Why do we struggle so much "marketing" HIVE?
I started a conversation with Claude today to see if he could help me get my mind around what is really going on with HIVE "marketing" efforts, and what some of the solutions might be.
Here is my original prompt:
Hello Claude, I am an open source developer and my home base ecosystem is the HIVE blockchain. In the HIVE ecosystem, there is a lot of talk about getting people to notice HIVE, and it seems that the members of the HIVE ecosystem have yet to implement a marketing plan that works to get people to realize the open source power of HIVE and controlling their content. Some of the challenges of user retention are known, but beyond that, many users are even imagining that there is some sort of suppression going on involving HIVE.
You are an investigative reporter, skilled with tracing leads through online social networks, can you investigate for me the most likely reasons that "marketing" for HIVE seems so hard?
Here is what Claude had to say:
I'd be happy to help investigate the marketing challenges facing the HIVE blockchain ecosystem. Let me search for current information about HIVE's visibility, marketing efforts, and any potential barriers to adoption.
I notice the search results are showing information about HIVE Digital Technologies (a Bitcoin mining company), not the HIVE blockchain social media platform you're referring to. Let me search more specifically for the HIVE blockchain ecosystem.
Based on my investigation into the HIVE blockchain ecosystem's marketing challenges, I can identify several key factors that likely contribute to the difficulties in gaining mainstream visibility and user retention:
Historical Baggage and Brand Confusion
HIVE emerged from a contentious hard fork of Steemit in March 2020, following community concerns about centralization threats from new owner Justin Sun. This origin story creates several marketing challenges:
- Negative association: The platform carries the baggage of the Steemit/TRON controversy
- Brand confusion: Many people conflate HIVE with the troubled Steemit platform
- Fractured community: The fork split the original user base, reducing network effects
Systemic Platform Issues
One significant problem is the misuse of both Steemit and HIVE platforms, where "many users have resorted to manipulative practices" instead of the intended "democratic, community-driven curation and engagement model" Source. This creates:
- Poor user experience: New users encounter spam, vote manipulation, and inauthentic engagement
- Reputation damage: Word-of-mouth marketing becomes negative when users have bad experiences
- Content quality issues: Gaming of reward systems leads to low-quality content surfacing
Market Positioning Challenges
The investigation reveals several positioning problems:
Niche market: HIVE is positioned as "prioritizing community-driven and censorship-resistant social media experiences" Source, which appeals to a limited audience already convinced about decentralization benefits
Technical complexity: The blockchain/cryptocurrency aspect creates barriers for mainstream social media users
Reward system confusion: The token-based reward system, while innovative, can be confusing and may attract users focused solely on earning rather than genuine social interaction
Lack of Distinctive Value Proposition
From the search results, HIVE appears to be positioned similarly to other blockchain social platforms without clear differentiation. The official description as "a DPoS powered blockchain & cryptocurrency. Fast. Scalable. Powerful" (https://hive.io) focuses on technical features rather than user benefits.
Potential "Suppression" Factors
While I found no evidence of deliberate suppression, several factors could create that perception:
- Algorithm invisibility: Traditional social media algorithms don't promote blockchain-based platforms
- Limited mainstream media coverage: Most coverage focuses on the technical/cryptocurrency aspects rather than social benefits
- Search optimization: HIVE content may not rank well in traditional search engines
- Network effects: Without critical mass, organic growth becomes extremely difficult
Recommendations for Overcoming These Challenges
- Rebrand the narrative: Focus on positive user outcomes rather than technical features or the Steemit origin story
- Address platform hygiene: Implement stronger measures against manipulative practices
- Simplify onboarding: Remove technical barriers that prevent mainstream adoption
- Develop killer apps: Create compelling use cases beyond "decentralized social media"
- Target specific communities: Rather than broad marketing, focus on communities that would most benefit from censorship resistance
The marketing challenges appear to stem more from fundamental platform and positioning issues rather than external suppression, suggesting that internal improvements may be more effective than increased promotional spending.
As a follow up, I asked Claude this question about the "Killer Apps" recommendation, here's my prompt:
Regarding Killer apps, if someone were to develop a killer app that used HIVE on the backend and didn't require knowing anything about HIVE but instead allowed people to use the app and learn more about the underlying technology when and if they wanted to - would you recommend they use the HIVE branding or avoid using the hive branding? Keep your answer to 200 words please.
Claude's answer:
Based on my investigation, I'd recommend avoiding HIVE branding initially for a killer app strategy.
Here's why this approach would be more effective:
Lead with value, not technology. Users adopt apps that solve problems, not because of underlying infrastructure. Instagram users don't care about AWS; they care about sharing photos. Your killer app should focus on its core value proposition first.
Bypass negative associations. HIVE carries baggage from the Steemit controversy and blockchain complexity that could deter mainstream users before they experience the app's benefits.
Reduce friction. Mentioning blockchain/crypto upfront creates barriers. Many users have preconceptions about complexity, volatility, or scams associated with crypto platforms.
Strategic revelation approach: Once users are engaged and experiencing value, you can gradually introduce the "powered by HIVE" messaging as a trust-building element - "Here's why your data is truly yours" or "Here's why you can't be deplatformed."
Successful precedent: Many successful apps hide their technical stack initially. Twitter didn't lead with "Ruby on Rails social network."
The goal is adoption first, education second. Once you have engaged users who love the app, they become your best advocates for both the app AND the HIVE ecosystem. You can always add HIVE branding later as a feature, not a barrier.
I'll present this without my own comments for now, what do you guys think about these findings and this advice?
Or, lead with content that cannot be ignored. Content that goes viral. We have no one that does that level of provocation, scandal, or whatever it is the traditional media wants to have go viral.
Instead we see the objectively not the best posts constantly get voted to the top to top of our trending pages, while authors that toil with long form, interesting, human stories languish in their communities, getting only minor and small amounts of engagement.
We need to stop upvoting content about the platform as generously as we currently do, and focus on real stories that will see HIVE content get picked up elsewhere. Content that will give people a reason to click, and not to just turn on their autovoters.
Actually based. Totally agree. But the social aspect of the platform is lacking... everyone goes to discord for the drama...
I never fully understood that "based" means, I have to confess. I just like saying the quiet part out loud.. but I don't think what I have said above is a quiet part. :)
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When we talked today, I said just about everything your friend said..........
anyway....... I read the whole post...... and it just so happens you really didn't write it AI did and AI wrote what I told you today......
Does this make me smarter than a 5th grader? :D
Love YOU
That's all really good advice.
People who buy cars, buy them because they drive and they look cool. They don't need to know the intimacies of the company politics and finances, or how the car even works. All the bolts and screws need to be hidden by pretty panels of leather surfaces and mellitic sheen.
The problem is the bolts and screws do not fit well atm. Hive needs marketing, just not towards users. It needs marketing towards devs because the Hive layer is good as data storage product, while it is broken beyond repair as a social netvork. One can build a great Web3 social network on top of Hive but its rulebook needs to be written from scratch.
The curation dream is dead, nowadays you just need to avoid upvoting posts that will attract a downvote.
Even LeoFinance's InLeo (to my knowledge the project closest to killer app status atm) is an echo chamber, just a different set of characters in the jury.
IMO, the key is in allowing curators to place their bets on fresh content (something more reasonable than the 5-minute window as it was in the first year or so after the fork) while allowing consumers to give honest feedback on content quality (so that the rewards for discovering content can be alloted fairly). That obviously needs more than one Upvote button (most likely more than one token/form of HP). Old system forced everyone to be a curator unless they were fine with an obvious financial loss (and that kickstarted a full range of harmful tools/practices).
The brand "Hive" is exactly one of the basic problems (saying this since the fork).
agree to most other stuff especially the tech part, people buy people in general and are interested in solutions (not in tech bits and pieces):
I happen to agree very much with Claude.
Claude was one of the participants in the "AI Diplomacy Experiment" I think it was said to be too pacifist. I don't recall if it came in last, or was exploited by other AI. Anyway, its definitely a potential for a post... more research needed.
The suggestions make a lot of sense, and that probably would lead to wider adoption. On this topic, the two factors that I've personally found to limit Hive's growth the most are the lack of a comprehensive, coherent, and streamlined onboarding and inboarding process and education, and the proliferation of abusive downvotes (downvotes and downvote trails with zero communication as to the reason). 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙
I think it trips up once we get to the 'keys'. That part is a major learning curve. Not something that should be included in marketing, but is vital to how we operate and the bridge has to be crossed. Easy button?
Why not have a category of "light" accounts for newcomers; allowing them to use Hive on a simplified basis, while the original account creator holds the keys, and the new user only gets the posting key and if they lose it, they can still recover it from the account creator.
Such users can even see their Hive growth (including rewards), but they can't do anything financial until they agree to a "full" account, at which point they get the keys from the account creator, who then shreds them.
It's basically a variation on the widely used "freemium" model.
Additionally, if someone starts a "light" account, uses it for a while and then abandons it... maybe after a year, the keys could be shredded and any unclaimed rewards burned.
This causes a bit of 'centralization' but its not a bad idea. Perhaps people need the 'half-way' between centralized (that the know) and the decentralized (that confuses them). Also I'm afraid this will need also some sort of layer of protection to avoid "password keepers" from abusing their power.
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💯❗️ the keys trip me up, and I been up in this b for a while.
I have seen this myself. The way I go to hotels and create my content there, there are many waiters who have asked about this platform and some have even created accounts, but still they are not working here, so marketing has always been a difficult task.
Estoy muy de acuerdo, también uno de los problemas de hive (desde mi perspectiva) es que es un poco difícil "darte a conocer en hive" tener una visibilidad siendo un usuario nuevo, y no hablo precisamente de monetizar si no de promocionar tu contenido eso también desmotiva un poco Ya que te esfuerzas en crear un contenido "de calidad" y queda enterrado casi al minuto.
That, in particular, stood out.
It goes back to taking a breath and looking at how the world uses the Internet. Consider that very few people are simply "online," or "on facebook" or "on twitter/X."
We all tend to do very specific things online... whether it's gaming, blogging, hobby groups, political groups or whatever floats our boats.
I have long held that "marketing Hive" is missing the mark, as a concept. We need to market specific aspects of Hive to specific niche user groups.
As an example, my limited pitches of Hive to friends and family have been solely focused around a group of social bloggers that were part of the original blogging movement (pre MySpace/Facebook) around 1998-2006-ish. They are currently an underserved niche, in the greater web context... most can be found on Medium.
Part two of this reply touches on the sitewide marketing of Hive. I think we're missing the mark in terms of intention.
Consider if even some of all that Valueplan funding instead was directed at a dedicated staff (or couple of people) whose sole purpose were to be round-the-clock public relations and publicity people. In other words, sending an endless stream of press releases to every conceivable crypto (and financial) news outlet, crypto influencers, swap services, DEXes and CEXes... amking sure Hive is "in the news" and going on podcasts as guests and so forth and so on.
People have actually proposed this in the past, and if memory serves me, they were booed off the site and downvoted into oblivion for "daring" to propose something so centralized, and expecting compensation for it.
I disagree... that's not something the community could/should do, and most people here don't have the skill set to do so.
Such an insightful topic—marketing can be a real challenge, especially in specialized ecosystems like HIVE! 🌱 It's inspiring to see thoughtful discussions on how to bridge gaps and build stronger visibility. Keep fostering those conversations—the key insights shared here could make a big difference!
I'm sensing ai
You are using AI to write your comments. This is a friendly warning. Remember, we have hivewatchers here. Comment farming with AI is frowned upon. So, if you continue to do this, you are likely to get blacklisted.
You can elect to ignore me, most people jump on here and think they found the trick to make money on Hive using ChatGPT. I doesn't work like that.
Again, I'm not reporting you, I'm being a good friendly neighbor and telling you, you are about to get picked up by Hivewatchers.
!ALIVE