Growing Hive - Getting Friends and Family Excited

Hive is an amazing ecosystem. And I’ve been telling my friends all about it. Eventually, they’ll catch on. But for now, not many have signed up. And I know why. It’s the same reason I didn’t sign up for a Hive account when I first encountered Hive. But I believe in Hive and think so many people would benefit from being part of this community. Here's how to get more friends involved.

Source: Canva.com

It comes down to a basic marketing principle. And while Hive is fantastic, it’s currently a community largely populated by people who really enjoy tinkering with cutting edge technology. At least, that’s my limited observation. The features of the system matter to most of us. But for the normie or the lay person, the benefits matter most.

This features vs. benefits discussion is a core part of any sales process, especially outside of the b2b realm. When I first encountered Hive, I was searching for fitness apps. I encountered @Actifit, which I now use. But it wasn’t until a year later, after I started playing Splinterlands and getting into Hive, that I started using Actifit. It’s a good app, but it’s user experience leaves a lot to be desired. I’m sure that will change in time. But that user experience, ease of use, is a benefit that most people search for.

This is the same with other Hive apps as well. PeakD, for example, puts a feature front and center on the main page. There’s a lot of emphasis on “True Ownership”, “Decentralization”, and “Owning your keys” on most of Hive’s apps. PeakD is just one example.

Features Vs. Benefits

These are fantastic features. But it’s the benefits of those features that will get people interested. And those are not often discussed when discussing Hive. @theycallmedan does a good job of highlighting benefits when he discusses Hive and 3speak. Clearly he’s spent some time in marketing and sales trenches.

So, what are the benefits? Well, the same feature could provide different benefits to different people. When getting our friends excited about Hive, it’s important to know which benefit they’d enjoy most from the platform.

For example, say a car salesman is selling a car with lots of horsepower. This is a feature. To the mom, the benefit might be, “This car is so responsive, and that’s going to keep your family so safe.” This appeals to the mom’s base desire to take care of family. The same feature, presented as a benefit to a 20 year old single guy might be, “This car is so much fun to drive, your friends will be blown away.” The benefit is fun and social status. The feature for these two examples was the same.

Hive's Big Benefits

So, what are the benefits derived from some of Hive’s features?

Feature: You own your keys.
Benefit: Censorship resistant (great for activists. D.buzz is a fantastic alternative to twitter.)
Benefit: Can’t be deplatformed (great for content creators)
Benefit: Greater account safety (great benefit for people who keep getting their damn facebook hacked)

Feature: Fast and cheap block time
Benefit: A perfect place to develop your app (benefit for developers and entrepreneurs)

Feature: Earn crypto
Benefit: Easily get started learning about cryptocurrency with no money invested
Benefit: Easily start a side hustle to build a savings and have financial security.

The best benefits attach an emotion to the outcome, and the above are just a few examples. Hive has so many features and so many benefits to each one, that it would be absurd to list them all (even if I knew them) in this article.

Hive Onboard does a good job of explaining all of this in terms of benefits and I can’t help but think I’d have gotten involved in Hive sooner had that been my first exposure to the ecosystem. It’s where I will be continuing to direct friends who are ready to take the leap.

Summing Up

In general, especially when talking to non-techy or non-crypto friends, it’s probably best to talk in terms of what Hive can do for them, rather than how it’s built. That’s what will help lead to greater adoption of Hive, better dapps being developed, a robust library of games to play, and more. And all of that only benefits all members of the Hive ecosystem.

What’s your favorite benefit to being a part of this community and this ecosystem? What do you tell your normie friends when geeking out over Hive?