PEP-43: Independent Pocket Network Reddit Marketing Budget

[TheDoc]

Attributes

• Author: @TheDoc
• Recipient: @TheDoc
• Category: Allocation of DAO Treasury
• Asking Amount: $POKT equivalent to $2,150 USD monthly with 3 month time limit (90 days).

Summary / Abstract

Pocket Network content promotion on largest cryptocurrency related subreddits and ensuring top rankings for each and every post. Subreddits are with 500k+ subscribers mostly.

Motivation

Pocket Network is a brilliant, highly innovative project that has in its team some of the brightest minds in the crypto industry. However, Pocket Network’s marketing has been very poor ever since I started following POKT almost a year ago. Things that are being done on the marketing side are mostly paid Press Releases on media sites like CoinTelegraph. For example, this is good, but it would achieve much wider reach and consequently higher efficiency if it’s being promoted on Reddit in front of thousands of laser-targeted audience.

I’m the one that was doing the Reddit promotions and Reddit marketing for POKT back in December 2021 just before POKT started exploding price-wise. My initial contact and connection with POKT was Nigel Dollentas, but he left the POKT team earlier this year. Ever since he left, I tried to connect with the POKT team members, but didn’t have success to reconnect so I stayed aside. From my point of view, it is very important for POKT to have high, continuous and quality presence in crypto related subreddits with 500k+ subscribers and readers, because tech doesn’t mean much if people are not aware of it and if there is no marketing and hype being built around the project.

There is no exact “ROI” per-se from this proposal. It’s hard to measure the exact ROI, but it definitely brings tons of new eyes and investors to POKT. I have a decent experience in Reddit promotions across multiple subreddits, which is importance since every subreddit has its own rules and policy against “shills”.

Samples of Previous Work

First of all, please check the comments, most of the comments are very positive about POKT and post wasn’t flagged as “shilling”, which is important, otherwise there would be a significant hate on the project. So, it is important not to over-do it.

1. This is the post from 22nd December 2021:
   https://www.reddit.com/r/SatoshiStreetBets/comments/rlshdm/why_is_no_one_talking_about_the_pocket_network/

Proof that it achieved #1 ranking in front of 500k+ subscribers (first two are pinned by moderators):

2. This is the post from 19th January 2022:
   https://www.reddit.com/r/SatoshiStreetBets/comments/s7z4t7/aws_for_blockchains_is_here_meet_the_pocket/

Proof that it achieved #1 ranking again:

Budget and Deliverable(s)

Asking amount: $POKT equivalent to $2,150 USD monthly until cancelled. It includes at least 5 Reddit promotions within a month period and top positions achieved with highest visibility (every 5-6 days on average, but of course if there are hot news being pushed out by POKT team within few days time, it would be more often). Most of the time, it is #1 position achieved, which ensures that all the subscribers of certain subreddit receive a mobile notification about that post (those of you that are actively using Reddit know very well how it looks like).

Contributor(s)

I would be the sole contributor. I’m actively following all the events around POKT so I don’t need any guidance from the POKT team. However, I’m open for cooperation if POKT team wants to roll out some of the news as quick as possible within a short period of time, because it takes me at least an hour or two to prepare for the action. My background shouldn’t matter in this type of work, however, in case it matters,I have a Master’s Degree in Business Economics and currently working in a Central Bank of one the EU member states.

Report of the work would be done on a monthly basis summarized with all the details and a proof of work under this proposal. Also, I would be posting the link to Reddit post each time on POKT Discord if some community members want to upvote the post, engage in the discussion and support the post.

For any questions, I’m open for discussion. Happy to hear if the POKT community wants to keep the Reddit promotions going same as I did it before. Coincidence or not, POKT price started going up massively after these Reddit promotions. Thank you!

[poktblade (Blade)]

Solid idea. I’d love to see the number of impressions you get off each campaign. I’d also hope we’re in a different space than where we were since December. Instead of focusing on crypto trading communities, have you considered campaigns revolving around developer communities that could help bring in more app demand?

[TheDoc]

Hi @poktblade, thanks for the feedback!
It’s hard to measure the impressions exactly since posts are being done on subreddits where it’s impossible to have analytics, metrics or an access to such data. I usually focus on top 5 subreddits by the number of subscribers, and mostly on subreddits where engagement in comments is the highest. Some subreddits like SatoshiStreetBets are more open and friendly for project “recommendations” than CryptoCurrency subreddit for instance, where people either make empty jokes just to receive “MOONS”, and there is usually a hate on many projects which are out of their cult (for example, they are Monero maxis, so on every mention of Zcash, they bash the people heavily without proper reason).

I’m open for Reddit promotions on any subreddit that POKT community would like to see, including developer communities. It doesn’t have to be on subreddits like r/CryptoCurrency (5.4m subs), r/CryptoMarkets(1m subs) and similar, but I usually did focus on these subreddits because these are laser-targeted communities with widest possible reach I’d say. People see the project or the news around it, then they start researching it deeper, looking where to buy, and ultimately they share it on Twitter or internally with their friends, which is IMO the most beneficial part of the promotion.

I’m more than happy to receive suggestions of subreddits where to promote POKT outside of my list, either here directly in this post or through Discord DMs. Thanks!

[steve (Steve Tingiris)]

I love the idea of gaining more visibility for POKT, so I’m in favor of the spirit of this proposal.

@TheDoc

monthly until cancelled

That said, I’d ask that the proposal include a time-limit - like 90-days, 180-days, or something like that. I personally would not vote for an evergreen commitmet that puts the onus on the DAO to submit a proposal to cancel - at least not before something is proven to be effective or necessary on an ongong basis.

But again, I love the idea. So, with the inclusion of a reasonable timeline, I would vote for it. Thanks for proposing this @TheDoc.

[Miss_JoJo]

I love the idea of getting more exposure and eyes on POKT and this is very much needed for the network to grow, therefore, I think this proposal is great, however, I do agree with Steve, there should be a time limit to this proposal. 90- days sounds good then extend it if it seems to be working.

[TheDoc]

Thanks @steve and @Miss_JoJo for the feedback.
100% agreed. I’d go with 90 days rather than 180 days. 90 days should be more than enough to see what POKT can get from this proposal.

[steve (Steve Tingiris)]

That’s great @TheDoc . Given the addition to the 90-day engagement to this proposal - you have my vote!

[Jinx (Chris Jenkins)]

Can you talk a little more about your experience with Reddit? Looking at your account, you don’t seem to have much of a history there:

Do you operate other accounts there?

To be clear, I’m in favor of this proposal conceptually, I was just surprised to see so little activity on Reddit from someone seeking to actively promote there, and promising consistent front page results.

For comparison, this is my profile:

I have zero desire to take on the effort of this work myself, but as someone who’s been an active member on Reddit since the very beginning, I know how easy it is to get pegged as a spammer, and banned. I was a participant in the comment threads for both of the posts you linked, but that track record doesn’t reflect what most would consider professional Reddit marketing, so while I conditionally support this proposal, I would like to hear more about your proposed strategy to achieve the outcomes you’re proposing.

[TheDoc]

Hi @Jinx !
Have in mind that I have 3-digit amount of Reddit accounts, and I’m not always posting from a single account for multiple reasons. The account you screenshoted is just one of the accounts being used. Posting from the same account would pretty much guaranteed look like an obvious shill. So, this proposal is basically a complete “Reddit Marketing” service offered by an experienced Reddit marketing person that is also pretty much familiar with POKT updates and most of the events happening around Pocket Network. That’s why I wouldn’t need any assistance from the POKT team members, but of course, I’ll want to hear the feedback about the way I present the POKT-related content to the audience in various subreddits starting from the very first post.

So yeah, main goal is to make sure that the news around Pocket Network get much wider reach than without this proposal, whether the news are coming from CoinTelegraph, POKT website or from some famous crypto Twitter influencer. So, it will take decent amount of planning, preparing and executing the promotions to present POKT in the best possible light, raise awareness of what POKT is doing and trying to achieve, and ultimately bring new interested parties to Pocket Network. That would be a summarized master plan publicly, but I’m open to share more juicy details in DM if you’re interested in. Thank you!

[Jinx (Chris Jenkins)]

That’s what I was looking to hear.

I’m good with this proposal.

[ArtSabintsev (Arthur Sabintsev)]

@TheDoc

However, Pocket Network’s marketing has been very poor ever since I started following POKT almost a year ago. Things that are being done on the marketing side are mostly paid Press Releases on media sites like CoinTelegraph. For example, this is good, but it would achieve much wider reach and consequently higher efficiency if it’s being promoted on Reddit in front of thousands of laser-targeted audience.

Hi,

I’d like to understand more what your KPI’s will be (metrics for success) will be and how you plan to report them out in an unbiased and verifiable manner. Is it getting to the number 1 spot again? And if you, then what? Is the conversion metric you’re tracking? If so, what will it be?

I’d also like to understand why reddit of all platforms? Who is your target market here? I am assuming speculative investors, which is what many of those subreddits are filled with. Is the hope that they’ll buy in, or simply be made-aware of the project?

I also feel like this is a great example of a request in where we can reimburse you for your efforts after you’ve shown success, rather than pay you to perform them, given that PNI has its own Marketing team (irrespective of how you feel about their current success).

These are just my 2 cents.

[TheDoc]

Hi @ArtSabintsev !

@ArtSabintsev

I’d like to understand more what your KPI’s will be (metrics for success) will be and how you plan to report them out in an unbiased and verifiable manner. Is it getting to the number 1 spot again?

Main unbiased measure of success would be the number of hours that post is standing at #1 spot. Its effect cannot be quantified of course, because I cannot guarantee but only speculate that the price increase or significant amount of new users joining POKT Discord or Telegram is associated with Reddit promotion at certain day. So, I’d consider a promotion was very successful if a pro-POKT post is standing at #1 spot in some of the largest cryptocurrency related subreddit for at least 6 hours. That would also trigger a notification on mobile phone to anyone subscribed to that subreddit with enabled notification settings. That itself is quite beneficial I’d say and it’s basically planting a seed. When project is continuously being mentioned somewhere in a positive manner, it will attract significant number of readers to research deeper and invest/involve into the project if they like what they see.
So, reporting would be quite straightforward. Posting a link to the post and screenshots that show how many hours post was standing at the top positions. Those that are active on Telegram or Discord would be able to track the progress and verify it in real time.

@ArtSabintsev

I’d also like to understand why reddit of all platforms? Who is your target market here? I am assuming speculative investors, which is what many of those subreddits are filled with. Is the hope that they’ll buy in, or simply be made-aware of the project?

Reddit is the platform I use for years and have much experience in how it works. It wouldn’t make sense to offer Facebook or Twitter marketing for example since I’m not actively doing that type of marketing nor have an experience there.
Regarding second part of the paragraph, target market are basically all crypto investors. From my experience, such promotions brought not only speculative and long term investors, but skilled people in various areas such as content writers, web developers, and sometimes but rarely skilled core devs because they are not many of them. Maybe that would work much better by posting on developer subreddits.

@ArtSabintsev

I also feel like this is a great example of a request in where we can reimburse you for your efforts after you’ve shown success, rather than pay you to perform them, given that PNI has its own Marketing team (irrespective of how you feel about their current success).

I’d rather see this effort and look at it as a way to decentralize marketing. I’d like to have a supportive role to the current makreting department efforts, without losing the freedom to structure the work in the way I know it worked the best in the past. I’m of course open for cooperation with anyone from the POKT team, but most importantly POKT community.

[Jinx (Chris Jenkins)]

@ArtSabintsev

I also feel like this is a great example of a request in where we can reimburse you for your efforts after you’ve shown success, rather than pay you to perform them, given that PNI has its own Marketing team (irrespective of how you feel about their current success).

I also lean in favor of reimbursement, given that’s our predominant model in the DAO.

[ArtSabintsev (Arthur Sabintsev)]

First, thanks for your responses!

@TheDoc

I’d rather see this effort and look at it as a way to decentralize marketing. I’d like to have a supportive role to the current makreting department efforts, without losing the freedom to structure the work in the way I know it worked the best in the past. I’m of course open for cooperation with anyone from the POKT team, but most importantly POKT community.

We have plans ourselves to do Reddit Marketing and begin spinning up Demand-side marketing once Portal Monetization is in place, which should help balance out the community (e.g., most of the folks on telegram, discord, this forum are Supply-Side folks – node running investors and infrastructure providers).

I think it would be good to chat with @amykellyp and figure out if there’s a way for you to work with PNI-proper to do marketing, rather than go through the DAO for this initiative.

[TheDoc]

Hi @ArtSabintsev !

@ArtSabintsev

We have plans ourselves to do Reddit Marketing

I have submitted this proposal because I didn’t get any response from the POKT team on this topic. No offence to anyone, but there were talks about planning to incorporate Reddit Marketing months ago. I spoke with Amy in May this year, but haven’t received a response yet. Time is passing and I think it’s progressing way too slow. That why I went forward and decided to give DAO an option to vote. Someone from the POKT team reached out to me yesterday, so hopefully it will be worked out. Thanks!

[amykellyp (AmyKelly Petruzzella)]

First, I truly appreciate your interest not only in POKT, but in also Marketing. I highly welcome, encourage and support any and all Marketing contributors and influencers for all things Pocket. I am grateful for those community members past and present who continue to turn their personal voices and Pocket expertise into a valuable thought leadership presence across social platforms. POKT community is strongest when everyone plays a role, especially when that role is echoing Pocket’s mission, value and successes.

Second, to give a bit of background here, my previous conversation with you regarding your reddit promo offer was that I had just hired a Social Content Creator who was being onboarded end of May and would be responsible for personally executing our social activities, including reddit. Since then and within their first 45 days, a robust social and podcast plan was developed, again including a full organic and paid reddit strategy. This plan is already under way – even beyond reddit. It is extremely important to mention - social media is only one format/channel for inbound/outbound engagement of a broader marketing strategy.

Lastly, it is quite easy to boost upvotes with real users (USD $50 / 200 upvotes / 6-hour / subreddit) to achieve the same outcome your proposal is guaranteeing. Couple that with your expressed uncertainty of, “no exact ROI and hard to measure” success, my preference leans towards data backed high value returns when making marketing investments – or in this case reimbursements which is the predominant model in the DAO. Ideally, measuring success based on accurate attribution that supports a repeatable, predictable and scalable marketing strategy is a proposal for paid influencer marketing I would be in favor of….(and a bonus if it influences paid app stakes.)

[TheDoc]

Hello @amykellyp and thanks for the response!

I’m happy to hear that there is a Social Content Creator. I think this is highly needed for Pocket. However, I must admit that I haven’t seen any POKT mentions or posts on major cryptocurrency-related subreddits. If there was a mention, it wasn’t nowhere near the top as I’m following the major cryptocurrency subreddits. So, I’d love to see the outcome of these activities and from current paid Reddit strategy (I cannot comment about other social channels as I’m not familiar with them to such extent as with Reddit). I honestly hope it’s much more efficient than what I can offer, because to me as POKT investor as well it matter that POKT gets the attention, promotion and media coverage it deserves. Also, a price action past few months was quite tough for POKT while POKT kept building and is truly an amazing project. That’s why I’m fighting for the best possible POKT Reddit promotion.

Regarding the last part, it’s quite easy to boost the upvotes, but such posts are easily detected and being removed for vote manipulation on almost all subreddits, unless posts are being done and unnaturally upvoted on subreddits such as r/Cryptocurrencies, which almost has no active moderators. I’m pretty much familiar how it works on almost all crypto-related subreddits. As my work is manually being done through upvotes and discussion-engaging comments, it costs much more than random bot upvote boosting tools. I’m happy to continue this conversation here publicly and have the DAO decide about it through voting. I’m quite confident in what I’m saying on this topic as I have a plenty of experience in this specific area.

Thanks!

[TheDoc]

I find it quite sad that there is no huge Reddit coverage in regards to one of the biggest POKT news this year - a launch of the POKT Portal. It’s a pity to miss such opportunity to grab some attention…

[Bfishgambo (Brent)]

I agree. LinkedIn as well

[TheDoc]

@Jinx Regarding your comment on this topic during Governance Hall today that Reddit proposal as this one should be part of the marketing department…

What should I (or anyone else in similar situation for different matter) do as a Reddit proposal owner in this particular case if current Pocket Network marketing department answers/thinks that this Reddit proposal is not needed because there is already someone hired to do the Reddit marketing. I’m obviously very unsatisfied because I don’t see any activity on Reddit at all. For example, Portal was recently launched and there were literally no mentions about it on any of the cryptocurrency related subreddits. From my point of view, this was a huge loss and missed marketing opportunity. Portal launch was nicely covered and explained by Pocket team on Twitter and Discord for example, but these social channels are targeting existing POKT investors, while Reddit is targeting new investors. Leaving Reddit without proper marketing shouldn’t be happening IMHO so I would definitely like to proceed with this proposal and let the DAO have a vote on it.

Thank you all for the feedback so far!