Crypto (Web3) Marketing 101: How To Adapt

Today, we are going to talk about Web3 101 for marketers. So Web3, really important for us to define first, and I'm going to pull that up on my screen in a second. But first, my name is Eric Siu. We're here to help level up the world. So let's get into it. So if we take a look at my screen over here, Brian Feroldi does a good job of kind of explaining the differences between Web1, Web2, and Web3. So I like this one. So Web1, read-only, companies create and companies profit. So in '94, '95, when I first started using the internet, You know, there were a handful of companies that were doing really well. AOL, as an example, did really well. And so companies created, companies profited. And to me, the internet back then was just a bunch of web pages, disparate web pages that all kind of linked to each other. None of the search engines were really good. Search engines were kind of based on the number of keywords that you have on a page. And so it wasn't really kind of like a link-based algorithm like Google as an example. Right. And so Web2 really Read, write. So people create and companies profit. So now you have the Googles of the world, the Facebooks of the world, now Alphabet and Meta respectively. They did really well. They played the internet game really well. They built amazing products that people wanted, that people wanted to come back to over and over and over. And well, the people ended up creating and the companies profited because if you think about Facebook or Instagram or WhatsApp, it's all the people creating content, but they're kind of the ones that are profiting, right, in the backend. So they're kind of the toll booth, right? Same thing with Google. Google was indexing a lot of the content out there, but the companies were profiting, right? And so that's read and write. Now Web3 is read, write, same deal here, but people create and people profit. So when you think about NFTs, now artists can actually get paid their fair share, right? Or when you think about DeFi as an example, if you're lending stuff out or if you're providing liquidity to a pool, you're actually participating in the upside. And it's a lot more equitable to the people that are kind of providing or creating, right? So we're going kind of into this decentralized world. I'm not saying— I don't think we're going to go all in on decentralized because I do think centralization is good in some respects. But, you know, that's what it is. So when we think about, you know, some of the things that are happening in the world of Web3 right now, so you have DeFi. DeFi would be known as decentralized finance. So the example I just gave you earlier, you could lend out your coins and collect some interest on it. You could also stake your coins, right? Stake. Yeah. Staking your coins to secure the network. You can also provide liquidity to a pool because if, you know, someone's trying to be an exchange, they actually need liquidity. Well, they need money, right? They need people to actually like put in money so they can actually supply that money out. So, you know, if you don't— if you don't understand DeFi, that's fine. You know, I'm just saying like that's an example. NFTs would be another great example, right? So the Bored Ape Yacht Club, you know, these are— you're getting a community of people together. They did— they've done like 2,000 people. Warehouse parties, 1,000-person yacht parties. They partner with Adidas, PrettyLittleThing. They've done all these cool things. So, you know, a lot of great stuff that's happening, right? The world of DeFi, NFTs, and then, you know, even DAOs as well. So decentralized autonomous organizations. So this is one called Friends with Benefits. And this is kind of like a, like a Soho House, almost like a members-only type of thing group. And, you know, a lot of the stuff that's happening right now are— it's really just based on community, right? So DAOs would be another one. And there's a lot of stuff happening with the exchanges. There's a lot of innovation happening in the space right now, just around kind of blockchain technology. You know, what I would say is, you know, as a marketer, it's worth paying attention to how things are being done right now, how people are marketing stuff, right? So I like using the example around kind of what Alex Becker is doing on YouTube, not just YouTube, but Twitter as well. So Twitter, you know, he does contests like this, right? You know, win a $2,000 NFT, like plus comment me 3. Plus your ETH address, 12,000, right? 12,000 comments, 6,000 retweets, right? So he's just getting a lot of reach that way. So, you know, kind of creative grassroots marketing stuff. But I mean, overall what I would say is, I would say there's one, there's two sides of the coin, right? And they're not mutually exclusive, but you know, you might have people that are super creative that are kind of short-term focused, and you might have people that are very long-term focused that are, you know, focused on just creating a lot of value, right? And so right now you have people that are really on the money grab side of things, and I would advise that, As a marketer, you start to think more longer term. And the good news is some of the stuff that's going on in the space right now, if you build like an NFT with a good community, that's actually a forcing function for you to think longer term. And you know, when you're building an NFT project and you're just trying to collect a lot of revenues up front and you're not built on doing a good job for the community, people will leave quickly and people will— your reputation gets sullied, right? And while your reputation matters online and into a world where we're using pseudonyms instead of, you know, kind of being out there, still your reputation can be burned, right? It's going to take you time to build up a brand new reputation. So, you know, what I would say is in terms of Web3 101 right now, that's kind of what's happening. New technologies are being built. But in terms of how to market in the space right now, what hasn't changed is going to where your audience is hanging out, right? So, you know, and Alex is very smart in knowing that, His people are hanging out on YouTube and they're hanging out on Twitter. And he's also building an NFT project as well, right? In fact, he's released like a season 2. So it's where are your people actually hanging out and then posting natively to that platform, right? So a lot of things work in the world of Web3 marketing right now. And, you know, we're still making this transition, right? So Twitter is native, people hanging out on YouTube, people do Twitter Spaces. Clubhouse makes a lot of sense as well. SEO works, email lists work, SMS lists work as well. So a lot of stuff you see working in the Web2 world right now, it works because we actually have a lot of clients on the Single Grain side in the Web3 world and they're asking for a lot of Web2 stuff. Right. But that will slowly start to transition. Are we going to slowly transition into kind of this decentralized Twitter, decentralized YouTube? You know, people are also looking— if you think about marketing in general, like, and if you have an agency, people are going to need help starting DAOs. People are going to need help with community management as well. And people are going to need help with Web2 marketing as well. So that stuff hasn't changed. Right. So you actually have a really good opportunity if you're looking to start a services side services business right now in this space because— and there's just a lot of opportunity for everyone. Um, but the way you want to think about this is not so much tactical, right? I want to encourage you to think about this from like a frameworks type of mentality. So the frameworks around here would be, okay, well, marketing 101. Where are the people hanging out and how do I post natively? How do I engage them natively? How do I think about building community for long term, right? What are the best people doing here and what real-life examples can I emulate and pull this into the world of Web3 right now, right? So It's really how you think about it, not so much more about the tactics that any, you know, podcast or YouTube channel can provide to you because the tactics all go back to foundational layers of thinking at the end of the day. So again, how can you provide the most value to the most relevant people? And then you're going to win that way, right? So let me know if you think I missed anything in the comments and don't forget to rate, review, subscribe. Don't forget to like this because it helps us grow and we will catch you later. Bye.