implemented.
Or steem well be just like FaceBook, Reddit and all the rest
Pwnd
Owned...by megacorporations....
There does need to be a sustainable revenue source to support the payouts that the site generates.
Agreed. Non-profit advertising, where the money goes to the users of Steemit, could be one of those sustainable revenue sources.
Hmm.. but some posts are already giant ads themselves. I'm quite desensitised by ads anyway, so no biggie on my end. However, I think ads should be a last resort!
Totally agree with you. I don't even notice the ads on facebook lol
A post that is a 'giant ad' is one thing. An ad embedded in a post is something different. Other sites are embedding ads in the text. This is very distracting and totally breaks the mood. The vile microencephalatics are even embedding ads in ads. Try going to any commercial site (walmart, homedepot, amazon) and try to look up the specs (price, weight, etc) of any ONE thing...say a sheet of rigid foamboard. You will find very damn little information embedded in a ton of distracting adverstiements of OTHER stuff which if you try to look THEM up you find the same thing. Ads on top of ads, beside ads, embedded in ads, and none of them are saying a damn thing. No wonder the modern generation has the attention span of a gnat.
ADD (attention deficit disorder) caused by ads. A mental disease.
If ads are mixed in with the current way steemit is designed, this would be a terrible move. The attention economy needs to move well beyond advertisements sticking to our blog posts. Yuck, the whole idea of sticking ads to our content sounds absolutely gross. Let the brands create their own amazing content for their own accounts, like eveyone else!
Let the brands promote their content into one feed so those of us who want to ignore it, can.
What a concept! Let the creatives have control and be free to create stuff for the future! We need Steemit to become the envy of the internet, not the corrupt cave of lunatics it currently is.
I see both sides to this..
On the other hand
2 Ads suck!
I agree with both of your points. How do we maximize the benefits while minimizing the downsides?
By creating a 'promoted stream' that most of us can avoid like the plague.
2 Ads suck!
LOL, could not stop laughing after reading "sucks lumpy brown sewer water." You sir, have the gift of ranting!
Yes, I don't like ads either, but I am a realist. And that drives me to find an equitable balance. We have the opportunity to design limitations into the system now, so ads are not overly intrusive, a secondary revenue source for authors, and a boost to the overall Steem economy. Steem, the cryptocurrency, then has more uses and can attract more external investment into the system.
The real challenge will be pulling this off and corralling the use of ads to be elegant and additive to the system and not overbearing or controlling.
You can't boost something that is currently dysfunctional. The basic reward structure, and the algorithm needs to be fixed using social energy measurements.
Thank you.
I was trying to be nice.
Ad's have polluted the internet.
Sites, in particular those that have been made by 'professional web designers' are almost unusable, and all because of ads.
"Intrusive advertising sucks lumpy brown sewer water.
I hate it when I'm trying to read text
... and stuff is wiggling, jumping and
...POPPING OUT to distract me.
I hate it I say."
I AGREE 100%
@pollux.one wrote a great article about that topic about a month ago... mostly unnoticed... There ARE possibilities that are conform with the voluntary basic ideas of steemit:
https://steemit.com/steem/@pollux.one/how-to-get-money-into-the-system-and-make-steemit-really-self-sustainable-deutsche-uebersetzung
why not just make an advertizing aaccount then buy all the nsteem you need to become a whale then advertize your product by spam upvoting it and generate out your investment isn't this more wise? after all in an attention economy people will click and read why something has a 500$ payout (and will probably have a good laugh with it understanding what is fundamental wrong atm)
Adding advertisements to a currently dysfuntional design is a very bad idea. First, let's get the algorithms to detect social energy, which is defined as comments and amount of upvotes plus human comments. Social engagement needs to be rewarded, and this will solve a huge problem. Once people are rewarded for their attention, this place will flourish.
I do not think adding adverts to posts is the answer. Have the brands create engaging content and have their creative marketing departments push the envelope on content marketing.
IF you put ads next to our blog posts, I think that would be a mistake. I for one hate ads and will do everything in my power to avoid them. Many people are like me and we have moved beyond such concepts.
Work on fixing Steemit and creating its health. Then work on how to integrate advertisers. Doing this in the reverse order is a bad move.
The comment culture here generally sucks now. People who want to comment have more insentive to write their own posts instead of a long response.
This is great news as there needs to be some kind of force bringing on the purchase of steem otherwise the value of the currency will never see any real value. So long as it doesn't get as bad as Yahoo where there are so many ads the page freezes my laptop now....though I can't see steemit having enough room on the page to get like that.
Attracting external financing, especially the money of advertising, could be a major boost to the Steem currency.
I hope the Ads will be limited to a fixed box at the bottom of the blog page. That way it does not distract the user from reading the content, yet appears before they get to the comments section. Unobtrusive should be the goal.
We are open to the concept but want more details once this happens. We are bombarded by advertisers wanting us to push something all the time. However we say no most of the time just because it is not financially prudent so far.
This could be revolutionary for the site! There is always a fine line between being great for the site and being a nuisance. Here's to hoping we get on the right side of that line!
Agreed. It is risky, but could be a major reward if done correctly.
Hi @mrosenquist, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads today and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Thanks! I am proud of this post as well! A juicy topic to be sure. Everyone has an opinion and perspective.
If the ads only showed up on related categories, that may be a good thing. Of course, once the advertisers know the metrics, they will all want to show on the steem and steemit catergory, those would be the golden categories.
Only time will tell how this plays out.
Time will tell. The dev's are in an opportune moment/place to do it right. They seem to have the right intentions and real love for the system. Trust.