Grant Proposal: The Graph Protocol Turkey

Community Grant Applications
#1

Grant ID: 8669dc6zf

Summary:

To grow Graph Protocol Turkey, in our regional social media platforms, to educate people to support the widespread use and awareness of Graph Protocol.

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true

If available, please enter a link to your project below:
https://twitter.com/GraphprotocolTR - Telegram: Contact @graphprotocolTR - https://www.instagram.com/thegraphprotocol

Are you applying as a team or individual?:
Team

What type of grant are you pursuing?:
Long-term (continuous)

Please select the category your project best fits into:
Regional Community

Please select who you think will benefit from your project?:
Curators, Delegators, Indexers, Subgraph Developers

How much funding are you looking for? (USD):
14500

Provide a breakdown of your requested funding:
Marketing - 9500$
Collaborations - 2000 Content Production - 2000
Tools - 1000$

Including the marketing costs of blockchain events that will take place in our country in 2023 (like ETHIstanbul).

Have you applied for (or already received) funding from somewhere else?:
Yes

If yes, please describe where you’ve received funding from and how much you have, or will, receive:
from The Graph Foundation from Reem in August 21’ 3000$

What’s your vision for how your project will impact The Graph and/or web3?:
To grow Graph Protocol Turkey, in our regional social media platforms, to educate people to support the widespread use and awareness of Graph Protocol (Finding potential curators, delegates and indexers).

What can you share about any past work that is relevant to this grant?:
The Grpah Turkish Community Telegram & Twitter & Instagram pages. Also resources where I translated Graph Protocol articles into Turkish.

Also work with GRT Statistics GRTDataHub.com

Can you share any information about current/past web3 experience?:
I’m Onur Saraylı from Turkey. I have been dealing with e-commerce & marketing for ten years. I did my master’s education on Interactive Marketing. I published my master’s thesis on blockchain and IoT. As I have been dealing with marketing and community management for many years, I know well to inform and persuade people. Turkey is a key point for Europe and Asia. And Turkey is Europe’s first and the world’s third largest country in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

I have been involved in dozens of projects such as The Graph Protocol, Aztec Network, Covalent, Agoric, Connext Network, Portal Finance, 4everland etc. I created and managed the communities of an important cryptocurrency country like Turkey. At the same time, I help the projects I take part in in a global sense.

My personal website: https://onursarayli.com

Why are you interested in contributing to The Graph and/or web3?:
I know very well the importance of big data. I am also aware that data is the new oil of the future. I think the most successful companies of the future will be data related companies. There is a lot of data, especially on the blockchain. And I believe Graph will be the future leader in the data space. Maybe the Google of the future will be Graph. I’m very lucky even to have been inside Graph since three years and I’ve also been managing the Graph Protocol Turkish community for three years. I also received a grant for this one year ago. I am also a testnet curator & graph advocate. In summary, I was worked in every part of the Graph and so I want to continue to do. We have many non-English speaking community members and regional communities are very important. I want to continue promoting Graph Protocol to people, informing them and helping those who need help. I am like a member of this family and I would like to be active on behalf of the Graph Protocol, especially in the blockchain events that will take place in Turkey in 2023.




Primary Community Poll

Do you fundamentally support this grant application, knowing that the final scope and grant amount may differ from the requested proposal?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters




Grant Committee Vote

Do you recommend this grant to the DAO?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

#2

Yes, thank you for your application, but I had a few questions as I was reviewing it:

  1. Could you tell me more about the details of the split of the grant funds. I’m especially interested in the point about marketing.
  1. How do you plan to get more people to The Graph, will you hold online or offline events? Or any partnerships with projects?
  2. Will you be able to effectively make time for this? Since I see you have a pretty big list of projects.
  3. Have you previously received a grant from us or from The Graph Foundation?

Thank you! That’s it for now!!!

4 Likes
#3

Hi @onur-TheGraphTurkey, nice to see you back with another grant proposal!

I would like to ask if you can share some outcomes of your work on developing the Turkish community, how many people have you successfully onboarded, and how did the community grow in comparison to the previous year for example? Maybe you can choose some analytics with us, or some recording from some community meet-up, that would be ideal!

I didn’t find the information in the proposal about the period of time this grant should cover. If I missed this information, my apologies! But except for “continuous grant”, 14k would cover how long of running the community?

Thank you in advance for all your answers!

3 Likes
#4

Hi Doxe01.eth, thank you for your kind response. Of course, you can be sure that I will answer all your questions diligently. Lets start.

First of all, I would like to state that I have been working in the field of marketing for about 13 years. At the same time, I completed my master’s education in the field of “Interactive Marketing”. As I have been operating in the blockchain/web3 ecosystem since 2013, I am friends with all crypto influencers in the Turkish blockchain ecosystem.

  • First of all, the marketing budget I requested is a “two” year budget. It corresponds to approximately ~$600 per month. I have been managing our Graph Protocol Turkey Twitter & Telegram accounts for two years. For the first two years, I voluntarily created and managed our accounts. Our journey, which started from scratch, continues with 600+ on Twitter and ~800 unique people on Telegram. With the marketing budget I requested, I want to accelerate this growth and especially to enter the next bull season more effectively as Graph Turkey. With the $600 per month I request, I plan to organize more effective content, education videos, events to raise awareness about Graph Protocol. I believe that I will continue this task, which I am voluntarily carrying out, in a much more motivated way with the budget I have requested. In this process, as I mentioned at the beginning, I want to work with crypto influencers who are the most suitable for Graph Protocol. As you know, these people usually charge a fee. I would like to state that I will use some of my budget in these collaborations.

  • There are blockchain clubs of 80+ universities in our country. I am one of the founding members who run these communities. I have close friendships with all these university club presidents. We are planning to organize educations about Graph Protocol at universities. The person I will be collaborating with on this issue is “BuÄźra Ayan” (https://twitter.com/bugraayan), the leading blockchain educational content producer in our country. I plan to spend a part of my budget for the organization of these events and education fees.

In addition to our education at the university, I will set up the Graph Protocol Turkey Youtube & Graph Protocol Turkey Notion page as a content library. I will create our Youtube library by preparing educational and short video series on all topics from A to Z. On our Notion page, I will add ALL Turkish resources (Turkish whitepaper, Turkish roadmap, Turkish articles, Turkish news, Turkish collaborations, etc.) produced about Graph Protocol. Thus, all our community members will be able to access resources about Graph Protocol from one place.

In addition to Covid19 in our country, people were hesitant to go indoors due to a recent flu virus. However, this situation began to decrease gradually. Now I think IRL events will increase considerably (As in the whole world). We will first organize our IRL events in Turkey’s metropolis, Istanbul. Thus, we will start to announce our events where our community members come together on all our social media platforms. I will continue to increase our awareness by participating in various blockchain events as a representative of Graph Protocol Turkey.

In addition; ETHGlobal will be held in Istanbul/Turkey this year. I will continue to be active by participating in this and many other events as Graph Protocol Turkey representative. In particular, 2023 will be very effective for Turkey in terms of blockchain. I fully believe that with the activity I will show at these events, our interactions will increase and our community will grow.

I also plan to start the Twitter Spaces conversations online, where I plan to receive different guests every week. I think there will be great interest in these conversations, where we will discuss the Graph Protocol ecosystem, the web3 ecosystem, and the blockchain issues both technically and in general. At the same time, I will not neglect to record these events and share them on our platforms such as Youtube, Notion and Telegram & Twitter. In this process, I will also work with the leading influencers of the local platform or ecosystem that are suitable for us.

  • Of course I have time for that. Moreover, I will continue to work in the Graph family, which I have been a part of since testnet curation, in a more motivated way. As with the previous grant I received, I will not neglect to report progress and interactions quarterly. Regular growth and development is my top priority.

As I have been at Graph Protocol for two years, I have been taking part in some of the projects I have been involved in as a volunteer. Like everyone else, I need to earn an income to survive. And a project that I received a grant will always have a different priority in this process. Therefore, my first priority will be the Graph Protocol and I will continue to work on its development in a more motivated way. Since I work from home, I am at the computer for about 10-12 hours a day.

I do not have a different job in everyday life. So rest assured that I will continue to work as Graph Protocol as my focus (you already know that I’ve been doing this voluntarily for two years and running the Turkish community).

  • Yes, I received a grant of $3000 from the Graph Foundation (before the AdvocatesDAO was built) for a 3-month period in July 2021. During this process, we worked with Ms. Reem. We ended the grant process by taking the remaining part of my payment after the three-month period in which the interactions continued to increase. Now, with the new grant I have requested, I want to continue this growth for two years, not three months.

I hope I have answered your questions adequately. Also, thank you for reading.

Have a healthy week!

1 Like
#5

Hello JuliannaMLN, good to see you again. Thank you very much for your kind message. I will gladly try to answer all your questions.

Let me start with the last question first. As I mentioned in my previous message, this grant covers a period of two years (24 months). I requested this grant in order to inform our community in detail, to educate them, to increase their loyalty and to grow them. Especially in 2023 and beyond, many IRL blockchain events will be held in Turkey. As Graph Turkey, I want to take full advantage of all these.

  • I built our community from scratch. The Graph Protocol Turkey Twitter & Telegram accounts that I set up during the TGE period currently have ~1400 unique people. There are 600+ people on our Twitter profile and ~800 people on our Telegram profile. I plan to increase this number regularly every month, as in the previous grant period.

While our Telegram group was approximately 480 people at the beginning of 2022, it reached 750+ people with a growth of approximately 50% at the end of 2022. I state this from my own notes I took at the beginning of the year. I keep telegram stats with Combot but I can’t get data as I haven’t activated premium. By correcting this, I will record the statistics of the next process and share them with you if you wish.

Our Twitter profile has data since December 2020. If you wish, I can prepare all these from month to month and edit them here in pdf form. But if I have to inform you, we continue with a growth of 100% every year. We started 2022 with ~400 people, we started 2023 with ~800 people. By the end of this year, I aim to reach approximately 1500-1600 people. By continuing to grow regularly, I aim to have a twitter profile with approximately 3500-4000 unique people at the end of 2 years.

Also, thanks for taking the time to read. I wish have a good Sunday!

Best Regards,
Onur

2 Likes
#6

Thank you for your answers! It is sufficient right now but would be great if you could present the statistics you have from various platforms during the interview with the Grant Committee when your proposal goes successfully through the stages before that. I will keep my fingers crossed for that to happen!

3 Likes
#7

You’re welcome JuliannaMLN, also thank you again for your support and kind comments.

I’m just preparing all the data I can. In the links I added at the bottom, you can see the interaction statistics of the Graph Protocol Turkey Twitter profile. Unfortunately, the data that Twitter gives us does not include the number of followers. However, I am adding the data that I keep on Excel on a monthly basis in the last part of this presentation.

Telegram does not providing us with the old official statistics data for the long term. I have also included the last 6 months Telegram statistics images in my second report, please check it. Likewise, I added my Telegram member count report, which I kept in the Excel table. I haven’t officially used a plugin for statistics, as I’m running this job voluntarily. The fact that our group has grown exponentially in two years was a sufficient criterion for me.

If I am eligible for a grant, I will add screenshots of Twitter follower counts to my report on a monthly basis from now on. I will also add interaction statistics to the same report monthly. In Telegram, I activated the Combot plugin as of yesterday. Thus, I will be able to easily report daily/weekly/monthly/yearly growth statistics, follower statistics, message statistics to you.

During the period I received the previous grant, I also sent my quarterly report to the Graph Foundation. For the following period, I aim to maintain the 2x growth statistic I have achieved in last two years and to report this sustainable growth to you. I hope I can continue to manage this process that has been going on since 2021 in the best way possible!

Thank you very much my dear friends for your support and comments! :pray:

3 Likes
#8

Just wanted to say, thanks so much Onur for the detailed answers and for the level of quality of the info you provided to support your grant proposal. I’m really impressed by the quality of the stats you provided, and I truly believe your commitment to the ecosystem, and your passion, is definitely well known.

So if I understood correctly, this will be like $600 per month for 24-months.
Do you have already an idea about how you intend this grant to be disbursed? I believe, that a 6-months payments can be a viable option in this case. Wdyt?

2 Likes
#9

Thank you so much dear Paolo! I am really happy to be a member of the Graph family.

A payment method as you mentioned is also suitable for me. 50% now, and 50% in 6 months. I also want to continue to support our network by staking the GRTs I receive. It is within this framework that I have prepared my own financial program.

Let’s bring GRT to a much better place as it deserves! :astronaut:

2 Likes
#10

image

Thank you for the excellent and detailed description of the answers. Regarding the options for collecting statistics, I can suggest another one. In addition to DAO I also work in the BNB chain, a great way to collect is to create a table, with 5 columns. There can be more, less, whatever you like. The first one is the date. And the other 4 are various social platforms (Twitter, Telegram, etc.). You can then collect the number of followers each day, let’s say at 11pm, and enter them into the table. I have shown an example of a table in the screenshot. Then you can already create different infographics and so on. This is a kind of primitive method, but a simple one.

I want to insist that this is just an idea, not in any way a variant of how things should be done. Thank you!

4 Likes
#11

Oh, that’s perfect! I really agree with you and due to possible internet problems I keep my data daily in Excel which is the most primitive method. At least when I collect data this way, the chance of making mistakes (or data being lost) is pretty low. And I totally agree with what you said. Similarly, I will update my table like yours.

That is incredible for me to learn something new every day from the members of this precious family. I am sure that we will always reach better places by sharing our experiences.

Thanks a lot doxe01.eth! :raised_hands:

1 Like
#12

After internal consideration, we thought that the best approach for a grant that is so extended in time (2-years), would be to provide a quarterly payment. So every quarter you can get your grant payment, based on some shared metrics that we can agree to be provided.

1 Like
#13

Hello again dear Paolo.

Of course, this payment system is also suitable for me, as I want to be here for a long time. I can also report the statistics here or to the required person in each quarterly period.

Many thanks to all of you for everything! :astronaut:

3 Likes
#14

Hello @onur-TheGraphTurkey,

I have a few questions:

  1. How does the increase in members in telegram, or followers on twitter, correlate with the participation of said followers/members in The Graph ecosystem?

  2. Who is moderating the telegram channel? What are the rules of moderation?

  3. What would be the benefit of engaging in paid partnerships with crypto influencers?

#15

Hello @Colson, thanks for your reply. You can be sure that I will answer your questions with great care. Let’s start in order.

1- The three largest platforms where projects in the Web3 ecosystem interact with their communities are Twitter, Telegram and Discord. You don’t need to follow the Twitter of a brand you interact with in the Web2 world or join a Telegram group (if any). For example, you don’t need to follow their social media accounts for a shoe you bought from Prada. The distinction here; People who are customers in web2 are part of that project in the web3 ecosystem. I think this is the biggest difference of web3 ecosystem from web2.

In this context, I should point out that most of our followers on Telegram and Twitter are people who have invested or will make investments in our project. Just as you don’t need to follow their Twitter accounts for a shoe you buy in the web2 ecosystem, you don’t need to follow the social media accounts of a web3 project that you haven’t/will not invest in.

We are trying to increase Graph Protocol awareness regionally by increasing the interaction and the number of followers/members on our regional social media platforms such as Twitter/Telegram etc. (as in all our regional accounts). Thus, new members joining us learn about the Graph Protocol, participate in conversations and watch the content produced. If we trust our project and work as a whole team for its growth (which I believe so), these people also use the Graph Ecosystem in their investment decisions over time.

Of course, I don’t want it to be limited to $GRT investment. As you mentioned, our community members who know our ecosystem and discover a suitable position to position themselves will also contribute to our project. In this sense, our community members who have witnessed many different developments such as community work, content produced, grant opportunities, networking, etc. will also want to be included in our ecosystem. Because taking part in projects that care about their community is an opportunity for every web3 ecosystem stakeholder. I believe that I will continue to offer this opportunity to the Turkish community by growing our community, gaining new people, organizing online/IRL events, sending them gifts/awards, and producing content as it has been for the past two years.

So if I had to summarize the answer to your first question; the increase in the number of members and interaction on social media platforms indirectly and in parallel, has a great impact on the growth of the Graph ecosystem (first regionally and then globally).

2- I opened and manage both Graph Telegram and Twitter accounts. The most important rule, especially in our Telegram groups, is respect. No one may disrespect any other community member. No one can give absolute investment advice. No one can post +18/pornographic content. It cannot send links or text messages to defraud people. If you wish, I can share the list of rules that are automatically reminded to our community during the day after the welcome message that greets people at the bottom. Don’t hesitate to take a look.

In addition; This is my 12th year in the web3 ecosystem and my 7th year in community management. In this process, many exchanges were closed, many projects ended, I witnessed many different scam/theft examples and different bad examples. I have also seen many good examples (good results from bad examples are always more valuable to me as experience). I have also been on social media platforms of many different projects. I think you have experienced what rules work or not (especially in the Turkish blockchain ecosystem).

:memo: Community Guidelines​:memo:

1. Keep Order - Feel free to talk about the Graph Protocol and keep all conversations civil and within the framework of the Graph.

2. Inappropriate Behaviors Prohibited - Many inappropriate behaviors are prohibited in our group, including personal attacks, insults, investment rhetoric in the style of “buy and buy”, gossip, all kinds of defamation, FUD’s, precise comments that may lead to speculation, sharing private information of individuals. . We want you to think by example that you do not lose your respect and treat others the way you would like to be treated yourself.

3. No Spamming, Shillers, or Scams - Natural self-promotion is welcome, but please don’t spam the channel with self-serving messages, shills, or low-effort content.

4. Strikes and Bans - Anyone found to be directly abusing other members will be given a warning. If this behavior continues, the person will be removed from the channel.

5. Tag Admins - It’s best to tag admins for emergencies, please don’t abuse this function.

3- The Turkish community likes to listen to experts in their field (and sometimes even non-experts). This is not unique to the blockchain ecosystem. Even if he has a decision, he follows that person and reads / watches / listens to the content he shares in order to get the opinion of a different person.

There are hundreds of content producers/influencers in the Turkish blockchain/web3 ecosystem. The number of influencers, who are the oldest and produce the highest quality content and are a real researcher/useful content producer in the eyes of the society, does not exceed 50. I have good news: I made friends with almost all of these influencers both during my digital marketing master education and during the time I spent in this ecosystem. I worked on different projects and collaborated, and still drinking coffee, eating and meeting with all of them.

In our country where an average project review video and even a tweet costs around $1000-7500 (you can research it yourself), I’ve already convinced a few people that I think are suitable for Graph to collaborate on promotions. Within the framework of the shares that these influencers will make to their tens of thousands of followers,

  • Awareness of people unfamiliar with Graph Protocol
  • Increase in followers/members in our social media accounts
  • Involvement of potential investors
  • The fact that people who will work in our ecosystem notice us and join us

will be at the forefront. And the opinion that a project shared by influencers whose words are trusted is reliable will become widespread over time.

A project shared only by influencers can provide people with an image of “shilling for money”. This is true. However, we are don’t shilling anything. There are efforts to grow the community, content produced, events and collaborations. In short, apart from $GRT token, our community has a nice experience to offer.

The entire puzzle comes together to reveal a picture. I believe that one of the indispensable parts of this puzzle is “influencer marketing”.

I hope I was able to answer your questions. If you still have a point in mind, please feel free to write. You can be sure that I will answer as best I can.

Best regards,
Onur

1 Like
#16

Also @Colson, I wish you had waited for me to answer your question before you voted “No”.

We have many regional communities and many have applied for grants to grow their businesses. As probably the oldest regional community of the Graph ecosystem (15.12.2020), I am diligently trying to answer all questions for the grant I applied for. Also for two years I have been regularly managing our community and helping people “voluntarily”.

I’m really curious about what prompted you to vote “No” without even waiting for the answer to your question. If there is something wrong/missing in my answers or something else, I’d be happy to correct it.

Thanks.

2 Likes
#17

Greetings!

The presentation of the project will be in the public-voice-chat channel on the Graph AdvocatesDAO Discord server on February 21 at 18:00 UTC. Entrance is open and everyone is welcome to come in and ask their questions during the presentation!

Thank everyone for your attention!

#18

@onur-TheGraphTurkey thanks for your application and presentation.
I agree with your vision and plan for expanding the awareness of the Graph in the Turkey community. Also, I respect your experience in web3 and marketing.

However, I am concerned about the funding period (2 years).
You will do it well, but the funding for a long period might affect your execution.

For example, if we give the initial funding for 20% of the total amount, and as you said, you will seek more suitable influencers for the Graph.
You need to pay for the rest before the proposal is completed. I think that might not be a small amount.

So, it would be better for make the duration shorter in my opinion.
How do you think about this?

Thank you.

1 Like
#19

Hello @jiimxjim.eth, thank you very much for your kind comment. Of course I would like to give an answer.

As I stated in my presentation, the budget included in my offer does not cover the payments of influencers. Besides, the video that an influencer will prepare now costs between $2000-8000 on average. This budget I have requested is to manage the community management as I have stated and to bring it to a better place. Most of the influencers are my friends and will support me in my relationship with them. This will look like a organic post, not a paid ad/shill.

I have been running our community voluntarily for two years and I founded it. I want to manage this on a long-term basis. Although my budget proposal is for one year under normal conditions, I have specified it as two years to make it more comfortable. Not a problem for me. If our DAO deems it appropriate, I can request this budget for one year. As I said, I am happy and honored to be a member of the Graph family. I will continue to work to increase the awareness of the Graph Protocol in our country, as it has been since the first day.

Thanks again @jiimxjim.eth :astronaut:

4 Likes
#20

Hi @onur-TheGraphTurkey
Thank you so much for your commitment to the community and the ecosystem. I am in favor on having many communities.
My only concern is payment for influencer. I am against of any payment to influencers.
Can this proposal be made without payment to influencers?

4 Likes