Original: Decentralised.io

Translation: Yuliya, PANews

In today's Web3 marketing landscape, brand building and community management have become a highly discussed topic. For Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) of various organizations, whether serving startups or billion-dollar protocol projects, brand building presents unique challenges and opportunities.

The marketing efforts in the Web3 space are akin to constructing a house of cards. Beyond the inherent complexities of marketing, practitioners must also tackle technical challenges, pressures from token market volatility, and the nuisance of misinformation. In this industry dominated by programmers and traders, establishing brand awareness is no easy feat.

It is against this industry backdrop that Safary Club was born. As a network of elite marketing talent, Safary Club gathers the best marketing experts in the Web3 field through an invitation-only model. These experts share experiences and collaborate on the platform, exploring how to translate complex technical concepts into products that the general public can understand and aspire to.

Research indicates that modern society is experiencing a severe attention crisis. Product developers often struggle to gain the attention they deserve in a market saturated with memes and AI bots. Simply developing high-quality products is not enough; the attention economy has become a key prerequisite for growth. The core of commercial success lies in the ability to continuously capture user attention and convert it into effective business relationships.

The entrepreneurial theory community has offered various insights on this: Keith Rabois emphasizes the importance of founder mentality, Paul Graham proposes the theory of unscalable actions, and Eric Reis advocates for the lean startup methodology. However, how to build and maintain a community-oriented brand in practice remains a topic worth exploring in depth.

Justin Vogel, the founder of Safary Club, has made innovative attempts in this regard. The platform operates similarly to Y Combinator, providing systematic training and communication opportunities for marketing talent. By conversing with five top CMOs in the industry, this article aims to provide founders with a practical guide to early brand building.

The following marketing experts have provided valuable insights for this article:

• Bhaji Illuminati, Chief Marketing Officer of Centrifuge
• Blue, Chief Marketing Officer of LFJ Exchange (formerly Trader Joe)
• Dan Held, General Partner at Asymmetric
• Matthew Howells-Barby, Vice President of Growth at Kraken
• Andrew Saunders, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Skale Network

The experiences of these industry leaders cover various key aspects of Web3 brand building, from Twitter operations to token product management. The following content will elaborate on these insights.

The Power of Curated Content

In this era of digital content explosion, we are bombarded with unprecedented amounts of information every day. Statistics show that the amount of content added to YouTube daily is equivalent to 82 person-years, with 2.4 million emails being sent every second, and the average person encountering nearly 10,000 advertisements each day. In such a digitally rich yet attention-scarce environment, the increase in choices has not correspondingly enhanced trust.

Faced with an overwhelming amount of information, people naturally seek professional opinions as decision-making references. Modern content platforms primarily filter content in two ways:

• One is algorithmic filtering, where platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook use data analysis to determine the reach of content;
• The other is human curation, which aligns more closely with the natural laws of human cultural evolution. In the digital marketing field, this human curation often manifests as following opinion leaders in niche areas.

For startups, it can be challenging to gain the support of well-known opinion leaders early on, making small, closed communities an ideal entry point. Many founders choose to share their product ideas in carefully curated small chat groups. These closed and curated communities play a crucial role in the transition from 0 to 1, providing valuable feedback from a targeted user base.

In community interactions, founders need to strike a delicate balance. Over-marketing can lead to user aversion, while a lack of product demonstration can cause the project to be gradually forgotten. Experience shows that the most effective way to build trust is by providing substantial value to the community. People are often more willing to discuss problems rather than passively accept educational solutions, so highlighting the severity of issues can create opportunities for promoting solutions.

When founders continuously provide value to the community, even if that value is not directly related to their product, they can accumulate important credibility capital. This approach can cultivate a group of early supporters who often become strong advocates for the product when the founders finally showcase it. This confirms a simple truth: Before a brand builds trust, people often trust individuals first.

However, curated communities often have specific rules and entry barriers. The formation of high-quality communities relies on effective management, which can sometimes conflict with commercial needs. For example, on Reddit, any non-personalized marketing attempts can lead to account bans. Therefore, after acquiring initial users, how to achieve scalable growth becomes a key issue.

Y Combinator has provided an answer to this problem by creating curated platforms like Hackernews. Successful projects like Dropbox and Coinbase were initially discussed on Hackernews. Similarly, ProductHunt has become an important platform for helping startup projects expand their user base.

These curated platforms help founders bypass the limitations of algorithmic distribution, but they also require the establishment of genuine interpersonal relationships and meaningful interactions. More importantly, trust from the community must be earned. Founders who wish to simply outsource marketing in the early stages often face a harsh reality: the essence of sales lies in building relationships.

Dan Held's success story exemplifies this point well. As an industry opinion leader with 744,000 followers, his success stems from years of consistently delivering high-quality content.

His successful strategy is built on educating the public. Dan focuses on technical and controversial topics, such as Bitcoin's energy consumption or forking mechanisms, and translates these complex concepts into content that ordinary people can understand. He employs a unique approach: sacrificing 5% of the details to gain a 95% larger audience. This simplification strategy works particularly well on platforms like Twitter, as it better captures user attention.

Between 2018 and 2024, as Bitcoin gained increasing recognition, Dan's position as a core educator also rose. In this rapidly evolving field, research-oriented analysts who can convey complex concepts in simple language remain scarce. It is this scarcity, combined with his consistent output of high-quality content, that has led the entire community to endorse and disseminate his content, especially in combating misinformation.

Establishing a "legitimacy" status is a lengthy process. As Dan puts it, his only secret is to persistently do the same thing year after year. He did not rush to promote his Substack subscription on Twitter but chose to selflessly contribute value to the community. This confirms a marketing truth: the best sales often come from sharing without any sales intent.

In the early stages of building his personal brand, Dan did something many overlook: he carefully thought through and listed the keywords that best describe himself. These words guided him in finding suitable content themes and shaping a unique expression style. He understands that the content we consume influences the way we create, so he pays special attention to refining tone and expression.

Dan consistently focuses on meeting audience needs. Many creators fall into the trap of creating in their own world, neglecting whether the audience genuinely cares about the content. In contrast, Dan's approach is more pragmatic: timely, practical, and deeply researched on trending topics on Twitter. It is this audience-centric approach that has gradually established him as an authority in the emerging asset space.

The success of this methodology is not only reflected in personal brand building but has also helped him successfully participate in the creation of several well-recognized cryptocurrency projects, such as Taproots Wizard and Mezo. Whether building a personal brand, a Bitcoin NFT series, or a Bitcoin L2 project, Dan adheres to the same principle: consistently and authentically providing value. This unwavering attitude is the key to his sustained success in the digital marketing field.

From Followers to Owners

Before social networks became the primary source of information, Wikipedia had already demonstrated the immense power of volunteers. A legendary figure made over 2.5 million edits on Wikipedia from 2004 to 2018 without gaining any ownership in return. This spirit of unpaid contribution is astonishing, but it also raises a question: How can contributions be transformed into meaningful ownership?

In the blockchain space, whether it is Bitcoin miners or Ethereum stakers, the core of incentive mechanism design lies in allowing stakeholders to earn rewards through meaningful participation. This concept also applies to the marketing field. In 2021, the success of Axie Infinity was largely attributed to the "play-to-earn" narrative, convincing participants that they could convert contributions into long-term ownership. This reveals an important truth: No one promotes harder than someone who believes they are an owner.

Airdrop design is a powerful mechanism for creating a sense of ownership. Taking Hyperliquid as an example, it integrated a points system before the token launch, hinting at the potential probability of receiving tokens in the future, thus creating a cycle of continuous user participation and interaction. This points mechanism, first introduced by Blur in 2022, provides users with a metric to measure their contribution value without directly distributing tokens.

Unlike the "play-to-earn" model, which requires guiding both the supply and demand sides of tokens or NFTs, the points system offers a middle ground. It allows products to accumulate a key user base and provides valuable feedback loops for development teams. Of course, not all users can make sufficiently meaningful contributions to the network to become partial owners.

Blue from Trader Joe has unique insights into community members. In traditional views, only users who convert assets on decentralized exchanges are considered "valuable." However, in Blue's perspective, any user who interacts with the product or its related media assets (such as Twitter, Discord, or Telegram) is a community member. These users may not convert immediately and may even temporarily refrain from using the product, but their presence as social signals can influence other potential users' eventual conversion.

In Blue's view, the acquisition of such users has reached a saturation point. In 2021, due to the immense interest in the DeFi space, a protocol could establish a community simply by building a product in that category. Attention and capital would happily switch between products and protocols in pursuit of returns. However, by the fourth quarter of 2024, the situation has changed significantly. Users have developed their preferences, and the novelty of trying new DeFi primitives has greatly diminished. When the core audience no longer pays attention to the content you are building, exploring new territories becomes a necessary choice. This is precisely what Blue hints at regarding his upcoming actions.

He believes that the internet is transitioning to a phase of short video content. For Trader Joe, this means exploring how to integrate YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels into its content strategy. This sounded strange during a conversation in September, as it seemed unlikely that traditional social networks like TikTok could serve as growth engines for crypto-native assets. However, in the following months, several meme assets like Chill Guy and PNUT indeed found a foothold in TikTok viral videos.

In the era of social networks, tokens like Chill Guy, Pnut, and WIF may seem fleeting, but they demonstrate the powerful force of capital coordination in the social network age. These meme assets, which lack traditional VC support, have managed to reach valuations in the billions, containing profound insights. Like other "contribute-to-earn" assets, meme assets possess characteristics of "fairness." They provide individuals with sufficient upward mobility, making them core supporters of the product. While founders cannot expect to invest their life’s work into meme assets, the way these assets operate indeed offers valuable lessons:

If enough people can be made wealthy in a sufficiently short time, there may be little concern about distribution issues.

However, not all early operators have the ability to make community members wealthy quickly. Perhaps the project launch is still far off, or worse, there is no say in the operation of the points system. In such cases, what levers can managers still utilize?

The essence of ownership lies not only in the ability to trade or possess assets but also in cultural identity and the overall experience of users interacting with the product.

Taking Nansen's early development as an example, when analysts discussed the product on Twitter, they often received retweets from the official account. This approach provided a leverage of influence: analysts actively created Nansen-related content because they knew they could gain opportunities for content distribution. As more and more analysts showcased their work through Nansen, the product gradually became the preferred tool for investment funds to build market perspectives.

Similarly, Dune's creator leaderboard has gradually evolved into an important platform for discovering emerging analysts. Well-known analysts like Tom Wan and Hildobby gained their initial development opportunities through contributions to the product. In these cases, the sense of "ownership" does not stem from direct rights to the product itself but is achieved through the mutual growth of personal reputation and the product. Although these analysts did not directly benefit from Dune's growth, their reputations grew alongside the product.

Allowing users to build their reputation through the product is another way ownership influences product perception. Because ultimately, reputation is the most valuable asset people truly possess. This understanding is crucial for grasping user incentive mechanisms in the digital age and provides new ideas for community building in early projects.

Category Creation

Creating new categories in emerging markets requires the ability to shift product strategy focus. Most marketers do not possess the capability to "make users wealthy" or incentivize users to use products through tokens. They often strive for maximum attention with limited resources, which is particularly challenging in unrecognized emerging markets.

A typical example is: in 2019, if someone suggested that BlackRock or Deutsche Bank would develop their own L2 solutions, they would surely be laughed at. However, by 2024, with the increasing maturity of the RWA (real-world assets) space, this has become a reality.

Category creation, like content creation, is essentially a relationship-based game. The experience of Bhaji Illuminati, Chief Marketing Officer of Centrifuge, illustrates this well. As a serial entrepreneur, she has led organizations to achieve billions of dollars in value multiple times throughout her career. She found that in enterprise sales, decisions often hinge on a single individual, usually a C-level executive (CXO). These executives receive numerous proposals daily but find it challenging to distinguish their merits.

One often-overlooked method to address this issue is to create niche content targeted at specific decision-makers. For example, RiseWorks allows team members to choose cryptocurrency or fiat currency as their salary payment method. While the salary solution itself may not be exciting, the topic of managing a global team is quite engaging.

For first-time entrepreneurs, maintaining team engagement across different cultures and time zones is an important yet under-discussed topic. According to Bhaji, teams selling HR technology are best off building credibility through creating niche content, especially in podcast form.

Although there are thousands of podcasts competing for attention in the market, adding another podcast does not solve all distribution issues. However, it provides industry experts with a platform to share their views without spending excessive time organizing their thoughts. For CXOs, being invited to participate in a podcast is a great opportunity to build a personal brand.

However, not everyone is suited for podcasting. For sensitive topics, an alternative is to create small, curated working groups. Matthew Howells-Barby’s experience is a great example. He joined Hubspot in 2014 and later created a community of professionals focused on growth roles during his career break.

Unlike open podcasts, closed Slack groups gather small groups with specific expertise. This model is effective because people often have professional issues that are not suitable for public discussion while needing targeted, high-quality advice.

Matthew identified this market gap during the pandemic lockdown in 2020 and sold the business to SEMRush in 2021. Similarly, Safary established a network of over 300 marketing professionals to provide Chief Marketing Officers with vendor evaluation and event planning advice.

While podcasts and private groups help identify target decision-makers, creating new categories requires more effort. Just as no one believed in 2019 that loans or real estate would fully shift to the blockchain, people are now skeptical about the future of autonomous agents like Virtuals or Ai16z.

In emerging categories, companies are best off collaborating to create working groups. Bhaji at Centrifuge faced the challenge of connecting the blockchain and traditional finance when building credibility for her protocol. She collaborated with large institutions like Coinbase and Circle to establish a tokenized asset alliance, growing from seven founding members to over 700 companies applying to join.

These alliances succeed because they communicate in ways that align with the specific characteristics of their fields rather than using industry jargon. For instance, rather than discussing "quick entry" into DeFi pools, it is more effective to analyze the transaction efficiency brought by on-chain loans in detail. Alliances like the one Bhaji created can achieve this, thus gaining a unique market position.

After establishing curated communities, creating an environment conducive to active discussion, collaboration, and business partnerships becomes the next inevitable step. Traditional Slack DMs or Zoom meetings often fail to fully achieve this goal. Although transactions in the cryptocurrency space are mostly conducted digitally, organizations like Safary and the tokenized asset alliance have begun to expand offline activities to strengthen relationship building.

Offline events can transform usernames in the online world into real faces. For example:

• Bhaji organized a real-world asset summit.
• Justin from Safary organized offline gatherings for his community.

Both marketing experts emphasize that building communities in niche markets requires fostering genuine interpersonal interactions.

Whether it is Dan Held's commitment to building an audience for Bitcoin-native content or Matthew Howells-Barby creating a curated audience for growth-related matters, relationships are the foundation of effective sales. Building a community requires the following qualities:

• Consistent continuity
• Authenticity
• Integrity
• A moderate degree of selflessness

These requirements may contradict the rapid growth pace expected by startups. For early-stage startups, investing time in participating in asset alliances may be difficult to gain internal recognition.

Observing the success stories of Justin, Bhaji, and Dan, a common characteristic emerges: they have all long focused on selflessly providing value, thereby establishing credibility and reputation. This approach ultimately forms a trust flywheel effect, accelerating their career development.

This trust-building strategy, while requiring time and patience, can lead to more lasting success. By continuously providing value, they not only build a strong community foundation but also create a sustainable business ecosystem. Although this investment may be substantial in the early stages, it can lead to a more solid market position and a more valuable business network in the long run.

Attention is Everything

A common mistake marketers make is confusing loyalty to tokens with loyalty to products. Kraken's Matthew explained this situation through a vivid analogy:

When consumers buy Coca-Cola, they only care about the dopamine rush the drink provides, not the stock price of Coca-Cola—that's a concern for institutional investors like Warren Buffett. However, in the cryptocurrency space, users are closely tied to the assets:

• Most users focus on the assets first
• They often care less about the underlying products themselves

This may explain why the Web3 user base is primarily concentrated in exchanges rather than decentralized applications (dApps).

During a time when public attention is mainly focused on the assets themselves, how can users be attracted? Andrew Saunders from Skale offered several important points:

• The primary goal of marketers is to form sticky communities: users who do not leave after an airdrop, not just users who come for testnet incentives
• Two main tools: leveraging influencers (KOLs) and building sustainable communities

Using celebrities to build user bases has always been a core strategy in the tech cycle:

• In 1995, "Friends" actors Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston conducted Windows usage tutorials;
• In 2002, Will Ferrell filmed an advertisement for the iPod;
• Jay-Z has also produced ads for Rhapsody.

These cases demonstrate that celebrities can make emerging technologies "hot" in the early stages. However, due to budget constraints, most marketers turn to crypto-native alternatives—creators with significant influence in Web3. However, KOL marketing has two main issues: a lack of necessary disclosure to the audience and difficulty in verifying whether the content effectively educates the target audience. Recently, Kaito has addressed these issues by providing creator review capabilities. The platform uses algorithms to verify the reach of creators, assess the quality and frequency of interactions, and generate Yap scores (a centralized metric for quantifying creator content utility). This approach helps protocols incentivize the right user groups and improve marketing effectiveness. Through this systematic method, project teams can better evaluate and select partners, ensuring effective use of marketing resources while providing users with more valuable content.

Kaito also provides a protocol-native Yap dashboard. For example, if projects like Monad or EigenLayer want to understand who their top "Yappers" (or contributors) are on social media platforms, the platform can create such a map for them. Marketers can then use these scores to incentivize creators through airdrops. While these efforts are still in the early stages, it is certain that Kaito has made a substantial impact on user education and creator discovery. This does not mean that with their dashboard, marketers' jobs become significantly easier. Typically, spreading stories and guiding users requires a combination of emotional intelligence and raw data. Andrew's experience provides a good example.

Andrew worked at Amazon early in his career. One of their marketing policies was not to collaborate with individuals who had a criminal record. At one point, the company decided to partner with several hip-hop artists to expand market influence. Given the higher arrest rates of hip-hop artists, Andrew had to work hard to change internal policies to advance this initiative. At this point, he had reached the final stage required to bring in creators: changing the culture. Often, a company's (or protocol's) policies can hinder excellent creators from joining and helping to spread emerging technologies.

Marketers with sufficient influence in early protocols have the ability to define their own culture. Dan Held from Asymmetric is known for his involvement with Taproot Wizards. One of the requirements to mint a wizard NFT was to take a shower photo. While most communities would relax requirements for major influencers or investors, Taproot adhered to this commitment. Every member of the NFT community had to go through the same embarrassing process to mint the NFT. Much of Taproot's external communication maintains this seemingly quirky energy that is disconnected from traditional marketing, but it helps cultivate a culture loyal to the community. This is also reflected in their manifesto.

Few marketers possess the ability and influence needed to bet on emerging creators. The work often lies not in analyzing click-through rates or view counts, but in appreciating the impact independent creators can bring to the whole.

• In 2008, Barack Obama made history by becoming the first president elected primarily through social media attention. He was a young politician betting on emerging technologies to boost his campaign.
• In 2024, President Trump received substantial support from crypto-native supporters, who were single-issue voters.

In both examples, emerging technologies had a significant impact on the fate of a nation.

Amid the dramatic events unfolding on Twitter and the emotions triggered by price drops, we often overlook one fact: the success of cryptocurrency ultimately depends on its ability to attract users.

This has a greater impact on marketers, as they are often the first to be laid off during economic downturns and find it difficult to quantify the direct impact of their work. However, the evolution of our industry from dark web currency to mainstream largely relies on marketers' ability to transform code into stories that leave a mark in people's minds. If we are to attract the next billion users, we must empower them, cherish them, and cheer for them at the same time.

*Note: Decentralised.co is one of the largest holders of Kaito NFTs. These NFTs were obtained as part of a paid subscription user airdrop. They have been users of the platform since the first quarter of 2024.

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