How can we grow our community?
What will make Hive or DeSo feel a natural move for our friends and networks rather than a risky scam?
So much of the conversation hovers around the USD value of our tokens, but growth doesn't have to come from selling for fiat! We could be growing in bull times and bear times by increasing the active users on our platform and making our tokens useful for more than speculation.
- This article follows from my post How to talk to regular people about your Community Coin.
Learning from Rally.io Moves
Hive has some real technical advantages over the competition. To an extent, so does DeSo. In my opinion, none of that will matter unless we communicate effectively.
Only a tiny number of people care about the tech stack behind the tools and platforms they use.
It was through this lens that I was reading about Rally.io growth and this part really stood out to me:
Drove positive economic impact with Creators and their communities: Out of 266 Creators on the platform, more than 77% have built six-figure token-based communities and six have built token-based communities worth more than $1M USD. To date, Rally has disseminated more than $79M USD in $RLY to Creators and their communities via Community Activity Rewards — an average of $2.3M USD in $RLY each week in Q4. Our growing list of Creators includes Grammy-award winners Portugal. The Man and Megadeth; NCAA and NFL football superstars Kayvon Thibodeaux and Jarvis Landry; popular actress and YouTuber Felicia Day and eSports organizations such as Gen.G and OpTic Gaming.
We have a lot here in this dense block of text, so let's break it down and I will offer my thoughts, but I am really hoping for you to add your own thoughts in the comments!
Economic Impact
Every now and then I see someone post about their goals with these crypto communities. Financial targets, of course, but also their life goals that those financial targets will help achieve for them.
This is the main place I get to hear about people being successful on Hive or DeSo.
Why is that?
Why, as a community, are we so shy about putting a spotlight on success?
If Hive can help people grow financially and in other ways, if it is a route for some people to have more freedom, a better lifestyle, escape a crappy job, or buy a Lambo, shouldn't we hear about it?
Here, Rally is going directly to the outcome benefit of being part of their community. Rally means getting PAID.
more than 77% have built six-figure token-based communities
I know there are a bunch of six-figure Hivers. How many grew with the platform, how many got sneaky STEEM windfalls at launch, I don't know, but we should be louder about the people who have achieved success and use those case studies to attract people here.
Other than the fiat cash I put into my account and the other crypto I liquidated, which is, of course, a privileged position to be in, I know over the last few years I have made hundreds of dollars in Hive growth even with the fall from the all-time high. Even though 99% of that was from 
If you are reading this and thinking people can NOT gain significantly here, perhaps that points to something that needs to be fixed?
six have built token-based communities worth more than $1M USD
This is a little less straightforward because I know for a fact a couple of these people will have already started out as successful.
There's an old joke that applies,
"How do you make $1m in Crypto? Start with $2m"
I want to hear about people who got there from the ground floor, not hugely famous and rich people who could post an NFT of their ass and get $1m overnight.
Grammy-award winners Portugal. The Man and Megadeth; NCAA and NFL football superstars Kayvon Thibodeaux and Jarvis Landry
Heck, on DeSo there are fake accounts that are on track to be rich waiting for the celebrity to claim them. There is even a d-list member of the Tr*mp family on DeSo pretending to care about the community. Other than people who like to put celebrities on pedestals, let's not focus on how much cash they rake in from suckers.
It does, however, lead to a key pillar of their strategy that we could employ.
popular actress and YouTuber Felicia Day and eSports organizations such as Gen.G and OpTic Gaming.
Like them or not, dislike the term too, but influencers are ... influential.
A platform such as ours needs credibility and trust in order to grow.
You have to admit, it does sound too good to be true that you can earn money by just blogging, and without displaying intrusive ads or pimping products.
We need more people talking about it, more influential people. There is a factor called "Social Proof" that adds fuel to the network effect.
One of the turning points for Twitter was being mentioned on TV not in a mocking way but as part of the conversation as natural as calling into a late-night radio show or sending a letter to the editor.
It became normalized.
There is still a shame around being seen to be into crypto. Part of that is the "crypto bro" culture, but also part of it is being brushed with an MLM/Ponzi stink. If respected community leaders are seen to participate, and it is done in an authentic and ethical way, then people will feel they have "permission" to get involved and talk about it with their friends.
Low-Hanging Fruit Opportunities
In some ways, rather than Hive as a whole, I think LeoFinance has a more immediate advantage to grow just because the Leo brand, and the Leo community, can connect with influential people who are already invested in Crypto. They are a few steps ahead in that regard, especially with the ability to onboard using Twitter accounts.
Other communities could grow to that point too, but there seems to be a lot of resistance, especially with the fall in Hive value.