[Short #54] NFT Social Media

One NFT brand is about to hit 1M followers 😱

For those in the US, I hope you had a great long weekend celebrating the 4th!

I caught up on The Boys (my goodness, what a show), did some yard work, watched F1 (congrats to Sainz for his first win!), went through the final phase of my recovery from NFT NYC, and continued to play with my newly adopted cat Nara.

BTW, this is Nara. 😍 My fiancée adopted her while I was away in Austin for Consensus, savage 😂

Anyway, enough about myself or my cat that I will post occasional photos of (occasional = 1-5 times a week…😇).

Let’s talk about:

Social Media Followings

Sometime last week, I came across a tweet calling out that Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Twitter account will be crossing 1 million followers soon. While showering this morning, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head, and voilà now we have the topic of the day!

What gives, what’s so significant about this?

Let’s do a little unscientific comparison for fun.

Woah.

With this limited comparison, it would be generous to call this an analysis, but it does make you wonder…🤔. Some thoughts that come to my head:

Product-Audience-Channel Fit

Instagram and Twitter are a small sample of all the social platforms out there, but it does paint an interesting picture.

BAYC has a stronger following on Twitter as crypto/NFT’s social platform of choice is Twitter. They have a formidable Instagram following despite only having 50 IG posts.

On the other hand Peloton has a pretty large IG following as Instagram is still the best platform for aspirational visual content. Peloton is an account you’d want to follow not only if you have a Peloton, but if you want to get fit and inspired to work out.

These numbers aren’t representative of the community

Sure, Peloton’s almost 2 million followers on Instagram is great for brand awareness for Peloton owners and non-owners, but you know what drives real engagement for actual users? Probably these Facebook groups where you can share progress, ask questions, and get tips.

On a separate note, Discord would be perfect for these groups. However, Peloton’s user base (female leaning, wider age range) is likely less receptive to a new platform like Discord vs. Facebook, which everyone has.

Oh wait…you know who’s audience is a good fit for Discord?

It’s also important to note that BAYC is one of the several products of Yuga Labs, the parent company. So if we were to compare the social reach on a company level, not just a product level, things look different.

Yuga Labs = Yuga + BAYC + Cryptopunks/Meebits + Otherside. So let’s do the same comparison with total reach. Caveat: This is total followers, not uniques. But, you get the point 🙃

When were these accounts created?

WOOF!

Not all consumers are created equal

Who is the largest Peloton fan? I have no idea, but I’m sure there are some big celebrities out there that are huge fans.

But…would they change their profile pic to a Peloton logo, or a picture of them riding? Doubt it.

What about Bored Apes holders?

But it’s on Twitter TPan. You just said it’s for crypto/NFT people.

Fine.

Happy?

I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but we see similar moves across many other massive celebrities including Snoop Dogg and Neymar.

Why would celebrities do this without getting anything in return? Commercial rights and creating a digital persona, remember? :)

‘Normal’ ape holders are starting to amass followings as well due to the association with such a large brand and the mutually aligned incentives. A small random sample from my Twitter timeline:

These “OG Apes” would literally ride or die for BAYC. Would Peloton fans do that? I’m a little less sure.

Also, don’t get me started on NFT project founders who are typically much more active on social media than your average public company executive. Executive Comms is a whole different ballgame in Web3.

What about other projects?

You have a point TPan. But it’s Bored Apes, that’s an anomaly.

You’re right. Let’s see some other top tier NFT projects in the space and see where they’re at.

You could make a lot of assumptions here, but the main takeaways for me are:

• Yuga, specifically Bored Apes have a massive social influence and following, but other top NFT brands have a large social following too. Also, they’re younger.

• Twitter is unanimously the top social media platform for NFTs. No surprise there.

These stats continue to confirm the 3C framework. Culture is complicated in today’s society, and social media is a core component of it. The winning brands and projects will not only be innovative, but they will also create a sustainable following on the most important platforms to spread that culture.

See you tomorrow!

PS: Not sure why I picked Peloton as a point of comparison, it just came to me. Maybe I secretly just want a Peloton, heh! Also as mentioned before, this analysis is not a deep dive. A lot of caveats, but still interesting numbers to take note.