Written by: Stacy Muur
Translated by: Golem, Odaily Planet Daily Golem
Every month, Green Dots researches KOL promotion activities on the X platform to understand the strategies of other Web3 marketing teams and track which strategies and post styles are truly effective. However, due to X's new paid collaboration policy that has altered the marketing landscape on the X platform (related reading: Elon Musk casually overturns the livelihoods of crypto KOLs), most marketing strategies for Web3 projects are no longer appropriate. In this article, Stacy Muur reveals the common issues present in many recent Web3 promotion activities, using Starknet as a case study.
The author declares: This is not aimed at Starknet, as their technical strength remains strong. Despite many doubts and skepticism from the outside world after the airdrop and TGE, the team continues to release and develop products, which is commendable. However, this article focuses only on one aspect: marketing strategy. Starknet's recent product promotion is just a typical example.
How does Starknet conduct advertising promotions?
Recently, Starknet launched strkBTC [₿] and invited some content creators on the X platform to promote the event. They adopted a very classic promotional model:
- First, an announcement with a promotional video is published;
- Within 12-48 hours of the announcement, KOLs will post collaborative promotional posts;
- Subsequently, articles explaining the advantages of the product in detail are published.
Even though this promotion took place in late February, in order to comply with X's paid collaboration policy, some creators included paid partnership labels when posting related content. However, the focus of this article is not on paid disclosures but on the effectiveness of this promotional strategy itself.
On February 10, another announcement was made regarding Starknet, and its marketing team conducted another KOL promotion. The same routine was followed, releasing a video announcement first and then promoting it through KOLs.
Of course, Starknet also has other promotion methods, such as releasing several long articles and conducting some promotional activities in the Korean region.
Let me clarify beforehand, I do not know who managed this activity or if there was an agency involved; I am merely providing some thoughts from the perspective of an outsider.
Throughout the entire promotion process, one issue is obvious: the selection of participating creators was too weak.
X is essentially a perception layer. Ideally, creators promoting on X should bring:
- More discussions about the brand
- Encouragement for more independent creators to post voluntarily
- Promotion of more community content
- Stronger ecosystem activation
But is this what we see? Not at all.
If you simply filter for popular posts mentioning Starknet on X in February, the results are clear.
The most mentioned post is actually by Warhol. Overall, in February, only a little over 100 independent posts mentioning Starknet received more than 10 likes. For a well-known L2 ecosystem, this number is not high.
Some naturally popular posts mentioning Starknet include:
- Mookie's post about token unlocks (approximately 10k views)
- Warhol's post about the best internship brands in the cryptocurrency industry (approximately 16k views)
- Warhol's L2 rating list (approximately 30k views)
- santiment's post ranking L2s based on developer activity (approximately 50k views)
- mztacat's post about the "Big Four" (approximately 82k views)
That broadly outlines Starknet's mention volume on the X platform in February. This leads to a more important question, not just regarding Starknet, but concerning how classic Web3 marketing strategies are gradually becoming ineffective on the X platform.
Why have classic Web3 advertising promotion strategies failed?
For years, the default mode of Web3 marketing has been: publish announcement—KOL promotion—community discussion.
This classic model was effective when the X timeline was less crowded, narrative-rich, and most promotional activities were not easily identified as paid promotions. However, this model has failed due to the following changes.
Paid disclosures have stifled implicit communication
Once creators start adding paid disclosure information, this promotional model becomes obvious to fans.
First, users will see an announcement, then in the following 24 hours, 5-10 similar promotional posts will appear, and all the post contents will be very similar, allowing users to immediately recognize this structure. It won’t spark community discussion; instead, it sends the signal "this is an advertising campaign."
In the environment of crypto Twitter, ads rarely spark community discussions; they are often directly skimmed over by users.
KOL behavior is now very easy to identify
Crypto Twitter has matured, and people understand how KOL marketing works.
When the same group of creators quotes the same announcement with slightly different wording, it is easily interpreted as a coordinated promotional activity. Once KOL-published content is clearly identified as a promotion, user engagement rates decrease as the audience switches from curiosity mode to ad-filtering mode.
X rewards topicality, not announcements
X is not a distribution channel, but a narrative space. Unless the announcements of Web3 projects can lead to the following outcomes, they will rarely become hot topics:
- Arguments and debates
- Meme coins
- Hot opinions
- Competition between KOLs
Without these dynamic factors, communication can only produce temporary user reach without truly winning over the audience's mind. Therefore, to truly gain topicality, Web3 projects need to change the order of their marketing activities.
The old promotion process is announcement—KOL promotion—community discussion; the new promotion structure should be to first build a topic—trigger creator debates—produce community content—finally announce the announcement, turning the announcement into a final confirmation moment rather than a starting point.
If the project skips the narrative phase, promotion becomes irrelevant.
How to redesign a promotion activity for Starknet
Let’s return to reality, Starknet bears a heavy burden. The previous airdrop stage triggered a great deal of panic, uncertainty, and skepticism. Simply explaining and using promotional videos will not solve this issue; the project team needs to control the dialogue to address the concerns. Different goals also require different marketing strategies.
If the goal is to win over users' minds
The strategy should be to actively engage in controversy, not try to suppress critics, and design topics that can spark debate.
For example:
- "Which L2 is better for developing BTCFi?"
- "Ethereum L2 vs Bitcoin L2"
- "Top five ecosystems for BTCFi developers"
Then sponsor posts that list rankings, compare Starknet with other projects, and encourage debate. Perhaps half of the timeline will support Starknet while the other half attacks it, but both sides increase their exposure. Creating drama is not bad marketing; marketing that goes unnoticed is what’s truly poor.
If the goal is to dominate public opinion
Then stop publishing lengthy PR articles; very few people will read them. Instead, release visual infographics, ecosystem maps, competitor comparisons, and short frameworks that KOLs can reuse. Give creators the space to remix content, which is far more powerful than what they can only quote.
The goal of dominating public opinion is not to have one great article, but dozens of derivative articles—that’s how narrative dissemination works.
If the goal is to attract developers
Then remember that developer acquisition is a B2B model. Simply posting announcements on X will not effectively guide developers. What the project team should do is:
- Build topic momentum
- Establish ecosystem reputation
- Showcase where developers have already succeeded there
Once this trend is established, guiding developers becomes much easier, as they will chase hotspots as well.
Conclusion
The traditional marketing model of Web3 (publish announcement → KOL promotion) is gradually fading on X. The new model resembles: design topics → spark creator interest → initiate discussions → let the community continue to engage.
The project's announcements are still important, but they should no longer be the starting point of the promotion activity, but rather the endpoint.
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