The resurgence of web3 social media platforms has led to several businesses and companies using them to engage with customers. Decentralized social media enhances a brand’s digital presence in multiple ways and provides enormous potential for long-term growth.
In this article, we will explore in detail why brands are now using web3 social media platforms for their marketing campaigns.
Direct Consumer Relationships
Unlike traditional social media, web3 platforms don’t have any centralized intermediaries who control content distribution or moderate online interactions. Thus, brands can forge direct customer connections and authentically communicate with them to build stronger relationships.
Since web3 social platforms have more transparency, companies find it easier to demonstrate their core brand values to the audience. The absence of third-party intermediaries also reduces marketing costs and fosters trust between the brand and consumers.
Moreover, web3 platforms usually have more data privacy and security compared to web2 social media. Most traditional social media harvest user data without their knowledge and sell them to companies for advertising campaigns.
However, such an approach doesn’t benefit anyone except the intermediary. The user doesn’t get any share of the profit despite generating valuable datasets. Similarly, companies often run unsuccessful ads that do not cater to the right audience.
Web3 users have sovereign data ownership with direct monetization opportunities. Thus, customers can consensually provide or sell their data to brands for targeted advertising. This setup benefits both parties as users gain from sharing data and brands can customize their ads.
A personalized marketing strategy through shared data exchange on social media creates deeper connections between brands and customers.
Leverage Tokenization Opportunities
One of the most important features of web3 social media is digital assets and tokenization. Companies can tokenize anything in the digital space to create valuable tokens for the online marketing space.
Businesses can use tokens in social media marketing to reward customers for purchases, create content, and generate interest among other users. Tokenization helps in organic growth, lead generation, and brand advocacy through active token-gated communities.
The use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in marketing campaigns has provided a sense of exclusivity to customers. These unique virtual assets and collectibles are ideal for rewarding loyal consumers and enhancing brand value.
Product users can utilize their limited-edition NFTs as special access keys to attend exclusive live events or have curated digital experiences. These NFTs can also unlock promotional offers, which will further drive customer engagement and create brand affinity.
The biggest advantage of NFTs is seamless monetization for companies and consumers. Brands can mint NFTs for customers, and users can sell them in marketplaces to create a sustainable economy without relying on third parties.
After the 2021 crypto boom, major brands like , , , , and others launched their own NFT collections. However, these NFTs are indivisible and suffer from liquidity challenges due to their underlying technologies.
The new generation of NFTs leverages the ERC-404 token standard, which enables fractional ownership, more liquidity, and easy trading on NFT marketplaces. Tomo uses the ERC-404 standard to mint Tomojis, which can potentially disrupt digital marketing for big brands.
A company’s success depends on the strengths and foundational integrity of its community. Web3 social media empowers the customer community to lead a brand’s marketing campaign.
Companies can collaborate directly with content creators or general users to co-create ads without relying on traditional methods. After all, word of mouth is the strongest marketing technique when paid campaigns fail to make an impact.
User-generated content and crowdsourced promotional activities create ripple effects among new and existing customers. Authentic reviews, stories, and testimonials through text, images, or videography consolidate a brand’s credibility and create relatable brand interactions.
Web3 social media can incentivize user-generated collaborative marketing efforts through token rewards. The rewards mechanism creates a feedback loop for users to contribute to the company’s growth through brainstorming ideas and content creation.
A community’s collective wisdom has immense potential to sway customer behavior either in favor or against a brand. Thus, optimal community involvement on web3 social media can help companies reap enormous dividends through innovative decentered marketing.
Collaborative Influencer Marketing
Although web2 influencers have massive followers and established personal branding, a major chunk of profits from brand collaborations go to social media companies. Additionally, the collaborations might come off as inauthentic and forced ways of monetizing their digital presence.
On the contrary, web3 social media establishes direct connections between influencers and fans, which is more profitable for all stakeholders.
Influencers can create new revenue streams through brand marketing on web3 media with potentially higher earnings. Web3 influencers have more control over these partnerships and thereby create meaningful campaigns that resonate with their values or visions.
An alignment of beliefs and principles can go a long way in creating lasting impressions on customers. Thus, web3-based ad campaigns reach the audience as genuine endorsements and might have more impact on consumer behavior.
Additionally, tokenized economies can incentivize followers to actively participate in these campaigns to earn rewards. These programs can create a mutually beneficial system where the influencers, brands, and customers gain simultaneously from authentic engagements.
According to a Statista report, brands approximately $270 billion in social media advertising campaigns in 2023. The budget expenditure for digital marketing is projected to surpass the $300 billion mark this year.
However, as users become more wary of data privacy, they’re unwilling to share their data for irrelevant ads. Thus, brands need to be extra cautious about how they collect user data and harness them for targeted advertising.
Web3 social media holds the promise of forging direct and authentic relations between companies, customers, and influencers. Although it’s still very early for decentralized social media, they’re slowly entering the market and amplifying their digital footprint.
This is the right opportunity to respect user privacy and leverage the benefits of blockchain-based tokenized social media platforms. Even if 50% of traditional digital marketing spending comes into web3 social media, it means opening up a $135 billion market. Thus, the future holds enormous potential for robust growth in brand marketing on web3 social media platforms.