Blockchain PR: building trust in highly volatile markets
If you take a look at the crypto market from a little distance, you can imagine it like a big fair. A few roller coasters and many stalls, flashing lights and the smell of sweets filling the air, the shouts of the stall owners are deafening - welcome, you're in for a wild ride, because everyone wants to draw attention to themselves and their token or coin at any price.
But why is it actually like that? Why does the business with coins run so fundamentally different from trading shares on the traditional financial market? There are many possible reasons: cryptocurrencies are traded 24h every day of the year - no matter if it's Sunday or Christmas Eve. At the same time, the industry is still relatively young and always on the move, there are constantly new projects that want to attract new investors.
Over all, it may come as a surprise to most: the fundamental characteristics of Bitcoin and Co. do not change - nevertheless, crazy price rallies and crashes are the order of the day, and sometimes they are so strong that established crypto exchanges have problems with order books and requests. If the fundamental characteristics do not change and (as is the case with most cryptocurrencies) the price is essentially determined by supply and demand, the only cause for such price fluctuations is news, announcements and PR.
Although many institutional investors have entered the market in the past year, the majority remain retail investors who deal with crypto topics in their free time. The scene is networked via social media, primarily via Telegram groups and Discord channels, which are often moderated by the crypto projects themselves. Any news, whether real or fake, spreads in no time at all and investors with a strong focus on speculation react immediately - whereby these reactions can themselves lead to further reactions – a classic domino effect.
Blockchain PR: Consistency is King
So what is the best way to communicate as a player in such a market, where it seems there is no consistent strategy for success? How can you even build a community and your own Telegram channel with a significant audience?
First of all, you have to be aware that the success of a project or cryptocurrency depends 90% on marketing and only 10% on technology. Of course, these are only guidelines, but the core message is still fact. Otherwise, how could Dogecoin, a technologically extremely outdated cryptocurrency with no real application, have made it into the top 10 of all cryptocurrencies measured by market capitalization? You have to remember: unless a project is technologically complicated, a team can fully focus on marketing. This advance of the "bad" projects has to be made up for as a "good" project. Important for this are:
1) Consistent PR work
2) Honest PR work
3) Support of the first two points through moderated social media channels
Consistent means to align the communication in the long term, but to react to the current situation in the crypto market in the short term. If you are in a bull market, it is important to take as many simple PR-quick-wins as possible. After all, in this phase of the market, many are on the lookout for exciting new projects - but only to make a quick buck. These speculators, who still make up a large part of the crypto community, need to be tied to their project for the long term (this is where the 10% technology and moderated social media channels are extremely important). Some projects hire extra people for this purpose to provide memes to the speculators. This is not a long-term strategy, let alone a serious one, and is only aimed at attracting money in the short term.
Blockchain PR: Why memes should not be everything.
Even a solid PR strategy can be outperformed by various "bad" projects in a bull market. The market forces and how and whether important influencers mention a cryptocurrency are too unclear (see Elon Musk and Doge). But that doesn't matter, because the power of solid press relations comes out in a bear market when panic spreads among speculators. In addition to losses in price, entire projects die in a bear market as their underlying community of speculators disintegrates - no matter how good the underlying technology or idea may be. The tone in social media channels becomes harsher and often such projects are not rediscovered in coming bull markets. Those who build a strong community here early on can effectively counteract this scenario early on.
The conclusion: There is no way around hype and quick PR wins in the bull market, but they should be accompanied by intensive community and PR care, otherwise you run the risk of a nasty surprise. A fundamental challenge remains that there are few news sites and journalists that are free of conflicts of interest. For example, Coinbase recently announced its intention to operate its own news agency, which will be directly affiliated with the marketing department. Here, traditional media and PR firms are under pressure: blockchain coverage needs to reach the mainstream even more - and gain in quality.
Located in the heart of Berlin, one of the world's top blockchain hotspots and startup scenes, PIABO has been representing clients from the broader blockchain cosmos for years. These include DFINITY, the xx network or financial service providers such as eToro and Vivid.
For blockchain and crypto communication, PIABO is the right contact. If you have any questions, please contact Paul Gärtner, Practice Director.
