Top 3 Selfish Reasons to Delegate: Help Someone, Help Yourself!

in #steemit6 years ago

If you have been accompanying my posts you now know that I usually focus on providing value to new users, onbarding people, writting guides and so on.

On the other hand, you've probably noticed that in my last posts I went on to argue that STEEMIT works on a "giving" basis and is an example of a "Gifting Economy".

There's a problem though...

Most people here still operate on a mindset of scarcity and are selfish. They don't see the reason to Delegate their hard earned SP to little fishes, when in reality that may be one of the best decisions to make, even for their interest.

While this wasn't the case for the Steemian that gave me my delegation (@underground, be sure to give him a follow), there are many who simply don't bother delegating and I even heard "Why should you delegate if you have collect no interest on your loan?" - can you think of anything more SHARKY-like to say?

Having this in mind, I thought about writing a post about the Top 3 SELFISH Reasons big SP users should delegate to little fish.

Bigger Fish Take Notice: Improving the Community

Successful people have limited amounts of votes, and they have a lot of people on their network already. Usually, these people are powerful in Steemit either because they got in early, they understand how the gifting economy works or both.
These "whales" hate selfish people, and that's why those guys who only vote themselves and their comments get on their "no-vote" list.

On the other hand, take a look at good people who delegate and help smaller Steemians. People like @fulltimegeek , @wwf , @taskmaster4450 and @underground. You can see that those had a lot of goodwill coming their way.

Posts were written about them, they got good votes for the initiative and they are now perceived as good guys by mostly everyone - and reputation is a powerful tool around here.
So as you can see, you can delegate even if out of interest - it is a shame it has to be this way, but if it works for you... you're helping the community all the same.

Harnessing Loyalties: Keep Them Close!

So, if the potential attention grabbing you'll do by posing as a good person (shame on you) isn't enough of a motivation, then consider that the newbies to which you delegate to will be the most loyal allies you'll have around here.

You can check all of us newbies who were lucky enough to be chosen by some veteran who delegated to us and you'll find all of us still hang around our "mentors".
And I can guarantee you that the loyalty will probably remain after the delegation is gone.

As such, think about the potential there is in spotting a "climber", delegate to him and have a future whale in your pocket as an ally because you decided to loan the noob some SP.

Expand Your Influence: Get Your Name Out There.

Finally, the last tip I'm going to give those among you who still have thousands of SP in their wallets and fail to delegate because they "can't collect interest" is this:

  • By getting your name out there as one of the pillars of the community, you'll be getting your name out there in general.

As you know by now, @underground gave me a delegation so I mentioned him in this article... but do you know who DIDN'T give me a delegation? @fulltimegeek , @wwf and @taskmaster4450 and I STILL mentioned them.
Why?

It was pertinent.

Many people, me included, are committed in improving Steemit and the STEEM Blockchain ecosystem in its entirety. As such, we want the community not only to expand in numbers but grow in power.

These people who want to grow the platform take attention to these things - and they tend to be the most active ones.
By showing you're commited to helping out, you'll get your name out there in more than one way.

In conclusion to this article, I would only like to thank everyone who doesn't have to read these words in order to delegate.

I also want to thank those who are still too small to delegate but help this community every way they can, being it through promoting it, onboarding new users, contributing to communities and everything else.

Finally, if you didn't the reason to delegate before now, I hope these words have changed that and you now consider it as a solid move. You'll be helping out the community and you may even help yourself.

I'll resume my usual Steemit Newbie Guides on my next post.

Cheers

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Nice write-up, once I have the SP to do so (which could take a while haha) I am definitely going to find someone to delegate to, its a great way to grow the community and get minnows rolling along when they really deserve it.

I heavilly agree Jakey! Glad to see you thinking the right way :D

You guys are my heroes and much better writers than myself! I discovered yall (can you tell I'm from Texas) from @taskmaster4450's post: https://steemit.com/steem/@taskmaster4450/steem-gold-mining-why-everyone-should-be-dedicating-time-and-effort-on-steemit

I'm surprised whales haven't delegated you guys yet. Great content guys, keep it up! If I had more SP I'd gladly delegate yall! I'll need to look more into it...

Well thank you very much Dirk, that means a lot!

It is always good for a blogger to see his writting being appreciated and not just sticking to a wall.

Thank you :)

Ya, I appreciate the kind words man! A delegation would be amazing, but the support I've already gotten has blown me away too, so I can't complain at all

I love your perspective. Special shout to @gbd for giving me my first SP delegation.

See, people! Newbies are thankful for those delegations, loyal and don't frown upon shoutouts :D

This is a great post. I've just had this very issue today. My bandwidth was too low to allow me to post. The fabulous @eonwarped delegated some of his hard-earned power and gave me the leg-up I needed. He went a step further and walked me through how to sort my own shit out should it happen again. I'm very grateful for all his help and would go out of my way to kill his enemies – should he ever need that kind of assistance :D

@underground is a top fella. I follow him too. You all are a great example and deserve the good karma coming your way.

If your post doesn't encourage those stingy types of whales to help out then I don't know what will.

PS IOU a vote tomorrow when my VP is back up lol

Ok Anjkara, no problem... you probably voted way more than your 10 times a day allocation.

Cheers

lol yes, and today but what the hey :D

Wow, now this is a valuable post! I was already impressed with what you came up with so far, but this feels like the best I've read of you (and you know this is not a generic comment of me).

It made me think, and I realized that I'm heading in the right direction. Let me tell you that I got my first real life meeting with a fellow Steemian tomorrow and I hope and expect it to be the first of many. Can't wait to start sharing/ posting about it... I think you are going to like it.

Keep up the good work. Keep sharing!

Your brother from another mother,

Vicente

That means a lot, I'm glad I'm being able to set new highs... I hope to keep doing it alot man.
Thank you
Cheers!

@spiritualmax first off, congrats on your exceptional start here at steemit. Great article, but I'm a little confused. When I first started my account, I noticed that part of my SP was delegated, but since adding STEEM and powering up into my wallet, that has gone away. What did that mean and what exactly is delegation?

Hello there Dirk, welcome to my little blog.

Thank you for the kind words.

When you start off, Steemit gives you a delegation to help you on your way to steeming. That delegation is something all newbies have... it goes away with time.

Delegation is when another user borrows you SP, so it leaves their possession and comes to yours, and when that person wants it back it leaves yours and goes to them again. like a loan.

Cheers

Understood. Is the delegated SP pulling from a pool or are individual members delegating?

I've evangelized to my buddies about steem and would gladly delegate to help them get to a quicker start.

It is from individuals. So you still don't have enough to help them. Well, maybe one with 500 SP

but maybe you should grow a bit more since you'll be cutting your power by half.

True. 99% of my SP are from investing. It's going to take some time for me to be raking in the rewards, but excited by the opportunity and challenge!

Yeah I saw that! Good luck mate, may you find everything you're looking for here ;)

Glad @anjkara mentioned me. I have the same philosophy with helping out, as it's the only way to grow the steem community effectively.

Delegating in itself to smaller users I don't think is efficient. The design of voting power is that one large vote is better than two votes that add up to the same SP. Offering help is the best for that, and I think your tips on commenting is the real kicker for that.

That same principle however makes delegation powerful when grouped into a single account for the benefit of the group, and I suspect that's why many groups have that structure.

That's a very interesting point, and it holds true. However, the delegation benefits are most noticeable when you consider people from third world countries, in which your delegation may feed them thanks to their ability to vote on their work and in the work of their families.

I guess it all depends on the strategy used and point of view.

The fact that anjkara mentioned you means that this article holds true.

Very good @spiritualmax, I couldn't agree more... Its just a matter of time til this spreads!

Thanks @simplymike... Glad you referred me to this article!

Thank you for the comment and to mike for the tip :D

You’re welcome ;0)

Hope you are having a wonderful day @simplymike!

I guess it’s hard not to, with your charming personality being all over the place.
CE77F065-7027-4814-BC2A-9B523AC40147.gif

I still wonder if you ever sleep _ lol

awww thank you... that was sweet!! :D ... and it matches the cute froggies too ;)

Nice post. I delegated my steempower to minnowbooster since I would be writing exams soon, and will be too busy for steemit. Better helping others, than letting it stay idle

Agree... apathy is death and all that :)

you are as before right in your advice and reasoning.
Your success, as well as the success of all those who achieve it in the most important thing - to get something, it is necessary to share (to delegate, to support). This can be called an investment (my opinion).
I support you 100%

And I'm glad you do mate! Let's keep on doing our thing and growing up together :D

I'm still a beginner, but I set myself certain goals. I'm glad I saw your posts and they contain a lot of valuable information. Thanks, this is a great help for someone like me.

If you're a man with goals then go right ahead and chase them! Use anything you can find to power up and go for it! :D

this is excellent instruction! I use every chance :)

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