How can socially anxious people excel as KOLs in the crypto world?

In the currency circle, a social phobic person can also become a top-notch. It's not magic, it's traffic logic.

Written by: Liu Honglin

"I am socially anxious, I usually don't like to talk, and I'm afraid of strangers. If I can avoid socializing when meeting, I will." - This is the opening line of self-introduction for many KOLs in the crypto world. After saying this, the next moment you can see them in the X live broadcast room passionately explaining BTC trends, shouting out trades while presenting PPTs, and fans flooding the screen with comments. To be honest, that moment is really quite surreal.

That's right, in the crypto world, a person with social anxiety can also become a top influencer. This is not magic, it's the logic of traffic.

Building a persona, from "socially anxious old leek" to "understanding brother harvesting machine"

Do you think that to become a KOL, you have to talk about logic, read data, and read project white papers? No, no, no, in the currency circle, "human design" is the primary productive force.

The traffic secret of KOLs in the crypto world has never been about "saying the right thing," but rather about "saying it with passion." You need to have a story, a stance, a painful history of being harvested, and an inspirational trajectory of turning things around.

You can set it as "a ten-year old leek, having stepped on various pits," or you can say you are a "senior primary market hunter," or even an "overseas fund researcher"—after all, no one checks; it just needs to sound impressive. You can also add some buffs: just left a VC, previously did hedge fund research, worked as a consultant in a Silicon Valley Web3 team... In short, multiple countries, multiple coins, multiple positions, all sound extravagant.

What kind of persona is most likely to go viral?

Answer: A bit tragic, a bit stubborn, and it’s best to have a bit of mystery. For example —

• "Scared of being cut in 2017, went all in to turn around in 2020."
• "Reject capital games and focus on small-cap potential projects."
• "I don't trade coins myself, I only do research and talk about logic."

If you can still occasionally say in the group that you "haven't received any advertisements," "only rely on whitelist for a living," and "never speak up at project peaks," then it's basically stable; users trust you more than they trust the exchange.

Once the persona is established, the next steps become much simpler. Users in the crypto world like to hear "emotions + metaphysics"; you are responsible for outputting while the market takes care of the fluctuations. You don’t need to be a trend prediction master; in fact, the more "laid-back" you are, the more people consider you a knowledgeable figure.

Three-piece set: X, TG community, weekly Space

The infrastructure of KOLs in the cryptocurrency circle is a three-piece set: a tweet with emotions + a TG "internal community" + a weekly AMA. It is commonly known as the closed loop of "content-community-persona".

Tweets shouldn't be too serious, or else no one will pay attention; they also shouldn't be too ridiculous, as that can lead to a backlash. The best approach is to "set the tone." For example:

• "Tonight in Space, let's talk about a project I've been paying attention to recently, DYOR."
• "I see that a project has blacklisted me, did I hit a nerve?"
• "A certain project won't give me a white list? Do they really think they are Layer 1?"

The rhythm is not a mess, it is an "emotional micro-exercise". You don't need to explicitly say that a project is awesome, just say, "I've been watching it for a week, it's crazy, don't blame me for not reminding me." The effect of this sentence is more effective than 3,000 words of technical analysis.

TG groups are simpler. Make a logo, pull some people, and name it "×× Research Institute", "×× Lab", "×× DAO Internal Testing Club", and a "research flavor" will come. Then occasionally send some project links, screenshots, and voting results, and "interactively" brush up on the sense of presence. Who asked you if this project was reliable? Don't say too much, "the project team is not allowed to say", "the progress is still in the NDA", "you can chat with me privately if you are really interested" - you want to get away with it.

Don't be afraid of Space live streaming. You don't have to turn on the camera or show your face; as long as your tone is steady and you occasionally cough, netizens will screenshot and share: "Bro, did you hear that? Is he hinting at xx?" — while you've said nothing, only stating, "I'm optimistic about a certain field in the next round."

So you became famous, even though you never showed your face from beginning to end, no one knows who you are.

Three Steps of Picking Up: Discussing Projects, Placing White Orders, Sharing Links

Once you have a certain "voice", the project party will naturally come to your door. At this time, the advantages of social fear are reflected: you don't like to socialize, and the project party doesn't need to say hello much, just give it directly.

The cooperation model is not complicated and can be divided into three steps:

1. Please help with an AMA, no need to prepare, just read from the project white paper.

2. The tweet should include a link, the content is not limited, and you can match any image; anyway, no one looks at the image.

3. Let fans place white orders, you just need to say: "I personally am not involved, for reference only."

Even if you didn't directly help them raise funds, as long as you posted a "I will fight", that is the most effective marketing.

More powerful KOLs, they don't even bother to do live broadcasts, they all rely on Space recording + netizens to live, but the traffic is higher. There are also people who directly set up AI tools, with a face and a voice, and tweet as usual, without even appearing as a "person". To have emotions and to have data for interactions, the key is that no one knows who it is.

Social anxiety? It doesn't exist, there are simply no "people".

So, can this be done or not?

Ultimately, this job can be done - in fact, some people earn millions from it annually. The industry is hot, there are many projects, and few promoters; KOLs are essentially information dealers + traffic intermediaries + emotional catalysts. You don’t need to be the most knowledgeable in the industry, but you have to be the loudest in your calls.

Moreover, this is one of the few side jobs in the crypto world with a very low threshold and decent returns. You don't need to understand the technology, invest money, register a company, or even have a real person appear. As long as you can maintain your persona, keep the rhythm going, and have an audience when you speak, you have bargaining power.

But the problem is here: working for a long time, working steadily, and not encountering issues is another matter. Because once this industry encounters a bull market with hot money, the speculation becomes too intense, and many people will turn the original information sharing into a form of stock recommendation, pump and dump, or even act under the name of "agency investment."

Are you spreading information, or participating in project management? Are you recommending a project, or creating FOMO? Are you sharing opinions, or indirectly profiting?

Many people have never seriously thought about these boundary lines.

A Friendly Reminder from Lawyer Mankun

In the end, Lawyer Honglin offered everyone some practical advice, just to help the big shots ride the wind and soar, safely making money and traveling far.

First, whether the project has given you money, tokens, or rebates, it is recommended to disclose.

Many KOLs comfort themselves with "not signing a contract", feeling that it is not a business cooperation. But the reality is that as long as there are transfer records and chat records on the chain, it constitutes de facto cooperation in law. Regardless of whether you receive U or the coins airdropped by the project team, as long as you can catch it on the chain and prove that you have benefited, you can claim that you and the project party are a "community of interests".

If you do not disclose, once the project has issues, you are likely to become a "co-responsible person", making it difficult to clear yourself of misleading promotion and assisting in illegal fundraising.

Second, carrying white orders and links is a blatant "marketing channel" behavior.

You are not a fund manager, but the link you posted might be the entry point for project fundraising; you are not the issuing entity, but what you said "I will fight" is more effective than the project's official website. In many crypto world rights protection cases, KOLs are the first ones to be approached because you are a "locatable responsible person" that can be tracked on-chain, tagged on social platforms, and found in groups.

In real cases, there have been KOLs who were identified as "participating in illegal fundraising for virtual currency" after posting project addresses and saying "don't miss out." You might think it's just a call-out, but law enforcement agencies believe you are "driving traffic" for criminal groups.

Third, do not underestimate the legal consequences of information dissemination, even if you claim to "only represent personal opinions."

After the project runs away, the KOLs who are usually sued are not the ones who are "the most professional in technical analysis," but rather those who are "the most enthusiastic in forwarding, repeatedly promoting, and showing profit screenshots." They likely never touched the users' money, but "strengthened the users' trust expectations in the project."

This kind of "trust inducement" has practical room for operation under the Chinese legal system. If the stakeholder funds are large, KOLs can easily be classified as "significant impact participants" or even "accessory actors".

You can use AI to create avatars and talk about projects using overseas Space, but don't forget that things on the chain, private accounts, live stream recordings, and fans' trust are always distributed and immutable, after all, this is the proof of work for your journey as a KOL.

This industry will never lack people getting wrecked; the key is not to let yourself become the next negative example that the crypto world spectators discuss.