Hello Dear Explorers, its been a while. Hope you not gotten lost on your adventure in the Crypto forest! Before we embark on another journey together, I wanted to introduce to new format of the Protocol Newsletter. I have some new segments I've been cooking:
DappaDan's Dev Diary - A weekly collection of the things I have learned this week. The goal is to help you learn as well. Kicking of the road to DevConnect, the first theme will be Zero Knowledge.
DappaDan Discusses - Looking at fancy crypto concepts and how they actually work or don't work for developers right now. Also how projects can improve their developer experience in the future.
DappaDan Dissects - A dissection of the technical content strategy of a Web3 projects. By looking at these closely, the world will have more and better developer content for everyone. We are starting with BASE and #OnChainSummer, which is what you are reading now!
Hope you packed well traveler, let's get going!
It's All About That BASE
Unless you have been living under a rock, decided to stop playing Elon's game and stayed on BlueSky or actually touched grass this summer then you have heard about BASE.
In a crowded L2 world, how did BASE become the L2 "It Girl" of the summer? Was it because of the incredible shine of Brian Armstrong's head?
Maybe that had something to do with it, but this article would be over now if that was the case. Let's look at the other reasons that their content plan was successful:
Be Everywhere
Be everywhere. Thanks for the obvious advice. Being everywhere can be effective or very ineffective. If you are singing the same song everywhere and that song is really annoying, it doesn't help. To have a good developer content strategy, you need to learn to also adopt your message to whereever you are.
In my podcast feed alone, it was Jesse Pollak season. He appeared on at least 8 podcasts from April to August. And I even probably missed some.
This number is not only impressive but how he executed this coverage is where "the money is". The message about BASE was adapted to the different core audiences of each podcast. For example, on the "Boy's Club" podcast it was explaining the value of L2s while on "Bankless" it was going into the depth of the OP stack.
Speaking of Jesse, this brings us to our next point:
Who Says What Matters
Most Web3 projects have their designated "content team" to handle developer content. This is normally either the technical founder, the Developer Relations team or the poor Marketing person who wakes up every day and wonders how they ended up in Crypto. Jesse is none of these things. By his own intros, he is a Director of Engineering at Coinbase.
We are so used to seeing slick slides from DevRel or hearing about the "vision" from CXOs these days. It is still pretty rare to see those who are building the protocol also talk about it in public.
If you want to build developer trust, involving your dev team is critical. Sure, they might be all so busy "building the future" but that future may never come if devs aren't building on your protocol.
Own The Season
Seasonal tech marketing promotions can be very cringey when you say them out loud. Like have you ever canceled a date because you need to finish your Hacktober project? Certainly not this Dan! But their effectiveness can outweigh the cringe.
Summer seems a great season "to own". Remember all those cool Solana Summer glasses??
Spotlight the Builders
If you make your technical content strategy only about your protocol, have fun with giving yourself high fives. Spotlighting the builders should be your #1 priority. These people are advocates not on your payroll. They don't just wear your swag, they live it.
BASE and #OnChainSummer did a great job of spotlighting projects that are building on BASE by showcasing one every day.
But this showcase wasn't just a lazy mention like "Ayo big shout out to @NFTProject for building on BASE yo!" . They both created a dedicated site: onchainsummer.xyz and a recurring series called "ONCHAIN SUMMER STORIES". Quality recurring content.
DAY SEVENTEEN@AtariX is bringing Summer Camp vibes onchain with a digital collectible and three pieces of retro merch
onchainsummer.xyz/atari
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@jessepollak is joined by @yelebademosi and @toyinjolapamo from @OnboardWallet
LIVE NOW
Ask the Community
Now the summer is over. The leaves are beginning to change colors. The pumpkin spice everything is hitting the shelves.
What is BASE going to do now? Will the team go on a brainstorming retreat in Bali? Will they come up with a successful sequel?
They didn't think they can just re-create their success alone. , They did something really smart. They just asked the community what they wanted to see next. That's it. Just asked.
- what would you like to see us work on?
- what feedback do you have?
- what can we improve?
open to any and all ideas
And I understand, that sometimes you don't get anything back. You have a lonely Tweet or sad Discord Message with no replies. But it never hurts to try!
On To The Next
Hopefully, you have read something here that could help you in your technical content strategy.
Yes, Coinbase might have a larger budget than you. More Name recognition. And of course, shinier heads. But most of these things cost you little to nothing to execute .
The return of adapting to your audience, whatever community you have, and giving them a stage will always be worth it.
See you next time for the first entry in the DappaDan Dev Journal!
With Love,
DappaDan
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