What Is Social Mining: Explained

There is intense competition among social media platforms in the current era. Hence, several platforms have adopted new mechanisms to generate user interaction, one of which is social mining. Social mining raises reward systems with the help of blockchain technology to make them more appealing.

This groundbreaking step has the potential to radically alter social media users’ online experiences, particularly in Web3. But what is social mining, and where can one find it today?

What Is Social Mining?

Social mining is a term used in the cryptocurrency world that means something or someone gets rewarded or receives tokens on a social network website based on their contribution or activity within the community.

This novel approach uses blockchain technology to compensate for content creation, user interaction, engagement, and influence in the network.

Social media sites had used various forms of reward systems in the past, such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram likes, gamification, and achievements rewards on sites like LinkedIn and Stack Overflow.

You can also read: Best Social Media Applications To Get Leads For Your Business

None of these reward systems carried any direct monetary value to the users. Using the blockchain technology, social media engagement can now be translated into a monetary value in token-based reward systems.

How Does Social Mining Work?

Social mining should not to be confused with social media data mining, it operates primarily over social media outlets supported by blockchain technology.

The aim is to motivate users to produce, submit, and interact with content. The activity of the user is tracked, authenticated, and tokenized through the application of smart contracts.

The reward mechanism follows this procedure:

• Track Record of User Actions: The system has a built-in functionality that tracks and records activity such as posting content, sharing, commenting, and liking within the system. The information is applied to verify actions and awarding of rewards.
• Scoring and Reward Determination: Scores or rankings are given to users based on their contribution and participation rates. The scores determine the rewards acquired by individual users.
• Token Allocation: Smart contracts set the conditions for token acquisition, distribution scheme, and amount of tokens to be distributed to active users in the pool.
• Token Distribution: After the tokens have been allocated, smart contracts automatically distribute them to eligible users’ wallets, offering transparency, immutability, and transaction safety.
• Redemption and Exchange: Tokens are redeemable by trading them for other digital currencies on an exchange platform or spend them within the platform to gain premium features or purchase goods and services.
• Governance and Updates: In addition to token-based financial value. Users with sufficient numbers of tokens can have active participation in determining the future decision-making for the platform. They can drive changes and influence the evolution of the platform.

Social mining promotes interaction and content creation by instilling a sense of ownership among users. This fosters community involvement, encourages organic growth, and enables the platform and other community-driven projects to achieve their objectives.

Users are rewarded with actual monetary value in return for their effort and input to the platform.

Social Mining Projects

Numerous social media platforms have integrated social mining as a fundamental element within their ecosystems. Here are a few illustrations:

• HIVE

HIVE is a decentralized social media platform that emerged through a community-driven hard fork of Steem. The decision to fork Steem came after a period of conflict between Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, and the Steem community. HIVE incorporates social mining to incentivize user engagement while granting users greater control over their content and promoting a censorship-resistant environment.

You can also read: What are the Benefits of Data Mining Tools

The HIVE ecosystem comprises numerous Web3 applications, including Splinterlands and PeakD. As of mid-June 2023, the HIVE token was valued at $0.29 with a market capitalization ranking it among the top 175 cryptocurrencies. HIVE has demonstrated significant progress compared to its predecessor, Steemit.

• Steemit

Steemit, a social blogging platform built on the Steem blockchain, has integrated social mining as a method of incentivizing content creation and engagement.

Individuals can earn STEEM tokens through posting, voting, and commenting on content. The rewards are given according to the influence and engagement each person generates.

In order to trade the STEEM tokens you have accumulated on the platform. You can send them to an exchange platform and trade them for other cryptocurrencies.

You can then trade them into fiat currency if you choose. As of mid-June 2023, Steem was one of the top 300 cryptocurrencies in market capitalization, with a single STEEM token costing $0.156.

• Reddit

Of course, you are familiar with Reddit, often called the “front page of the internet.” This social news and content aggregation, rating, and discussion site has boasted a reward system using Karma, upvotes, and awards for a while now. Members who contribute something useful and have some impact are rewarded appropriately for their efforts.

But in 2020, Reddit raised the bar by introducing Reddit Moons. Unlike Karma credits, which are worthless, Reddit Moons are ERC-20 tokens on the Arbitrum layer-2 solution, and they have actual monetary value.

The tokens are given to engaged subscribers of a specific subreddit, that is, r/CryptoCurrency, and can be traded for premium membership or Reddit Coins.

• YUP

YUP is a revolutionary Web3 social media site that takes the best of the best from every social media site and puts them all into one aggregated feed.

With a single app, members can curate and share content from various sites like Twitter and Farcaster with ease. Users can also bookmark interesting finds and share them with other members of the site.

The central part of YUP is the Yup protocol, in which decisions and actions are taken by a group of active contributors. The contributors are rewarded with YUP tokens for their valuable contribution. They may opt to exchange their tokens with other tokens on Uniswap if they want.

Advantages and drawbacks of social mining

As the internet continues to evolve, social mining is expected to emerge as a prominent feature in social media. More platforms are likely to integrate rewarding systems with tangible monetary value in order to incentivize content creation and user activity as they compete for users’ attention. However, it is important to consider the pros and cons of this development.

You can also read: Top 8 Benefits of Real Estate Tokenization

There are two main advantages of social mining for both the platform and its users:

Community growth:

Social mining incentivizes users to actively engage on a social media platform. By rewarding users for their contributions, they are motivated to create high-quality content, participate in discussions, and collaborate with others. The platform benefits from increased activity, which creates opportunities for monetization.

Empowerment and ownership:

Social mining empowers users by shifting the power dynamics of social media, giving them a stake in the platform and a sense of ownership. Users can derive value from their time spent on social media and participate in a more decentralized and user-centric approach. This promotes a fairer and more inclusive ecosystem.

However, the design of social mining systems raises certain concerns:

Gaming the system:

Users may attempt to manipulate the social mining system to earn rewards without genuine engagement or contribution. This can involve creating fake accounts or artificially inflating engagement metrics, undermining the integrity of the reward distribution process.

Privacy and data ownership:

Social mining platforms collect and analyze user data to determine token allocation. This raises privacy and security concerns, as users have limited control over how their personal data is used by the platform.

Token value volatility:

The crypto tokens rewarded in social mining often have low value. However, their value is subject to volatility, as is the case with most cryptocurrencies. The value of a token can fluctuate, making it a risky asset to own.

Overall, the primary goal of social mining is to enhance social interactions among users. While it effectively encourages user engagement, it also has the potential to attract malicious actors and raise trust issues. Only well-designed systems that address these challenges can withstand the test of time.

Social mining enables platforms to give back to their users.

Social mining represents a potentially beneficial application of cryptocurrency, as it serves to incentivize user engagement, empower individuals, and promote community growth.

However, the success of social mining hinges on platforms effectively addressing concerns such as manipulation and privacy, among others.

By implementing well-designed social mining systems that prioritize fairness, transparency, and user ownership, the advantages of cryptocurrency can be leveraged while mitigating potential risks.

Would you like to read more about Social Mining-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!