Recently, there has been a lot of interest and growth in the cryptocurrency industry. Institutional and retail investors are becoming more invested and involved in the blockchain and crypto space.
In 2017, The number of blockchain wallets increased by 85%, Bitcoin’s prices increased by 1300%, and big money became interested in the emerging asset class of cryptocurrencies. There are millions of crypto investors worldwide… and their communication platform of choice is Telegram.
Why Telegram?
Telegram has become popular in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency for its blockchain and cryptocurrency messaging groups. According to Combot, every one of the top five groups on Telegram (English) is a cryptocurrency related group. On Telegram, groups can hold up to 100,000 people, messaging is fast and secure, and Telegram provides an API that developers can create with.
Building a Community: What’s Your Purpose?
It is not unusual to see tens of thousands of people in one Telegram group–any Telegram user has the ability to create a group, but it is not easy to make a group popular. FR8 Network began as a blockchain community on telegram with only 250 members, their goal was to get more individuals aware of the benefits blockchain technologies can have in the supply chain and freight industries and to create a community of individuals who support the same cause. In just three months the Fr8 Network community grew from 250 members to over 8,000 members.
So what makes a Telegram group popular, lively, and desirable enough to have thousands of people want to join?
To get your community started, you are going to need to provide a reason for individuals to want to join your community. The reason could be that you have created a group that targets a niche or specific group of people, or maybe your channel provides the best source of blockchain and cryptocurrency related news or trading signals. Either way, you will need to provide a reason for individuals to want to be part of your community.
Attracting Members
Once you have established the purpose of your community, whether it be quality discussion or a content-based channel where updates are given like a newsfeed, you are going to want to make other individuals aware that your group exists and that it is a community that people want to be a part of. You will find it beneficial to promote your Telegram channel through your other social media platforms. Linking your Telegram channel in your bio and occasionally posting content that is linked to your Telegram will draw in users who are already interested in your community to your Telegram group.
To get new members, you could take a more direct approach, and contact individuals directly or spread the word through other communities, forums, and message boards. Hosting events is also a great way to meet new people and exchange insightful information that could lead to community growth; meet-ups are a great way to garner your community because some of the best minds that are interested and dedicated to crypto are usually the ones who come out to meet-up events.
Holding contests and giveaways are also effective ways to draw new users to your group and promote interest in the group you have created. If individuals have an incentive to join, and could possibly receive a reward for joining or being a member, individuals will be inclined to join your community and will look forward to the occasional perks that they can receive from being a member.
Keeping the Community Active
For the community to survive, members must remain engaged with the group’s conversation and the content posted. It is important for the members to feel comfortable enough to express their opinions and discuss all things crypto related. Conversation and content keep communities alive. It is important for administrators to try to answer community members questions as quickly and effectively as possible and to look out for any messages that are not in line with the rules of the group. Admins should try to encourage conversation by providing material or bringing up topics that can be further explored by the members of the group.
Tips
Try to keep the group ad-free and spam free. Although cryptocurrency is a new and exciting space, the industry is still prone to acts of fraud and manipulation. Telegram was once a popular location for members in the crypto community to organize pump and dumps to boost coins with small market caps. However, Telegram’s API makes it possible for developers to create programs that mitigate the amount of fraud and manipulation that community members are exposed to.
Tools like Indisputable Labs’ Coral were created to do just that. Coral sends out a bot that scans the wallet addresses posted to Telegram groups and uses predictive analytics to assign trust scores to the wallet addresses. If the bot assigns a trust score to a wallet address that is below a benchmark trust-score number, then Coral will alert the Telegram group about the wallet address and the potential for an incoming scam or phishing attempt. But even though tools like Coral exist, you must do your own research. Every investment involves risk, so you should always conduct your own research before investing.
Investor Support
In 2016 it was reported that Telegram has over 100 million active users, and recently, Telegram canceled their initial coin offering because the private pre-sale of their token was so successful. With just 200 investors involved, Telegram raised 1.7 billion, .5 billion more than they were expecting to bring in. The amount of support Telegram receives from institutional investors should be enough to give users confidence in the services Telegram provides. After all, there is a reason so many crypto-communities call Telegram home.
Images courtesy of Telegram, Combot, Shutterstock
