Merry Christmas to you @ianballantine, and don't apologise for spending time with friends and family, they are important though you might be able to get them on Steem if you think about it a bit, you said Mary spent a lot of time on Facebook, tell her that if she gets her friends on Steem they can talk and get paid for it, keep up your great work and stay awesome.
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Thanks Erik for your kind words.
Mary finds Facebook difficult so having her and her friends here on Steem is definitely a work in progress! Still, I hope to bring her and some of her friends across in the new year. Firstly though, I need to increase my earnings here so I have proof that Steem delivers.
Guess I just need to be a lot more active here so I can entice others to come across. I suppose that's the challenge we all have to embrace going forward. Actions do speak louder than words so, to be successful on Steem, we need to increase our activities here.
My vision is to have a Cook Islands tribe on Steem so that Cook Islanders have a place they can communicate with each other in their own native tongues. They can then encourage their children to be here, to learn the languages and share their culture. Perhaps all peoples will eventually have their own tribes, a global connection much better and more rewarding than all the other social media platforms combined.
Thank you very much @ianballantine, and I like your idea, and a tip would be to wait for SMT's and Communities to be made, then you can have it all for 3 Steem, stay awesome.