Want To Grow? Make Meaningful Comments And More Of Them
How It All Started
After my first month on Steemit, I began to write a statistical report post of my progress. I wanted to see what I was doing, and therefore, see if I could improve on those numbers the following month. I do have a business background, so I will often end up with benchmarks or metrics of some kind with projects such as Steemit.
It's been helpful to see the progress or lack thereof. What I've gained from it most is that equal time put into Steemit doesn't always equate to equal effort, or equal results. In other words, I can spend the same amount of hours sitting in the chair working away on Steemit each month, but unless I'm tracking my efforts on a daily basis, it's easy to think I'm accomplishing something when I'm really not. As far as results go, they simply vary. Effort does not always equal a good payout, but in the end, effort is necessary in order to get noticed.
Me, trying to keep up the comments every day.
So What Does Any Of This Have To Do With Comments?
One of the statistics I keep track of is the number of comments I've made. In my first month, January, I managed 244 comments, for an average of 11 a day. At the time, I thought that was pretty good. In February, I put in the hours again, going about the same routine, but when it came to compiling the report post, I found I'd slacked off somehow. Instead of increasing, the amount of comments I made fell to 188. I put in more or less the same amount of hours, but for some reason my production was off.
This Sounds Like A Report
I believe it was late February or early March when @themanwithnoname first mentioned @abh12345's Curation and Engagement League (yes, I've written about this before). It wasn't until the latter half of March that I decided to join, and I experienced my first true Steemit eye opening experience. For all the work I thought I was doing, including commenting, I was doing nothing in comparison to everyone else who finished in front of me that first week.
So You Doubled Your Efforts, Blah, Blah, Blah
Actually, for the second week, I managed to nearly triple the amount of comments, and then the week after that, almost quintupled my initial comment count. In that two week period I went from placing in the mid-twenties to the top of the engagement league, where I stayed for four straight weeks (including after a bye).
Okay, Now You're Just Bragging
There's a couple of points to this. One is, the work I thought I was doing previously was not tethered to reality. And I was getting down, not on myself, but on Steemit. I thought I was running as fast as I could every day only to find that I was either running in place, or running in circles, and it was all Steemit's fault because, dang it, I was working my tail off.
The leagues made me realize that nothing could be farther from the truth. It wasn't Steemit's fault. I just wasn't accomplishing as much as my brain was telling me I was, and not only that, there were plenty of people doing much more than me, so I had no excuses. Time put in was not equating to effort made. I had been weighed, measured and definitely I had been found wanting.
Welcome to the new world.
One of my favorite scenes from A Knight's Tale.
Another thing—making a monthly report was well and good, but I needed to know what was happening more frequently if I wanted better results not only at the end of the month, but every week with the leagues. Since I now had a weekly report through the league results post, I decided to keep a daily tally of my comments, along with my upvotes, to show me what I needed to do.
That Was The Point?
I don't have a set amount of comments I do every day, but for the most part, I average around 50 now. I've tried to increase the average, without a whole lot of luck. It really depends on the day, how many posts I'm finding to comment on and how many replies or how much engagement I'm getting on either my own posts or the comments I've made. Over the last 10 weeks, the lowest number of comments I've made in a day was 23, with the highest at 90. A far cry from the 9 to 11 I was making.
You've Got More?
Well, I increased the number of comments I make because of the leagues, but it's been paying off outside of them. I've noticed a significant uptick (significant being relative) in the amount of comments on my own posts, as well as the number of upvotes I've received. By getting out on other people's posts attempting to add value to them through meaningful comments, I've benefited by reaching a wider audience for my own posts.
Now, I need to emphasize something here that I believe to be crucial. Never comment just to comment. Comments are only good if there's something in them. It's not all about the word count or the character length, but it is about the content and the intent. I try to comment with way more than just, "I like your post," or "This was awesome, thanks for sharing." One, because that's considered spam in many quarters, and two, because I'm trying to take a genuine interest in the post and in the author. There are things I want to know, observations I feel I should make, great points to acknowledge, and more. I do that through commenting.
Time's Up
I average roughly 50 comments a day because it helps me get out there and connect with people who in return connect with me. I started to do it because of the leagues. I continue to do it because I see the good it's doing, not only for me, but for those I connect with and the platform at large. I hope to continue to keep up the comment count, with meaningful content, and see where it all leads.
This post is brought to you by the May 30 Days Writing Challenge, the brainchild of @dragosroua. Today's topic: How Many Comments Per Day Do You Post? Why?
I never stopped to do the math, but I figured your daily count was fairly high. I think it's funny that while I was writing my post and mentioning you in it that you were writing your post and mentioning me in it. Ha ha. Apparently we've really had an impact on each other. That's cool.
I really enjoy our back-and-forth "commentversations" and I know it has benefited both of us in the standings and in terms of building habits of following up with people. Thanks for all your thoughtful and meaningful comments. Looking forward to more of them. :)
Well, you're the reason why I got involved with Asher's leagues, and the leagues are the reason why I've been commenting more, so I couldn't not mention you (that's a double negative positive right there :) in a post about how much I comment and why, could I?
And, I believe, it's through these commentversations that we help one another keep sane, keep up with what's going on, get motivated to get out there farther and farther, and yes, the results of those efforts certainly help in the league standings and with visibility and thus the rewards.
Since our dual action mentioning is also turning into a mutual admiration society, I thank you, too, sir, for all you've done and do. It's good to have you back. :)
I'm glad that it's helped. I thought you might have been getting discouraged, and I'm glad that it has encouraged you and inspired you to be more targeted with your time and efforts.
Yeah, I think the more time that people spend interacting with real humans, the more they can actually appreciated the platform. The engagement begets engagement. It's a bit of a snowball effect.
Glad to be back! Looking forward to catching up with everyone. :)
I initially joined Steemit in August of last year as a crypto investment. It wasn't until January of this year when I thought to try to grow my steemit account by being active on the website instead of just as a passive investment. I have tried a lot of different methods with varying results. It's been rather difficult to find that balance between trying to grow your own account and the Steemit community as well. I like your concept of making "meaningful" comments. You would think that this would be intuitive but I have found the number of useless comment to be quite abundant. I have also never considered making comments on a regular and consistent basis as a way of growing my account and community but it certainly make sense. Up until now I had made occasional comments on things/topics that I found interesting but had never done it anywhere near the level that you described. But hey, there's always a first and this seems like a quality way to accomplish both growth objectives. Out of curiosity, do you have any general guidelines that you use for upvoting amounts for the author? I certainly understand voting more for posts and comments that you really like and find interesting/valuable but how do you in general handle your upvote decisions? I suppose one could divide the average number of comments per day (50 in your case) by one's voting regeneration so using the 50 number again that would come to an average of 20% upvote (if I did my math right) per author/comment and go up or down on the upvote percentage based on how much importance one places on the content/comment. Anyways enjoyed your post as I think that I have found a much better way to grow both my account and the Steemit community.
re: personal upvoting guidelines
I guess I start by not treating anything, post or comments, as equal to any other. That means I'm usually adjusting the slider from one comment to the next, or one post to the other. I am also trying to spread my vote around, too, for as many posts and comments as possible. And, I try to keep my voting power around no lower than 85% or more, so as to maximize the upvote each time. Lately, that's not been working out so well.
Other than juggling those three factors, the only other thing I keep in mind is the dust payout threshold, which basically returns all rewards allocated to posts or comments that come in under $0.02 to the reward pool. That means giving a post or comment no less than $0.03.
After that, it's all on a case by case basis. I've managed to put aside for the time being the frustration of not being able to really ever reward anything what I think it should get, and just try to do my best to reward something. I also try to keep in mind what would benefit my own curation rewards, though I'm nowhere near to getting it right, and would probably have to narrow the spread to maximize it.
re: frequent meaningful comments
It's kind of counterintuitive, because some folks here don't think any comments are worth an upvote, but the primary reason for commenting more isn't for the greater potential in rewards. If it happens, great (and it certainly has some increased chance of getting rewards if there are more comments), but the real reason is just so people know you exist. If they're not seeing or reading your posts, then the only other way to make them see you is to drop in on their post.
I have all day to do this, so those comments are coming within the context of a 10-12 hour day. Things would have to be lined up perfectly for me to do it in less. So, there's the time factor involved. For that, I would say do as much as possible while keeping things pertinent and meaningful. It will take time, and you might need to be choosier where you comment (such as targeting larger SP accounts if possible). The bottom line is, the more you get out there, the more people see you interacting, the more people you will get to know and the more likely some of them will follow, autovote, or consistently engage with you.
Ultimately, obviously, you will need to find what works for you and makes you happy with the growth you do get.
I really appreciate you being willing to give me your thoughts/perspective on this as well as the extensiveness of your response. You have given me a lot of very helpful information and advise. This will definitely help me get a bit closer to trying to find that "balance" that I'm looking for.
On a separate note, this is the first time I have heard about the "dust payout threshold," so in addition to everything else I appreciate that.
This was awesome, thanks for sharing!
........
Ha! Kidding! That of course is not my comment, though I did enjoy your post. What resonated with me was the quality of people's comments. I've had comments on some of my posts that just state, "good". How am I supposed to engage with that? Work smarter, not necessarily harder goes a long way.
PS - I very much enjoy your analytical reports. I don't have the business mindset that you do and that makes me appreciate them that much more.
I'm glad the quality part in commenting came through. I got to thinking that the amount of comments was overshadowing the content of the comments, so I felt the need to add more about that. People know when you're actually reading and caring about what they've written and so if you're not showing the interest, then comments can actually work against you.
Aha! I should have added that in the post, too! :)
I've been surprised by the fact that people actually wade through those reports. I started them for me, but it sounds like there's a greater interest.
Well, after 15 years of running my own business, where I needed to know how things were going at least weekly (sometimes daily), it just becomes habit. And when things aren't just naturally falling into place, it's that experience I fall back on to turn things in the direction I want them to go.
It's not that hard really. Don't need a business background to do it. Between steemworld.org and another site the monthly information tends to be easy enough. And this is what I do to keep track of the daily comments and votes. :)
Yeah, I go old school. :)
People underestimate the impact of genuine comments.
Even if I put aside the social aspect of it, the reward aspect of it is still significant.
I should really keep track of my comments during my off week since the stats I listed on my post represented what it looks like during my 70-hour work week and not my 7 days off following that.
I know I felt for a while that commenting, while not a waste of time, was not what I needed to do more of. There's a real pull to up the post count and neglect commenting before there's even much of an audience in place.
Then, if we've used social media at all somewhere else, we're used to one line quips or less. The problem is, those folks on Facebook are probably people we know, and if it's on Twitter, well brevity is king, so it's the norm. Here, most of us don't know each other in real life, so there just seems to be more that needs to happen to build the relationships and communicate the interest in each other's work.
I'll have to hurry and get over to your post. :)
Thanks for the post. This is my second month on steemit and i am where you were when you were doing sub 15 comments a day. Therefore to me your article is eye opening. I have also realized comments are a better way of interating with people of diverse interests. The original content that i post gets very little interaction but commenting also goes a long way. I also wanted to progress my monthly activity. I am now better able to track it, have recently come to know about steemworld.
50 comments a day. Wow. I think i need to do more to find other content creators so that i can increase my interactions.
The finding content part I'm still trying to master. There are people here, particularly in the leagues, that can average over 100 comments a day. And they're not just one large comment chain after another either. They're getting out to at least 30-50 posts a day. I haven't been able to keep up with that, and I spend much more time on Steemit than most.
It's just tough for me to feel like I'm leaving a meaningful comment if I'm not interested in the topic. Others find a way around that, or they just have a wider interest in things than I do. So, we're kind of all in the same boat trying to find that vein of gold where the posts that we can relate to are, and it's going to be different for each of us.
Steemworld is great for a lot of information. I just found out about Steem Analytics, which I still need to explore. Here's the link if you decide to check it out, if you haven't already.
For finding more content, this might work, but again, I've just become aware of it. People are swearing by it, though. Incidentally, this site is presented by the Curie curation trail people. :)
Yeah i dont think i can ever go to a 100 posts a day and i dont want to copy paste the same thing on 10 posts. I also refrain from general comments. There should be some value add, either additional information or a critique or just sharing a similar experience.
Thanks for sharing the 2 links. Will definitely check them out.
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TrufflePigI think tracking and adapting is a huge part of success, not only on Steemit, but also in life.
Being able to easily see the impact of your efforts and adjust accordingly is huge.
I wonder if its worth a script or heroku app to help other people track their effort week-to-week or month-to-month.
Be easy enough to pull from the blockchain and present to folks.
I couldn't say if it will be worth it to you or others to do the script or app, but there are already places pulling information from the blockchain that people are using, and new ones seem to pop up. Just came across Steem Analysis last week, but haven't really given it a good look. Steemworld is about as comprehensive a site as it gets, while having a great interface.
I would imagine it would depend on what specific information needed to be pulled.
Great resources.
I imagine taking that same data and adding trend analysis perhaps gamifying it. Showing people week over week how much they've posted, how their posts have done and what the outcome is over time.
Basically, the same concept as Fitbit, but for Steemit users.
Wow! 50 comments on average a day, @glenalbrethsen!!! I tell you, I'm excited about seeing the Leagues report now that I'm a part of it, but I somehow wish Asher would forget me and leave me out! ;)
Your production numbers went way up and quickly after you joined the Leagues. Having the company and seeing what everyone is doing must be wonderfully inspiring. I've been aiming for 30 a day and not doing anywhere remotely close to that, much less consistently. But I'm so happy to have found the Leagues and to now have the company... even if I remain 1 million miles behind you and everyone else, Glen. ;)
btw, Thanks for the laugh in addition to chuckles! ;)
Well, last week I got to just over 40 and I ended up in second place, again. The week prior, I did my usual and got beat out by someone who did over a 1,000 comments for the week.
So, if I'm getting back into the number one spot, it seems like I need to do even more. Thus, the picture of the horse. I could only hope to have that much hair. :)
To me, the leagues are great because they opened my eyes to what others were doing and what I could do as opposed to what I was doing. It helped me to turn my focus away from my own posts and how I could try to add value to the posts of others.
And it's fun to collect on Asher's page after the results are in and congratulate one another and pretty much talk about whatever. It's not really so much about the placing, though the Top 10 incentives are nice, it's about getting out to the rest of the platform and engaging. I think we increase value that way, with meaningful comments.
How did you count the monthly comments you made, Glenn?
Well, after joining the league, I have Asher's weekly stat total and my own tallies to compare them with, since I keep track of those daily. Before that, I went to places like steemworld, with the running tally in the stats tab (so you'd need to know where you started and ended off each month).
I have been thinking about it for some times now, a way to get statistical infos about our activities on steemit (monthly or weekly posts and comments number, rewards, vote in, vote out, and so on). I guess it would be great if there is a site that provides such infos. Don't you think so, Glenn? And, good luck with the contest, man.
I just remembered a new site that I found out about last week I think. It's called Steem Analytics. I haven't explored it completely, but at first glance, it might be what you're looking for. I think the developer is looking to improve it, too, so he's taking suggestions on how to provide more and more meaningful information.
The place I've gone for the vote counts (in and out) is here. It's a site by justyy, who is also a witness, and there's all kinds of other information you can get to there.
And good luck to you, too. :)
Do you have any idea who runs the Steem Analytic website? Thanks for the information, by the way. I'm gonna check both links you provided.
Ah, it's @eroche.
I have visited both links, Glenn. Awesome sites, very useful. Thanks again for the information. I do appreciate it.
No worries. Happy to help when I can. It's amazing how many STEEM related apps and sites there are out there. The Steem Analytics one is pretty new, I'm sure, but the other one has been around for probably as long as justyy. There's also another site for filtering out and finding posts if you're interested. It's called Steem Lookup and it's by the Curie people. I need to get more into it, but it looks promising for trying to find content if that's ever an issue. :)
Very nice. The more good news. Let me check it as well.
The leagues help a lot, by the way. Asher has done a great work, and so arcange for the technology.
OMG 50!!! I can't even do half lol that is why you are always in the top 3 .
I agree though that comments has paved the way for me to discover new people as well as make some more people as followers and engagers in my blog.
Well, see, you have silly priorities, like HR work, family, charities, other projects, sleeping, and whatever other things you do because you have a life. :)
Me, I just sit in front of the computer all day posting, commenting and curating. Okay, it's not exactly like that, since I get interrupted, distracted and feel the need to eat, etc., but this is all I'm trying to do right now, for as long as I can. So, it's totally doable for me.
Besides, people like Lynn and leeart are easily hitting 80 to well over a hundred a day with the numbers they put up and the actual time they have to do it. For me, that's impossible. :)