Steemit: Advisable Methods of Leadership
Success on Steemit can be measured in many ways, though all tend to be positively correlated.
- Earnings
- Active followers (shown active through views and comments)
- Rate of additional followers (per day, per week, or per post)
The above measurements of success only look at what you are receiving, not what you are giving to the community. You could argue that your posts add value so you are giving to the community, but balance is vital for Steemit to prosper.
Giving back to the Steemit community:
Are you more likely to upvote someone who already has $100 payout pending or the guy who is sitting at 3 views and $0.05? In my eyes, the lazy choice is to upvote the one with the high payout already. The question is, how does this help the community? It is certainly a lot more work to look for quality posts among brand new users. Think of it this way... Is your upvote of the level 70 going to make a difference? Higher level, higher payout users are very likely to stick around whether you upvote them or not. Also their posts already have good exposure. Ideally, good posts should always get higher payouts than bad ones, however, when people act like sheep and simply pile onto the popular posts, I see this as a poor usage of voting power.
Until new users are up to 40 or 50 reputation score, most people don't bother reading their posts. Part of this is natural as they haven't been around long enough to amass many followers. The other part is that the community judges them somewhat by this number. I think such judgement serves a purpose, but sadly it is an extra disadvantage new users have. A lot of new users don't realize that their first posts probably won't catch many flies.
My point is that while it takes a little extra work, giving a good amount of your upvoting power toward quality posts by new users will have a much more powerful effect on them and our community.
Be a leader. If a post is truly deserving of your upvote, don't hold back..but do consider what impact your upvote will have on that specific user. Thinking for yourself and encouraging others to do so will result in a more vibrant community. A lot of the people I follow are newer users and I want to steer them more toward becoming permanent members. Comments are also extremely valuable, especially to new users as they sometimes wonder if anyone is noticing their hard work. We get to chose through our comments and upvotes who will be more likely to stick around and permanently join the Steemit community.
I also recommend not encouraging the "I followed you, so please follow me" comments. However, I have seen some instances where high quality bloggers who are also new will leave comments like this. They may not realize that asking you to follow them without really providing a valuable comment on your post initially isn't an honorable thing.
Keep in mind that Steemit can be complicated at first. Volunteer information to help new users. No one benefits from a new user's frustration. I challenge anyone reading this (myself included) to try to comment on 5 or 10 new members posts per day. It's like sifting for gold, and we have that power. Let's continue to aim for a stronger, more vibrant community. Steem on!
This is really awesome. Thank you for this. While I am in no way a good writer or photographer I do put work into (most of) my posts, so sometimes it's a little sad to see them only get a couple of up votes. Then I see some garbage lifted word for word from Wikipedia or images that aren't the authors make lots and lots of money. Kind of sad. I know I'm new and it takes time but I am trying!! I got my reputation up to 43 already so I think that's pretty good :)
Anyway, I'm really glad you wrote this. It gave a little minnow like me some encouragement
❤️❤️❤️
Thanks. You'll get there so don't worry. It just takes time. It's motivating for me at least to keep track of the number of followers I have. Each time you post, you'll probably see that go up a little bit and eventually you'll reach critical mass where everything you post of value earns at least a couple of bucks. Also people make the mistake of focusing on the $$ too much which is an easy way to get frustrated early lol.
That's been my mission lately. Lifting up new users that is. I noticed a trend in people just uprooting people who are already amassing followers and steem. I dislike seeing someone post about how much money they made and 100+ up votes on the post essentially bragging about earnings. Sometimes not even from this site. I'm happy they're making money but I don't think that bragging about it should somehow earn them more money through reciprocity than a quality post with real ideas and creativity. STOP Upvoting garbage posts. It's a community not a get rich quick scheme. Thank you for your post @albensilverberg.
Exactly! I've been guilty of that and am doing my best to avoid it (posting about my excitement that I bought a certain amount of Steem or whatever). I thought about making a post about being at 500 followers (I'm almost there), but that adds no value to the site. The key for me now is just to focus on how my actions affect other people's choices on here. We can all strengthen or weaken the community based on the choices we make.
I agree. Keep up the good work. I've thought about doing those same posts and have. I think in the future when I thank people in mass on here for following I'm going to decline payout because like you said, it doesn't really add any value. But I do like to thank others for their support.
That's funny, I forgot you could decline payout. I never change my post settings lol. Thanks for reminding me! Lol
I also give much of my minnow votes to people with low paying posts. I don't really care if I get any curation out of my votes seeing as they are 0.01SP at best if I'm lucky and get any. So I actively search the new section, usually with cryptocurrency, money, bitcoin, psychology tags. Then I vote those who deserve it. Unfortunately my upvote will make them smile at most :) I doubt anyone jumps around at $0.02 upvotes after HF19, before that I used to.
I like to encourage new people here as well as I can. But I also give upvotes to higher level people when I like their post. But I don't see the point of voting just because others voted.
Thank you! Earlier this year my upvotes were worth less than a penny lol, so I understand. And that was with over 10000 Steem Power. Luckily it's about more than just the $$.
Oh wow, that is a big difference :o
@albensilverberg - A very detailed and compelling argument presented by you in this blog for the value of upvoting the deserving blogs (especially those from newcomers and lower rep members). I have personally felt the impact of reps and how attention is lacking initially. I try to upvote quality content - especially from minnows when I can. Since I am very young on this platform and do not have too much steempower, my upvotes do not make a big difference right now - some day they will start making a difference. Thanks for this thought provoking blog
Upvoted
I would be honored if you visit my latest blogs when you have time.I have posted a blog about worlds tallest flying bird with my wildlife photos. Your comments would be very welcome. Thanks.
Thank you! Yeah it's difficult sometimes without much Steem Power, but that's where quality comments become even more valuable.
Thanks for the article @albensilverberg ! You're a great guy who really cares about the community. This is important for beginners like me who have just over a week! Upvote and resteem!
Steem on!
Thanks. I can't believe you're already almost level 50! Impressive!
It's not complicated ... if you follow Steemit's philosophy grows fast.
The people in the community are incredible. I think it's a matter of time for Steemit to overcome the "Fakebook" :)
Once again, congratulations! Steem on!
Valid thoughts. For the record though, as far as I can tell my follow numbers have happened organically. Proud of that. I'm new, and some of what I consider my best work has received little to no attention. That makes me sad, but from what I have learned so far, it seems to me like it's almost like an internship. You might not be getting paid mad money, but you are learning what is expected of you, and proving tour chops. When the time comes, you will get called into your manager's office and offered a job. Your manager is the collective. Not one guy. Crowd sourced curation is a wicked idea. It isn't just for posts though. It is also for manager quality. Anyway. That's how I see it from my sub-month eyes. I'm going to keep on chugging, because this is fun! Haha!
Excellent! That's one of the hardest points to get across to people I've got I to Steemit. If their first post doesn't do awesome, sometimes they give up. Money can be a long term goal, or icing on the cake, but the community and the experience should be valued higher.
Nice post. It does seem tough to get started here, best not to concern yourself with making money
yes sir the learning curve says you gotta participate to get there!![little_dog.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTEQ2HReuy23R9y9Q7vnucWvuHRPho6hrtW9RzJzjF978/little_dog.gif)
Good points! No one benefits from a new user's frustration... very true.
Love your posts and all the help that you have given me as a new user. I have to ask though... do you search for posts by tags or go to home and just read through what is there?
I have to say, personally I never look at whether the writer is a newbie or a established blogger on Steem, I choose the posts that I read based on heading and first paragraph really and if it captures me I read and upvote.