P.T. Barnum states that “something terrible occurs without promotion: Absolutely nothing.” How true this is even for any project because if nobody knows about your project and nobody is covering it, then how can you make a success of a project?
In today’s era, we need more than just a highly regarded brand name but several ambassadors within the industry to endorse a project for trust as well as trusted founders. To make the success of the project comes down to the trust and engagement of a community. What makes an attractive project is also the utility.
Imran believes that a project will thrive automatically with a utility and a track record. Suppose your track record is non-existent, then partner with a project that has a solid utility and with credible people by finding a way to add value to people with a track record. Then launch your own project. People want to connect to people who can help them, so be the most valuable you can be.
Imran’s Advice for Building Trust For Any Web 3.0 Project and the majority he helps has sold out below.
1) Creating A Digital Footprint:
Focus on doing the project like a real business, create an LLC or C Corp, and apply for a trademark for the name if you can. Another thing I recommend everyone to do is to create a personal website for every person and claim the socials for each person and the project. What is a business without a proper foundation? The project needs to be approached like a business, so buy things to make it look like a real business, such as BBB. With this, apply for Inc. Verified profile which is only $50 a year, if you don’t want to spend money on the BBB. It adds trust to people that you invest in the project properly.
2) Create sharable content
Make your blog and social media content shareable. Angie Lee, who is a good friend of Imran’s, states it best he says: Behind every like, comment, and share is a heartbeat. The best content is share-worthy to your audience/community. Concentrate on content that aids people, and they will wish to share it. If you are having trouble creating content, then is the utility of solving a problem that people want to have solved; nothing moves without pain and urgency. When creating this type of content, your audience will automatically grow.
3) Tap Into Collaborations With Other Projects
Like anything, it’s easier to do something the 2nd time; the ideal people who will invest in your community are those that have invested in other communities; by creating a partnership and getting endorsements, those who are happy are likely to bring a look at your project at least. Selling a project takes calculation, work, and community, but trust that they won’t lose their money as well as good quality artwork. What is the incentive for a partnership? What do they want and don’t have? How can you add value to make their project more valuable and keep their investors happy, which means they will reciprocate? One of Imran’s fav books is Jerry Acuff’s Book “The Relationship Edge.”
4) Being Omnipresent
So many people focus on just Twitter or Discord, but I think there are other valuable places to drive tremendous awareness for people. One such place is Reddit. Another is FB Groups that you can go after who have your ideal audiences and have them shout out the project in exchange for something or even go to websites that contain your perfect audience and allow Google Ad Sense. You can then negotiate with the ad owners to pay them directly, so they keep more, and it is often cheaper than using Google to run ads. This is a brilliant way to drive awareness Imran shared which he learned from Milo Mccloud at Paradox Group.
5) Becoming a thought-leader
Many places won’t cover the project, especially in traditional media; take Bloomberg, for example; they want experts to talk about the markets constantly but not about a specific project as that seems like an endorsement. Now, if you focus on talking about the topic, show expertise, neutrality, etc., and share this, you quickly become a thought-leader and expert in the space, and that trust is transferred.
Imran’s #1 advice for any project is to build something worthy with the utilities to solve the pain, build the content around this, and allow the transference of trust to occur. Your project will skyrocket in value, much like BoredApe.
