I got a message today with a screen shot of my account from @acidyo, who noticed that my follower count hit one of those "milestone" points.

7777

That is pretty cool, but it is interesting to not how long it has taken to get to this point, considering that at some point back in late 2017, the followers were coming in double digits daily, as the price was rising and there were heaps of alts being created to take advantage. Real active users though were much lower than what the "signups" suggested.

You want to follow?

On most social media sites, it is the number of followers that matter in regards to the value of the account and we see this perpetuated through the mainstream media where they mention "influencers" and give their follower counts as evidence of their influence. But, I suspect that this is not a very good metric overall, and below the number, the platforms themselves will be far more discerning as to what metrics they use to value that same account.

The reason is that the value isn't in the number, it is in the influence, which is far more than just having a lot of people following, or even commenting, it has to also be shared and, shared across specific channels, depending on what "message" is to be carried. The detailed information around this isn't available publicly, so it is simplified to follower count.

Many Queens

But, on Hive, the follower count is nowhere near as important as this is a DPoS platform that is governed by stake, with the value of a contributing account being determined by the stake that it can affect. While we are a single community on the Hive blockchain, we behave far more like a multitude of Hives, all governed by different queens and in many cases, completely different species of insect. What this means is that while stake rules, in order to engage a single sub-community, the stake that governs that community has to be convinced. This is easier said than done.

It is common for accounts to produce niche-based content and therefore become influential in narrow circles and able to affect one or two communities, but there are probably only a handful of accounts on Hive that have been able to attract a wide spread of stake from many communities. I think that for most of these accounts that have managed it, the reason is that they are able to produce content that is at least partially interesting (or seen as important for others) on topics that are suited to everyone - Hive content.

Hive Connected

Yes, while a lot of people don't value the "inward facing" Hive content genre, the fact is that the one thing that connects all of us is the Hive blockchain and since it is the valuable base-layer all communities are built upon, most people are interested. However, this doesn't mean writing about Hive automatically attracts attention, though many try it. Like anything, it has to provide value to the reader, or at least the perception of value and often, has to also be at least somewhat entertaining.

Back in the day, people would talk about how many followers they have, but when looking at the voting stake behind them, there might only be a very narrow cross-section of users supporting them. Of course, at the higher end of votes, this is the case as there are only so many very large voters, but when an account is reliant on a narrow selection of stake support, eventually that support will end.

This creates a problem for these users, as suddenly they can go from well-supported accounts to near zero. However, the reason that they are unable to build a wider base of staked support is because they target their content to a particular staked niche account and, that attention is always going to shift in time, or be diluted as more quality content creators compete for the same stake. Over the years, I have seen many accounts start to complain because the whales no longer support them, as if they expect that once they have the attention of stake, it is a guarantee for the future. Expectations and entitlement is rife on Hive in respect to this kind of thing.

Platform Shops

But, it is hard for many to get their heads around I think, since most of the social media experience we have has been to encourage metrics that are based on the number of followers. But, do we think about why?

If you were running a business, do you care about how many people come through the door or, how many people come through the door who are willing to buy something from you? Numbers in don't necessarily translate into the market segment that will buy. However, on social media where they are able to serve tailored content and messaging to each of those customers in the background. The reason is that the "platform shop" has all goods and services that can cater for all market segments automatically (based on algorithms), which means it doesn't care what content we are issuing, as long as we can grab attention and followers, it can leverage our follower list in ways that we cannot.

Burn Creator, Burn

It is an interesting model, and one that is damaging to the content creator, as the platform doesn't care what the content is or for the health of the creator at all, as long as they can gather some leverageable attention. What is interesting to note though is, the platform has a direct relationship for their platform shop content to the market, but the content creator has an indirect relationship (for the most part) and has to rely on the platform to expose them to the consumer. Contributors on the centralized platforms are constantly at the mercy of the platform itself - owning nothing.

Hive is different, where there is a very direct line between creator and consumer, meaning that the creator doesn't have to impress the algorithms, doesn't have to get naked or get into a fight in public to grab audience attention from the mainstream media, they have to provide directly for the audience and interact with the audience - no middleman algorithm. This makes it harder in many ways, but also more valuable, which is why almost anyone with half a brain (I have about half left) can earn something on Hive, but the same person is unlikely to earn anything elsewhere.

Consumer Power

And, this is the value of Hive stake, as it is consumer power, where the consumer chooses what gets rewarded, not the platform. The Hive blockchain itself is completely indifferent to content, but also completely indifferent to profits - it doesn't have to earn anything itself, it just records activity. However, the community that utilize it have a host of needs and wants in life and are therefore incentivized to find ways to generate value for themselves, which more often than not, requires creating value for others too.

As the blockchains and tokenization start spreading into the mainstream consciousness, we are going to see more people embrace consumer power and become more discerning with what they consume and, who they reward. This doesn't mean that the Instagram stars won't earn, but it is likely that they won't earn as much, because through the direct relationship and transfer of value, people will recognize that it is not in their own best interest to support them highly.

Adding a like to some wealthy girl in a bikini costs nothing on Instagram, but also gets nothing for the consumer. But, if that same content is there next to something that actually provides direct value and a return, more will look at the bikini picture, but add value to the useful DIY content that helped them repair their PC.

Building Value Direct

This direct relationship is built on consumers having control over their own value distribution, which is what Hive has always been doing and is why stake is so important. Followers don't matter for an account to earn, activity does and, the way that account interacts with the followers they have, whether they are staked or not. As said, there is a value in providing value and a discerning staked user needn't get value themselves, to see the value in providing that same information for others.

For example, I don't think @blocktrades or @gtg are ever going to read my work and be impressed by my technical prowess, but, that is not who my content is catering to at all. However, they (or others) might recognize the value of this kind of content for the people who it does cater toward. This means that they could vote support this kind of content (they usually don't - just an example using people I have met in person, interacted with for a long time, are technical and who are also well-staked) even though it only benefits them indirectly, by benefiting those who are activated by it.

Shifting Demand and Supply Flow

This is the future of Web 3.0, which while we normally talk about the earning potential, what is actually the most valuable part of it is what drives that earning, which is a far more direct relationship between contributor and consumer. This puts the power back in the hands of demand, which will drive supply, rather than supply being algorithmically driven by all of the mechanisms to drive demand. This in my opinion fundamentally changes the value of information and will start to affect how we interact and consume, by incentivizing the production of goods and services that we feel actually benefit us directly, rather than just eat what we are told to eat, and pay the bill on the way out.

This means that in order to earn, we have to create a meal that someone is able to eat and then decide whether they are going to pay for it - directly. Taking out that backend "platform shop" that caters for all means that not only do the consumers have more power, but the creators also have power, as they get to cater for whom they choose, as they choose.

Matters of Who

The future of the Web 3.0 internet is enabled by this direct relationship, which will mean that since it will be largely impossible for a single account anywhere to cater personally to many millions of users, it will start to create opportunity for more creators who will fill more and more niches, catering for smaller groups of people, who truly care about what they are consuming and, who they are consuming from. Number of followers matter very little and will become less relevant as we move into the new stages of the internet and economic practice.

Follower count is becoming like notches on a bed post, the more notches doesn't mean you are good in bed, nor do they indicate the kinds of partners. The notches are irrelevant, but the quality of the relationships matter.

Some only find this out too late.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]