There is a lot of turmoil going on right now, especially within the social media realm. Unless one was living on a deserted island somewhere, it is impossible to be unaware of the purge that is taking place on social media. Accounts are being banned in massive numbers.
Facebook and Twitter are the main culprits here. They are flexing their muscles and operating as they see fit. The question is whether they will pay a price for this?
The actions they took have caused many more to close their accounts. It is something that is not going unnoticed by Wall Street.
Here are these two companies charts over the last month from Yahoo Finance.
Facebook:
Twitter:
Naturally, these could be short-term pullbacks. The market is often not telling the story. We will have to see how this progresses over the next couple of months. Initial market moves tend to be overreactions that quickly correct.
Nevertheless, this is something that is to be concerned about for investors. Loss of users (customers) is never a good thing for any business. Sure, companies often "fire" a couple customers here and there; those that are a major pain in the rear end and not worth the headaches for the revenue that they provide.
However, something like this could be a big hit from Wall Street's perspective. If there is a 10%-20% drop in users, this will affect the advertising. All of this rolls to the bottom line and that is where Wall Street often lives. Put up bad numbers and the stock gets killed.
Which brings us to our corner of the Internet.
Many want Hive to pick up a lot of the displaced traffic. That makes sense since the story is out there. Of course, it is easy to want to just in and scoop them up while being unprepared.
This is where the builders come in. Those communities that were pushing things forward all along, following a plan, are going to be able to grow and expand. They will provide the tools to get people to come here. Many call for marketing but, at the end of the day, it is up to the communities and applications to get the word out there.
It is an area that Hive has fallen short on.
Nevertheless, all is not lost. We are in preparation and this story of banning is not likely to go away anytime soon. The stir that Big Tech caused is only going to grow. People are not going to forget. It struck a chord with some very powerful individuals.
Take Angela Merkel's, who certainly was no Trump fan, response to what took place.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel blasted Twitter’s decision to ban U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The right to freedom of opinion is of fundamental importance,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s chief spokesman, told reporters in Berlin on Monday, according to Reuters.
“Given that, the chancellor considers it problematic that the president’s accounts have been permanently suspended.”
We recently saw the introduction of @threespeak's client available for download in its discord group. It is the first step in a multi-phase process that will allow for decentralized storage of videos and pictures.
When this all goes live, it will be a major step forward. It is a move that seeks to remove the single influence of large cloud companies, at least as it pertains to this content.
Microblogging is another area that is tuning up for a big run. Some are already taking steps to make this come to light in a major way. We see there is an already upset target market who is seeking an viable alternative to what they are familiar with.
It is getting to the point where it is becoming obvious how we need to start blending Web 2.0 with Web 3.0. Thinking of simply replacing what is out there with the ability to monetize activities has not worked.
Essentially, we need to provide what they have and then some. Having a better mousetrap is a vital part of the process. That still does not mean victory but it gets one in the game at least.
Few communities took it upon themselves to branch out, based upon the numbers at least. We are missing one of the most powerful aspects to decentralization, the ability to operate in a "Helter-Skelter" way, hitting up many different markets simultaneously.
Of course, this is not what happens. Most spent time in their cocoons on discord, chatting about whatever it is, while not putting stuff on chain. There are tens of thousands of messages of day going through the different groups, most of it chatter that could end up on chain.
Then we get the number reports from the likes of @penguinpablo and we see a total of 15,000 on chain posts.
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This is what people see from the outside world.
People want activity. They want excitement. Certainly, they do not want to come to a "dead" community or website.
Those that end up growing by being active, reaching out, and fostering engagement will end up excelling. That is what building is all about.
Unfortunately, there will be many that sit back and expect others to do it. They will post a video or an article each day and that is it. Many will not even answer the comments in their own posts.
Microblogging is going to change all of that. It will allow for millions of "comments" each day as word starts to spread. People will be engaging a great deal more than they are now. This is something that is truly missing from the Hive ecosystem.
A while back, we put out a challenge, if you will, to post 10 comments a day. There was a fair number who took us up on this but most did not. It is truly sad how people will put more than that on Discord in an hour, yet claim they have no time to engage others online. How is that supporting their communities?
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Why isn't Hive in general growing? Because in many areas, it is without activity. Think about the old forums in the past, maybe a decade or so ago when they were popular. When you arrived at one with just a few posts, what did you do? Most likely the X on the tab was clicked and you were off to somewhere else.
The established social media has the numbers which means they have activity. This is well known. Most communities on Hive do not have the numbers, hence it is up to the ones that are there to provide the activity.
Instead of picking fights on Twitter, start posting in the relevant communities of interest. Leave a dozen or so comments a day; people on here are doing it on Twitter and Discord daily.
Those that take the bull buy the horn and build, whether it is from the development or user side, that will be what is successful. Reaching outside the ecosystem is wonderful but not if people who arrive find a dead place with no activity.
That will just cause them to click the X on the tab and move on.
Why wouldn't they? We all do the same thing when we are in their shoes.
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