As an NFT project, you must manage the community’s expectations of your work.
If not, you’ll battle against FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) more often than necessary. Setting expectations of what your project will execute will clarify the long-term (non-financial) value you will provide to holders. The community learns what the project priorities are whether that’s the art, the utility, and/or the community experience.
This blog provides actions to set expectations or actions to avoid .By doing so, there is a standard you are held accountable to.
In the last post (Part 4), I discussed the third theme from my interviews with 8 NFT projects on how to build trust with your NFT community: engage with others in the NFT community. This 8 part blog series is based on my Master’s research project. If you haven’t already, read Part 1. It provides the research context and the 8 interview participants.
Let’s dive in.
Never Guarantee Profits
Although holders of NFTs have the potential to profit off selling, NFT project teams should never guarantee profits. Let the community, potential buyers, and holders of your collection know upfront that there are no guaranteed profits.
Cris, founder of Goofy Gang, explains, “What I try to do is to make people aware that we are not their investment fund managers. We are an NFT project. Our responsibility is not to raise the value of NFT.” Cris elaborates, “You shouldn’t promise guaranteed profits on any project because no matter how hard you work you don’t know if it’s going to go well or not.”
Just like Cris, you should clarify this to your project’s community. This helps people align with the project’s purpose, instead of a get rich quick scheme.
Be Cautious of What You Announce
To avoid disappointment from the community, stay cautious of what you announce and when.
Overpromising and overhyping your project will reduce the community’s trust in your project; therefore, only make announcements of features you’ll release when it is close to being finished.
For example, Max from Universe.25 explains, “we are very careful with announcements. We’ve always made sure that if we announced something, it’s 100% going to happen and it’s almost done at the point that we announced it.” Participants from other projects agree with this sentiment. Con elaborates, “If you build up hype and it doesn’t live up to the expectation, you lose every bit of trust, so we want to keep it professional and not overdo it with rocket emojis and fire emojis.”
Create a Feasible Roadmap
The best way to manage community expectations is to share a roadmap that the team can achieve.
Everyone interviewed believes a feasible roadmap allows the community to believe in a realistic roadmap and avoid FUD. Missing out on milestones (especially if they are big one) can damage trust in the project.
Dave, co-founder of Derp Birds, explains “We’ve tried to have a roadmap that would be fun, unique, exciting, but, most importantly, feasible, something we knew we could deliver on,” said Dave. “We see a lot of projects that have these crazy ambitious roadmaps, which are red flags for me.”
To build and sustain trust with your community, a roadmap that the team can execute is better than a roadmap that attracts more members.
Conclusion
Managing your community expectations is a proactive and ongoing task. It’s best to never guarantee profits, be cautious with announcements, and create a feasible roadmap.
Overhyping and overpromising on your project can lead to negative consequences that reduce the amount of holders that trust you. Moreover, ridiculous roadmaps where you don’t hit milestones will spread negative word of mouth marketing, which will erode trust in your team’s ability.
The next blog (Part 6) will cover theme 5: Honest Communication and Transparency