Those of us who are part of this "adventure" often talk about mass adoption and what will happen when/if cryptos become a mass market thing.
And yet — even though we "fish" for every tiny sign we can find to show that mass adaption is happening — it seems like it's an extremely slow process.
Most recently, we saw Harry Potter creator J.K.Rowling on twitter, asking people to explain "how Bitcoin works." LOTS of replies, but only a handful were worth much...
What's the Problem???
Whereas it is definitely positive to have a good attitude about what we're trying to achieve, part of the problem is that we tend to come at the issue of moving towards mass adoption from the somewhat myopic perspective that we're already inside the industry and know how it works!
Why is that a problem?
Because we are trying to "pitch" our ideas to people through our own lenses of perception, which either make no sense to others, or highlight points they don't actually CARE about.
Consider the early days of the Internet. One of the major obstacles to entry, pre-2000, was that it seemed "too technical" to most people.
Meanwhile, the nerds who were trying to get people fired up about going online were "selling" the idea from their perspective which was invariably technical.
Time to Drop the Mumbo-Jumbo!
To be perfectly blunt, the average person on the street does not CARE what a "blockchain" is. They care about as much as they care whether their smartphone has an Intel, Motorola or Samsung CPU. Which is... close to zero.
Chances are, they don't care much about decentralization, either. But perhaps we can teach them to care, by "packaging" decentralization as there "being no Facebook or YouTube to ban your content or use your personal information for profit."
In a situation like Steem and the various Dapps that operate within the Steem ecosystem, pitching the idea of earning cryptocurrency, is also a somewhat dubious approach... because it already gets into something too complicated to be explained in a so-called "30-second elevator speech."
What might work better is to say that as your content is liked and gains a following, you can gradually build influence and stake in the platform you are using. That uses more of the analogy of a "cooperative," which is something many people are familiar with.
Consider the New Recruit Challenge...
When you think about asking someone to become part of something NEW, remember that you have to "meet them" at the place where they are, not at the place where you are.
And where IS the average web user?
They pretty much expect to find something interesting (to them), use something like a "log in with Facebook" or "Log in with Google," and they are ready to got on with things!
THAT is what we must keep in mind when addressing the issue of bringing in new users... both to crypto social venues like Steem, and to cryptocurrencies, in general.
That... and a LOT of patience!
Thanks for reading!
What do YOU think? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200517 12:30 PDT
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