Building True Community
Last week we looked at the competitive landscape of ICOs, and this week I want to talk about Community, and what true community building takes when running an ICO (and how to tell the fakes when participating).
In the past, it was enough to have a loyal community around your project and to expect the funds to come from that same group. Now, that’s increasingly less the case. Today, if you are running an ICO, the community is (generally speaking) there to “do your marketing for you”, by which I mean if they are properly engaged and incentivised, then they can and will have a huge impact on your social following, and the profile of your project in the market. Investors will look at the size of an ICO’s community and following when reviewing a project: if it’s very low or non-existent, they will worry about the future prospects of success. The community gives an ICO credibility. If nothing else, it demonstrates to the investors that you have the skills and commitment to build market awareness – a key skill in building what will eventually be your business.
ICO Rating sites work on “Hype Scores”, and your community size, social following, website traffic, and YouTube views all form part of that calculation. One popular ICO Rating website has their Hype Score based on the following criteria:
How Hype Scores Are Calculated
- The number of users on the main social media pages of the project.
- The number of mentions in the press.
- Mentions in mainstream technology media and in prominent finance publications.
- The number of search engine results.
- Traffic on the main website.
If you are joining an ICO community as a potential participant, then there are certain red flags you should be looking out for.
Community Red Flags
- Big numbers but no genuine engagement or conversation
- No team founders in the telegram chat group
- Suspiciously attractive profile photos
- ETH addresses published into the chat group
- Traffic on the main website.
