Building A Personal Brand On Hive

over 2 years ago

The world is rapidly changing. This is no surprise to most. For this reason, we need to approach things in a much different way than we did even 20 years ago.

We saw a massive shift due to the popularity of the Internet. There is no doubt the online world is a very important part of our lives. It changed the way we communicated, engaged in business, made payments, and were entertained. In spite of some of the challenges, society advanced due to this medium.

With the introduction of a site like YouTube, we saw a change in the way people gained recognition. Essentially, that created the decentralization of publicity. No longer was it in the hands of powerful broadcast companies (although a case could be made that Google became that). Instead, YouTube stars were born, some who rivaled mainstream stars in popularity.

Online branding became the norm. For this reason, as we see the evolution into the next phase of the Internet, it is important that we understand some of the principles. The "metaverse" is really going to alter things again as we move into an avatar based interaction.

With the progress towards Web 3.0, we can how Hive is starting to evolve into a useful tool for this development.

Here are some ideas that will help to build one's brand.

Source

Substance

All the gimmicks in the world will be short-lived if there is no substance to what you do. People who follow others long-term do so because there is some value given. It might be from an informational perspective, or entertainment. Either way, if one is not providing much, people quickly lose interest.

Social media is about content creation. Of course, what this means and how it is produced will vary based upon the individual. People will find their own niches, derived from their interests along with experiences. It is impossible for us to determine what people will like (Honey Boo Boo is an example). However, followings can be nurtured through engagement.

We could say that a lot of this has to do with quality. While this is a subjective term, if we look at the traditional mediums, we see how this derives attention. Whether it is photography, stock analysis, stand-up comedy, or cooking recipes, people are drawn to quality. It is what stands out to people.

Consistency

This is a key to any walk of life. Is that much that one can succeed in without consistent effort? The best conditioned athletes do not work out once in a while. Top sales performers make sales call daily. Stand-up comics are always writing new material and testing their jokes out.

Hive is not different in that regard. Even if one is lucky enough to be seen, interest quickly evaporates if one is not here consistently. That is simply how humans are wired. For some reason our attention span is rather limited. Consider all the people who were on here regularly who are now gone. How often do you think about them?

Consistency ties into the idea of substance. Those who are showing up regularly are able to exhibit what they bring to the table. One's knowledge or ability in a certain area will come out as he or she participates. For example, what is the best way to improve your photography skills? Obviously by taking more pictures. Consistently posting your work on Hive in the communities with that interest will likely solicit some feedback. This is the second part of the equation: learning from others.

Engage

This is something still seriously overlooked. Engaging with one's following is vital. Social media presented a means whereby communication became a two-way street.

When we watch someone on a television program, there is no engagement. The actor or cast is filmed performing and we take that in. Even if we wanted to, the ability to engage simply is not there.

Of course, going to their Twitter or Facebook pages might yield different results. There the issue becomes one of numbers. When one has a couple million followers, it is impossible to engage directly with that many people.

On Hive we tend not to have that problem. The advantage here is that people can stand out. We are much smaller than the traditional social media platforms. Hence, gaining a following is much easier.

A major part of that comes from engaging. Unless you are creating something truly magical on Hive that "wows" the daylights out of everyone, the path to success is going to be to engage.

Fortunately it is a medium designed for that. Each post as a comment section. This allows for followers to express their questions and views. It also enables the content creator to interact back. This is two-way communication.

Utilize What Is Here

Hive is starting to develop a nice array of tools that people can use. We know about the blogging aspect of things. That is the foundation upon which this was built. However, that is far from the only means of engagement.

We have 3Speak which is Hive's version of YouTube. It allows for the production of video (vlogs) with easy uploading. Here people are free to express their views along with video making ability. Some prefer to have their videos stand out based upon the content in them while other take a more artistic and creative approach showing off their video making skills. Either way, it is a great way to reach one's followers.

Another addition is ListNerds. This is a brand new platform that enables email marketing. In the past few weeks, people started to reach the list on there by sending out links to their blog posts. Here again, we see a traditional mechanism used to promote oneself. Of course, we have to refer back to substance. If the blog post is garbage, one is just promoting him or herself as trash. Unless that is some strange niche one is trying to target, it will not likely yield results.

We also are seeing the development of Twitter and Instagram type applications on Hive. These are in varying stages of development, trying to scale and evolve.

Ultimately, Hive will be offering a full plate of social media tools that can enable individuals to build a brand.

Niche In Communities

The community feature is one of the most powerful aspects to Hive. It is still very early due to the fact we lack a large user base. However, this is the time to start getting recognized since the competition is much lower.

Communities are a great way to sort and categorize things. The Internet is a plethora of information, often coming at us like an avalanche. We simply get overrun by it. For this reason, those trying to get noticed are simply lost with all the other "debris" rolling down the mountain.

Targeting a niche allows one to find people who have an interest in what he or she is focusing upon. With communities, we see the power of assembly. People gather in the individual community to engage around that specific topic.

For example, have the Splinterlands community that assembles on Splintertalk. This is a community established to discuss all things Splinterlands along with rewarding people for their input. The community has its own token which provides the foundation for an economy to form. While this is based around a game, players are able to expand their reach. For the time being this might not mean much but when people are able to follow players and stake tokens on them, having that publicity could help.

The ability to stand out in a niche community is much easier than the ecosystem as a whole. Simply math tells us this. We simply have less people to deal with.

It is also a statement that could be said about Hive as compared to traditional social media. People find it very difficult to gain a following on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. Unless one has a large following from elsewhere, it is a tall order.

As an aside, one advantage to Hive is we only have to develop our following once. With traditional social media, since the platforms are siloed, a follower on one has to be solicited and brought over to another.*

With Hive, once someone is following, he or she is tied to any application that posts on the blockchain. No matter what application is used, the followers are the same.

This is a major savings of time as compared to the traditional realm

Think Long-Term

Success is not usually an overnight process. With the Internet, it is possible for something to go viral, instantly adding millions of views. Once again, that is usually short-lived.

When thinking about over the next 2-3 years, is that truly a long time to work at something. It is likely that following some of the suggestions here for that period of time will net some results.

We are conditioned these days for instant gratification. Unfortunately, things do not appear to work that way. Effort consistently exerted in a particular direction is what creates positive results.

Of course, part of this thinking is not to look at the rewards immediately. Certainly they are important since one of the tenets of Web 3.0 is financial freedom. However, we have to give to get. That is a concept is missed. People approach all of this with a sense of entitlement. The reality is the exact opposite. People chose what they want to support.

Long-term thinking helps us overcome the daily ups and downs. These are present in any endeavor in life. World class athletes have poor games. Nevertheless, they do not usually quit after one or two. They stick with it and keep going.

Success on Hive comes from helping Hive to have more success. We are all part of something bigger than ourselves, which is growing in size and ability. Ultimately, we are doing our part to change the world. There is a lot more taking place than what we are doing individually.

That is where the golden nugget truly resides. As we aid in the overall expansion, we are positioned to enjoy greater success. Nothing we do is operating in a vacuum. It all has a larger impact.

A lot of this is about mindset. Much of what we achieve begins with our mental approach. If we come to Hive simply looking for quick hits and to bilk some rewards, the results will speak for themselves. Over the years, we saw a lot of people take that approach. It did not end to well.

Developing a personal brand takes time and effort. However, with the introduction of Web 3.0, this could be very valuable in the long run. Who knows, you might someday NFT yourself and sell tokens based upon there.

The opportunities in this regard are going to be enormous. Innovation is going to allow us to do things we never considered.

For that reason, it is best to lay the proper foundation for your personal success. In doing so, you will be another cog in the machine that helps to uplift Hive.

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