Let’s Grow Steemit Together - Direct Engagement Experiment Week #1
After recently carrying out an analysis on the Churn rates on Steemit and an analysis of when people tend to drop off Steemit, I have decided to take some actions to try an improve retention rates myself. After all that is what business intelligence is all about, acting on the insights.
By carrying out different analysis on the steemit blockchain I have found that the average drop off day is 32 and the median in 75
So I have connected to the STEEMSQL database and collected information from accounts set up 90 to 30 days ago
To this data I then added further filters and criteria to the dataset to ensure I was left with quality users and hopefully very little bots. I’m not going to get into the filtering here, because what I am classing as a quality user is subjective.
My list of accounts is 514 long and over the next 4 weeks I hope to get to each one of you. I am going to check out your profile and if you have been sent a link to this post(or the follow on posts), you have been selected by me for some Steemit TLC. Not all the accounts will get sent a link, anything that looks like spam or bad for the steemit platform will be excluded (heheheh its also a test to see how accurate my data skills are at detecting quality accounts)
If you are reading this post, because you have found it an I didn’t send you a link then you are also welcome to try out some of the tools and initiatives I suggest further in the post. But please do leave a comment below because I want to try and track the data of these efforts and see if it has any impact on retention.
I think it is safe to say almost everyone on Steemit wants to see Steemit succeed, but we also know how hard it is to keeping going. Here are some of the possible reasons people leave steemit
1. Unable to find good relevant content
2. Just don’t get how steemit works
3. Are not earning rewards
4. They think steemit is a waste of time
Are there any more reasons you can think of? Please do comment below and let me know. In fact, you stand in that threshold where we begin to lose users so if anyone can answer the question you can.
There are many projects and initiatives around that to help you grow on steemit as both an author and curators. It has been proved with the data that people that participate in these initiatives tend to stick around. It has also been proven by the data, the longer you stick around and engage on the platform the higher your rep will grow. And there is a correlation between higher rep and higher rewards.
Steemit is not a get rich quick place, it’s a slow burner. If you are here to make money fast, then you are in the wrong place. But with time and effort and not giving up, you will get there in the end. You are still an early adaptor of an experimental platform. The aim now is to engage with you to help you find the tools and communities you need to make it happen.
So, let me share some stuff with you that could help you stay on your way. If the tools and initiatives are not your thing, but are still looking for something, thinking of leaving steemit, comment below and I will do by best to point you in the right direction.
Check out @SteemBasicIncome – an experimental initiative where by a pool of votes is split between a group, new pools being created when a cap is reached on existing pools. It works like this, you purchase a basic income unit for 1 STEEM. For this, you and a person you select gets added to the current pool.
Check out the leagues of Excellence – originally started by @abh12345 for all of Steemit, it aims to reward human, manual curation and general engagement on the blockchain. This league has grown highly popular and has now been replicated for the Indonesian region by @paulag and Italy by @girolamomarotta
https://steemit.com/curation/@paulag/league-of-excellence-and-curation-league-for-indonesia-5
https://steemit.com/ita/@girolamomarotta/curation-spi-n-2
Maybe you have a community you would like to run a league for? If so talk to me or @abh12345
The next tool is @dustsweeper. A project by @danielsaori and @davemccoy Did you know that posts with a pay-out value showing as <$.02 are not paid out? For people starting on steemit, there is a way you can claim this payment. By sending 1 SBD to dustsweeper, this bot will sweep though all your posts before pay-out and vote any post that are below the threshold. So, these dust payments no longer go to waist.
Finally watch out for phishing attacks. These come in the form of posts made to look like they are on steemit. When you log in, you give the attacker your keys and your account can become comprised.
That’s it for this week. Please do engage with me on the comments below. I will be carrying out this experiment over the next number of weeks and will do a follow up post next week. Hopefully the engagement on this post, will also help others, so please do share your concerns, or even your solutions and stay tuned for next week’s posts.
So, this month I have 514 accounts to filter, catch and help. Next month I will only need to run the data for a 30-day period as I will have already captured all accounts to mid-April. But wow, I have just given myself a lot of work and can’t wait to report back next week.
I am one half of the @steemcommunity witness team. @abh12345 is the second half. Ensure you vote counts and vote now.
"Maybe you have a community you would like to run a league for? If so talk to me or @abh12345"
@thedarkhorse maybe a way to have a league tied to pay it forward? know you want to find ways to increase interaction between the contestants.
@paulag thanks for pointing me over here. all things that @thedarkhorse has told me about but think that many of the newer members on steemit could use the info.
part of the issue is lack of exposure and unrealistic expectations of what a newbie should expect to earn. remove all the paid votes and massive self votes and there are very few posts that earn more then say $20-30 outside of very established people who have spent a lot of time to build up their accounts.
yes a few get lucky with 1 post and picked by curie but overall most people that are new need to expect to make next to nothing for months while they are building relationships. first build an audience then worry about earnings.
"unrealistic expectations of what a newbie should expect to earn"
I hear this time and time again and have different opinions on it. Trending does not help, but personally I don't understand why people think if they come here they should expect to earn big buck straight away. Having come to steemit as an established blogger, I know what it takes and had no expectations. lol in fact I thought maybe I could find followers here for my non steemit blog.
I would be happy to work with @thedarkhorse on creating a 'league' that works for pay it forward.
Thank you for coming over, there is a lot of work to do to improve retention and I believe posts that create engagement (just like this one) are part of the puzzel
engagement as you say is key. when someone walks around with nobody to talk to they feel unwanted and go back to comfortable places they already know like facebook.
when people see trash posts making hundreds of dollars because of bid bots but they don't understand what a bid bot is and they can't earn even a couple pennies when they write their heart out they get discouraged. trending and hot are complete garbage and should be done away with. these pages make people wonder why they dont stack up.
guessing that if you can figure out how to make newbies see some level of profits in the first 30 days the rate of dropping out is way lower.
would also be very interested in knowing what percentage of the accounts that leave are bots, scammers, or plagiarizers who get flagged and just open a new account.
I have never been a bid bot fan. In fact our witness principle are based on manual curation and engagement ( you might consider us for one of your witness votes, our witness server is @steemcommunity and my witness partner is @abh12345)
At the moment it is impossible to establish what % of accounts are bots in the first place, let alone what % of these leave. its also rather hard to establish who opens new accounts with out human verification
did this a while ago.
Witness Voting
You have set a voting proxy. If you would like to re-enable manual voting, please clear your proxy.
Your current proxy is: abh12345
@paulag I had a post a few days ago asking for help for ideas on how to improve the contest and one of the things that came up was how can we improve the engagement level with people on the posts that are featured. Not 100% sure how you could track things like commenting on the entries and voting on them, but if there is a way I'd be very interested in figuring out how to implement this into the contest and add an extra bonus for those who engage with the featured bloggers.
I'm discord same name #6765. Might be easier to chat there.
will ping you tomorrow, its getting late here now :-)
Perfect. I'm gone for much of the day tomorrow so if you can do it earlier your time then maybe I can reply before I leave for the day.
Thanks BJ!
Interesting experiment; look forward to its development.
Upvoted and has been added to the latest MAP Upvotes post.
thank you as always :-)
Did I make the list? I think I should be #1. :) lol
I'm a newbie and signed up in march and only recently started to post, how well is up for debate, but i wanted to start posting to find out how things work. The more I research and read, the more confused I get... "upvot at this time, dont upvote after this time, always upvote ur own content, dont upvote it, ugh is where i get so I stop reading and just keep coming up with different written posts to post in "ulog" to just get something going. I am new to block chain and crypto, but thats how I got here, crypto currency. So with all that, can't wait to start getting the hang of this so i can see if this is for me. It definitely isn't a sign-up and go platform, alot to learn!
so much to learn, and such a diverse range of information you have been given. Steemit is an experiment in its self, no one can really define what it is, or how one should behave. I have let self morals guide me. When I joined, I self voted. In fact I self voted until I became a witness. Most new peoples votes are not worth much - its when your vote becomes worth more that people take notice of self voting. Be guided by your moral standards is the advice I give on that one.
Have you tried any of the tools I put forward today?
I haven't tried anything other than upvoting, posting and commenting...i successfully transferred etherum to steem to give myself some steem power. I still cant adjust the amount my vote amounts can be. I'm stubborn like, so i'll get it going sometime
you need 500 SP to get the adjuster, or if you post vis busy then you get the adjuster anyway. here is a link to busy https://busy.org/ in case you are interested
I will look into that and the other ones you have listed, just gonna take a minute. If I have any questions, i'm sure i'll find an answer somewhere. Thanks for the info. I was gonna do a persona blog as a dog like i have over at another platform that seems to be getting good attention
One of the frustrating things I can say I have is coming to a link, like ur busy one or any other links i have come upon with "Here is the how to" type blogs for steemeit, and its just another blog or service that wants me to make a new account. I'm not being a debbie downer, just expressing that frustration. I gues I'm just used to the ease of use on the other social platforms. My main concern is that i don't screw myself by my actions before I get to know the way it all waorks around here! Once I do figure it out, I'll definitely have something to blog about! Lol
you do not need another account, you sign in with your steemit account. You the steem blockchain has a number of different user interfaces, steemit.com being 1. another example would be dtube or dlive. all of these decentraised apps build on steemit require one log in :-). Anything you post on these apps are also posted to steemit.com
That makes sense, I joined Dlive already. That shed some light on the situation!!! Thanks again, that will make it a lot easier knowing that!
Yes indeed there is alot to learn about how everything functions but in many ways it is very exciting to learn all the tools and functions.
I love learning
I expect, Steem will be a huge Social Media platform, within 5 to 10 years, it's growing, but it takes time to grow, just like a plant. So i would like to say to all Steemians, keep up the good work and be patient.
patience is key, people come and leave because some of them have no patience
I have 421 sp and I am stuck here, I can not grow my voting power
hi, I just looked at your account. It seems you are spending a lot trying to buy votes from smartsteem and bots. I understand many people think this is the only way to get earnings on their posts.
I would suggest that you engage more, ask people questions about their posts, and put questions in your posts that give people a reason to comment on your post. Spend less on bots and use the SBD to buy Steem on the internal market and power up.
Do you think it is more convenient to buy steem power directly?
I use bots since they reintegrate me more sbd to be able to buy more steem power
but you are not using the SBD to buy steem power, cos it keeps going back to the bots.
lets just say to spent 100 SBD last month on bots. If you spent this on STEEM instead, then you would have gotten about 85 SP, which is worth a $.02 vote. voting ten times a day, this would have increase the amount you distributed to the community by 6 SP and your curation rewards of 1.5 SP. How much did you make using the bots that you did not send back to them?
The internal market has no fees, so you can convert your sbd to SP and grow your account organically
I like this bit especially:
So glad to see more of a push for user retention. I agree that finding communities is key. @steemsugars, @thealliance, @thewritersblock, and so many others have helped me find my family here and stay inspired, as well as feel supported.
Also, the @welcomewagon is putting together bite-sized tutorials for newbies to Steemit. I mention this because there is so much to learn, it can sometimes take a month or three to feel comfortable here, but if users just learn a little bit more each day, it starts to come together.
Fantastic post, Paula. Thank you for what you do!
Hi @karina-ariel, you might also be interested in other communities like @asapers, @ifc, @friendsofgondor, @greetersguild, @newbiegames and @newbieresteemday too if you don't know about them already! I definitely like your real world interactions (and posts) with fellow Steemians - that's how we can keep the crypto-community real :D
never heard of @welcomewagon, sounds good. I have heard of and often visited the other 3 you mention. Nice share. Communities are key, but engaging on steemit is just as important
^^ Absolutely.
As for @welcomewagon, it's pretty new, but I think it's a great initiative that ties in with what you're talking about here. Engagement is vital, for sure!
For me, the number one problem as a reader is finding people to follow. I was here for seven months before I found you. It was five months before I found @aggroed. Every week, I discover an entirely new group of amazing people who have been around here for a while.
It's like walking through a forest in the fog. Suddenly you see a person walking past and say "Hi."
I don't like to give Steemit, Inc too hard of a time, but their progress since the token launch is a little underwhelming considering how much money they raised.
Steembasicincome Enrollment is 1 Steem, not 1 SBD. Do you mind correcting? I find people have a better experience when their initial information is accurate.
done, thank you!
I'm glad to see that someone out there does care about user retention. It's a well known fact that a majority of the dormant or inactive accounts on steemit are newly registered accounts and a smaller fraction to accounts with lost passwords. You would hardly see an account that has been built up to high rep holding being dormant.
In this lies the problem:
"Newbies get the wrong idea about steemit, they go to the website and see trending posts worth huge amounts and because they do not know how to navigate the platform, fail to go through the new posts and see firsthand how most newbie posts do so they walk in here, expecting to be rich by the end of the week with no investments or anything of such. The result is that for most new accounts, they end up wondering why the weren't able to get even a $1.00 worth of upvotes by the end of the week."
Here's my solution:
I hope this helps! @paulag
helps! wow what an awesome reply. And yes there are a good few of us concerned with retention.
At the moment I think (but I could be wrong) steemit chat is mentioned in the initial email. and again I could be wrong but minnowsupport is the official orientation program.
Although discord is fantastic, with any luck hivemind (the community feature on steemit) will be ready soon. Maybe it would be more in tune with steemit to get ready to build the community here?
heheh wish I had enough SP to support all the newbies
Well, you seem connected enough...why not make a post about it eh? I mean even with so much on your plate, look how good this post is doing #winks
in terms of engagement, this post is rocking, but i could spend my time doing data posts and earning high payouts. because of the level of engagement on this post, I haven't had the time.
This post is not about my connections, it about connecting others, meeting new people & networking
not the wrong message at all. Getting funding is not as easy as writing a post, there are many communities trying support with people that have more connections than i. The problem is now trying to compete for funding when the lease business is so ripe. Let me think about the idea some more.
Thanks dear! @paulag. I hope your stats collection is doing just fine? do have a lovely day!