Why its important to use #tags correctly - an introduction

So you write your killer introduction post which you are convinced is going to be a hit. Before you submit you notice you have to enter a #tag and figure it is just like Twitter right? People will surely find you if you simply put #introduction or #new right?! WRONG! Before I go on I want to bring up an important note - make sure you use the #introduceyourself tag for your introduction post!!!! This tag gets a ton of attention as people often scroll through looking for new connections… make this post count. I know its a tag I have scrolled through alot getting to know some of the other newbies to Steem and seeing what they will be offering.

Although you would be right tags are used as way on Steem to find relevant content that you are interested in there are a few differences that I have noticed during my (short) time on Steem.

The first thing to know is that you can use up to 5 tags (and you should use them all!). Your first tag should be the one that is most relevant to your post (for example if your story is about your travel to Africa your first tag should be #travel).

You can check on Steemit what the trending tags are to get an idea what is popular right now:

However remember that the more popular a tag is the more competition you have to be seen (so I would recommend a mixture of the more popular/trending tags and also some more niche tags where it might be easier to be seen. As Steem runs on the blockchain tags such as #bitcoin and #crypto are very popular but also popular with bloggers are tags such as #travel and #photography (there are a large number of niche tags such as #streetphotography). My advice would be to browse the tags page before you pick what is right for your post:
https://steemit.com/tags

This page also provides an overview of the amount of posts, comments and payouts for each tag so you know what your competing with.

I am now starting to experiment with creating new tags to drive your audience to a certain space. For example if you want to start a kitchen photo challenge you could introduce the tag #kitchenphotoraphychallenge (remember to still use #photography as your first post as no will yet know what kitchen photo challenge is.

Remember the golden rule - start of with the broadest category and then be more specific.

I have been writing a few articles to help out other newbies as we figure out what works best on this new platform:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@conradt/should-you-be-using-an-upvote-bot-an-introduction-guide-for-minnows

https://steemit.com/steemit/@conradt/the-complete-newbies-guide-to-curation-rewards

https://steemit.com/steemit/@conradt/things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-joined-steemit