Discussion: Impression Mining

,
1

Note: this is a DISCUSSION thread meant to gather feedback on the concept and finer points of the thread below. This is not a proposal, nor a proposal draft. Please provide any feedback you have in the comments below.

Simple Summary

Impression mining allows almost anyone to be rewarded for creating content about CortexDAO on social platforms, paid from a portion of the treasury. The goal is to increase protocol awareness.

Abstract

Implement an impression mining initiative that would pay content creators a fixed rate based on impressions earned.

Motivation

In order to facilitate growth, new users must become aware of CortexDAO and its product (currently: the Convex Index). Only once they become aware can they become more familiar with the platform, and potentially, purchase the Index, growing active users and TVL.

While large-scale advertising platforms (native Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, etc. ads) are generally restricted within Crypto, UGC (user-generated-content) may prove to be a viable and sustainable source of awareness and growth.

Social platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Medium, and etc. allow anybody to have a voice. An impression mining campaign would encourage content creators to use their platforms and followings to highlight CortexDAO, and be rewarded for doing so.

Specification

Overview

The program would seek to treat any and every social account across supported platforms if they were a certified CortexDAO publisher, and to ascribe an open ended CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) for certain media types:

Social Impressions (Twitter) -$8 / 1k impressions

Editorial Content (Blog posts (Medium, Substack, personal domain, etc.)) - $25 / 1k reads

Video Content (e.g. Youtube, Twitter Video, Tik-Tok) - $50 / 1k views

EXAMPLE: Creator brings receipts from 5 tweets about the Convex Index totaling 100k impressions; they are rewarded with $800.

Initially, I (@anthony) of the Core Contributors would be responsible for vetting incoming impression mining submissions and approve or deny for payment from treasury. In the future, this role can be delegated to independent DAO contributor(s).

Rationale

  • The rates are currently set to incentivize participation in the program and adequately reward creators for efforts and reach.
  • The rates are based on the updated Index Coop Impression Mining rates. Index Coop was the first (to my knowledge) to implement the program, and have seen great success. Impression mining has resulted in some of their most cost-efficient paid spend.
  • Rates may change (increase to increase participation/volume, or decrease to make the program more sustainable, or to incentivize bonuses with specific campaigns (I.E. new product releases, etc.))
  • Initially, @anthony would be responsible for vetting impressions, as there may be potential for gamification (artificially increased impressions, etc.) that need to be carefully evaluated so we don’t leak treasury spend.

Guidelines for effective posting/publishing and brand-building would be held and shared. In general, content should aim to be:

  • Shareable
  • Distribution-friendly
  • Uniquely Insightful (Use-Case, how-to, history, stat/metric, story, testimonial, infographic, video)

Technical Specification

Participants would follow a process to submit content and impressions earned.

Judging submissions is at the sole discretion of the Impression Mining reviewer(s). The reviewer(s) reserve the right to cap a payment or deem an account ineligible for current or future rewards.

Additional Details

Supported social platforms:

  • Social:
    • Twitter
  • Editorial:
    • Medium
    • Substack
    • Other blog(s)
  • Video:
    • YouTube
    • TikTok

Special Guidelines

  • Twitter: 500 follower minimum

The program would not accept submissions using:

  • Paid impressions (ads)
  • Misleading, incorrect, or inauthentic content
  • General trickery
  • Spamming to generate additional impressions

Next Steps:

  • CortexDAO community to provide feedback in this thread.
  • Create a proposal draft thread using provided feedback.
  • Temperature check.
  • If passed, governance proposal.
  • Create a submission form.
  • Create content guidelines.
  • Launch program.

Based on the IndexCoop Impression Mining program

2

I think this form of decentralised marketing is a good idea. 100k impressions is a lot though so maybe the bar is quite high maybe?

1 Like
3

Thanks Mo.

If you’re referring to the 100k impressions mentioned in the section below, that was just an example and not a required threshold. I do agree that would be much too large and inaccessible.

4

Impression mining is a good marketing effort for current market condition. While it is hard to figure how much it will help in raising TVL it surely will help in increasing awareness.

The reward structure (reward amount and the qualifying criteria) would likely be an iterative process. It will have to be monitored and adapted.

Is reddit & Telegram not useful for such marketing efforts?
How about such advertising efforts on Discord given that discord is Cortex’s main social connect at this time?

5

Good feedback.

Agreed. The incentivizes should be monitored to ensure we have enough participation without overspending. It will require some testing.

Discord and Telegram are hard to measure effectiveness, as there’s no way to actively track impressions on individual posts on those platforms. I propose we initially keep the program simple with platforms that are impactful and easy to measure.

Reddit posts, unlike Twitter, are posted on a community forum based on a topic. Posts that come off too shilly can very quickly and easily lower our reputation and look spammy. On the supported social channels initially proposed, such as Twitter, users are sharing posts to their own audiences who willingly follow them (and their network via shared tweets, etc.) rather than a forum dedicated to a topic.

Just my $0.02.

1 Like
6

How do you ensure impressions are not bot generated?

7

Quite likely, we can find bots trained in finding bots on social media.

8

Good question. Bots are very easy to enable, but also very easy to detect.

  • How does the performance of the post they’re submitting stack up against their other posts? It’s unlikely a post about Cortex will be a user’s best-performing post unless their account is already dedicated to similar protocols and ecosystems. If the post massively overperforms, that raises a red flag.
  • How much interaction does the post have? A post with tons of impressions, but few meaningful interactions from genuine, relevant accounts is suspicious.

This is why I initially proposed that someone in the DAO (such as myself, and/or eventually other(s) qualified) be responsible for actively reviewing and going through an approval process for each submission. The last thing we want to do is drain treasury funds to gamification.

9

I really don’t like this idea. It’s basically paying for likes with extra steps.

If people like CortexDAO, they’ll write (or make videos) about it. I know we want to hype up the project, but there’s only one thing that will move the needle for this project: Money. If people start putting money into it, and start making money as a result, people will naturally cover the project in the media.

Anything else is fake excitement. Easy to generate, but also easy to dissipate. We just went through this with the MEXC exchange listing. Tons of talk in Discord / Telegram chat, but once the launch finished, the talk went away and the groups got silent again. We don’t need fake excitement.

1 Like
10

Thanks for taking the time to read and provide feedback! Let me address a couple of your points.

That’s one way to look at it. It also decentralizes the opportunity for any interested and vocal party to start getting involved in effectively creating awareness for Cortex, and being rewarded for doing so.

This is partially true, but is a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario. How do people initially discover CortexDAO to learn if they like it? Further, additional incentivization may further encourage users to make videos who would not have otherwise. And rewards the loyal supporters who do. A win/win for both parties.

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

11

Is this discussion ready for a temp check? Been open for over 3 weeks!

12

No, this is a discussion thread meant to gather feedback on the concept, not a proposal.

Next, a proposal draft is created, which can then move to a temperature check.