How to Build Your Audience on Steemit (the brutal truth)

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

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I am a Steemit newbie. I have not been in here for a long time and there is a lot that I still have not figured out. As oppose to other social media platforms, here almost no one knows me. 

At the same time it is hard to figure out how to become visible on Steemit. How to make sure that people know that I exist and read and upvote my stuff...

Sounds familiar? 

Maybe yes, because you are in my shoes here on Steemit... or maybe yes because it's almost the same on any other social media platform (although we all know that Steemit is so much better, right?

Since I always prefer the brutal truth to a sugar coated lie... I do tell the truth most of the time too (and maybe that is why many people don't like me).

Today I want to talk to you about something that you may not like to hear. Many people prefer not to tell you this. Many people prefer to pretend this is not the case. But I need to tell you this anyway. So you are able to look at things realistically. So you avoid being disappointed because you had unrealistic expectations.

Here is the truth:

Building an engaged and loyal audience takes time and loads of content creation.

Of course all those who advertise the attractive “have quick results” model pretend that it’s not the case. You get “write a book in a day”, create an online course in a week, grow your brand in a month type of messages all the time. And of course that’s much more exciting than what I said. It sounds so much better than my “it takes time and work and you have to be persistent and patient” story.

I get that. I totally understand. But nevertheless, I prefer to tell you the bitter truth than the sugar coated lie.

I was walking in the city the other day and went to Covent Garden. Usually there are many different street performances out there - from music to magic tricks and stuff. And since I love watching people I took some time and stuck around for a while. So I ended up seeing how one of the performers, who had the largest crowd gathered around him finished for the day. He said good bye, gathered his last portion of applauses, bowed, packed his stuff and left. Obviously the crowd too, melted out and after few minutes there was no one around.

Few minutes later, a slim guy with long hair came and started setting up his mic and took out his guitar. Now it was his turn to start performing. So there was this guy all alone with his guitar and mic standing there. I realized that probably that’s exactly how we look when we are just starting. We have no audience, we have the tools, we have not created anything yet and we get those uncomfortable fear of failure, self doubt and vulnerability of being judged. And the people - un our case the audience, pass by going to watch someone else performing because he already has a big crowd gathered around him therefore he must be good, right?

So what happens next. Yup… the guy starts playing his guitar and singing his song. Did everyone run and gathered around him immediately? Nope… It took quite a while.

For at least 2 full songs the guy was standing there, singing to no one. All by himself, creating his magic. He was not noticed yet, he did not have anyone to perform for yet… but he kept playing.

That’s what happens to us too… we write blog posts, record podcast episodes, do videos, lifestream… and for weeks nothing happens. We feel like we are talking to ourselves. We feel invisible, unknown, unappreciated. At some point we are like “why the hell am I doing this, no one cares anyway”, right?

So what happened to the guy?

Well after a while few people came and stood to listen, then some more… after the songs they started clapping, few others paid attention and joined. After a while he got traction and gathered a pretty decent audience.

Do you see the parallel?

The guy showed up, took the courage to put himself out there, created his music, persisted even though no one paid attention for a while, kept going on and only after all that things started moving.

What would have happened if he gave up after song 1?

Yup, nothing…

It’s the same with us. We have to realize that there are others who do similar things out there already, that no one is going to notice us from day 1, that we need to create awesome content consistently until people start gathering around us and that we need to stick around and do our best not to give up even when we think no one care…</p>

Because honestly...

No one will care in the beginning.


But that’s ok. That’s how things are. Even the person who eventually fell in love with you did not care about you at your first encounter.

Building and maintaining good quality relationships take time and effort. And that’s what you ultimately need to have - a good quality relationship with your audience.

So don’t get distracted with all the shiny objects that promise you many subscribers, readers and listeners in a week.

Think long term and think quality instead.

As I said building an engaged and loyal audience takes time and loads of content production.

So accept that fact and do your best.

Oh, and you'd like to help me become visible in here - please re-steem!

What about you? How are you growing your audience in Steemit?

Sort:  

Being on Steemit is the hardest thing I ever did. I post every day for nearly two months now and I put a lot of effort into 95% of my posts. I really hope it will be worth it in the long run. Technically it already does since I am at #388 of the top authors in the last seven days. It is not enough to pay my bills with but I see an upward trend. The instant gratification helps a lot, otherwise I would have already given up.

hope to see you keep climbing

Resteems and quality replies to popular posts are the key to growing from what I have seen.

People need to resteem your posts to their followers. I gain most of my followers through quality replies to other people's posts however. I do not post unless I have something valuable to add to the conversation too.

Being on steemit.chat helps as well as this reply proves. I had no idea who you were until you came into chat with us!

You have an extra < /p> up there by the way. ;-) Do you use an editor or just type up your posts in the default window? I'm just using the default window.

It's a pleasure to meet you, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your content. Thanks for the chat earlier today as well!

I'll resteem this to introduce you to my followers.

Good advice @finnian, i would also add that new users can benefit greatly by joining PALnet Discord channel as part of the Minnow Support Project. (Similar to Steem Chat but much more community support imo.)

https://discordapp.com/invite/HYj4yvw

I definitely need to check it out. Thanks

@finnian, do you suggest bein active on Steem.chat? Whenever I post something there nothing happens, no conversation, nada. I found it a waste of time but I have probably approached it the wrong way. Same for all the dozen of Discord chats I joined.

Steemit.chat is valuable only if you're in special channels. I hang out in security, panama, and yunk in addition to general for example. :)

You are living in Panama? I live in Costa Rica. :)

I'm researching Panama to move my family there. We were considering Costa Rica too.

I can only speak for Costa Rica. It is wonderful here. And very high living standard for a Central American country.

How do taxes work there? Taxes on your vehicle? House? Income? I thought I read that there's no capital gains tax there. That's huge.

I have no clue about that. I don't own a vehicle or a house.

Personally I liked Costa Rica better. Panama is nice but kind of a police state. Our money is the same there. The policia are apt to harass gringos. Keep you passport on you at all times. In David I saw an american get arrested for not having it on him (he was standing in front of his hotel, it was in his room). I believe it's just a ploy to make money but it still sucks to spend the night in a Panamanian jail for something this silly I'm sure.

The police are not as much of a problem in CR? I have heard lots of stories, just stories of course, of expats being in a lot of danger in CR. Panama is supposedly better? I'm not sure which place is better. All I know is I want to stay a PI if possible, and there appears to be expat PI firms in CR. Also, you can get and carry a firearm in both places, correct? I refuse to be disarmed.

I am not sure about carrying but I do think you are right. I only know what I experienced while down there. Panama is my least favorite hispanic country just because the policia seem to throw their weight around to much was all. Again, this may have just been my experience. Well, everyone does get searched like crazy going in and out and it can take a long time at borders in and out of Panama due to this. There are free trade zones in Panama though.

Have you considered Equador...we went and loved it ...want to expat back..
Melissa

That is one place I have not been. I bet I would like it.

Thank you @finnian! And it was nice to meet you on the chat.
Thanks for the comment too - I completely agree that thoughtful comments make one stand out and others will most probably check your profile thanks to it.

Great post, it's so easy to get discouraged when you spend a lot of time on a post only to get like 10 upvotes for it.

There have been times when I thought I'd just quit, but I know that if I keep trying it will get better. And every new follower I get is new motivation.

I found that apart from being persistent, commenting is an important part of Steemit success (I even wrote a post about that yesterday which of course got a lot less attention than I would have hoped. So it goes).

Thanks for the great insight :)

well... you already got 10 upvotes for this comment alone )

It's all about who you know. It's very logic to build an audience but it takes time.
One guy came to the platform, first post was worth $15k.
Unbelievable!!
Keep on steemit!!

That was @dollarvigilante and he came at a time when there were only very few people on the platform and the pool was devided between only those few. He was also already popular before he joined and must have made a big impression on the small community. I wouldn't use that as a sample case. It certainly is sounds great though. :)

Great post indeed, I agree with every word you said and I feel motivated for the day now, I realize it takes time and patience to build an audience, but sometimes I still find myself asking if it's worth it, but apart from not gaining enough traction on my posts, I love reading other posts and conversing with fellow Steemians :)
Keep up the good work :)

the period in the beginning feels like you are talking to yourself - and that's the hardest part. It's just about going through that. Once you gat few true fans things become MUCH easier

Oops commented on my own comment, not my day

It's fun talking to yourself, gives you a chance to think things through, Lol, but you are right :)

being a writer I talk to myself a lot lol

I built an audience from nothing to almost 55,000 followers on Twitter. It took me about 6 yrs. I've been on steemit for 10 months and have just passed the 1000 follower mark. Everything you said is true - I know no other way as a writer to build a brand, a platform and a faithful following other than producing quality content and working hard with a view to the long term.

An excellent post, @anialexander

thank you ) No one wants to know that it takes time and effort and that there is no magic button or a shortcut

I agree with you for any other social media.. your will fit 100%.. but not on steemit
Steemit is power that brings power.. the majority here on steemit are not here only to socialize, but they found that socializing here is not a waste of time.. instead it's a direct investment of time

Let's put it this way..
Case 1: a good post that is explaining about issue x.. but not really efficient article.. but the post was posted buy someone who have a high reputation user with 5000 follower and you somehow liked it
So anybody who have been on steemit long enough will vote up to this post.. because it's somehow good and the most important it will make money return to them

Case2: a high quality post addressing issue x.. and explain it very nicely and very understandable, but unfortunately it was posted by a newbie with let's say 10 followers... the people who would see it will read it but won't vote it up.. because it's obvious that this poor guy's post is not going to make money.. which mean it will be a waste of the voting power that can be used in another post and makes money

However once you have enough sp and enough followers quality and quantity post will boost your audience for sure
But not in the beginning... I believe that in the beginning you would definitely need some whale to resteem some of your post (by the way i got here through a whale resteem to your post)

sounds sad but makes sense... Who was the whale? I'd like to personally thank him/her.

I thought he is a whale but it looks like he is a dolphin but still powerful user @thecryptofiend

thanks for the heads up. Let me see if I can approach him in the chat

I actually don't know. I just do what you wrote - I post my stuff and hope that people appreciate it and support me. Thanks for.sharing. Good post!

I am sure something else could be done on top of that but I have not figured it out yet...

Thank you @anialexaner, most people fail with the quality and consistency. I myself fall into that trap. Thank you for the reminder that we have to work to get what we want. There is no silver platter.
Upvoted & resteemed
@darnscotty

there is no failure - just lessons learnt )

There is a lot of truth to this story. I'm new to steemit but from what I can see there are two types of successful accounts. One, where the people communicate and want to be a part of your circle.
Two, accounts that just try to gather large numbers and offer steem or dollars pushing for votes and re-steems. In the long run I can only see one type having any sort of value.

I am sure that on long run, those who are genuine and don't chase only the money and the numbers will succeed ... or maybe I'm just a romantic person

Nothing wrong with being a romantic at heart. Even if it doesn't always work out. I would hope that those accounts do fall away to nothing as steemit grows into its own personality and direction.

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