The hidden gem to make it on Steem! Maybe better the hidden gem to make Steem great!
Is this a better title? Does it count as a click bait? But let’s work with this title today!
Sorry this became a rather long article. Please take the effort to read it through, cause it will explain the real meaning of Steem! And I do feel that we all need to understand what Steem is about! No it is not about the money, the money is a nice side effect for most of us.
Social Media
First let’s start with some history! Sorry, I need to do this, to place things in perspective!
Most of us grew up with mainstream media. Like television, radio and newspaper. Even older folks had to it with the news item shown in a movie theater before the movie started!
But these were one way communication channels. They were broadcasting, we were only receiving! Okay, you could write a letter to the newspaper, but it was their decision if they were going to publish it or not.
This gave the controlling entities the power to brainwash the people! Their news was the news and it was the truth!
When internet came around (yes younger readers, it wasn’t always here) things started to change. People had a platform to express their opinions, to create communities, to interact with people all over the world. This things are grouped together under the term of Social Media!
The key characteristics of Social media are sharing and interacting. There are normally no editors or a controlling body! Due to lots of abuse, things did change and moderators came into place and controlled some of the platforms like a real dictators. Censoring people, giving direction and started to brainwash people again (take a look at the bans of Google, Facebook and so on about crypto and ico related adds)!
The most know social media where forums, blogs, Facebook, twitter and so on!
The Steem blokchain!
And then Steemit came along. Not a new idea, but it did lift the idea of a social media platform to a higher level. A real decentralized platform without forced censorship. The community itself could regulate some kind of censorship with the means of down voting! People do get rewarded for their efforts with the Proof-Of-Brain concept!
The early adaptors where interactive, did support each other and shared knowledge. Almost all posts were read and did get noticed. Then it did attract more people and these new ones where perhaps too much focused on the money part! They had the idea that they have the same rights as the whales and do expect the same share of the pool! But they forgot to interact and that’s where it did start to go wrong. Wintered Steemains were/are trying to protect their income/status, new Steemains were/are complaining about the whales. Hence even whales are fighting!
2 different types of Steemians!
Beside the whales and dolphins, plankton or red fishes, there are in my opinion 2 types of people needed, to lift Steem to a next level!
The first type are the real content creators. They write excellent post and make us think about topics. These are the fuel of Steemit! Why do you ask?
Well they are giving the second type of Steemians a platform to interact. People can react on the post and even react on other comments on the post. But the creators do also need this interaction. This interaction is what makes a post genuine and is the most appreciation an article can get! It should lift a well written post to the Trending or Hot pages! We cannot all write like Dostoevsky, Shakespeare or Hamlet but we all do have an opinion. Cause opinions are like assholes, everybody has one! And no, not all of them stink!
If there wasn’t any interaction, we could turn back to the mainstream media, hence a single communication channel! Of course the authors appreciate an upvote, but a real genuine comment is like hitting the jackpot. An upvote can come without that the curator did read the post, while a genuine comment is impossible without reading the complete post!
The hidden Gem!
Well this is the chapter where you all have been waiting on. (If you did manage to keep on reading )
The hidden gem on Steemit is to interact with each other. Use the possibility that authors give us! And beautiful things can happen. Let me give you a list of things that happened to me!
- Most of my Steem Power is build up, by placing genuine comments! Don’t place a spam comment, don’t expect to get an upvote, do expect an answer or reply!
- I did receive free delegations by just placing genuine comments. People do get to know you and your ideas and if they have the power they will give you a push in the back!
- I did get 100% upvotes, worth more than 1.5 Steem power. What about that? I would have taken me 10 post to get this kind of pay-out!
- I did get SBD donations, just as a vote of confidence!
- And most important of all, it did lift the number of followers. Each follower is a chance on interaction!
So, if you are new on Steemit or a wintered user, see the money as a nice side effect and focus on INTERACTION.
Interaction is what Steem is all about! This is the hidden gem of Steemit. This will get you noticed, this will increase your Steem Power but most important of all this will make Steem great!
Witness Votes
For the ones who don’t know what the witnesses of the Steem blockchain are, these are the one who keep the blockchain running, they mine the blocks, make sure that the timestamps are correct and they decide/debate about the future of Steemit!
Each one of us, can cast up to 30 votes! Depending on the Steem Power you have, your vote will have more weight. But every vote counts.
I am not the person who do ask to support something, besides interaction, but take a look at a new fresh witness. @steemcommunity
They do think that engagement is the one of the most important things on Steemit. So, if you do find engagement and interaction important, give them a vote. Cause they could have/should have a voice in the debates about the future of Steemit!
Voting can be done via https://steemit.com/~witnesses , just fill in steemcommunity in the field, where you can vote for a witness outside of the top50.
The verdict!
Do interact with each other, don’t look at the reputation of an author (as long as it is at least equal or above 25), don’t look at his/her Steem Power!
Let’s make Steemit an real social media platform!
Do you agree or disagree, I’m happy to start an interaction!
If you really believe that interaction is of utmost importance for Steemit. Feel free to re-steem this post. It will be very much appreciated. Get the word out there!
If you like the post but are running out of Steem Power, just don’t upvote but place a genuine comment! Both will be great, but I do understand that we have to use our voting power at will!
Encourage each other the do the same!
Keep the faith,
Peter
You totally right! And that's why STEEM is in dire need for more social options, like a communities, mettings, chats etc (all we have in FB and others).
Eventually we will get there but it will take some time.
You are absolutely right. Interaction is crucial. Weird thing is that people are commenting on other social network with more effort for free, and over here, where you can get rewarded for nice comments, there is ton of stupid spam comments. And they don’t get rewarded... if you are not talented to write interesting comment then better don’t comment. Just upvote articles or comments that you like and you will get curation reward.
It so true! Should have incorporated this in my post :(
Most are just blinded by the money aspect! The fools!
I did use your present on this post. Let's see how it turns out!
It's a way of self-elimination of the stupid, @cicbar. Natural selection… :)
You’re right 😀
You got a 25.00% upvote and resteem from @ebargains courtesy of @fullcoverbetting. Thank you for using the @ebargains UPVOTE and RESTEEM bot.
If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @ebargains by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
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Indeed, I have mentioned several times t hat from a community perspective, the most important aspect is under the post. Yes, quality posts should be rewarded but they really only have community value based on the discussion they create. It isn't number of comments but, quality of comments.
In my opinion, a good post is one where lively debate can happen among the audience without requiring the author at all. Ogf course, the author should interact also but it is not necessary if people are discussing well.
Good article mate and yes, hopefully @steemcommunity witness can bring more engagement. ( you have a typo in the name by the way)
Stupid of me, thx for mentioning my error. Did correct it.
Also thx for taking time to read the article, really appreciate it!
It is true that an author is not obliged to interact as the discussion are going on but they should respond to reply directed to them. Or reply on other visions, if they don't they are just news readers!
They should interact but I think there is also value in the audience interacting together too. Too many authors here don't put enough effort into an adequate response
At least we do.
I agree. Lets keep the value of steem growing with quality interactions.
i have been gathering strength and zeal to write a post on how to make it on steemit , based on my personal experience and this point , was my main focus.
"Most of my Steem Power is build up, by placing genuine comments! Don’t place a spam comment, don’t expect to get an upvote, do expect an answer or reply!"
i personally spend soo much time writing content, and honestly its draining, because am not a natural writer, but i do have a flow of words when am in the writing mood/zone.
so in times when i am clearly not in the right state of mind to write, i spend it all on searching through articles and living genuine comments, and that had truly worked out for me. in fact, my comments earn more than my posts sometimes.
I do understand where you hinting at! I also consider myself a bad writer and a much better commenter. But when you do write about passions, everything will go a lot easier.
We can only do our utmost best!
Yes , we definitely can, thanks for this post. Il be the 2nd type of steemian, coz i will get motivation from your post to make my own list.
Il attach a link to this post for further reference when i do finally have it up.
Cheers.
There ia nothing wrong with being a great commenter. Like written both types need each other!
Agree
I agree that we need to interact
And I agree we need to interact with interesting and quality content verses just responding to whales, curators, and witnesses. That can be “sound” advice if all a person wants is money.
We need to support quality content fromeveryone so that steem is worth something and we attract new people.
The more newbies the better. The more content the more interactions and more draw steem has.
If we just respond to whales, then newbies fall away and the value of steem deminishes.
So follow content instead of high reputation , in general, to keep steem going.
And whales need to be voting on newbies so they see a return on their inventment of posting.
Interaction is what makes steem worth the time it takes to post.
We probably all were allured by the money. I have to admit, than more than a week ago, the first thing I did on Steemit was to check my comments, hoping that some did score an upvote. In the last week, I completely shifted things around. I honestly can say, that I don't look back to the comments I did place. First I do check the replies I did get, and if necessary I will reply again! I did not look anymore if the comments did get an upvote. While this is almost nice, it will not give me anything!
I do agree, that we need more communities on Steemit. The more topics are covered, the more people will feel at home!
Good advice.
I do my best to check replies to see if a responce is a possibility due to the nature of it.
I view posts almost like conversations - one post at time conversation 😎
I am learning to enjoy conversing in this manner. It feels like the old days of waiting for a letter in response to the orginal letter.
@fullcoverbetting how is this shift affecting your steemit experience?
To be honest! It makes it more enjoyable. It always considered the money part as a nice side effect, but still it was browsing though my mind. Not that it doesn't do this anymore, I can focus better on the conversation. It is easier to look behind the reputation of the other, cause we all did start at 25!
Yes we did. And increasing in rep is the journey worth taking.
Money complicates things. It adds extra pressure to most activities. By letting go, I find my thoughts flow better and I can writer better comments.
I am framing the steem that is generated from my posts as “confirmation bias” to the quality of my posts. This process is inspiring me to up my game.
Based on your journey, do you have other insights for minnows?
I would combine comments with own posts. Both need each other. If one only write comments, there is no use to follow that person.
Did wrote about post about this long time ago! Many moons ago!
Indeed don’t focusin the money, focus on intaction. Also do register for the engagement contest of @ahb12345.
It gives some kind of motivation!
Also it you have a free witness space available, you could give it to @steemcommunity! The find interaction utmost important!
How do i elect someone for a witness
Go to: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
There you can see the top 50 of witnesses and vote or them. If want to vote for witness outside the 50, you can fill it in!
The only other thing I would add is to curate your following list wisely, and engage with those that you follow moreso than the random posters in trending. That's how you start to become known by certain people.
And in turn, when people follow you, and comment on your posts, make sure you engage them and upvote, even a small one.
I've unfollowed people before who created ok content and we're relatively small in reputation and SP, because no matter how much I try to engage them they generally don't bother after submitting their post. They just wait to see how much they earn from the post until they move on to their next post. I lose interest after a while.
I also did drop some which I did follow because they didn’t react on any comment. These are the money hungry wolves!
They are just not worth our attention!
Curation is another powerfull tool we have! Use it wisely. Thx to busy.org I am capable of not only replying to comments but to give also some appreciation with a upvote!
Interesting point. I will add that to my posting process.
Follow the followed.
I couldn't agree more. Thanks again for a great article! True interaction on a truly level playing field is what's needed. Here's where you truly nail it in my opinion:
and
I'm just starting on Steem and this is the second article I read from your hand and both were exceptional. Also I have written my own first real article here on Steemit: Market Manipulation or Price Suppression? ... Or none of the above?
If you can find the time, between making these great articles, to read and comment on it I would be very grateful since I'm willing to learn.
Keep up the good work!
Thx for the encouraging words. You know what is funny? I don't consider myself a great author, I do belong more to the commenter group!
But when you are passionate about something, words will come. Just start with the title and see how it flows! I also try to do no editing, cause this would destroy some of the power of the article!
"I also try to do no editing, cause this would destroy some of the power of the article!" See? I learned something new already :-)
Great! Ready for the next lesson. If you want to quote you need to use ">" but then without the asterisks.
Then it would look like this:
@fullcoverbetting this is a very well-written post. Yes, interaction is the KEY.
The only thing that I wanted to mention is that Hamlet is actually a character, a dreamer, not a writer, of Shakespeare same-name poem.
I am really glad to see you are growing here, my friend!
And It also looks like you fulfilled all your March goals.
Hi John,
Thx for the correction. Hamlet is indeed a character created by Shakespeare. No idea, why I did use him. Probably in a rush to finish the article.
March goals are indeed reached. For sure on the part of interaction, engagement and comments I do receive on my post. What bugs me a little is that I had to use some bots to advertise my articles.
But on the other side, the more I am active on Steemit, to more I do believe in it.
Yes, it has its flaws but still I enjoy spending some time here!
Thx for taking the time, to read this long post and even find an error in it!
ooh, yes this post is really awesome it got me curious when I had just joined steemit I would leave a couple of meaningless , spam comments until I was advised by @jaraumoses that the best way to make it on steemit is to leave genuine comments and the day I decided to do that in a week I had added over 50 followers.
great advise am one kind of person who has been doing that but thank you, sir, for your enlignment because I was once new here and you guys warmly welcomed me, looked at my posts so I believe its high time I give back too
Its human nature I guess to look at the reputation. But like you wrote we all did start at 25!