While the term “fake news” has been around for a while, the phrase gained new life and popularity when former US President Donald Trump turned it into a viral campaign slogan. “Fake news” eventually became a generation-defining meme, and this is probably because there is some truth to the phrase that resonates with the public to this day.
The media occasionally makes mistakes in their reporting, and even Cointelegraph is not immune to this. At the same time, news anchors, journalists and media companies have also been known to cast aside objectivity and inject their personal opinions (or those of their paid sponsors) into what is promoted as strictly fact-based news.
In 2023, this has become a crisis faced by crypto content creators. The proverbial “template” is over, and many investors are now well aware that much cryptocurrency-focused content has an ulterior motive for selling a particular coin or, in some cases, a paid, unannounced sponsor backing the content of the day. As a result of the broader fallout, several professional and amateur crypto content creators have said The agenda Maintaining and growing your subscribers has been a challenge this year.
In episode 22 of The agendaPresenters Ray Salmond and Jonathan DeYoung spoke with Nathan Leung, co-founder and host of Cryptonauts YouTube channel, about the practicalities of educating and onboarding new users to cryptocurrencies on YouTube, and how to stay ethical while doing so.
Humanizing is appealing
Leung said The agenda that when trying to cut through all the chaff, “humanizing” content is a useful and effective tactic, given that “in times like this, everyone is saying, ‘NFTs are a scam, blah, blah, blah.’ It’s all a scam.’” But, as he points out, “there are also good people trying to make digital ownership a real thing. In fact, there are builders who organize hackathons to try to find the best project, right? In fact, there are real builders who want this technology to help the world in some way.”
So, Cryptonauts talk to these builders and emphasize that they are just normal people on a mission. “It’s a kind of humanization. It’s like, yeah, you’re worth $250 million or $18 billion, right? But what do you do? Do you wake up in the morning? Do you have family? Do you walk your dog?
Related: The Agenda podcast predicts the future of cryptocurrencies and talks about their adoption
Leung also emphasized the importance of respecting “the viewer’s time,” noting that the ultimate goal is for viewers to watch an entire video and not feel like they’ve wasted their time.
“If you’re going to watch our video, we want you to at least watch the whole thing, right? So if we feel like it’s not absolutely necessary, we don’t want to waste their time either, because time is obviously the most valuable currency. So we try to keep it short and concise.”
He added: “I think a lot of people think longer videos are better, but I think if you can save people’s time, condense it and make it engaging, they could be two minutes.”
Why Cryptonauts Values Organic Growth Over Shilling Paid
While many crypto content creators have been exposed for spending money or accepting money under the table to promote other projects’ tokens, Leung says. Cryptonauts You don’t have this problem because you don’t depend on sponsored content to make money.
“So, I think we had a rule: we said we would never do ICOs (initial coin offerings) from the beginning. We would only cover projects that were already listed and launched, and that turned out to be good. And we also established as a fundamental rule not to promote any exchange; “You already saw what happened with FTX.”
Putting authenticity and enjoyment before monetization, Leung said: “We just do what we want and tell the stories we want. We just want to tell some good stories, create some good content, and have fun while doing it. “I think that’s the most important thing because money can’t buy passion.”
Despite admitting that “people don’t really care about cryptocurrencies” at the moment when asked about Cryptonauts‘ goals for the future, Leung said the channel is “really trying to bring the crypto community together.”
“I think we want to start doing something a little different. Just to practice what we preach. “If it’s about community, we should start doing some real-life events.”
To hear more of Leung’s conversation with The agenda – including Cryptonauts‘ forward-looking vision to combine real-life experiences with crypto content and give back to their community – listen to the full episode on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page. Apple Podcasts either Spotify. And don’t forget to check out the full schedule of other Cointelegraph shows!
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This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.