How to Degen Without Losing Your Cool (or Your Cred) - Paula Vulić | Underground Agency

Can I get a raise of hands? Who here considers themselves to be a DJ? We have one. Okay, let me tell you this. If you are a memecoin project that wants to be successful, you need to be a DJ.

But if you are a professional project that needs to be successful, you also need to be a DJ. And now today, I'm going to explain you exactly how, why, and when to employ Denionism into your marketing tactics. Uh so today we're going to cover the difference between Digenism and professionalism. What it even means to be a DJ and what it means to be a professional in the web three space. how to approach one, how to approach the other, when to choose each one, and uh some funny dos and don'ts and some very slippery things that happened in the past month in the web three marketing space.

So what it really means den is sc memes and culture. Digenism is uh kos influencers. It is raiding Twitter posts. It is that signal your friend sends you at 1:30 a.m.

on Telegram and with a contract address and says buy this go all in. That is Den. And sometimes people when they hear Dionism especially a bit more business people uh they roll their eyes. They think oh this is something for the idiots you know this is something for the lowhanging fruit. But with how the crypto space is evolving, many many people are becoming dian.

I can also say for myself, I'm now full on digent mode, checking what I will buy over telegram and over Twitter. I don't care about the chart. And that is uh that is what do on the other hand we have professionals. That is your old web two way of okay uh let's first settle this marketing strategy before posting anything and then after three months you still didn't have a yes for every suit from every suit about this marketing strategy you still didn't post anything and you have your token holders being angry and asking when marketing when marketing when marketing in the group chat that is professionalism but also it is really really important to step your best foot forward because you guys don't are not memecoin projects. I'm not here to say how memecoin marketing works.

You're a real project but you need to show your face. You need to establish clear communication and we are going to go over that today. Uh just remember please uh these three profiles. These are three founders. Obviously you all know CZ.

Uh Jess, he is the founder of Bass. He is also very famous in the crypto Twitter space. And then we have Ethan. Uh he's the founder of one DCI project, Curtopia. And as you can see, he also is a K that is promoting not web three but his own research and his audience is web three people.

That is what we are striving for. I'm going to tell you more later. And the best thing is you don't need to choose you don't need to choose one or the other. And you shouldn't choose one or the other because your project's marketing will fail. You cannot go full DEN if you're a wallet because it will bring zero trust to people if you are just Den but also if you are not if you are only professional and not engaging your community then your wallet will get lost in se in the sea of 10,000 other wallets that exist.

So we will we will see what you can do to get the best of both worlds. How to how to establish professionalism first and the most important one is clear communication. So communicate everything even if you have a hack even if there is like a huge token dump for some reason. You don't need to communicate it on Twitter because there it stays but communicate it to your telegram audience at least. Don't just when people start asking about the price you cannot ignore these messages.

You need to like tell them what is your plan, how you plan to fix it. They shouldn't be worried. This is what professional means. One thing I always say to founders uh because every time I say personal brand, all the founders say, "Yes, I know." And they take their head in their hands and it is a nightmare.

Guys, you need to embrace being cringe. I'm sorry. It is how it is. You need to be cringe. like you need to post every day on Twitter your internal thoughts uh updates from your project but not not just be a promo machine.

So for example, if you are building uh gaming infrastructure, nobody cares if just every day on your Twitter it is like update from your project. People don't care. But you are a gamer. Okay. What games are you playing?

How you got into gaming? What is the problem in the gaming space right now? What is the future of the gaming space? Those are the things that your audience wants to hear, wants to see. And your personal profile is much better place to put that than on the brand's page.

Uh so yes guys embrace being cringe. Then as I said staying active and present in the community that is that is GM messages and GM uh messages but not just that it should go beyond that. You should think how to engage the community by maybe asking them questions. What do they like the most about your project? When you have a newcomer in you ask him how did you hear about us and stuff like this.

This is really really helping foster this sense of community with people and they are much more likely to turn into longtime supporters when you have the founder or the managing director or somebody actually speaking to these people on Telegram. That doesn't mean you need to be glued to your phone 247. No. But couple times a day when you are done with coding or with filing texts or whatever, go and reply to messages because then people believe the team. It is not just somebody behind the mask, behind the screen, somebody not doxed.

Which brings me to another things. Uh you should be doxed. Like if you want to seem professional, you should be doxed. Like you should have a LinkedIn page. You should these people should know your background.

Why are you in the team? How are you how are you adding to the team? And why is it bullish that it is you making this project? It is not the same if somebody from the street comes and say yes I bring I making a new wallet or somebody that has I don't know 10k followers on Twitter and maybe you are a developer with many contributions to the open source and you say you are making a new wallet it is completely different level of trust and uh lastly focus on real partnerships and not just fake signals so I see uh sometimes people say okay we might get listed on this exchange or the fake AMAs that I hate when two projects that both have like 50 followers each, they host each other on the AMAs and then it's not just that they have maybe one AMA, they have 10 and they announce everyone and make a recap. That's just like noise.

You don't need that. And that is not that sounds insecure. It is not something that a real professional would promote because it is not worth promoting. Now to the fun part. How to DJ.

We have two parts. Uh people are afraid of dejening because they say, "Oh, but I'm a professional. I don't want to lose my credibility. What will people think of me if I post a meme?" And I want to tell you a story about what happened to me.

So I were I'm deep into decentralized science space. I love it so much. And I was working with a client and their head of research uh she she's a scientist. She is a 50year-old Canadian old school scientist and we were hired to do their branding, their socials and everything. And they wanted to there are publishing platforms.

So they wanted to be fun and bold not too much but little bit dig and uh our first problem arised when we did the branding and branding was like in this pink purplish color let's say it was a bit bold because they had a podcast and we wanted people to click on that podcast and this scientist lady she told me and she says you know Paola I am really worried because what when my scientist friends see my face on this bold background my reputation that I've been building for these many for so many years it will go through the roof and I couldn't believe that somebody actually thinks that because there is a bold pink design their reputation that they were building as a scientist will go away but people do think that and this is just an exaggerated example but many many founders say okay but if we start posting meme then people memes then people will not take us seriously etc etc that is not the true that is not the truth your investors are people mostly already in the web3 space. Having dig approach in a in a normal manner is bullish. It is telling to people you are up to date with trends, you are quick because dig is all about the hype. So if you make one meme that was popular one month ago, it's cringe and you shouldn't do it. But if you make a meme that's popular right in that moment, that is signed to your community that your marketing manager is on his or her toes watching the crypto Twitter space and will be able to react when it will be next push to bring new investors in which in turn will make your old investors make money.

So this is kind of I just wanted to make this disclaimer that you do need a dig approach and it will not ruin your reputation if you do it smartly. So how to do it smartly first? Yes, memes. That doesn't mean your Twitter feed should be just memes, memes, memes. But when there is something fun, uh when there for example, there was that uh toys kit maybe a month ago.

Probably you saw it everywhere on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, it was with Chad GPT make me a toy kit. That is like that's a really nice meme, you know, that cannot ruin your reputation at all. So if you are a wallet on Ethereum, you will have like Ethereum sign, some wallets, like some UI there. It looks cute. Everybody's recognizing it.

It will get many likes because it is popular. So, bring some new people, some new audience. So, yes, memes. Please don't be afraid of memes, guys. There is no reason to be afraid.

Then, uh tap into real community voices and use KS. I'm not saying use KS, throw money at a K agency, and hope for the best. No, absolutely not. It is much better to find five, six Ks that work in your space. Don't hire, in my opinion, don't as a marketing agency, I tell you, don't hire a marketing agency for Kos.

Do it inhouse. Find five, six ones that are good, have good reach, and do and care exactly about what you do and then go with them because these shillers, what people are paying, it makes really no sense. It is a bad look for the company. Anybody that is in web three longer than six months can recognize shilling as opposed to actual promoting something that you believe in and that can ruin that is degening too much I would say. And lastly on this part uh run raids and x pushes.

So what it means a raid a raid is when uh you for example have a new twitter post or some blog or some challenge and you say to your community okay let's raid this post. There is also telegram bots that can do this. Uh and then everybody goes to like or retweet or share in uh let's say 20 minute radius when the post is just published because then the algorithm picks it up the best. It is not the same if you push the post when you first post it or if you push it in three days. If you push it in three days, you don't push it at all.

You already the time has passed. So how the raids work? You post a post, you send to your telegram group with your community say hey guys super bullish we are launching our new feature next week please everybody share and then all they share and wow so good. So yes that is the way to go. Then next how to dig more without becoming a clown.

When you want to say something really controversial or poke fun uh then uh what you should do is make an intern account. That is a foolproof way that will not make ruin your reputation. So for example, we have near intern bay intern many different intern accounts. Why? Because this is not your project's official account.

I can now make pola intern account and who can ban me? Nobody can ban me. And I if I want I can hold this post about polka dot there and maybe I get some following. So how do intern account how to use intern accounts in your advantage? You take it, you make an intern account, you should post as an intern would, but then also you use to pro promote your projects.

In the same tone of voice of the account, they can also they can also criticize your competitors. It is intern account. You can say we don't have anything to do with this account and it is how it is done in the web tree. It is like this cool way of being able to speak your mind to be able to be more degen and being sure it will not kick you back in the ass. Uh remember Jess from Bass?

I wish one marketing stunt he did which we will go over later. It would have been better if he did it with the intern account and you guys will see why. Then next co-arketing. Find other projects in your niche that are not your direct competitors and do co-arketing. That includes AMAs that includes project uh promotion.

So for example let's say again gaming infrastructure company best gaming best games in web 3 in 2025 thread then they will repost their community is already web three gamers right so they are interested in your gaming infrastructure token that is how you should do it uh then next engage your community in raids as I already said and lastly include each other in in questing loops we will go over questing a bit more later. Uh but questing loops what it means is I have a quest u okay like follow blah blah blah but then my quest is also visit this other quest page and this is from my friend or my competitor and then it becomes like a big big loop I send you my project sends to another project's questing page other project questing page sends to a third project questing page and these are we are talking about airdrop farmers right uh So then at the end you have a huge amount of engagement which you cannot get uh if you do it on your own. You need to if you want to have a really successful questing platform you need to do co-arketing and co-questing. So that brings me to the to the important point and that is when to be a DJ and when to be a professional. So den you should be when you need to grab attention when it is something quick something hype uh and it is now or never when you feel like now or never it's den moment and go do it in the worst case scenario like people up more than you for sure and professional moments it is to establish trust for partnerships for investors especially and uh yes but you don't need to choose you can do both so when you want to grab attention take the dig approach When you want to keep attention and keep trust, take the professional approach.

What not to do? These are some real cases. First, Jess from B. He made a viral meme which was a GIF, basis for everybody, basis for gaming, basis for dealing, basis for this, basis for that. And one of them was basis for squirting.

So, there was a huge backlash. I don't know how guys uh active you are on crypto Twitter but there was a big big backlash every single girl that feels like a feminist they came down base price it was like it didn't grow I don't I don't think it fell down but this was exactly in the weeks where all the charts were growing and base didn't follow like there was really a big backlash about this on the crypto Twitter space uh so this is too much like I hope you all understand why this is too much. And but if he used an intern account, nobody could say anything. They would say, "Oh, Ba is supporting this account." But they would say, "Oh, it's an intern account.

It's just a joke." But when a founder from his personal profile post bases for squirting, of course, everybody is going to get mad and of course he's going to lose his credibility. So don't be jazzed. Don't lose your credibility. If you want to post nasty things, post them from internet accounts.

Then a near protocol they had a live stream. This dude he live streamed the nudes from his girlfriend. They say it's a marketing stunt. I don't know from firsthand. And then you have here the articles near protocol ex manager now he is ex-manager.

Uh live stream is nudes. Apologizes to girlfriend. Here it is censored but I saw this live stream and it was good-looking girl. Uh but yes this is also too much. This is not professional at all and this is not even about being Den.

I mean if it was really a marketing stunt then it is being a DEN but I think if you are a serious project like your protocol is then this is too much. You shouldn't do this and intern account this doesn't make sense because intern account wouldn't live stream protocol updates in the first place. Then uh lastly, not lastly, threads full of fake likes and comments. This is a slippery slope because when you employ rates, this can happen. So you need to be smart and not just say to everybody, okay, just comment uh we need 20 comments of the token ticker.

No, because everybody that knows anything about web three will see this. We will recognize this as right? You will go to project see if you will invest in it and you will see a ton of fake comments and you'll just see okay this project has fake marketing maybe they have 1k budget that they are spending on these shers it's it's no use uh so it is very easy to recognize this just go on any comments and if there is so many comments that are all stupid then these are paid shillers and they bring no value to the project whatsoever and I want to take now time to talk about quests. And before I start, before I turn the slide, can you please raise your hands if you know about Gauss or Zilly? Okay.

Uh Gauss and Zilly are the most popular questing platforms just for the rest of you. And they are social quests. That means follow, like, and repost. I just want to say I hate Gauss and Zilly and you shouldn't use Gauss and Zilly. They're stupid.

They're a waste of money. They're a waste of effort. And now I will explain you exactly why. This is another DI project. The the founders Stanford Harvard very very smart people.

They are doing epigenetic testing for Asians. Super cool project. Look at their engagement. OPA look at their engagement. When I saw this, I told to the founder that is embarrassing because it is not even about the questing.

It is about the questing done stupidly. Because who ever will have the same amount of likes, same amount of repost and same amount of comments on their on their post? Nobody. That is so fake and that is from brainless questing. It is when you make the same uh when you make uh likes, comments and retweets amount to the same amount of points and then everybody just does all three and it is such a clear sign of fake engagement and it is so bearish.

like if I see this in a project, I'm not investing just from my it goes against my heart as a marketer, you know. And uh one way to avoid this when you do the questing is uh to time it. So first you put uh you put repost quest that is valid only maybe for one hour and then the repost quest is gone and then you still have a higher number of likes. you have repost but much less repost which is organic way how it should look uh and comments I don't think you should put comments in the quest to be honest because then everybody always comment stupid things and it is also a clear sign so yes don't do this take remember now this example and if you have a marketing manager that tells you about galaxy forget about it I will tell you now a better way to do quests so out of time.

Social quests

maybe a minute more.

Oh, okay. I will be quick. So, social quests uh are useless. These people are brainlessly liking. They don't know anything about your project.

So, take learn to earn. So, if you think you have a cool project and I hope you do because you are working on something cool. First people read about it, then they solve a small quiz and then they get points. Why is this good? Because they're not brainless.

If somebody stops them on the street on a conference, they can say two sentences about your project. If they really think it is cool, they will tell to their friends about it. And I'm telling you this from firsthand. I'm really passionate about decentralized science. And every time I learn about something, I go and tell to everybody and anybody.

Uh onchain actions, smart questing, a hold, trade, uh stake. You get extra points for this. So this is much more useful than likes on Twitter, right? Uh rewards. Uh you can always uh so questing it is fake points, fake money.

If you never do an airdrop, you're fine. Don't tell anybody I said this, but you don't need to do the air drop. You should, but if you don't, it's fine. Nobody will say anything. Uh and lastly, culture first, community narrative.

Uh don't rely on hype. Use it to your advantage, but it is not the hype that will make your project real. Uh fast feedback loops. So, uh, when the community says when marketing, don't tell them wait, but publish a Twitter post. Like, just do it right away.

Uh, if they say we don't like the post, change it. It's your investors. It's people paying your whole marketing team. Uh, don't like structure, don't like strategy, and don't like delivery. But also on the other hand, please don't get stuck on uh revising the marketing strategy for two months before doing anything.

That is like your train will pass. didn't to grab the attention. Guys, use professionalism to keep it. Culture will get you the click, but structure will get you the the investors, the money, and the glory that you want. Thank you so much, guys.