With nearly 30 years working for the federal government, with the last 15 years spent working as the Public Information Officer, I understand the need to continually keep your client top-of-mind in today's technological environment and maintain a competitive edge. The growing use of decentralized social networks presents a major opportunity for PR professionals to leverage these tools to help their clients gain a major foothold in the market. By utilizing decentralized social media platforms, PR professionals can provide their clients with an effective way to reach their audience in a more direct and community-driven way. Decentralized social networks, such as DeSo, offer a unique way to engage with customers, build trust and loyalty, and create strong brand connections.

Partner With Creators Who Already Love Your Clients Brand

In web2, it's all about leveraging influencers with large social media followings to get them to hock your client's products in front of a new audience. This worked in the past, but things are changing because of web3.

Web3 is all about community, authenticity, and transparency. If you want to help your client thrive, you must help reorient their approach, mindset and execution. Your job as a PR professional is to learn everything you can about decentralized social so you help your client succeed. As a PR professional, you'll need to tap into more of your innate resources, but the pros will far outweigh the cons. Decentralized Social networks like DeSo are set to explode this year. If you want your client to be ahead of the curve, now's the time to start listening, learning, and implementing.

From the desk of Li Jin, Co-Founder & General Partner at Variant:

The next big thing in 2023 is decentralized social networking. "We're finally beginning to see users waking up en masse to the risks of centralized social networking companies, not least catalyzed by the recent threatened ban of TikTok and Twitter's capricious suspensions and prohibiting linking out to other platforms. Users, creators, and businesses have realized that it's dangerous to invest in building an audience on these platforms when there's a looming risk that the rug gets pulled out from under them. We're at a moment where there is a collective sense of "We’ve lived with the existing paradigm of closed social platforms for 15 years. What comes next?" I think we'll see a decentralized social network start to gain steam in the next year that allows users to own their social graph and content and port it across various applications*. We'll also see more creators experimenting with web3 tools that allow them to reach their audience in a platform-less way, i.e. through tokens acting as a new kind of social graph."*

To persuade your client to think differently and thereby act differently, you, as the PR professional must first look in the mirror and be willing to change first. We can only give to others what we already possess.

Web2 PR Thinking:

How can I leverage influencers with large social media followings to promote my client's brand?

Web3 PR Thinking:

How can I find influencers/creators who already love my client's brand and collaborate with them on DeSo so that it's a win/win for the influencer and my client?

When you connect and collaborate with a creator that already loves your client's brand, that authenticity will shine through when that creator posts about it on DeSo. That's a win for you and your client.

Now, here's the best part, when the creator starts posting on DeSo, they'll naturally gain followers and in addition to whatever your client is paying them, they'll also be earning money directly from the DeSo community, simply by posting your client's content. How? DeSo is a completely new kind of decentralized social media platform that allows users to create and share content, earn rewards, and get paid for their efforts. DeSo is not just a social network, it's a monetizable social network that puts the creator first.

A Monetizable Social Network

DeSo enables users to earn money without having to rely on likes or followers. Yes, you heard that right, whether you're a freelancer, a business owner, or simply looking for extra income, DeSo offers an intuitive, easy-to-use platform that pays users based on the quality of their content rather than the number of likes they receive.

DeSo believes that creators should be able to monetize their content just for being their authentic selves. DeSo is an innovative platform that allows users to make money from their content by getting paid directly from their supporters. Users simply post their content as they would on any other social platform, but when they do, they can get paid. You can start earning immediately by simply posting your content. Yes, simply post and earn.

I hope you can see the possibilities for you as a PR professional when it comes to delivering for your client and how the creator becomes the hero. Yes, this a cataclysmic change in thinking, but this is the direction the world is going in, so either adapt and change or refuse and it's your client that suffers and gets left behind.

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Creators Directly Engage with Your Client's Target Audience**

DeSo is a great tool for PR professionals because you'll be working directly with a creator who already loves your clients' brands. Say for instance your client is Notion. OMG, I love Notion and talk about it all the time and my supporters know it immediately when they go check out my profile page. So, as the creator in this example, I would post all the things I love about Notion and my authentic posts will resonate with the DeSo community. So not only am I as the creator promoting your client, I'm also experiencing the love from the community, which is so important because creators are normally solopreneurs.

In this instance, I as the creator am directly engaging with your client's target audience. I would be able to respond directly to user comments, and queries, which creates a more open dialogue, and is more organic and authentic. This inevitably increases your client's visibility, trustworthiness, and likableness, important factors in landing a sale.

Web2 PR Thinking:

How can I leverage DeSo to make my client more money?

Web3 PR Thinking:

How can I elevate and collaborate with a creator that loves my client's brand so that the creator becomes the hero and a real brand ambassador for my client?

Leverage Blockchain Technology for ROI Campaigns

With decentralized social networks such as DeSo, when a creator comes onto the platform, they're entering into a very close-knit community. When they share your client's information, it'll reach a critical mass very quickly because of the amount of visibility and engagement. This is good news for your client because it's a great way for the creator to build closer relationships with the users on the platform.

Additionally, since DeSo is powered by blockchain technology, content promotion is secure and transparent, which means it can be easily tracked and verified. This one aspect alone is invaluable to every PR professional. As a PR professional, you must be able to show the ROI of every content promotion campaign you undertake. Blockchain technology helps with ROI for these three reasons:

Blockchain Technology Provides Users with Three Main Benefits:

1. Enhanced Security

2. Increased Transparency

3. Improved Efficiency

First, blockchain technology is highly secure, making it ideal for businesses that wish to protect sensitive information. All data stored on a blockchain is encrypted and stored in multiple nodes, making it nearly impossible to hack.

Second, blockchain technology provides users with increased transparency and traceability. All transactions are permanently recorded on the blockchain and can be viewed by anyone with access to the network. This makes it easy to verify and trace transactions.

Finally, blockchain technology is incredibly efficient. Transactions and exchanges of data can occur quickly, reliably, and securely. This eliminates the need for middlemen and allows for faster and more cost-effective transactions.

Web2 PR Thinking:

I don't even understand web3 or the blockchain, so why would my clients even care, especially with all the scandal around it?

Web3 PR Thinking:

As a PR Professional, I will learn all I can about blockchain and decentralized social technology to give my clients a competitive edge.

Use a Variety of Content Formats to Engage Your Client's Audience

PR Professionals, please remember that when engaging with the creator that will be promoting your client's brand, help them to understand the many different ways they can show up on DeSo.

For example, on Diamond, one of the apps on DeSo, you can post a YouTube or Vimeo video to capture the attention of those who may not be interested in traditional text-based content. You can post images, you can upload audio content, such as a podcast, Spotify or SoundCloud content or even a TikTok video. When the brand ambassador for your client does this, this ensures that the content will be enjoyed by a wider audience because everyone has a preferred learning style. If you need more ideas of how your client can make money using DeSo, be sure to grab my free notion template. See, I told you I loved Notion. 😀

Web2 PR Thinking:

When I connect with the creator/brand ambassador, I will tell them exactly what to post and when.

Web3 PR Thinking:

I will have a dialogue with the creator/ambassador so they can continue to be authentically themselves while at the same time making sure they cater to all learning styles.

The Future of PR

As you can see, decentralized social media is a game-changing tool for PR Professionals, as it offers a way to reach a wider audience and to promote your clients’ messages authentically with real creators who love their brand with the added benefit of the creator to make money simply by posting your clients content. Another plus when it comes to DeSo is that the information posted on one DeSo app is automatically ported to every other DeSo app, thereby providing your client with an even wider reach.

With the help of decentralized social media, PR professionals can better protect their client’s data, increase their reach, and more effectively interact with their audiences. Decentralized social media is the future and with the help of blockchain-based technologies, there's no telling the impact this will have on the landscape in years to come.

If you would like to explore how you can easily step into web3 and learn how to use DeSo for yourself or your client in a way that is easy fun, and most of all profitable, then please join me for my upcoming live masterclass on January 21, 2023.

Learn more about DeSo on deso.com