Over the past few months, various innovative artists have been able to market and sell their art via NFTs. During this journey, most of them started to understand why projects needed roadmaps, why the investors needed utility, and why a network of people forming a community is crucial for a successful project.
This article is written for WEB2 community managers and aims to introduce them to NFTs and WEB3 community management.
Table of Contents
What is an NFT?
There are probably a million descriptions that are technically more accurate, but I´d like to dumb it down to “a piece of code or a smart contract, repackaged by art. The code allows projects to give their NFT various use cases and utility, while the art (mostly images) makes it sexy and shareable on social media.”
These NFTs live on the blockchain (a digitally distributed, decentralized, public ledger that exists across a network) and can be classified as 1/1 art or as generative art.
Another important detail that you’ll need to understand is the fact that there is a primary market (which refers to the first sale of an NFT) and a secondary market that runs via a marketplace. Most collections have configured “secondary-sale royalties” in their smart contract and are automatically guaranteed their royalties thanks to a few simple lines of code. This enables artists to instantly get a cut of any and all future sales of their work … in perpetuity.
1/1 NFT art
This is a one-of-a-kind digital collectible where no other exists other than the piece itself. The limited supply makes the NFT rare, which is where these NFTs find their value.
Most 1/1 artwork is being bought by NFT collectors who “like the art” and are buying a piece with the specific intention to support the creator’s to become financially independent, as most of these 1/1 NFTs don’t offer any utility.
The lack of utility is why 1/1 NFT art collectors are considered a bit more niche and perfectly showcases how artists depend on their community.
Some well-known Belgian 1/1 NFT artists are Vexx, Musketon, and Arno Kiss.
Generative NFT Art
The most popular form of NFTs is generative NFT art collections. These collections are made by artists who create various attributes, which are then randomly mashed together by a computer algorithm.
Most of these collections contain thousands of art pieces and revolve around the same concept of lore, thus giving them a similar look. These projects aim to gather thousands of collectors and need constant maintenance as they essentially collect millions in funding.
These collections are mostly bought by NFT collectors who are looking at it as an investment and are constantly challenging project owners to deliver value and utility to the community. This is why almost every generative NFT art project releases a roadmap, promises a specific utility, and organizes town halls.
These collections are also referred to as “profile picture projects,” as the community uses them to showcase on social media. In essence, the more vocal such a community is on social media, the more views the project gathers, which impacts the price and the demand. It’s in this niche that community management is crucial.
Some well-known examples are Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Deadfellaz.
What gives an NFT Value?
We have to realize that most NFT collectors consider their digital collectibles as investments and compare the collections to start-ups, expecting roadmaps and utility for their digital collectibles. From there on, it follows the general rules of supply and demand: the market decides what something is worth.
Why is community essential for the NFT space?
To keep their investors happy, projects generally announce deadlines when they are releasing roadmaps and promising utility. This means that projects are constantly developing their story, but this also gives power to the community and their opinion.
Because – rudely worded – when an NFT collection announces a new roadmap that is well received by its community, the price generally goes up. When the same investors lose confidence in those promises (or don’t like the execution), they’ll want to rapidly exit the project in order to save most of their investment … making the floor price go down.
Another motivation for NFT collections to invest in their community is to stimulate the demand … creating more sales volume (and thus royalties) for the project.
That’s why community management is the key challenge for most of these projects and why most successful NFT collections are actively trying to build a feeling of belonging. That’s where community managers come in.
What are the key roles of community managers?
The current NFT space is essentially a gathering of similarly minded individuals who share a common goal; making money. However, they all have different and diverse backgrounds, locations, and cultures. Community managers who are able to create a sense of digital identity and belonging are thus priceless for these communities.
Their main assignments should be:
- Respect the investors. Be transparent and open about development, and keep the roadmap and website up-to-date. NFT collectors are very volatile investors; you want them to have confidence in your building project.
- Build lore. This establishes the backstory of the project and helps the community understand the project’s heart. This will also impact the type of investors you attract and makes it easier to get your audience to connect or engage.
- Cover 24/7. Most communities are a gathering of diverse backgrounds, locations, and cultures. They are also known to be very impatient and expect answers as soon as they raise questions. Additionally, you’ll want to be able to remove spam, scam, and hacks as soon as they pop up!
- Diffuse certain situations. In a community with diverse cultures – or in times of dissatisfied investors – you’ll need community managers who know how to handle delicate conversations and hard discussions.
- Be vigilant. The crypto and NFT spaces are non-regulated, which means that it’s a hotbed for scammers and hackers. A good community manager should have 2FA enabled, closes his DMs for strangers, and uses a ledger to safeguard their investments. And keep in mind: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Where can I find these NFT communities?
As is the case for every community, content creation has become very diversified, which means NFT collections have to build their community on various platforms and in various dimensions. This all requires various skills, which is why most successful projects have 10 to 20 community managers and moderators between their ranks.
So, where do we find these NFT investors, and how do we reach them?
Over the past year, Twitter has become the go-to place for crypto and NFT enthusiasts, where they engage together in order to learn more about the scene, discuss specific events, and so much more.
According to Twitter, at least 375 million tweets were sent out on NFTs globally. Twitter integrated NFT profile pictures for their subscribed Twitter Blue users earlier this year to further attract this audience and generate more revenue.
Twitter Spaces
Twitter Spaces is essentially an audio chat room that allows its users to have live audio conversations on Twitter. Every user can start such a “space,” and since its discoverability is unprecedented.
That’s why you can find a great number of spaces at any moment of time, covering various topics: AMA’s, new project drops, general NFT marketing tips, daily news debates, general networking, and so much more.
These spaces give the opportunity for collectors to be heard, give them the opportunity for listeners to be part of the process, and add humanity to the conversation.
Discord
Discord is a group chatting platform which was originally built for gamers and has various VoIP and instant messaging options. Since it was founded in 2015, it has become the most popular platform for NFT collections to communicate with their investors.
Every server can set up channels dedicated to specific topics, but its power lies in the ability to integrate applications. For example, projects can recognize their NFT collectors and give them special abilities to access otherwise hidden channels.
Community building, the best cases
We’ve been sharing various general insights and technical tips throughout this article, so we thought it would be handy to show some of our favorite community-building cases.
And in case you’re still looking for a community manager to handle the socials of your WEB3 project but don’t know where to start: take a look at 0xCareers’ job board.
Cool Cats nominations
Back in February, the popular NFT project Cool Cats announced the release of its compaignion project Cool Pets in order to expand their Cooltopia universe.
Due to the overwhelming amount of engagement, their community managers realized that the supply wouldn’t be able to handle the demand. As a result, they created a discord channel where Cool Cat NFT holders could nominate a friend for the exclusive pre-sale of the Cool Pets. By doing this, they tightened their community as they invited their best friends to join them in their journey.
Deadfellaz’ Deadhunters
Another NFT collection famous for its innovative ways of community building is Deadfellaz. The project featuring zombies launched on Friday the 13th (Augustus 2021) and included various means to help their storytelling, from secret traits in the artwork to creative lore.
As a result, the project generated a sales volume of 28.100 Ethereum (over 78 million euros). This number indicates that these NFTs have been resold many times, which is why the Deadfellaz organize various events to activate their community.
Their most recent activation was a Deadhunters challenge on Friday the 13th (of May 2022), where their NFT owners were provided with clues on Discord and had to guess a related keyword. Most of these answers were connected to the Deadfellaz lore and thus immersing new investors into their lore and community.
Coinbase supporting inclusivity
It is no secret that the current crypto and NFT space is mainly dominated by men, which is why Coinbase tries to support inclusivity and organizes regular Twitter Spaces where they invite prominent female leaders to talk about their journey and inspire others.