Some very good tips here.

The one thing I would say is that when you talk about affirming that you are listening with a "uh huh" or whatever, you also need to be looking at the person doing the talking. Not checking out the girl in red over at the bar.

I've seen lots of people who are giving those verbal cues that they are paying attention when they are really just attuned to those pauses that people make and know to insert those proper sounds.

When it all adds up, if you are really paying attention, it shows. It shows in your responses as well as in your body language.

Many of these same points can be used for interacting with people on Steemit. Just change the term Active listening to Active reading. I think if you visit some of our @newsteem posts you can see Active reading displayed in many of the questions we ask our interview subjects which specifically relate to what we have read in our interviewee's blog postings.