As one of the most common marketing promotion methods today, Web3 KOL (Key Opinion Leader) launches play a crucial role in various project phases—from initiation and preheating to token sales and ongoing operations. However, the chaos surrounding KOL launches (e.g., fake data, misaligned partnerships) has become a major headache for many project teams. How to find the right KOLs, how to evaluate launch effectiveness, and how to avoid data fraud? This article addresses these pain points head-on, aiming to provide actionable solutions for project teams.

1. Launch Process

KOL Launch Steps

1. Identify target users

2. Set launch goals

3. Select suitable KOLs

4. Prepare promotional materials

5. Communicate with KOLs

6. Evaluate KOL launch effectiveness

A standardized process facilitates effective management and execution of launch campaigns, maximizing the chances of success.

2. Identify Target Users

Before launching KOL collaborations, most project teams overlook a critical step: clarifying their target users. Why is this important? Because product users and investment-focused users are two distinct groups, and the logic behind KOL launches for each differs significantly.

• Product Users: These are consumer users who focus on a product’s user experience and functionality, seeking satisfaction or convenience from its use. For product users, KOL launches should prioritize conversion effectiveness, with the goal of boosting user conversion rates.

• Investment-Focused Users: These users aim to gain investment returns from a product. Their focus extends beyond user experience to the product’s economic value and long-term growth potential. For this group, KOL launches should prioritize user expectations, with the goal of enhancing users’ trust in the product and their willingness to invest.

Project teams must develop differentiated KOL launch strategies based on the unique characteristics of their target users:

• For product users: Prioritize KOLs whose brand tone aligns with the product and whose fan base overlaps with the target audience to improve launch effectiveness.

• For investment-focused users: Prioritize influential KOLs to enhance the credibility and appeal of the launch.

How to Determine Target User Type?

The key lies in whether the launch content is asset-related:

• If the content has no connection to assets (e.g., promoting a product’s utility), the target is product users. Web2 marketing experience applies here—frame content around real user pain points. For example, the promotion I led for Poko (a fiat payment platform) successfully attracted a large number of product users by focusing on pain points like "fast cross-border payments."

• If the content is asset-related (e.g., tokenomics, investment returns), the target is investment-focused users. In this case, the content itself becomes less important; the project’s future expectations behind the content matter more. Unlike product users, investment-focused users proactively seek project information. This explains why top-tier projects (e.g., "blue-chip" blockchains) can attract users effortlessly even without heavy promotion—their high market expectations speak for themselves.

But what if your project is not a "top-tier" one? Can you still build high expectations? Absolutely—through strategic planning + content creation. The most common method is to spread positive project news, such as "upcoming exchange listing announcements."

3. Set Launch Goals

KOLs maintain close relationships with their audiences, giving them strong endorsement power and secondary dissemination capabilities. Evaluating KOL effectiveness based solely on data is incomplete—beyond expectations themselves, we must also consider the duration of expectations:

• If expectations last a long time (e.g., airdrop campaigns), the potential target user base is more important.

• If expectations will be fulfilled quickly (e.g., a 24-hour trading competition), every key point in the user journey must be monitored, and goals should be set around these touchpoints.

How to Set Goals for Potential Target User Bases?

First, recognize that "expectation dissemination" is similar to brand building—it is a long-term goal, not short-term traffic monetization. Thus, you can set an overarching goal and break it down into smaller, actionable objectives for each launch. For example:

• Overarching goal: "Build awareness of our DeFi protocol among 10,000 potential investors in 3 months."

• Broken-down goals:

1. First launch: "Attract 500 new followers to the official Twitter account via KOL content."

1. Second launch: "Drive 200 new wallet connections to the protocol’s testnet."

4. Select Suitable KOLs

Once target users and goals are defined, the next step is to select the right KOLs. Currently, KOLs are generally defined as social media influencers with over 10,000 followers. However, due to the lack of third-party data platforms, KOL selection relies heavily on subjective judgment rather than historical data. The market typically evaluates KOLs based on three dimensions:

1. Follower count

2. Content engagement data (likes, shares, comments)

3. Niche category (e.g., DeFi, NFTs, Layer 2)

Yet, Twitter (X) data fraud is rampant—fake followers, bot comments, and inflated engagement have made these metrics unreliable. To mitigate fraud risks, project teams have adopted measures such as:

• Offering the same fee to all KOLs (to avoid overpaying for fake influence).

• Providing KOLs with early project tokens/equity to build long-term binding (aligning their interests with the project’s success).

Are There More Effective KOL Screening Strategies?

Below are actionable data metrics to reference:

1. Mutual Follows: KOLs with more followers from other reputable industry figures (e.g., project founders, top investors) tend to have higher account quality.

2. Comment Read Rate: Unlike likes or shares (which are easy to fake), comment quality (e.g., in-depth questions, genuine discussions) reliably reflects audience activity. A KOL with 1,000 real comments is more valuable than one with 10,000 bot comments.

3. Content Read Consistency: A genuine KOL’s content performance varies—some posts get high read rates, others lower. If a KOL’s every post has nearly identical read rates, it is a red flag for data manipulation. Additionally, analyze the KOL’s recent high-performing content to:

• Understand their fan demographics (e.g., "70% of their followers trade DeFi").

• Assess alignment with your project (e.g., a KOL focused on "sustainable crypto" is a fit for a green blockchain project).

• Customize content that resonates with their audience (e.g., if their top posts are "tutorials," collaborate on a "how to use our protocol" video).

5. Evaluate KOL Launch Effectiveness

The industry’s common metrics—read rates, share counts, and participant numbers—are insufficient. Three additional dimensions should be considered:

1. Project Awareness: Measure search volume across platforms like CoinMarketCap (CMC) and Twitter. For example, a 50% increase in CMC searches post-launch indicates improved awareness.

2. Community Hype: If the launch drives a surge in community activity (e.g., 2x more messages in Discord, new members joining daily), the expectation dissemination is effective.

3. Secondary Dissemination: If the initial KOL launch triggers other KOLs to share your project voluntarily (without payment), it signals high acceptance of your project’s expectations.

If there is no noticeable change in awareness, community hype, or secondary dissemination, your project’s expectations likely have issues. Remember: A KOL launch is like a megaphone—the quality of the megaphone (KOL influence) matters, but the content being amplified (project value, expectations) matters more.

6. KOL Launch Case Studies

Whether a launch meets its goals or not, it is critical to summarize lessons learned. Below are three practical cases from my experience supporting Web3 projects:

Case A

• Goal: Attract users to a tokenless project via a direct token giveaway.

• Expectations: AI computing power protocol with token incentives—top 100 users to sign up get extra rewards; remaining users split rewards equally.

• Strategy:

1. Lead with an English-speaking top-tier KOL (300k followers) publishing a long-form post covering project endorsements + event details.

1. Partner with 20–30 mid-tier KOLs to share screenshots of their "extra rewards" and content hyping the token’s future price growth.

• Results:

• Official Twitter followers increased by 5,000+.

• Over 3,000 users participated in the event.

Case B

• Goal: Generate industry attention in a specific country for a tokenized project ahead of its listing on a top local exchange (in 1 week).

• Expectations: Exchange listing + price surge expectations.

• Strategy:

1. Use an unknown Twitter account to post fake "internal project conflict" images (to create initial buzz).

1. Partner with ~10 mid-tier KOLs to redirect attention to the upcoming exchange listing (shifting focus from the fake conflict to positive news).

• Results:

• The launch aligned with the price surge, sparking widespread community discussions.

• Trading volume reached a new high.

Case C

• Goal: Attract users to participate in an IDO (Initial DEX Offering) for an upcoming token launch.

• Expectations: Token value + roadmap highlights (e.g., upcoming partnerships).

• Strategy:

1. Partner with a top-tier KOL to host a "guess the post-IDO price surge" contest—winners get large rewards.

1. Collaborate with 30+ mid-tier KOLs to publish analysis positioning the project as a "leader in its niche track" (e.g., "top cross-chain bridge for small-cap tokens").

• Results:

• Official Twitter followers increased by 10,000+.

• Community members grew by 3,000+.

These cases are drawn from my hands-on experience supporting numerous Web3 projects with KOL launches. I welcome further discussions and knowledge-sharing with fellow industry professionals.