How The Crypto Community is Changing Management

As the crypto space matures and develops, the scope of crypto community management is changing — growing and developing in unprecedented ways. This makes it more important than ever that crypto community managers stay ahead of the curve.Where community managers would have once relied heavily on traditional social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, the community has since turned to forums, like BitcoinTalk, and messaging platforms, like Telegram, to open up lines of direct communication with ICO teams.And even now the tides are still changing. As the limits of Telegram become more apparent, especially with regard to moderation and community growth, ICO communities will soon once again be choosing to use different platforms.Why? Read on to find out…

Crypto Community Management in the Past

In the past, the crypto-community was tight-knit, with only a few investors who would frequently run into the same faces as they joined different Telegram chat rooms.

This small community size meant that moderation was not so important — Most people were serious about their investments and so didn’t fill the chatrooms with trolling and spam. And if they did, then they were likely to be ostracized and thrown out by the community itself.

In this unregulated space, scams were everywhere, and people created direct chat communities so they could consult with each other on which projects were legitimate. Regardless, the lure of each shiny new opportunity and its profit-making potential was too much for some, and many people were scammed.

So, while traditional social media routes were popular at first — Twitter, Facebook, Reddit — as the SEC struggled to categorise and regulate crypto, these marketing routes were slowly replaced by other platforms for discussion.

Crypto Community Management Today

As the community has grown, it has gradually wised up to easy money schemes. Since November 2017, the crypto-community has tripled in size, and people have naturally become more skeptical of ICOs — even to the point where legitimate projects are accused of scamming their followers. The explosion of interest in ICOs means that we are now seeing around 200 new ICO projects being launched every month, many of which look very similar to their contemporaries, employing the same simple blockchain-styled website template and social media setup.

Today, if you haven’t invested top-dollar in professional grade website aesthetics to distinguish yourself, then you risk being seen as illegitimate. It has now become much harder to convince the average investor to part with their money. What does set the good projects apart from the pack, is community. Which is why people try desperately to raise levels of engagement by growing communities on Telegram and Bitcointalk — the King and Queen of crypto community management.

But good community engagement requires real passion, especially for moderators, and Crowdcreate advises that people should be truly passionate about projects before they consider moderation, which will save a lot of time and headaches for everyone.

The Future of Crypto Community Management

As the crypto space evolves, community managementappears to be moving towards platforms that integrate both gamification and moderation. One platform to watch in particular is Discord, which is changing the game when it comes to moderation with rankings, activity levels, and other moderation functions that are completed automated.

As government restrictions are slowly lifted, and crypto becomes more accepted, traditional social media is likely to return to the mix. Even recently we have seen Facebook soften their stance on crypto ads.

But with more projects than ever, the market seems saturated and people are divided between an ever-increasing number of projects, which makes growing a vibrant community harder than ever. Community managers are now tasked with the problem of creating a community that is actually actively valuable to its members,

And valuable communities don’t come cheap — retention rates for crypto community management rooms are rapidly dropping, because creating real value for community members comes at a price.

Thankfully, clients are also starting to appreciate the benefits of good community management. In fact, the number of people asking for community management metrics has gone up so much that we now add it as part of Crowdcreate’s crypto community management package, because It is crucial to have the ability to track your progress.

As we move further into the future, we can expect that community-hired moderators will no longer be relied on so much, as ICOs outsource their work to more established moderation companies that have a reputation for delivering.

Final Thoughts

Just as crypto gets increasingly integrated into mainstream society, so will the services and service providers, this will provide new challenges for community managers, as will the relentless pace of technological advancement.

As new developments come forward in technology, so do changes to how communities are managed. To adapt effectively, managers will have to change their tactics on how communities are grown and maintained.

The race to set up a perfect community structure is never-ending, and platforms, growth tactics, and community retention strategies will continue to evolve. As crypto community management is a crucial part of the overall picture, then staying ahead is crucial to success.

To get your position right, contact Crowdcreate today.

Originally published at www.crowdcreate.us on July 24, 2018.

How The Crypto Community is Changing Management was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.