If you’ve ever been to a tech event, you probably found yourself surrounded by men. This is reflected by the lack of diversity in the companies behind the products and services we use every day:
This is especially true in deep-tech verticals like blockchain. However, this is slowly changing with female tech leaders like Melanie Mohr, the CEO of WOM Protocol and YEAY. With WOM, she is solving digital marketing’s most pervasive issue: A lack of trust.
I could throw out all the statistics, like how $6.5 billion are lost every year to click farms and bots, or about how 86% of users are banner blind, or about how the use of mobile ad blockers has grown 62% in recent years. However, what matters more than the statistics is trust.
Picture this, a friend recommends that you get a nice pair of shoes. How likely are you to buy those shoes, versus if you saw an online ad for the same pair? Of course, everyone trusts a friend more than they trust an ad. Melanie is tapping into that reality with WOM Protocol, which powers new social platforms like YEAY, built around authentic recommendations.
When I say “built around,” I really mean built—the WOM Protocol uses an authenticator mechanism so that users can rate the authenticity of product recommendations (and even get paid for it!).
Ms. Mohr is shaking up the marketing game, as YEAY has amassed around 800,000 downloads to date with this new approach. She’s bringing together content creators, authenticators, and innovative social platforms who want to tap into the power of Word-of-Mouth marketing.
“Imagine an influencer no longer having to wait for brands to approach them with product deals – instead they can choose the products they genuinely love, create honest content and get fairly rewarded for it.”
Melanie Mohr
Trust in social media platforms is something brands and users have been looking for for years, but often to no avail. Time and time again, platforms like Facebook haven’t exactly reassured us well that they can be trusted, leading to a digital social world that causes stress and anxiety, instead of one where users can authentically share their thoughts.
Ms. Mohr is setting a strong example for how social platforms should be run, and for the tech scene in general. With WOM Protocol and YEAY, now is the perfect timing for social networks on the rise to tap into the power of authenticity.