Imagine a world where influencers and creators were so secure in a separate method of monetization that they had only taken sponsors and ads they were comfortable with.
Does that sound crazy? If it sounds crazy to you, don't worry. It should sound crazy to most people.
Today, creators and influencers bend over backward for advertisers. YouTubers are always
The reason, of course, is simple. It's not easy to be a creator or an influencer. It's a difficult job that takes time and capital to be successful at. For creators to fund their lifestyle, they need to monetize their creations. Unfortunately, the only way to do that right now is either through acting as ads careers for social media platforms or carrying ads through their contents themselves.
This creates a situation where the ad economy is what employs creators. Since they cannot do without these ads, they have to accept whatever comes their way. Very few creators have the financial capacity to refuse an ad based on a principled position. This means that very few creators have a useful principled stand on anything. They can only refuse the most egregious ads, and this is often because the platform they are on has already refused those ads.
Social tokens change all of that. If you didn't know what social tokens are before, here's a short rundown; social tokens are essentially crypto assets on the blockchain that grants their holders special privileges and are released by a creator or community.
The main differences between a social token and a cryptocurrency are that cryptocurrencies are usually the native asset of a blockchain, while social tokens are just built on an existing blockchain. Simply put, a social token is a crypto asset released by a creator that grants its holders certain privileges.
These social tokens are game-changers for creators and influencers all over the world because they mean that creators can now monetize their following. There are no social media platforms that pay people for having millions of followers. However, a creator that releases a social token can earn money by having those millions of followers buy the tokens.
Since those tokens are intrinsically valuable because they grant the owners special privileges, they create their demand. Their demand is tied to how popular and useful the creator who releases them is.
These tokens incentivize creators to create, not for the platform they are on — but for their audience. It also frees them from the need to take ads that do not represent their values or that of their followers. This means that influencers will have the freedom to decide what brands or products get mileage on their platforms.
The effects of this will be immediately apparent to ethically ambiguous brands and companies. They will no longer have the capacity to hold influencers to ransom with ad dollars. Influencer marketing will go from a free for all rodeo where anyone with enough money can play, to a game closely regulated by creators and their followers. The result would be a situation where the health, wellbeing, and vitality of people will be prioritized by more companies when creating products.
Examples of Social Tokens Today
Like almost everything else in the ever-expanding cryptoverse, social tokens are a relatively new concept. We already understand their potential. We know that they can change the world of marketing, empower creators, and provide a complete experience for fans.
However, there's still a lot we do not know. Since these tokens will either be bought by fiat or something easily exchanged for fiat, they could be interpreted as securities. This means they could potentially come under regulation by the SEC or a sister organization.
In any case, there are already several platforms testing out the idea of creating social tokens on a large scale for creators. One of such platforms is
There are also social tokens on the market already. One of such tokens is the
However, superstars like !llmind are not the only ones using social tokens to create a thriving community. There are also unknown creators who are using social tokens to expand their brands and communities too.
A good example is Jaylen Clark, a sophomore graduate on UCLA’s basketball team. Aside from being a pretty good athlete, Clark is also a social media sensation with a decent following on Youtube, Instagram, and Tik Tok. A while ago, Clark created a token he aptly named the
If they are right about $JROCK and he becomes a superstar in the NBA, their tokens would be worth maybe a hundred times what it is currently worth.
Clark isn't the only sports star that is in on the social coin rave. Kayvon Thibodeaux, a defensive end for the New York Giants, is also building his own virtual community with his own coin called the $JREAM coin.
Unlike Clark, Thibodeaux's goal for building the
Another great example of these social tokens is the
The Future of Social Tokens
With companies and projects like Axxis, BLAP, JROCK, JREAM, AND GEEK taking the reins, the future for social tokens is very bright. Tokens like $BLAP have provided the proof of concept that creators need to get into it. With more creators getting interested in Web3 and the cryptoverse, social tokens will inevitably take off. It's essentially a matter of when, not if.
Of course, in the future, influencer marketing will take a different dimension. Brands and products that need huge influencers for their marketing will either need to stop being morally ambiguous, or they would have to abandon the influencer marketing neck of the woods forever.