Although I am by no means a pressure-type sales person, I do mention Steemit to most people I know to be active bloggers or who create content for social media.
Steemit Has Lots of Potential!
Personally, I believe Steemit has the potential to become a model for the future of social content sites... but-- as I am sure many of you know-- most other people are far more skeptical.
Blooming Thistle
I have already written about dealing with people who think Steemit "must be a scam."
This time, I want to take a moment to talk about the skeptics who dismiss cryptocurrencies (and by extension Steem/Steemit) with words like... "Oh, come on! That's not a real thing-- it's like Monopoly money!"
The title of this post was borrowed-- quite literally-- from someone I connected with recently who stated "Thinking that virtual crypto money stuff is REAL is kinda like saying you believe the Tooth Fairy is real!"
Wait... what?
The Tooth Fairy isn't REAL???
Whaaaaa....?
What is this particular angle of skepticism about?
The woman I was talking to would probably have taken me more seriously if I'd actually had some physical Steem "gold coins" I could have shown her. Clearly her mistrust-- as well as the mistrust of others we may encounter who throw up similar objections-- had to do with not believing that something could be "real" if there were no physical representation of it.
White Clover in bloom
This in one of the more difficult "breeds" of skeptics I encounter.
And-- believe it or not-- maybe I can't ENTIRELY blame her.
Let's face it, when we go to cryptocurrency web sites, the imagery used is not a bunch of numbers and symbols representing the blockchain... it's usually what? A bunch of gold and silver coins. It's deeply ingrained in our culture that "money"-- currency-- has some kind of physical manifestation. Even if you lived in 19th century East Africa, there were physical cowrie shells used where cowries were money.
Whether we think it's worth something or not, when we hold that piece of paper with a picture of Ben Franklin on it, we know (or believe) we "have" a hundred dollars. It's a thing.
One challenge in "selling" the idea of cryptocurrency is getting past the block that we have "nothing."
Yellow apple on the beach
Paradoxically Speaking...
Regardless of whether we constantly engage in online banking, pay with a debit card and use web commerce that's nothing but a bunch of quickly moving numbers on a screen... we have still been conditioned to believe that SOMEwhere there's a (intrinsically valueless) piece of paper with a picture of Ben Franklin and the number "100" on it to somehow represent what we just did.
Breaking Through the Resistance
In "another life," I spent years and years designing and writing copy for sales brochures and letters.
One of the main keys to creating a successful sales letter is tweaking the words to where you best break through people's "resistance." Sometimes you just move the words around, or try a couple of different words... and it can make all the difference in the world.
Red salvia in our garden
And one of the most successful ways to achieve this breakthrough is through allowing someone to "self discover," rather than pound them over the head with a bunch of facts and figures.
There's no set formula for this... and often best thing is to simply say "Yes, that really DOES seem like imaginary money. So what would it take to make it REAL for you?" and then go from there, adapting your approach as you go. Remember, just because you know there's something "real" there doesn't mean anyone else does, even with persuasion.
So be prepared for the outcome that the other person still thinks we're are playing with Monopoly money, here on Steemit.
In the meantime, maybe we should consider minting some pretty golden Steem coins... so the Tooth Fairy can leave them!
How about YOU? What kind of skepticism have you encountered when telling people about Steemit? Have you been told that Steem is not "real money?" Have people said that to you about cryptocurrencies, in general? What-- if anything-- have you said to successfully persuade them otherwise? Do you sometimes wish you had some actual Steem "coins" to show people? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- start the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)