Since the dawn of NFTs, Twitter has been the main channel for interaction, information, community building and of course - promotions.
In this document we’ll take a look at promotions and giveaways to try to decide how Studio TBD DAO should approach it.
This Think Piece is also available in presentation deck form here:
Background
The NFT movement has exploded into the world at an insane growth rate. Every time something like this happens all kinds of people show up to try to profit on the growth in one way or another, and sometimes without caring what the movement is about. A gold rush is a gold rush is a gold rush.
Many of the pure profiteers are “influencers” that have built themselves an audience and are now monetizing it by shilling things to them. These influencers are a product of the old world of web2 we believe. In a sense, social media was destroyed by the invasion of influencers and advertising.
Is this destruction bound to happen to web3 as well?
Arts and culture fueled by a new infrastructure
Blockchain and web3 are a lot of things. Infrastructure, finance, business, innovation, tech, in some ways just like web2. The NFT movement is fueled by all these things but has another component to it - it’s the cultural arm of blockchain.
Web2 didn’t have a cultural movement built into it. It was all the things stated above, and sometimes it was used for culture and art but it wasn’t built into the structure. NFTs have culture and art built into it directly as a digital and creative primitive. NFTs can be used for other things of course, but the base layer of it is culture and art.
Does real art and culture even need promotions?
Now we’re getting closer to the heart of this issue. We know almost all companies and products need promotions. And we know that cheap and shallow culture needs promotion. But does deep and profound culture need promotion?
Did Prince need promotion? Maybe, maybe not. He sure had it. Could Vincent Van Gogh have used some promotion? Most likely yes - he died broke and undiscovered just like Kafka. And given that they didn’t want to die undiscovered (Kafka maybe actually did) some promotion would most likely have been helpful to these absolute masters of their deep and profound arts.
Promotions and NFTs
The most common type of NFT promotions that happens on Twitter, for projects or for influencers to grow their following, is the old “Follow and RT to get a chance to win xyz”
So far we have not done one of these, and we’re quite proud of that. Simplistic growth is hard to reject, but we have arrived at the conclusion that we will not engage in purely transactional promotions.
The natural question then becomes - what kind of NFT related promotions might be good? And what is the connective tissue between them?
Example #1: Zeneca_33 - Daily floor stats update
Simplistic yet genius. While evolving into a full time professional NFT trader Zeneca decided to share his quantitative NFT data with everyone on Twitter.
This action helped the growth of the entire space and he has since then become one of the biggest influencers. He has also broadened his plattform into content creation and NFT project builder through ZenAcademy.
Example #2: Studio TBD DAO x Fly Frogs Collab Promotion
Full disclosure - the idea for the concept of this promotion came from Mr FlyFrog himself. He suggested, after taking a deep dive in the Studio TBD DAO plan (Bring NFT Culture to the Outside World), that we should ask the Frog Army what they found most compelling about NFTs and web3 culture. Many of the entries were nothing short of brilliant.
Promote - But Do It For The Culture
Give something that transcends transactional gifts with the culture in mind. The connective tissue in the two examples we just looked through is that it promotes the culture itself.
Zeneca_33 had something valuable to share that helps the growth of the space. A massive accomplishment made through hard and intelligent work.
The Fly Frogs gave their following the opportunity to think about how they wanted to express their love for the culture and get something in return.
Two examples from different ends of the spectrum when it comes to time, effort, purpose etc - with one thing in common: Do it for the culture.
When No Promo Is Needed
Sheer brilliance builds a ripple effect into the DNA of the project. mfers by Sartoshi have taken the NFT world by storm. This genius project is art in many layers. Waiving the commercial rights through CC0 lets people do whatever their imagination lets them. Together with the specific artist and specific art this has turned into a snowballing effort with derivative projects popping up like mad. Massively impressive and we are humbled to be in the presence of greatness.
Conclusion - We’ll Do It For The Culture
Our aim is to only do promotional activities that celebrate and or helps push the cultural movement of NFTs forward. Small or big, immediate or long term - we have decided that our promotional efforts for the Studio TBD DAO and our Membership NFTs always should help the culture in one way or another.
A promotional item could for example be - a think piece addressing promotions in the NFT world that we gladly share with all of you.
On the following pages you’ll find an overview of Studio TBD, links to more information about Studio TBD DAO - and the ongoing token mint you can access at studio-tbd.io/tokens
#ForTheCulture
Studio TBD DAO Membership NFT Is Minting Now
Price starts at 0.06 ETH. Get in before the price increases. And stay tuned for some big things beginning of next week.
Useful Links:
Twitter: @StudioTBD_NYC
LinkedIn: Studio TBD
NFT news: ArtColumn.io
Discord: Coming soon!