The Importance Of Transparency With Your Crypto Project

If one thing has become clear in the crypto space within the past 12 months, it is the fact that the scene is far from mature. Being replete with shady characters, exit scams, and legal difficulties, as well as the burst of the “crypto bubble”, many risk-averse folks have been turned away from supporting ICOs, STOs, and token sales. And while the crypto industry is slowly getting its act together, a noted side effect of this rather dark history is that many investors (both accredited and retail) are asking serious questions much more often. Thus, no matter which social media channels that you’re leveraging to develop an audience, the global community will demand utmost transparency and immediate answers.

In the following post, we’ll take a deep dive into the importance of maintaining transparency in your operations in order to establish trust between you and your supporters.

Communication Is Key

For starters, let’s assume that you and your team indeed have the next big idea. Or, it’s a legitimate use case for even wanting to tokenize the un-commodifiable and get involved with blockchain technology in the first place. The space surely doesn’t need any more Kodak moments, Banancoins, or DentaCoins. The recent drop in the entire market has done a good job of shaking out these gimmicks; no need to change that.

And even if you’re tempted to pull a fake “exit scam” to boost your click quota up, just refer to Savdroid’s PR stunt back in April 2018. This kind of behavior should be avoided at all costs.

Image Source: Twitter

As another reminder, timing the market shouldn’t be your highest priority either. The good projects, with strong leads, and healthy communities will succeed no matter the state of Bitcoin. For a closer look into what this means, check out our post on this very subject.

Setting timing and quality ideas aside, there is yet another piece needed for launching a successful ICO. It relates to how best you communicate with the different types of community members you have attracted. From developers, VC funds, and hobbyists, keeping an open conversation is critical for establishing trust. Of course, you’ll likely be speaking to each of these demographics from a different perspective, and will likely be answering a different variety of question depending on the individual. But responding actively and honestly will buy you a priceless vote of confidence from followers and gain their trust.

In practice, this means making identical, level-headed, updates on Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, and company blogs. If your project has just earned a handsome investment from a large Silicon Valley-based investment firm, let your token holders know. Retweet, comment, and explain, in detail, how these funds will be managed and get someone on your team to whip up a blog post that sheds light on the investment firm. This holds true for all positive announcements. Steps forward should be celebrated as evidence of your team’s hard, strategic work to turn an idea into a reality.

But don’t overdo it, either. Being authentic in your announcements comes from keeping in mind how milestones play into your project’s long-term objective. From planning next steps, reaching checkpoints, to bringing on new members to your team; all of this should be communicated to supporters as quickly and accurately as possible.

A Note About Missteps, Bad PR, And Adjustments

Every startup, especially the Facebooks and Googles of the world, also experienced dark moments in their build up. The key difference between non-crypto businesses though, is that they have a much smaller audience to cater to. Board members, stakeholders, and directors rarely number in the tens of thousands as they can in the tokenized economy. But that’s where the differences end. Both styles of business need the same care and attention in assuring community members of how the company is moving forward, both internally and externally.

As soon as an inevitable misstep arrives, whether it be a false and derogatory Reddit post about your startup (for whatever reason), respond quickly to your community. Never let potential users of your web 3.0 platform arrive at their own conclusions based on speculative information. This could also be the case if you need to postpone a deadline. The sooner you explain the adjustment in the timetable, the more your real followers will trust you and your vision.

Ultimately, the better you keep your community informed, the more engaged they will be and the more loyal they will become over the months and, hopefully, years. After having spent a lot of time trying to earn the trust of your community, make sure that you don’t jeopardize their loyalty by not being completely transparent and authentic with your follower base. Keep in mind that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will the next generation of the Internet.

Lars Schulze, Co-Founder ufostart.com

UFOstart helps Blockchain startups to market their ICO, STO and Tokensale worldwide. We strive to gain a deep understanding of the complexity of Blockchain technology, to support Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Investors with their Blockchain projects. We believe that the power of Blockchain has opened another chapter in the evolution of humanity, drastically changing the way we will work, shop, communicate, and live in the future.

We are building the future of marketing for a decentralized world.