Engagement Rates on Steemit Vs. Facebook - Why Numbers Don't Tell the Whole Story
In this vlog, I analyze the difference between engagement rates on Steemit versus other social media sites such as Facebook. I have a few case studies listed below where I posted the same or very simliar content on both platforms.
An interesting thing happened... I got higher engagement rates on Facebook, but much more meangingful engagement on Steemit.
Facebook has created a culture of short, shallow level engagement - where Steemit has crafted a culture where thoughtful and quality comments are celebrated.
This difference in culture really allows users to get to know one another on a deeper level, sparks meaningful debate, and broadens their world view.
A Few Case Studies
As you can see, my posts on Facebook yieded a much higher engagement rate. What the numbers dont show though... is the quality of the engagement. I would take six thoughtful, meaningful comments anyday over 80 generic "This was great!" comments.
I honestly think this kind of culture is part of what will help draw more users to the platform. Once they start to see the kind of deep dialogue and discussion that happens every day here, they will start to bore with shallow interactions on other social media sites. I hardly spend any time on Facebook now because my time feels much more meaningful here on Steemit.
I hope you found this vlog interesting and/or thought-provoking. Just remember that every meangingful comment you leave here on the Steem Blockchain only helps to build this community even stronger.
Ps... I mention my sister @maryjaney in this vlog and how setting up her intro post sparked the idea for this video. If you want to stop by her Intro Post and say hello... it would mean the world to me! <3
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
How many followers/friends do you have on Steem vs Facebook? That is surely the primary factor at least translating into raw numbers of comments.
Now I to follow ya on facebook 😂
Hahah do it!! You can find me under Lea Thompson. Blow past the Back to the Futute actress and you should be able to find me. 😆
Also, thanks SO much for stopping by my sisters post and giving her some love! So cool of you!! ❤️
Thank you for putting this together for us.
I agree with you....culture is everything. So far, with the user base we see here, the culture is one of high integrity (for the most part) and thoughtful interaction. Yes there are a few bad apples and we have lots of "great post" comments. Nevertheless, there are many who tout the value of comments.
Personally, I write more words per week in the comment section than I do in my articles (I usually post articles twice a day). They are of extreme value to the steem blockchain and for the authors themselves.
I often thing will this change as more people join this site especially from the likes of FB and Reddit? Are we going to see trolling taking place like we do on those sites? Will there be the negativity that exists there?
One advantage on this blockchain, is compensation is tied to a person being liked. Trolls will not get very far unless we are overrun by them. Fortunately, they wont have much SP to start so, perhaps, they can be squashed before they get going.
Thanks for the thoughtful response @taskmaster4450. I think you hit it on the head when you say that we may have a flood of trolls and negative people join the site, but I imagine they will quickly lose interest because they will not be able to get very far. The beauty of good content being rewarded, is that those quality members of the community also contain the power to set the direction of the culture with their votes. Of course, if we get a bunch of trolls that are filthy rich and have a lot of power, then maybe that would be different. I imagine that is a small minority though!
Registered past summer albeit started using the website only weeks ago.
So far i loved this platform and when it comes developing meaningful contacts, here it seems definetely more of a possibility as i have already discovered so many interesting people that i hope i will even end up meeting in some meetups!
In some ways, though, it's weird. The kind of engagement here it's promoted by monetary/power reward, isn't it? Does that promote genuine contact or shallow? Probably both. But similarly to reddit, there are ways to get your post upvoted and that way is to be actually engaged in posts you act on. That to certain extents certainly help authenticity.
Off topic: cool you! Saw your interlinked post on Intermittent Fasting. I am currently experimenting it and so far so good! Not popular idea, but instead of making my cognition slower and more easily fatigued...quite the opposite!
Regardless, followed you and resteemed!
I think tangible reputation has value, and in order to maintain that, you also need a solid identity to attach reputation to. Steemit has applied a monetary reward toward reputation, and not just popularity which is a difference. I am new to the Steemit world but I find more reasons in the content to want to engage with VS just scrolling through. Perhaps it is the innate competition of the reward system that makes people want to post quality content VS just volume of content?
Great insights @jeftek! I think you are correct that the monetization of content does make people want to actually interact more often then simply scrolling through posts like they would on Facebook.
Those who focus on creating consistent, quality content will do well on here. :-) Best of luck to you getting started out! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Thanks for the thoughtful response @destrudo. I think you were right that the monetization of content certainly drives both quality and shallow comments. I think people are usually pretty good at seeing through that though. For example, I always do my best to give upvotes to quality comments, but will not vote a comment that is spam me or makes it obvious that they didn’t even read the post.
Also, very cool that you are experimenting with intermittent fasting as well! What style of fasting are you doing? Also, it’s great to hear that you have had such a positive response to it. I am only two weeks in, but have been very happy with how my body and mind have felt.
Thank you for the re-steem! That was so kind of you.
Safe, dudette! Had to resteem (& follow) given the quality content! A bit of a late answer, these days have been so busy!
In all honesty, i can't say that i am following a real pattern because
i am defectivei don't experience much discomfort so i try to stretch my fasting times as much as i can.We can say that i surely adhere to the 16:8 pattern that involves fasting for 16 hours (sleep hours included) and an 8 hour timeframe in which you are allowed to eat
the world.I even ended up fasting for 48 hours few times (In the name of Science) but personally that is well beyond my sweet spot because i started losing the cognitive benefits i obtained and started feeling a bit weak.
Overall, i absolutely love it! So much so that i am thinking about making a post about it myself! Hopefully we will get new recruits in our would-be-huge masochistic army ✌️
It’s great to hear about your experiences with fasting. I am actually thinking about switching to the windows of eating model, giving that a try. If you ever do a post on fasting, I would love to check it out!
Man... 48 hours would be tough! Good on you to do that though!
This all comes down to rewarding those and building your community of followers here on steemit. If you reward those with shallow and meaningless comments then you start to say to everyone else well that is ok. If you reward only those who have read your post and provide value in return or just share a story and some insight ralated to what you have posted about you build a strong communit of saying you better take the time to read the post, understand it and then add value and for doing so you will be rewarded because I as a poster value that.
This is one of the advantages, but can also be a disadvantage of steemit depending on how you as the creator work with your vote values. But the cool this is here on steemit you have the power to decide what that is.
Also hey to your sis @maryjaney I will be dropping by her intro post
P.S The other big bonus is you actually made decently good money from your post as well as better thoughtful engagment WIN WIN!
Aww thanks for the great comment my friend! Ps... THANK YOU for engaging with both of my sister’s posts!! Seriously, it means so much to me!
You bring up a lot of great points in your response. We as content creators have the power to set the culture with our votes. By only upvoting quality comments, we are encouraging that kind of behavior.
It’s been pretty cool to see the difference of engagement on posts like these, compared to my music posts. I think it’s true that thoughtful content tends to invoke more thoughtful comments as well. I’m actually having a bit of a hard time keeping up with replying to everyone, which is such a cool problem to have! 😜
I think that you even can’t compare steemit to any other social network. Here people get paid and the psychology is totally different- on steemit you just upvote those who will get you also profit back (sadly, but it is like it is), but on other platforms- you can put likes as many times you want and you don’t put this to get your “like” back. You just like the content you enjoy. On steemit you would pay attention to whom you upvote- that’s why engagement level differs.
You are correct that they are not and even comparison because one is monetize, and one separately rewards in “popularity”. I use it as a comparison, because that is the social media platform that most people are currently using.
You are correct that some people focus on the on cue ration reward, and so they simply vote for people who they think will make the money and not just call tent that they like. This is not everyone though. If anything, it seems like people tend to vote on authors posts where they really enjoyed their content or have built a friendship with and thus want to support them.
Thanks for stopping by and engaging in the conversation!
Thanks for running that live experience. It's a great argument for selling steemit, especially new bloggers and vloggers.
Knowing people better and having a deeper connection helps you learn more from your audiance and improve your content over what people really like.
Also having deeper connection will propably turn out to a better sell process where people are already more engaged and more willing to throw a bunch of money to purchase a good. In fact, that could be a great experience to run. Have a 3 products (album, TShirt, ticket to an event) to go out in 3 weeks on both platform and see wich one produce the more purchases. That could be interesting results to analyse.
Also deeper connection can really more engage people to participate and eventually meet in real life which is in my opinion a great way to really bond with people and allow real life experience.
I'm glad I found your account and your thoughts really contribute to the community.
Have a great day!
Thanks so much for the thoughtful response @orlandumike! You bring up some really great points here. I thought your idea for an experiment on the sale of a good was super interesting! The only thing is my mom is on Facebook, not on Steemit, she might skew the numbers a little bit. 😆
Joking aside though, I think you’re correct that when you have deeper and more meaningful connections with people, they want to support you! For example, someone that I regularly connect with here on Steemit posted the other day that he just wrote an e-book that was for sale on Amazon. I went out and bought it simply because I wanted to support him! Even though the book does look interesting, I wouldn’t have normally chosen to purchase it, except that I just wanted to support my friend. :-) So there you go, your idea already has some backing for support!
Thanks again for stopping by engaging in the conversation!
Glad that you appreciate my opinion.
Our feelings and intutions are telling us that we are right, but it would be great to have a confirmation that statisticly it have a real impact on sales.
I'm sure you will find a way to test it out or delegate it to someone else.
*If you do it, ensure your mom register an account on steemit before ;)
Yes, these are some truth you uncover for everyone of us. I was also wandering around on Facebook but couldn't get any tangible thimgs from whatever I should post on their. Steemit is not just only to earn but to learn. Thank so much for sharing this, I'm really impressed. I remain your fan @coruscate
Thanks for the comment Michael! You bring up a great point that the content on Facebook tends to be more shallow, where there is a broader range of education, news, culture and arts here on Steemit.
On facebook, people just want to show themselves. More like, like for like. They dont really care about the article, they just want you to know they saw your post so you can do same to theirs
Great insight @tudors! We still see a little bit of that mindset here on Steemit, but for the most part people simply interact with the content they enjoy, and don’t feel obligated to vote for someone just because they voted for them.
Very insightful vlog. I heard about Steemit through my Crypto dealings which in turn lead me to dtube. After wondering around for a few hours I could quickly tell what was going to carry this to being wildly successful, and that is the community! Just an amazing experience being involved with everything going on here. You hit the nail on the head as far as interaction in other ecosystems vs. Steemit/D.Tube. That's how I knew fairly quickly that I wanted to start producing content to do my best to add value to this community. Just have to learn navigation a bit better. Thanks for your content.
Thanks for the thoughtful response @loose-change! I think you’ve got the perfect mindset for starting out - get to know people and build community around you!
Best of luck getting started out! If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. :-)