How to Get your first 50 supporters for your Steemit Social Projects

maverickfoo (67)in #community • 6 years ago (edited)

Awesome! You just thought of a great social project. Regardless it's Steemit related or not, you'll know that for your project to be successful, you'll need to rally support. And let me tell you, it's a momentum game, and the initial starting point is the hardest.

For me, over the past few years of running projects, there's usually a threshold, but I can safely say if you can get your first 50 supporters, it will be smoother journey after that. And that's what this post is all about. A couple of principles here, and strategies here, and some common pitfalls to avoid. And just like the usual Mav-stuff, you know you're gonna get some golden nuggets by the end of the post (just slightly before the upvote button. Just kidding!)

####1. You May Want to Keep Close Friends & Families for Last
This may be an unusual recommendation, but hear me out.

If your family and close friends had been supportive of your initiatives in the past, whether or not it’s related to your Steemit Social projects, then by all means, secure their responses first. That’s because you have gained their trust and earned their respect in your capabilities, abilities, and vision.

However, if you had not been successful in getting their support in the past, then it may be a good idea to approach them later. You see, out of caring and not wanting you to fail, your friends and family members may not be as supportive of your project, and because they are the closest people in your life, not getting their support can be a big blow to your motivation.

For that reason, approach other social circles and network, gain some traction first, and then when the time is right, or when they start being curious on what you’re working on, then talk to them about it. Do know that once you have the support of those closest to you, you will gain tremendous momentum in pushing forward.

####2. Identify At Least 9 Social Circles
You’ll want to get your team together for this activity.

First, take a piece of paper and start listing out all your social circles. Social circles are groups or communities you hang out with, so it can be:

Members of professional associations you’re in
Social media groups you are active in (that are related to your cause or social projects in general)
Coaches, mentors, teachers
Colleagues & work associates
Friends from associations and societies you’re part of
Religious groups
Friends from leisure activity groups (sports, recreation, etc)
College or university friends

Basically, identify all the different pockets of network groups you personally know. Now, it has to be people you know (and in your phone book), because they have to be one, or at max, two phone calls away.

Try to go for at least nine social groups in total (including from your team members), but don’t let the number stop you from going more. Sky's the limit on this one. :)

####3. Expand On Each Social Circle
Now that you and your teammates have listed out the social circles, time to put the names associated to each of the groups. Don’t worry whether the person will support your project or not - just put their names on the list and let them decide if they want to support your movement after you talk to them. The key is to pitch first, and respect their decision.

You may also want to go through your contact lists on your phone, Facebook, LinkedIn or any social media you can think off. You'll realize you have more contacts that you think, and it will definitely help to populate the list.

Once you’ve done this step right with your team, you should have quite a sizable list. The average person knows at least 100 people, so depending on the size of your team, just multiply that number.

The last step here is where you put them all in a nice Excel Sheet with all their contact details (phone and email), and you can start to prioritize on who you want to connect with first.

####4. Identify Relevant Groups
Step #2 and #3 are identifying supporters from within your network. In step #4, you're going to go further.

Depending on your causes, look outside your network for existing groups who may be able to lend you their support. This is the Occam‘s Razor, where if you connect with the right person from the group, you'll have access to spread your message to their entire network.

Look for their founders and leaders, or at least the decision makers. Try to align your objectives to theirs, so that it doesn't appear like they are just helping you, but rather, you are helping them achieve their vision.

####5. The Hustling Mindset
We deliberately don't want to start with this, because you probably already know that raising funds and support for your Steemit Social project is going to require you to hustle like crazy. Let's just say this is a gentle reminder instead :)

Yes, having the hustling spirit means for the next few months, all you're going to be talking about is your social project. Go to as many meetup and networking events that you possibly can. Eventbrite, Peatix and Meetup.com are helpful directories of events around you, most of which are free. Heck, even if it's not free, tap on your hustling spirit and find the most low-cost way of getting yourself on the invite list.

Look out for relevant community meetups or even crashing exhibition events. Take any opportunity for you to speak at events, because you'll just never know who's in the audience, and who they are connected too. Make clear what your vision is and what you have to offer, and you'll start seeing the traction.

So there you have it, a couple of strategies to help you get your first 50 supporters. You probably think you can go beyond that figure now, and yes, don't stop at that.

Remember, you and your team are putting yourself out there to support causes close to your heart. You know that, your team knows that. Now's the time to let everybody else know too.

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I mostly blog about Steemit Success Strategies, business, marketing, entrepreneurship, psychology, community and random thoughts.

Talking about Steemit Success Strategies, if you want to 10x your results on this platform, perhaps some of these guides will be able to help you.

At least once a month, I run Steemit community events and training workshops with my buddies at #teammalaysia too. Some examples are:

I'm also grateful to be part of #steemitbloggers , SmartSteem and the sndbox.

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Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD5, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

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Yup, basically it's the very same thing you're doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all along!

The only difference? For once you can earn a nice income on the side!

Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome

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