Share your marketing ideas!

True. So here we are helped if we can segment ‘users’ and then target those segments selectively - such as ‘torrent users’.

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Customer Segmentation. Now we cooking with gas!

  • Developers
  • Software users
  • Privacy Groups
  • Financial Interest

I think these can be further segmented.
Any other larger segmentation groups we can think of?

Each to be targeting in a slightly different way.

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Power of humor.

Anyone have a reddit account.

Post this type of stuff in programer humor

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Anyone able to fill this template?
Last box should be the safe net, first box should be something basic.
e.g. start at saving to local disk.
last box, upload once, access free forever. safe://

Just browse Memes and jokes about everything programming and CS for more templates to copy.
Do your worst! :slight_smile:

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Yes, I want to target two more groups - the Greta people and the Libertarians. I even think of making 2 separate sites specifically for them the GreenWeb :green_apple: and the FreedomWeb :statue_of_liberty:

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Agree with that pragmatic approach. Getting some indication of commitment from people is pretty crucial. I’d be willing to devote a 2-3 hours a week.

That example Objective was meant to be just that, an example. Like you say it has too many dependencies on network capabilities that are just not there yet. I think there are other objectives we can establish that are more about building awareness and growing the community.

Most of the crucial stuff now is about community building. Getting people aware, interested, taking action, learning and getting excited about the possibilities this project offers. Then it becomes more about maintaining momentum and helping people to be more engaged in something related to the community .

Agree.

So we focus on community building.

From my view the priorities should be on community building and having activities that keep people engaged. When more clarity on Fleming is here and the groundwork has been done on tooling we can shift expand focus to get people up. Designing a compelling developer experience.

This is the chicken and egg issue of platforms and bootstrapping network effects. I agree there is a argument to be made that cheap, secure and persistent storage is a strong use case. But again I think efforts devoted to convincing people to engage for this reason are premature. Given the uncertainties we have it is best directing focus to growing the community. When some we can go…

“Hey bro, want secure cheap storage for all your (insert data category here)? You can get up and running in x minutes! Here’s some coinage to get you started :wink:

Then the offer is compelling. Doing this now you are just setting up people to get excited, build up expectations and then leave because the immediate gratification is not there. The outcome they want cannot be fulfilled. Only hardcore believers or those with skin in the game stick around. This has been my experience over the years with getting people interested, it wanes quickly, the meetups don’t get traction, ultimately because there is too much anxiety and inertia for people to engage in the target behaviour (committing to buy $MAID and/or join the community, play with the tech etc). I’ve convinced many but they are not engaged community members, they are waiting for the tangible and unstoppable network to come to fruition.

So a more behaviour focused approach is relevant here.

We essentially need to design for switching moments.

Watch a video of me explaining it at a high level.

If we define the Jobs To Be Done and the related profiles of people trying to get these jobs done we are in a good position. We can design a value proposition that relieves the pains and creates the gains in the process of people getting these jobs done

A strong value prop can then be packaged with messaging and content, then distributed through relevant channels. Tested for effectiveness in achieving the target behaviour etc.

There is a mountain of ideas and threads discussing early adopters, target markets etc. Heres one -Target Groups for Early Adoption

I think Brave users are interesting segment, and it is an interesting channel to use for promotion but what is the value prop? Do we set up a landing page? Direct them to where? What do we want them to do? What’s the Call To Action - CTA?

I know this may seem like I’m being abstract with all these marketing approaches and models but I’ve learned that there are effective ways to approach these things and then there are the ineffective ways.

Currently with the network in it’s still uncertain state what are the Jobs people are trying to get done that are relevant? This is where we start…here is a few to kick it off.

  • I want to be involved in a community aligned to my values (emotional and social job)
  • I want to build a Dapp (functional job)
  • I want to invest my capital (functional job)
  • I want to store my data (functional Job)

We can then prioritise the highest value jobs given the current state of the network and the value prop that is actionable.

I’m advocating for a reasonably formal approach to this all and again not expecting everyone to follow. Prob enough for me this evening :slight_smile:

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The guy in your image doesn’t seem that popular anymore :wink: Drake Booed Off Camp Flog Gnaw Stage After Frank Ocean Doesn’t Appear

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I think it’s worth noting that some of the most effective decentralised activism campaigns of recent times have been highly coordinated; namely Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Wall Street.

They have a clear strategy, work in a highly targeted and coordinated fashion, yet use a variety of locally devised tactics to achieve a shared aim.

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I tend to agree. Even though I can see the arguments for the principle target of marketing at this stage being developers, I have a hunch that the resource would be more effectively spent at an end-user audience.

It’s a of bit chicken-and-egg supply and demand conundrum. But I’d wager trying to recruit devs to a project without there being a notable demand (and/or ‘hype’) from end users, might be tricker than anticipated. Why would I want to spend my time learning the APIs developing apps, if I am unsure if there will be the user-base at the end to allow me to see a return on my investment?

I’d also say that targeting could heavily overlap, but probably only in one direction. I.e. if we targeted end users on themes of privacy, security, control of data etc, we’d likely capture the attention of developers in that space, but messaging or a channel specifically targeting developers would be unlikely to capture the attention of end users.

But this is all hunch stuff? Do devs think like that? Would end users be put off that the product isn’t quite ready yet?

It seems like the first part of the strategy would be a research phase, to test these sort of hypothesis and narrow down the target, based on an understood and agreed set of objectives.

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You can see the polls that the main group of people are not programmers even in this early phase.

As a person who lived under communism, I say again that central planning does not work. Even if the world’s smartest people are in the forum, it’s absurd to believe that they can invent something better than the free market. People are most effective in small groups. So if one group fails, the failure will be small. If this small group succeeds, the other groups can copy its success.

I am for everyone to do whatever he wants. But to announce his efforts publicly so that anyone who wants get involved too. For example, me,
@Mendrit and @Miguelo we are working on launching local sites for Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. How long do you think it will take the central planning to let us do this?

Communism in theory sounds great, but it doesn’t really work…

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I’m not advocating central planning BTW.

I think it’s possible be we can be informed, strategic, and decentralised.

I don’t think you’ll find many people involved in this project who advocate for totalitarianism, of any kind.

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@Dimitar @JimCollinson
In many respects I think this argument boils down to a chicken and egg issue.

  • no APPs no one will use the network
  • Attract only developers and no one to use those APPs or network

At this point in time I see a mid point already being reached in that MaidSafe are developing some basic APPs (eg Browser, etc)

But @Dimitar I know that the general public are not all that concerned with storage until they run out. They use APPs which in turn use storage

Smart Phones were a good example. Once the APPs were on those phones then the uptake of smart phones skyrocketed. Before the essential APPs (email, photo taking, social media) the uptake was small compared to after.

Basically to move forward we need both the APP developers and the Public. The natural progression for that is some attractive APPs are needed before the public will be interested.
eg

  • SAFE Mail
  • SAFE Site Browsing. This is a major one and exists
  • SAFE Storage like network drive (equivalent to a USB drive), photo arranging viewing
  • SAFE Media like video viewing, photo viewing, sound (POD casts)
  • SAFE social media at least showing its coming
  • SAFE Account configuration
  • I’m sure there is another basic APP or three

Those basic APPs will draw in a %age of the population to at least use SAFE for storage of their files. Without something then you are fighting an uphill battle with just USB drives that any PC/Mac/Linux OS can use.

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With so many email/messaging options available today, I would think this one should be straightforward. Surely developers are raring to go on this once the network is launched

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Rob you are right. Do you know who is interested in cheap and anonymous storage of information?

Owners of torrent trackers. How do they make money? From ads … Here is an example of the biggest tracker in Bulgaria:

I’ll say it again. Anonymous storage of information will attract a huge number of people. And what happens when the Chinese get access to American cinema anonymously…

People from rich countries just can’t imagine what it’s like to know that there is entertainment you can’t afford with a $ 200 salary, but you can easily get free access to it online …

The network will explode with such content that will be accessible without registration anonymously from anywhere on the planet

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Yes bittorrent will be replaced by SAFE.

But do you realise what you just said.

Make an APP First for torrent trackers. The app is to provide access to their forums and indexes, Sites are APPs unless that are just static pages.

APP first storage second.

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I will just say that before torrent trackers there was something called “free servers”. Catalog of Movies, Music, Games on a Local Server Owned by an Internet Service Provider … A Simple Website with Links and Pictures and Ads … Anyone can do it without being a programmer…

So yes, a app, but a app that anyone can do and that will have millions of users around the world…

Edit: My point is that we only need 1 guide to how to build a site. And there will be millions of users who want to use it

Magic words Catalog of Movies

This is a dynamic site which is still an APP as a site. and requires attracting some developers

No I doubt a typical user could develop a basic DataBase APP. Would they even know what Node.js is? Or any of the other languages are?

So you are still asking for a developer first.

The way the network is being built we already have a few developers and yet still do not have enough to attract people away from the internet and USB drives. Remember there needs to be enough to attract people away from USB drives and the current internet. That is not as easy as saying we have secure storage

Just noticed this edit. You just reaffirmed what I am saying, developer first


This will be a shared journey with both developers being attracted and users being attracted. They feed off each other. There is no we can have one without the other apart from the initial few APPs

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Yes 1 programmer. Second we don’t need ahhaha.

But seriously Rob, free servers were just plain static sites. People didn’t care, everyone used them because every local internet provider had one …

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We need both. Lack one and the other suffers badly.

Just need a few APPs up front to get at least some users. Then need to also attract developers who then feed of the users (current and new) building APPs they want.

  • we have users now
  • we have some developers now.

We need more of both as we move towards launch.

Look at the other distributed storage network. Storage without the APPs being built fast. They are not much more than users looking then leaving except a few

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You miss the anonymous part … In SIA your IP address is visible and entire files are stored on your computer, not separate parts as it is on SAFE. Storj is totally centralized … and still not anonymous…

My thesis is that the owners of torrent sites will migrate en masse to the first cheap and anonymous content storage solution. Millions of users will start using it. And then the developers will come.

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