In the traditional entrepreneurial context, it's about "product is king" or "channel is king". However, in the current fast-paced and information-overloaded Web3 world, more and more project teams will tell you a reality: those who win over KOLs win the world.
Author:Lawyer Liu Honglin, Mankun Blockchain Legal Services
Cover:Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
In the traditional entrepreneurial context, it's about "product is king" or "channel is king". However, in the current fast-paced and information-overloaded Web3 world, more and more project teams will tell you a reality: those who win over KOLs win the world.
The success of Web3 projects has never been solely about technology or a whitepaper. No matter how "decentralized" you are, the project's heat, volume, and community activity ultimately rely on some "centralized" people to give it a push. These people are often the "industry opinion leaders" known as KOLs.
Don't misunderstand, this "world" doesn't necessarily mean capturing all market share, but rather achieving a presence where "everyone is talking about you". In the crypto world, especially in an environment where on-chain transactions happen rapidly and user attention is extremely short-lived, whether you're being discussed, whether someone helps you shill, go live, write tweets, or pull users into groups, can directly determine if you can complete your first financing, whether you can recover after breaking even, or even whether your project has a chance of surviving in a bear market.
We've previously encountered many project teams with whitepapers that sound fantastic, but after a week of launch, their Telegram group is dead silent, no one retweets on Twitter, and DEX trading volume is minimal. When asked about KOL marketing, they say they don't want to do that "crypto shill approach" and want to focus on technology with a long-term vision. The problem is, if you can't even create a "short-term presence", how can you talk about the long term?
Today, most Web3 conferences are no longer mainly about project "networking with investors" or "showcasing technical solutions", but more like a large KOL party and networking rotation. The real skill is in who can invite KOLs, make them happy, and get them into Twitter and group chats. Some projects even fly around just to "meet" key KOLs, arranging meals, offering small allocations, telling stories, and taking photos.
These KOLs are no longer "lone wolves". Some may seem to be daily updating technical interpretations on X or actively chatting in Telegram groups, but in reality, they have teams operating content, organizing materials, and scheduling posting times. They have teams running projects and negotiating collaborations, teams writing tweets, and teams tracking private placement agreement terms, with clear division of labor and efficient money-making.
KOLs have also formed a tiered system. Top-tier KOLs don't take on niche projects, only sharing content with co-investor endorsements and strong industry consensus; mid-tier KOLs maintain their presence by riding trends, translating English materials, and compiling industry summaries; bottom-tier KOLs focus on cost-cutting, group buying, and airdrop lottery links, primarily targeting "user volume". Project teams are well aware of this logic, allocating quotas based on persona: top-tier get the largest share, mid-tier get quantity, and bottom-tier serve as peripheral devices for viral community spread.
Project teams have long been accustomed to this approach. Some projects with limited budgets simply form a KOL advisory team, letting them be named, receive tokens, and post regularly; some projects divide private placement quotas by tier, with top-tier getting one round, mid-tier another, and retail investors getting an airdrop, perfectly replicating the IDO hype path. The smarter ones first warm up in the Chinese-speaking circle, then use that heat to attack the English-speaking transmission channels, packaging "local success" into a "global hit".
From a communication strategy perspective, this Web3 approach is completely different from the traditional entrepreneurial "corporate PR" system.
Traditional project PR aims to accumulate long-term awareness and trust through press releases, interviews, roadshows, and industry connections, with the logic of "product first, persona second". Web3 communication is more like a carefully choreographed drama, faster-paced and riskier, with the goal not of "letting others know who you are", but of "making others think you're about to explode".
Most Web3 projects are selling narratives. If a project can't surge to the top of trending topics and grow its Telegram group by 3,000 within three days, it's already considered a cold start failure. Web3 users don't "invest after understanding", but "rush in to avoid missing out", and project teams continuously amplify this "missing out means loss" expectation.
You may not like this approach, but you can't avoid it.
However, heat is a double-edged sword. While KOL-brought attention can help a project gain momentum, once it backfires, it can be both fierce and precise. Lawyer Liu Honglin previously observed a typical case: a new Web3 project with mediocre technical framework, whose only highlight was hiring several highly active Twitter Chinese-circle big accounts as advisors, even claiming to be the "first Chinese xx project".
Before launch, content marketing was everywhere, with claims of "technical dream team" and "strongest lineup", filling February with AMAs and even booking peak slots in Twitter spaces. A week after launch, the product showed no movement, GitHub was almost empty, and code quality was questioned. Some shilling KOLs quickly deleted tweets and distanced themselves as the community shifted from "project scamming people" to "advisors running away", causing reputation collapse and project failure.
More realistically, KOLs themselves are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. On one hand, they need to maintain traffic and income through exposure, and on the other hand, they are increasingly worried about potential risks. So now, many big accounts add a disclaimer before posting: "This does not constitute investment advice, and I have not participated in financing or held tokens of this project."
For domestic Web3 projects that truly want to leverage KOLs to gain momentum and open up the market through storytelling, the following points may be worth considering.
First, utilize KOLs effectively - you don't have to hire the most expensive ones, but you can't do without KOL support. Even for pure "tech enthusiasts," someone needs to translate your whitepaper and explain what you're doing in a more easily shareable way. Many projects think they're not marketing, but they actually haven't grasped the narrative power of online communication.
Second, plan the communication rhythm and supporting resources in advance. Current KOL content rhythm is highly industrialized, with a tweet, an AMA, or a meme image all having a script behind them. If your project hasn't launched yet and you're waiting for spontaneous promotion, the heat will likely be limited to a Telegram group of 200 people and a few "not bad" comments. Conversely, if you find the right people and do a round of pre-heating and pacing, even a small project can potentially create a "breakout sensation".
Third, control the pace and expectations, and avoid "starting with a bang, ending with a whimper". Too many projects want to create a blockbuster scene with top-tier lineups, but then content stops after three weeks, products are delayed, and the community starts attacking, leading to a backlash. For most projects, a more pragmatic approach is to "do a small amount of high-quality communication," managing expectations within the scope of what can be delivered, and never try to fulfill reality with fantasies.
Fourth, try to "operate across different circles" as much as possible. Domestic project teams sometimes have a one-size-fits-all approach, posting the same content on Telegram and X, with the same rhythm for Chinese and English communities, which actually reduces effectiveness. Different user circles have different languages and focus points - the Chinese circle cares about team background and resources, while the English circle is interested in investors and tokenomics. If you don't differentiate your communication, you'll fail to penetrate both sides.
Finally, and most importantly, while Web3 is an attention-driven game, projects that can truly survive market cycles never rely solely on marketing. Without a real, usable product, a clear business model, a stable team, and execution capability, no matter how high traffic might lift you, the higher you fly, the more painful the fall will be.
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