Organic Following on Steemit - What It is & Why It is Important
Greetings to all my Steemians! This will be am educational post on organic followings on steemit. Many new members & even some who aren't so new don't seem to understand what this is & why it's important.
Perhaps some who've been following me for a while will remember me discussing this before. With all the new members we now have in the community & the fact I have been here almost seven months, I feel qualified to educate people on this. It is an extremely important concept to me & is why you will never see this from me:
- "upvote me & I will upvote you!"
- "follow me & I'll return the favor!"
- spamming my links into your posts
- "I've upvoted you, now return the favor"
- and the list of similar behaviours goes on.
I've got news for you - it is all wrong & you're not going to get far on Steemit with that behaviour! Go ahead & try it - you'll struggle to get past a rep score in the 30's or 40's. I'm not trying to come across as "mean" or antagonistic. I'm trying to help you & improve the future of this platform.
So what is an organic following? You can think of organic followers as fans. They are people who are following you because they want to, they find your work fascinating, and the enjoy what you have to offer to this amazing platform. Those followers will not be saying "great post", "I upvoted you, so return the favor", etc...
It is important to grasp this concept early on in your Steemit adventure. If you don't grasp it, or worse, think it is OKAY to spam, beg for votes, etc, then I can tell you you won't get anywhere on here. That is not where steemit is heading & I know that for a fact. I'm not the only person who's sick of this behavior.
I understand some may not be aware of what an organic following is or the importance. So that's why I just explained it. Now that you know, changing your behaviors that come across as desperate & disengenuous may not be so difficult to change.
I run a Facebook group, Steemit Dreamit that operates off this principle. I try to give people, especially newcomers the benefit of the doubt. But you'd be surprised how many people can't give at least a well thought out response to my entrance questions:
A lot of this seeming lack of understanding is because there are still a TON of people here who think Steemit is a very rich quick scheme. It's not!
I've followed these principles that I've explained above and have had a lot of success on steemit in my nearly seven months here. I've even been able to pay off some bills. More importantly, I have met some amazing people and learned a lot & I know I will continue to meet amazing people & gain invaluable knowledge.
It is my hope that this post will help many people. I always love to hear from my readers so feel free to leave a comment, or ask any questions.
I have ~900 followers, and only follow 220. I've never outright asked someone to follow me (Aside from the "signature" banner at the bottom of my posts, but that's a bit different), and I've never traded upvotes.
This post deserves more than I can give it with my upvote. I'll be back with a friend to show this some love ;)
That seems to be a common characteristic among serious content creators... usually about a 5-to-1 ratio. I have 2500+ followers and follow 400-something. And the truth is? It's a LOT of work to keep up with even HALF our followers.
I have 494 followers, I am following 182
My Reputation has hovered just over 55 for several months.
I don't even try to keep up with my followers.
IF I go to my feed, and IF I see a post by someone I follow or vice versa,
I MIGHT upvote it, but only IF I like it and think it worth of upvoting or resteeming.
@denmarkguy
It is a lot of work to keep up with our followers that's why I keep my "list " low. Less than 120 seems to be my sweet spot for really trying to keep up and even then I could do a better job .
I hear you. I have over 1200 followers and only follow 112. Yes the banner is different, as someone below pointed out it being "hypocrisy" to have such a banner. It isn't hypocrisy becayse I don't spam people's post with it and it's not a beg for upvotes just a statement. Thanks for your support @thatsweeneyguy
I happen to feel the same way as you do with banners. I find yours to be a respectful in length as well.
I also have the words “comment” on mine as some places are not the friendliest for leaving a comment. It seems some time it just needs that extra helping hand to get it going.
Thank you. Yes it's just a banner. I used to actually say words to the effect " thanks for visiting & if you feel so inclined I would apprecaite an upvote"
This banner is no different. And really has nothing to do with the content of my post. Whatever can't Please them all
Yes! There are fev things as dissappointing as seeing you have a comment on your post only to find it saying " good job, follow me". Bleh
It's like " I'ma let you finish but..."
I hope your article helps stem the tide of spammers.
Resteemed
When I get those comments, I tell people straight up, "I don't do follow for follow, but I'll look at your posts and if they interest me, I'd love to follow you."
@ilovedietcoke - depending on how the comment was worded, I will do the same. As I said I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I know you do. Most people seem to respond with grace when they get those comments.
That's true =) @ilovedietcoke
Hey, I was just noticing your "bits" about you - single, homeschooling mom! Until Halloween, I was a single mom (for about 13 years) - I've homeschooled for about 17 years, off and on. I'll be checking out your blog.
Sounds like we have some things in common!
The ones that put some effort into it but are still spam are the troubling ones. I find myself having to check a few times if a comment was just copy/paste spam job or not.
I’d prefer if they are going spam they just do the short nonsense ones so they stand out like a sore thumb! I hope rest of them don’t wise up.
Yes exactly @simplylizelle. Thanks for Resteeming it. Yes that is definitely a disappointing feeling.
Still relatively new here and am amazed by the lack of understanding a small proportion of folks display regarding this most basic of social media etiquette.
Nothing of true value is for free and we must tend our fields carefully to gather a harvest.
I am an artist/writer/lightworker with lots to say :) I invite you to pop by mine if you have a mo for a virtual mooch.
Happy harvesting throughout 2018 and beyond.
xox
nothing of true value is free
You're right!! Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. I can tell you are one of the "good ones" here. Nice to make your acquaintance!
Sadly some of them are coming from countries where you would shout all day long in market place what you are selling. So they just assume because that is how their culture goes about it that is the same everywhere.
Some of them learn very fast, or end up not lasting very long once they find out what a reputation level in the low teens means and just how much effort they need put in to fix it.
An organic following is what we should all be striving for! Who wants to follow someone out of obligation!? I'd much rather follow people whose content resonates with me....and in turn, I hope the people who follow me do so because my content is valued by them.
If I follow a bunch of people whose content doesn't mean anything to me, I'm unlikely to engage with them and engagement is key here. Without engagement, social media is just media.
Right, engagement is KEY! I am so happy we are on the same team here. Looking forward to playing with reflections tomorrow. =)
Im glad we connected. I feel like I have a “friend” and I enjoy your posts and engaging on a regular basis. I’m excited for reflections! They really force me to be a little extra creative.
You're definitely my friend ❤
❤️❤️❤️
Sneaky Ninja Attack! You have been defended with a 0.29% vote... I was summoned by @thatsweeneyguy! I have done their bidding and now I will vanish...Whoosh
Thanx @sneaky-ninja & @thatsweeneyguy
Yup, agree entirely!
I have 2500+ followers and never asked a single one to follow or like or upvote my content. I just created content... and that was the end of it; they chose to follow me.
Then I went about and found interesting content. If I liked it, I started a dialogue with the person who'd created it. Started a dialogue. Not just "left a 'nice post' comment."
And then I curate my OWN comment section on every post I ever post. If someone takes the time to leave me a message or a question, common courtesy dictates a reply. To pretty much everything other than spam. And vote begging.
And now-- because more people should see this post-- I am going to resteem it.
Hi Chelsea, nice to see YOU again!
Wow thank you very much for the resteem. I also agree that common courtesy dictates curating those who took the the time to respond to your post, outside those who were spamming of course.
Wonderfully put, Chelsea! 100% Upvoted and Resteemed! I am an organic fan of your blog. From the first time you showed up on my radar, you were genuine and yourself, not pushing an agenda or posturing and so you gained me as a follower. I have to agree with your common sense on this point. Sometimes I do feel it is ok to talk about resteems with established followers if we are really needing to get the word out on something, but mostly its as you say, build it and they will come. Thanks for all you do on the platform and with ECS. And Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I greatly appreciate your input here and agree that resteems for important reasons is okay. Time & place for everything. You're a VIP to me on steemit. Keep being awesome!!
Oh man those comments to follow back or upvote back etc...it’s like someone coming up to you on the street demanding you buy something or give then money...doesn’t work well in the end.
Where do people get the idea that it will work?
HAHA! exactly. I used that analogy before too. Like it is like driving to a supermarket, getting out of your car well dressed, walking up to someone in the store and asking for $5. When they say "why", you're like "becayse I want it"
Yeah, no!
I did a short term experiment with my Instagram where I joined a group and once a week we would post a link to an image that wasn't performing all that well and we would each like and comment on the ten links beneath us. Do you think any of those photographers engaged with my account when they weren't required to based on the group rules? Did it gain me even one client? Not a chance. It really was a waste of my time and energy.
It's a pretty similar concept and really isn't beneficial for the community.
Yea that is very similar. Ashamed people just don't get we all have a common mission but you live you learn I guess
I empathize so much! Most of the time I just ignore but once in a while I either get really frustrated or feel like the spammer is new and doesn't have a clue. I've saved a response to my reference sheet that I just cut and paste as:
I'm afraid I don't follow up to see if they actually use the info - they will either fade into obscurity, people will downvote them too often, or the watch-posters will catch up. It's their business after that.
I’m the same sometimes I’ll see someone in the 25 to 35 reputation range and I just can’t help but think “is this person worth my time letting them know.” Sadly I’m left disappointed but I feel if we don’t try from time to time we are missing out on creating a better community.
More times than not they will “be good” for about a week then go back when they think no one is watching again. I just had one the other day that got a massive reputation hit after I warned him a few times. He left a few “I’m sorry.’ It would just be nice to see one for once not go back to their old habits in a couple of days.
Yes @enjar you just can't fix stupid. Thanks for doing your part to keep steemit abuse free
It is hard to just keep ignoring this crap after a while. I usually don't say much but I do try to help and as you said what they do with it after that is up to them
Sadly it usually takes them couple flags just to even notice. Then most of the time its “what happened to my reputation?”
I have some days where I just can’t help myself and other days I’ll just call them out for what they are and leave it at that.
Saw the same a day or 2 with someone plagiarizing photos. I looked back on his replies and saw someone else had warned him too. They gave him a very brief "Bad Boy!" and I made a little more effort to ensure that he knew exactly what the problem was, how he could fix it, and what the consequences are if ignored but the first person had gotten a 'sorry' with no change...
Well, I have a couple other ready-made comments to similar behavior that I can just cut and paste into the appropriate reply when I get annoyed enough. It lets me blow off a little frustration with the idiots without having to think too much.
Right on I feel you @re-engineer thanks for doing your part to keep steemit abuse low =)