As I mentioned in my previous post, the UK Steemit promotion team would come to Sheffield universities (The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University) today to promote Steemit to university students.
I am very pleased to join this fantastic event, contributing my efforts to promote Steemit. By joining this sort of activity, I got know more Steemians such as @starkerz and @artonmysleeve, as well as some new ideas.
The challenge of off-line marketing in the UK
The UK is a country with much freedom, at the cost of many regulations. The organisers of this event prepared many stuff to promote Steemit, such as free T-shorts with Steemit logo (they also donated 10 T-shirts for our coming Sheffield Steemians meetup), leaflets and business cards.
However, the site such as the Student Union, where usually has many students, is not allowed for us to do any marketing activities. This is because the site is financially sponsored by some organisations. It is then exclusively for some specific groups to use the site, no matter our marketing is for profit or not.
Another problem is that it is not allowed to distribute leaflets to people at public space, unless you have the so called street license obtained from each local city council, which costs around 100 GBP!!!
I joked with @starkerz and @artonmysleeve, it is really hard to make big money in the UK as there are always so many ridiculous rules. So I am going to leave this country.
Tricks for on-site marketing
Everybody looks very busy on the street. Some people may not trust us firstly, what are you doing? I do not have time to listen you. Face-to-face marketing does need tricks. We sometimes even followed people's walking pace while explaining Steemit to them, to save people's time. @starkerz once told students they can use Steemit to raise funds for a specific project.
One student asked: where does the money paid to Steemit users come from? In a nutshell, we consider Steemit as another Facebook, the value each Facebook user create makes Facebook one of the richest internet company. Now, the decentralised blog website Steemit return the value to its users.
I showed students my account @tumutanzi, the money I earned from Steemit is a real story, but I also pointed out not every body can earn that much. One girl astonished that one blog post can earn 80 GBP (about 100 USD), she open her mouth signalling how possible it could be?
When talking to strangers, we do need patience and politeness. As there are so many Chinese students in UK, the ability I can speak Chinese also helps a lot.
The passion from UK steemians
It has to be pointed out that the UK roadshow of promoting Steemit has nothing to the official Steemit. It is organised and sponsored by UK promoting team. I can feel their passion for Steemit. They do hope the Steemit community grows strong and more prosperous, with more new Steemit users joining.
@starkerz told me he himself does not post so much, neither does he need other people to upvote him. But he does upvote other people. He hope Steemit becomes stronger when more people join Steemit, which will increase the price of steem. He owns a moderate amount of steem. By promoting Steemit to make the Steem cake bigger, it is absolutely alright to get the profit from the increased price of steem, in my opinion.
@starkerz's action and story reminds me of the famous words said by Jack Ma (key founder of Alibaba): It is better to have dreams, in case it may come true!
The following pictures were taken during this interesting event. I am happy to share them with my readers. Besides Steemians meetup, I do recommend my fellow steemians to organise events in your cites like what we did today. You will have some exciting outcome, probably more than things about Steemit.
Fresher students in UK university (The University of Sheffield, Student Union Building) // 英国大学新生开学了，图为谢菲尔德大学学生会中心。
Marketing dancing from a coffee shop to welcome freshers? // 某咖啡店的舞蹈营销欢迎新生？
@starkerz explained Steemit to students while following their walking to save their time. 随着人们的步伐，一边推广Steemit，节约人们的时间。
Introducing Steemit to Chinese students in UK. // 向华人学生介绍Steemit.
The centre gentle man is a steemian @cacophony! // 中间这位是一位老Steemian @cacophony.
Beautiful girls // 美丽的女孩子们
He does not want to show in photos, we respect privacy. // 这位路人不想被拍到脸，我们尊重隐私。
Introducing steemit to students // 向美女学生介绍Steemit
Business card can be handed to people // Steemit名片，可以发给路人。
Steemit flyers // Steemit宣传单
Steemit stickers // Steemit贴纸
@tumtuanzi, @starkerz, @artsonmysleeve (it is a pity @stephenkendal did not come today). // 三人参与了今天的路演活动。
Originally posted on https://steemit.com. Thank you for reading my post, feel free to Follow, Upvote, Reply, Resteem (repost) @tumutanzi, which will motivate me to create more quality posts.
正如之前我曾说过，英国的Steemit宣传团队今天到达谢菲尔德市，主要在谢菲尔德大学和谢菲尔德哈雷姆大学面向年轻人宣传Steemit.
我很高兴有机会加入这样的活动中，为宣传Steemit贡献我自己的力量。也通过线下活动，认识了朋友 @starkerz 和 @artonmysleeve，还在其它方面也有所收获。
在英国举办线下活动的挑战
虽然英国是一个自由的国家。但自由的代价是有很多规定。组织者其实准备了很多材料，T恤自然不必说——他们免费送给我一件并赞助了我们谢菲尔德月末Steemit聚会10件T恤，还有宣传单和名片。
但是，处在英国各大学新生开学之际，如果要在比如学生会中心这样的人流集中地开展宣传活动，是不允许的，管理人员立马过来阻止，因为场地是某些机构赞助的，所以一切无关活动都不允许加入——无论是你是否带有营利目的。
此外，英国的公共场所不允许散发传单——除非你每年向当地市政府交纳100英镑左右的许可费用！我当时就揶揄英国的朋友，在你们英国真是奇怪的规矩太多了，要赚大钱几乎是不太可能的，所以我打算离开这个国家……
现场营销活动的技巧
每个人都很匆忙——至少看起来是如此，不少人还带有戒备心，你在宣传什么玩意儿？我哪有时间听你长篇大论？所以这需要技巧。我们有时候要随着人们的脚步一边走一边解释来节省别人的时间。@starkerz 甚至向学生们说：你可以通过Steemit筹集某个活动的经费。
有个学生问：钱从哪儿来？简而言之，把Steemit理解成Facebook，过去每个用户创造的价值造就了Facebook世界有钱的互联网公司之一，而Steemit就相当于去中心化的Facebook，每个用户创造的价值返还给了用户。
我以我自己 @tumutanzi 的实际例子，告诉他们这一切是真的——当然我也强调不敢保证每个用户都一定能收获这么多，有一个女孩表示：一篇贴子能收获80英镑（约100美元）？她当即张开大嘴表示惊讶。
具体和别人宣传的时候，耐心和礼貌是必备的素质。此外，英国大学里由于不少华人学生，我的中文能力也派上了用场……
英国Steemit朋友的激情
需要注意的是，这一系列Steemit大学路演活动，与Steemit官方公司并无联系，全凭英国的Steemit宣传团队自发自费组织。从中可以感觉到他们的激情与纯真梦想，就是想让Steemit变得更强大。
组织者 @starkerz 告诉我，其实他本人并不怎么写太多的文章，也不怎么需要别人给他点赞，他倒是给别人点赞比较多，当然，他的追求是，更多的人加入Steemit，Steem的价格就会更高，我能看到他的账户拥有几万个Steem——不算多也不算少。他们通过具体的行动来推广Steemit, 把蛋糕做得更大，到最终能收获更多的投资回报，这是完全可取的事情。
@starkerz 等的行动也许正呼应了马云的那句话：梦想要有的，万一实现了呢？
也欢迎各位中文Steemit好友组织线下宣传活动和线下聚会，你们肯定会有意想不到的收获，并且不只是有关Steemit。
https://steemit.com 首发。感谢阅读，欢迎Follow, Upvote, Reply, Resteem (repost) @tumutanzi 激励我创作更多更好的内容。