Can I tie together plastic surgery, Boss Beauties, and celebrity rug pulls?
A blog post challenge - what makes an NFT community?
Last week, I had a conversation with a VC friend in the Web3 space, and we got into a thoughtful debate about what makes an NFT community and how this affects women entering Web3. We were discussing the recent announcements from different women-led NFT initiatives and the benefits that will accrue to their holders. As an example, Boss Beauties, which has a goal of providing mentorship to women and supporting female empowerment in general, will offer:
a cut of licensing deals,
Chances to win opportunities with project partners, including Marvel,
Books by influential leaders in the Boss Beauties Book Club
and Free NFT drops, starting the first quarter of 2022.
Access to our virtual Boss Beauties Mentorship chats with incredible women. Past speakers have been from Marvel, Adidas, Twitter and more. Also, incredible IRL events and experiences
Eva Longoria has a Boss Beauty
(ed. note: no shade to Boss Beauties in using them as an example; they seem to have very laudable goals)
And I thought to myself, is that community for me? These are not rhetorical questions, I really am wondering what defines a community I’d want to join? Beyond the obvious Groucho Marx quote, what would make it worthwhile? In this discussion, I’ll ignore the financial examples, like Boss Beauties’ licensing options for when the imagery is reproduced commercially. That aspect is too transactional and investment-oriented to play directly into my thoughts on community.
I started pondering the communities I come into contact with or aspire to. Alumni Groups. Country Clubs. Book clubs. Local Facebook mummy groups. You’ll note that last one is the only inherently digital one. The tip of the rabbit hole. What are the most active digital female communities on Reddit, one wonders? Surely, as I learned in this NYMag article, Glow Up subreddits like How To Be Hot and Vindicta, are somewhere on the list. (Real talk, if you have other examples of female-driven Rddits, holler at me) These women-only communities focus on (largely) positive suggestions on how to be more attractive. Would I look good as a redhead? Should I get a boob job? In short, how to Glow Up. These communities are dense and exciting, and really involved. Vibrant, if you will.
Hmm… How to get from How to be Hot to a useful NFT community? What even makes community? It seems like humans, and I’ll focus on those identifying as women in this piece because a. I am one, and b. the issues with tech being inequitable for women are myriad, and maybe here’s a chance to rectify that, are looking for three things in these communities.
Friends
Knowledge
Social capital
Friends
Book clubs are a good example of number one and an ok (sometimes?) example of number two, knowledge. And maybe an example of number three, social capital. You join a book club to go drink wine with your friends and chat. This activity is fun. You can do it in person, and you can do it online, and you just sit there and share thoughts, personal, intellectual, wine-induced. It doesn’t matter. We’re here to party. Partying is a great reason to build a community. Country clubs provide a similar value. Book clubs may claim to be about books, and country clubs may claim to be about tennis, but, at their core, it’s just about belonging and having a defined place to attach that idea of belonging. This place can be physical, or it can be 5:30 on the 3rd Thursday of every month. But it’s concrete.
Knowledge
Subreddits are there for knowledge. Do I look good as a redhead or not? You cannot trust your spouse or your mother to answer that question effectively; you need an unbiased, wisdom-of-the-crowds approach. Alumni groups or even educational bodies, in general, are also communities for knowledge. Gating and dispersing knowledge is central to human negotiations. Twitter, also for this reason, creates engaged communities sharing their thoughts and knowledge.
Glow Up Subreddits also reveal an interesting dynamic in knowledge dispersion. These are topics you can’t/won’t/don’t discuss with your IRL friends. The internet gives us pseudonymity and, with that, freedom. (see my pseudonymity post here for more on that)
Social Capital
There’s been a bit of PR around Women in web3 and celebs helping to drive that. Cough cough Reese Witherspoon, but also Gwyneth and Mila Kunis etc. This trend leans on the social capital aspect of community, proximity to fame, e.g., I want to be like them.
Alumni groups are also examples of social capital, being able to exchange business favors within a defined crowd, where there is already some level of trust. (next week, we are definitely getting into exchanging value and trust, and I’m so excited, but I’ll temper that enthusiasm and try to stay on topic here)
Back to Twitter, the social capital aspect of social media communities is another driver, wanting to have an impressive follower count and be a part of Twitterati. People want to be valued; they want to feel SEEN.
How does Reese Witherspoon owning an NFT help me as a member of the community? Do I have access to her? Is it implied I will? Do I just want to be like her? Or do I think she’s a savvy investor or philanthropist, and her involvement is a good signal? Possibly. But I fear any celeb involvement is two steps away from a rug pull in terms of community. It seems like a good idea to be in a club with Reese Witherspoon, but then she sells, and now you’re just in a club with normies. Would Soho House still be Soho House if you didn't see celebs most times you go (during the day, to be precise)? How much of Bored Ape relies on celebrity proximity, and how much is the IP value and the projects generated by (normal) owners? A normies club has to have some other value, IMHO.
So what’s a marketer to do?
What does this mean if you are a brand launching an NFT? Everyone has told you community is at the core of NFT projects and that active Discord communities define the success of a project. (Well, that and the commercials)
Friends. Will your customers get real, meaningful interaction with each other on a niche topic they are excited about? Bonus points if it’s something they may not discuss with IRL friends for fear of judgment.
Knowledge. Does your brand have access to specialized knowledge or information? Beauty brands and celebrity makeup artists. Beer brands and access to up-and-coming musicians. Can you gatekeep and enhance valuable knowledge transfer?
Social capital. Celebs or IRL. Notoriety and popularity are motivating factors, always. Either by providing proximity to real celebrities or creating a mechanism to drive celebrity within the community. Can you become the mayor? Long live foursquare. Finding ways to commoditize social capital, perhaps via gamification of desired behaviors, will be an important community trend.
As usual, mostly questions and very few answers, but I hope you enjoyed the ride. If you know anyone else who’d find this interesting, please do share.