If you have come to Steemit from FB, Twitter, or Instagram...this blog might help you get your head around this place.

If you are brand new to Steemit and are used to centralized social media sites that hold your hand, Steemit might seem a bit mystifying. This blog might help you hit the ground running. Steemit is what is known as "alt-tech" or a "decentralized platform" which, as I understand it, more or less means there is no one in charge. Anyone can make an add on anyone can make a phone app...ect. Think of it as a PC as opposed to a MAC, there's lots of stuff out there you can glom onto and use.

It ALSO means there is no annoying algorithm shoving crap in your face because it thinks that's what you want. Which means YOU have to craft your own feed. No one is going to spoonfeed you anything here, you get out of it what you put into it. When you start out you'll see your profile page and see -trending- new- hot- across the top

Clicking those will basically do nothing for you at this point. The basic feed on all of those is only based on who posted recently or is most popular among every single user. So if you click on that you're going to see a whole lot of stuff you have zero interest in...some of it in other languages. What you do is this...you click on your own profile pic to get a drop down menu...and you click "feed" and that gives you the newsfeed of everyone you followed and THEN clicking trending or new will modify the order of what's on you feed.

Of course...there is nothing on your feed yet because you haven't found anything interesting in your own language. Here's what you do, you click on the little search logo to the left of your profile pic (the little magnifying glass)...type in some subject you like...for instance comics...

You ignore the first few options and just click one with Steemit.com at the beginning (signifying the are on Steemit). You look that one over...upvote it, maybe make a nice comment and then look at the bottom of that blog for the hashtags they used...

click one and THAT will give you a feed of posts with that subject...

From there you just wander down the rabbit hole, looking at stuff and clicking hashtags and following whoever seems interesting. Make some comments, make some friends, the more people you follow the more interesting your feed will be.

There are no alerts when someone replies, you just occasionally click the "replies" button on you profile page and that gives you a feed of all the replies you got.

I can't stress enough that this is a different world and different atmosphere than FB or Twitter. People are friendly, happy to have you there, and supportive...they're all trying to build something. Just go out and be interactive. You get out what you put in.

As far as posting stuff...I've found that more..is better than less. You'll have to retrain yourself to use more that 140 characters and one picture. Let's say...you had to fix your car. One pic of it broken or fixed with the sentence "I had to fix my car"...ain't going to get you very far. BUT several pics of you trying to fix it, along with play by play of why it took so damn long...THAT will get you some votes. It's about being interesting, it's about showing some personality, or explaining a project. Make your posts meaty. As far as hashtags...remember this place is still new, so basic tags are going to get you more traction...for example "repair" or "dyi" is going to get you farther that "steering column" or "rewiring". Get me?

And interact with the people who are taking the time to interact with you. People there aren't commenting to see their characters on the screen...they are genuinely looking to give you feedback...so don't be a douche, reply back. And if someone helps you, keep that in mind and help them back. Pioneers can't afford to be selfish, they'll all starve.

Look, if my anti social ass can thrive there, so can you.

The cover photo size I use is 1280x161 and my profile is 770x770 ( they are both 150dpi) I can't say that's the best size or dpi...but it seems to look alright.

There is no specific direct messaging connected to it...specifically...but (remember how I said there are add ons ?) You are ,via Steemit, connected to -discord- which is basically the direct messaging app. That's were people on Steemit communicate directly or in specific groups. Whatever you are into, there is a group there- stand up comedy-painting-music-comics- whatever. There a group on Steemit and Discord committed to helping people interested in that stuff grow and find others.

That's about it...it's just a matter a getting in a screwing around a little.

Hopefully that helped. Keep in mind that little number by your name is your "reputation score" I goes up the more votes you accumulate...keep that in mind as you are asking questions or getting advice on how this site works. Someone with a 60 by their name, has probably been here awhile and probably knows what they are talking about.

One last thing, there are a shit ton of bot son here, can I assume you are smart enough to not give any of them you credit card information or your Steemit password?