Three years ago, Steemit launched the first decentralized social media platform on top of the Steem blockchain. Since then, others have launched. One of those others is a new platform on the NEO blockchain called Narrative.
While Blockchain-based social media is still in its infancy, there is a lot to said for the concept. At last count, there were more than 31 different social media sites on blockchains. Narrative, however, is different in some very fundamental ways.
First, while posting to Narrative, individuals active on the platform can earn the native token, NRVE, through various ways of creating content, interacting with content created by others, and integrating into the platform’s community. While creating an account as an individual is preferred, I believe brands can use Narrative in some creative ways to promote themselves, earn additional revenues, and build up their brand images. Here are five ways up-and-coming brands can increase brand exposure on Narrative.
How to Build Your Brand with Narrative
Before I get into the five ways I’ve identified to build your brand with Narrative, let me first say that anyone interested in the platform should first read Narrative’s AUP and TOS (the links to these documents are in the footer on the Narrative website). These two documents outline what is acceptable and what is not on Narrative. Violating the TOS and AUP can lead to severe penalties and mar your brand, something you surely don’t want to do. While you’re at it, you should also take a look at Narrative’s spec.
Now, without further ado, here’s how you can use Narrative to build up your brand.
1. Use it as your company blog
I’ve noticed that many crypto and blockchain brands use Medium as their primary blog. There’s nothing wrong with that. And what many of them do is link to their Medium blog from their company’s website. Again, nothing wrong with that. But, one could just as well do the same with Narrative. In fact, Narrative Company itself does just that. If you go to the Community Support Site and click on Blog in Narrative’s drop-down menu, you’ll be taken to the company’s official blog on Narrative. There’s no reason your brand couldn’t do the same.
2. Earn rewards for content
As users create content, including comments, and interact with other users, they can earn excellent rewards. These rewards come in the form of the platform’s native token. While NRVE is earned by creating and interacting with content on the platform, one must redeem those rewards in order for them to be usable as currency or converted to fiat. For that, you need a wallet such as NEON, which allows you to store NEO and Nep-5 tokens.
Currently, content creators and niche owners can earn NRVE, but NRVE is not yet redeemable. That functionality will arrive in July. When it does, it should open up the Narrative’s content economy.
Once you earn rewards, they’re yours to do with as you wish. You can stake them to increase your own influence on the platform, tip other content creators, use them to purchase services on the Narrative platform (for instance, by paying someone to create a graphic for you), pay for advertising (Narrative has plans for native advertising on the platform), or you can cash them out, convert them to other cryptocurrencies, or fiat, and use the money to run your business operations.
3. Buy a niche around your product, service, or token
Narrative currently has thousands of niches up for auction. You can either buy an existing niche or suggest a niche and, if the community approves of your suggestion, purchase your suggested niche after it is approved.
Before you do that, however, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with what is acceptable within the community. Some niche owners are under the impression that they can just do whatever they want with their niche because they’ve paid for the privilege of owning it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
First, “owning” a niche is a misnomer. In reality, if you buy a niche, you are simply leasing it for a year. At the end of the year, you’ll have to renew your lease, which will cost you a minimum amount of NRVE, or USD, or a percentage of your past year’s earnings, whichever is higher. Therefore, buying a niche is more like leasing a company car. You are paying for the privilege to earn revenue from it. Narrative community standards still rule.
Currently, niche moderator elections have not started. However, they soon will. Once niches have niche moderators, the moderators’ job will be to remove content from niches that is incorrectly tagged by content creators (niche owners are currently acting as niche moderators). Content that violates Narrative’s AUP and TOS may also be removed should a few Narrators, the moniker for members of the community, identify it as such. Furthermore, violators can be punished with severe penalties such as having their accounts flagged as Conduct Negative and prevented from any activity on the platform for a period of time. You would not want that to happen so you’ll want to ensure that your niche and content published in your niche meets the highest of standards.
If you want to buy a niche on Narrative, I suggest you look for one that fits into a category in which you do business. An example of the Speculative Fiction niche, which is owned by a Narrator who owns an independent book publishing entity in that genre (yours truly). If you are associated with a company that helps people get out from under debt, you might be interested in the Debtfree niche. If you are building on the Stratis Platform, you might be interested in the niche by that name. If, on the other hand, you are a fan of Verge or associated with the cryptocurrency in some way, then you might buy that niche. There are similar niches for countless other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects.
There are way more niches than buyers at this point, so it’s a buyer’s market on Narrative niches. When you own a niche, you can post content to that niche and invite members of your community to create content for that niche. You’ll earn NRVE for every bit of content published in your niche as your community discusses your project, which itself brings more attention to your crypto or blockchain project.
I’d recommend setting up a Narrative account under your personal name, although you can change your @nickname to your branded name, which is a real handy way to get people familiar with your brand. I recommend this approach because reputation and potential NRVE earnings are tied to getting Certified. It’s not required, but certification does give you a boost. It only costs $15 and requires that you share personally identifying information such as a driver’s license or passport. If you have reservations about doing that, you can, of course, opt out. It’s not a requirement.
4. Start a publication
Publications are not yet active on Narrative. Coming soon, however, they will give brands an opportunity to buy a publication and use it to publish content that does not follow some of the same restrictions as other content tied to niches. You’ll be in complete control of all content you publish and will be able to monetize it.
5. Focus on the community
Finally, as a Narrator active on the platform, you can interact with other members of the community on their content pages as well as your own. As members comment on your posts, you can engage with them and interact with them, which brings your brand more visibility. You can also leave comments on others’ content pages and engage with them there.
While Narrative is not a social media platform in the strictest sense, it is a content platform with limited social features. For that reason, if you interact with others in a meaningful way, you could be interacting with potential customers and users of your blockchain or cryptocurrency project.
A Short List of Dos and Don’ts
Every platform has its own culture, its own way of doing things. These include what is allowable and what is not allowable as well as what is considered acceptable by the community and what is not considered acceptable. The following list of Dos and Don’ts is based on my own observations after being active in the Narrative community since before launch.
Narrative Dos
- Be active. Post often, but not too often.
- Focus on providing quality. Quantity may earn you more rewards in the short term, but quality will secure your reputation for the long term and keep you in good standing with the community.
- Be helpful to others. Comment on their posts and find ways that you can be a contributor to a healthy Narrative culture.
- Research your opportunities. Don’t just dive in and treat Narrative like any old social media site. It’s not Facebook or Instagram. If you want to buy a niche, research the niches before you decide on one. What is it’s profit potential? If you don’t see one you’d like to buy, suggest one, but first learn what makes a good niche suggestion (otherwise, your niche suggestion could be rejected and you’ll start off on the wrong foot in your new community). In other words, do your due diligence. Read this Narrative Guidebook written for new Narrators to help you learn the ropes of the platform. Here’s another great post with some dos and don’ts.
- Attribute any images or other borrowed material you might use for your posts. Be sure to follow the laws on intellectual property within your country. Narrators take plagiarism and content theft seriously. Don’t do it.
- Be nice. Treat others as you’d like to be treated.
Narrative Don’ts
- Don’t be a troll.
- Don’t just be self-promotional. There’s nothing wrong with self promotion if you do it right. But if every post is self-promotional and only promotes you and your brand without offering anything of value to readers, it will get downvoted. Low-quality posts will not help anyone. Plus, you’ll earn fewer rewards and tarnish your brand.
- Don’t abuse the tools of the system. They are there for a purpose. Learn the purpose and act within the confines of the Narrative community standards.
- Don’t steal other people’s content. Always attribute your sources.
- Don’t be a bore. You’ll get more upvotes and brand value if you give value to your readers. Think quality first and quantity second.
That’s it. I wish you the best, and hope to see you on Narrative.