I'm calling it a mini series... I think it's more likely a draft for something bigger in the future, or the building blocks. I don't know what yet, welcome to my brain, I trust it now, and I believe it will all make sense eventually! There is no plan for the next Twitter issue, although I know it will roll on from this. And it will likely not be next week. There may only be a very small blog next week, and it could be poetry. My emotions will be all over the place. Today however, I am going to chat branding and Spaces. I may have room for more, I may not. I hope you find some useful information amongst my thoughts.
Creating a clear, consistent and strong brand is key to any form of brand, company or social media growth. And there are multiple ways anyone can do this. I believe that this starts by being introspective and looking at yourself. What are your end goals, what are you like as a person and what values do you look for in people you choose to spend time with? This last one's more important than you may think. We are all drawn to like minded people, people who share our values. Our friends can tell us a lot.
I knew what I wanted to achieve with Twitter, and I still do. I know this because I was aware of my goals and what I want to see in the Crypto/Web3 space. I want to help make this space as accessible as possible and whilst I understand the need to have growth or sales tactics wrapped into your brand, I believe this space needs something more than that. In a trustless environment, people will still need to interact with each other and 'soft skills' are going to be vital to building relationships. I also believe in discourse and discussion, the need for respect and being open with my values.
I'm a passionate, heart on my sleeve, kind of guy. I say what I feel but I always aim to be considerate and respectful because I know not everyone will feel, or think, the same way I do. How does this relate to my brand and the brands I am involved in? Primarily I aim to work with people who have the same values as me and I look to embody those values in all of my actions. I don't always get this 'right', but the intention is always with this in mind.
#Tags - my thoughts - a thread
This one is heavily wrapped in experience and opinion. I will share my biggest learns. How you use them is on you.
Firstly - personal tags are so important and we do not utilise them enough. Here are some reasons;
They are Twitter links...
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The human values I look to show are care, compassion, consideration, empathy, kindness, love and trust. I think these values promote so many positive behaviours and the people exhibiting them will naturally lift the people alongside them up. At the same time people, with these values tend to get the best out of the people around them. These people are usually passionate about other people, community focused and positive.
Showing my emotions and sharing my thoughts is more important to me than promotion. Promotion of my brand, the brands I work with or anyone else's brand. This is because of lessons I have learnt about me over the last few years. When I hide from my feelings, it has a negative impact on me and the people around me. Vulnerability is a strength and I want to use my Twitter account to show how expressing and showing emotion helps me, in the hope I can help someone else.
Treating people like people has always been important to me and always will be. Too many times in life I have felt like a faceless number, for multiple reasons. I think the Crypto/Web3 Space gives us an opportunity to do business in a different way, and I believe society will need to do business in a different way sooner than many people think. Definitely not tomorrow, but sooner than a lot expect.
One of the things Mum always used to say was you can't change the world but you can change your corner. And what was left unsaid was that if you change your corner, the people around you will follow your example and change their corners, if they buy into the actions and messages being delivered. Well this is me, making my stand and changing my corner. And as many of you will already know, my brand is me.
Before I move onto Spaces and I am not sure we will have enough room to cover a few of my thoughts on Spaces, let alone a lot of them, or even all of them! Not everyone will want to have personal branding to the level I do. I share a lot of personal insights, photos and thoughts. I never mean to tell someone what to do. I hesitate when people ask for advice, in a positive way, and chat about it with person asking too. I ask questions, offer input and my thoughts for people to take away. Asking questions is important, almost as important as listening to the answers.
So much of my Twitter growth can be attributed to Spaces. Especially in the early days. From the 28th Sept 2021 to early April 2022 I went from 0-15,000 Twitter followers. Our 2-4PM EST, Mon-Fri Spaces was the instigator if you like. Being consistent is important on Twitter. Spaces was the platform that enabled me to start sharing my message of support and uplifting people. Of the potential for Crypto/Web3 space, as well as the importance of opensource technology, technology in general and unique end user ownership. Spaces gave my giveaways extra traction and helped me get more people to see my content and thoughts.
The network I made in those early days is still incredibly strong today and I have connected with some incredible people. From founders of big organisations within our space to people who are making giant and innovative strides in regards to technology (not just Crypto/Web3 tech either). The most incredible artists and passionate of dreamers to educators and people developing game breaking blockchain code. To people like myself, who have built something amazing from nothing. Beluga and myself made quite the team and we were not only ably supported by Amy, Boss, Jay, John as hosts, but a huge amount of others as well.
5 tips for Spaces
1 - request to speak and say hello
2 - prepare a 2 minute pitch
3 - practice (and practice some more)
4 - learn to read the room
5 - smile
Continued in more detail…
How did we make our Spaces so popular? Well it wasn't with a consistent name! I can't remember what it was called before it went to Polygon Community & Creator Spaces. It was about the values we embodied and promoted. It was by creating a platform for anyone. It was about letting people know they were allowed to have a voice, no matter what size account they had. It was adding knowledge and support. It was about creating a community that cared. It was about supporting Polygon artists, builders, creators, developers, founders, marketers and anyone else interested in Polygon. It was about doing it every day when no one else was.
People can share their art, project or skills, their wins or losses, celebrate themselves or others, ask questions, talk topical and talk about non-NFT related things (as long as it wasn't about what they had for lunch yesterday!). If an emotional event happened and someone wanted to share, they are allowed to and they were supported. The only rules we really have is to be polite and respectful, keep it to 3 mins due to demand and for marketing reasons (we weren't as strict with this as we could have been, and still aren't) and don't be abusive (we wanted a Space where anyone felt comfortable chatting, including children). We were, and are, Polygon focused but we would, and do, let anyone share from any chain.
In early 2022 we regularly had 100 people in the room. It was the end of the NFT bull. By the time we got to March we had pushed past 200 a couple of times. And then towards the end of March, when Mum deteriorated and passed quicker than anyone expected, I had to step away, for obvious reasons. Beluga didn't want to host without me and his work was adding more pressure so there was a little convenience to stopping, as well as a huge amount of respect.
I came back to Twitter in mid-April. I needed to, maybe it was too soon, maybe it wasn't. I can honestly say I don't regret it. When I came back, I reached out to Beluga to restart Spaces and he wasn't in a position to do them. I asked if he minded if I ran with it and he said go for it. I reached out to some previous co-hosts and some like-minded, supportive people from the Polygon community and built a team of hosts. Cynthia, Dave (Subzero), John and Zac to begin. Both Dave and Zac had to step away and we brought in Megan, thanks to John.
These people embody the values our community has been built on. They want to offer support. They ask questions in a positive way. They are knowledgeable. And they want to give their time to support other people. You can click on their names above to visit their Twitter accounts and you should (apart from Zac, he's traveling and hasn't been that active recently)! In December 2022 we made the decision to move to 3 days a week, due to demand and time pressure on us as hosts.
We are looking to change this and have invited 4 people to join our host team (2 of them have said yes for sure). #ThisIsNotAShill is expanding, adding new communities and looking to move back to 5 days a week soon. I didn't even get into chatting about other Spaces or half of what I wanted to say about our spaces. I mentioned it above, consistency is so important on Twitter. So important. Even more so when it comes to Spaces.
I haven't talked hype Spaces, educational Spaces, children's Spaces, Space hopping or even best practices for hosts and guests. I have so much to write about Twitter! But this is all we got time for today. I don't want to keep you more than 5-10 mins max, especially not on a Friday. Paragraph have added a share button, if you have a moment I would appreciate a click and a share! If you do, tag me on Twitter so I can thank you for sharing.
Next weeks blog could be me sharing some of the stuff I wrote last year about Mum, I may write something new. It could be poetry or some memories. I honestly don't know. It will be something. It's going to be a tough week, I appreciate your support and you sticking with me until the end. I expect I will be back with something Twitter related on 31st March, I will catch you then.
