BETTING ON THE LONG GAME

MAYBE IT'S ALL JUST HYPE

We’ve all the seen the recent flurries of posts about MSP, and the great things it’s doing for newbies in the community. But questions about “how” and “why” still reach my ears, and I have to tell ya—they are very valid. I can’t help but think about fidget spinners, and how they’re all the rage.

But are they functional? Do they serve a tangible purpose? Some say yes. And having raised a child with ADHD, I’m not entirely skeptical. Still—questioning how they work, and why isn’t out of line at all.

My previous posts about @minnowsupport have been lighthearted and in the spirit of fun. But now it’s time for some straight talk. No flashing gifs, no cute little emojis. Just answers.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I joined Steemit in early June. I came here knowing I could write well, and I came with a platform of my own. I knew what I wanted from Steemit, and what I could offer Steemit. But I came without any preconceived notions about how much money I was going to make, or how quickly my audience would grow. It was just an experiment. And it was one that failed badly.

Here's what I learned within one week’s time: when it comes to being seen and heard above the noise at Steemit, quality of content doesn’t matter. Flashiness of content doesn’t matter. Integrity of content doesn’t matter. The good posts fall off the screen unnoticed as quickly as the bad posts. And if your article isn’t spotted instantly by someone with real voting power, it never will be.

Some of you may not have had that experience. Some came with an audience from other social media sites. Some people might have gotten lucky. But most minnows who read this will relate completely—it really is an ocean of whales and dolphins, and minnows don’t even make a splash.

ENTER THE FARSIGHTED

A while back, some of the more business-minded witnesses realized that the future of Steemit depended entirely upon new user experience—if the platform could not draw new users and keep them, it would ultimately fail. So great effort was put into figuring out what problems the “minnows” might have that would cause so much frustration that they’d swim away to other oceans. One of those problems was lack of visibility on the platform, and failure to gain traction with posts and other content that was severely undervalued.

The Minnow Support Group was founded as a retention tool. If people join Steemit and hang on for a month, yet never make more than twenty-five cents on a post or get two comments that show people actually read it, they’re not going to hang around long. Being ignored isn’t part of the advertised Steemit experience. These witnesses and whales formed a group that would make their expertise accessible to new users, with advice, guidance, tips, and even voting bots that can give a newbie’s post some considerable boost.

Back to the paragraph above when I said content quality doesn’t matter—if it’s unseen forever, that is a true statement. But what happens when people start actually reading a minnow’s posts?

If the Minnow Support Group succeeds in connecting minnows with other minnows who will read and interact with their material, then views will increase. But here’s where content quality actually starts to matter. If the article is poorly written, poorly formatted, or empty of any value, it still won’t receive upvotes and the user won’t flourish in the community. So the Discord support group not only offers a chance to network and build relationships within the Steemit community, it provides tangible resources for people who struggle.

There are many different channels to explore at Discord, including the peer review channel, now renamed the MSP Workshop channel. This is a place where minnows can preview their posts before more experienced Steemians who can pick out flaws in the presentation that may inhibit upvotes. There’s a crypto-trading channel, where people experienced with the market can talk to others who might be a little unsure. There are promotion channels, where people can post links to their articles. This is just a sample of the different resources offered right there in the chat forum at Discord.

Does any of this matter? Does it work? I can speak only for myself with any real authority, but I’ve seen my followers triple in the last week, and my posts are getting read. As much as I want them to be? Of course not. But more than they were before I joined Minnow Support. And good grief—I’ve been here less than a month. Anything with value takes time to build. Overnight sensations tend to become one-hit wonders. I’m betting on the long game, and the Minnow Support group is, too.

One more thought and I’m done. The MSP Discord group can also be thought of as a training ground. People experienced with the Steemit platform are there to offer guidance, support, and even correction. Spamming, “i follow u if u follow me” habits are discouraged. Our most helpful, courteous, enthusiastic, and involved members at Discord are the ones seeing the most success on Steemit. This isn’t a coincidence. Those people are learning skills by interacting with other Steemers they might never learn anywhere else on the platform. But you get out of it exactly what you put into it. There are no free rides. The best way to gain followers is to reach out. And there’s no better place for minnows to do that than the PALnet Minnow Support Group.