Hey there, you!
@shayne here once again.
Here's something I've been seeing this a LOT:
"Hi! I'm a Steemit n00b. Tell me: how do I become popular on Steemit/how do I get followers/how do I attract the attention of whales?
So... I'm going to give you the "secret hack" that will guarantee you followers, upvotes, and popularity...
How to gain followers and be popular!
This is really simple.
Comment.
And comment authentically.
Here is the 6 Point Plan
- Go to the "hot" tab.
- Find posts that are interesting to you.
- READ IT
- Upvote it
- Leave a relevant comment
I'm not even kidding.
Do that and you will gain followers like you wouldn't believe.
Don't even bother making blog posts for your first week.
Just upvote and comment.
Try to make your comments as beneficial, edifying, helpful, and optimistic as possible, and you will find your follower numbers growing like crazy.
When you have a good and authentic following, you'll find that all of your posts get a good number of upvotes, and you'll earn a pretty nice income per post compared to if you post 10 times a day and pray that one of them trends.
Also...
Troll the #introduceyourself tag
New people are looking for friends.
At least they should be.
them), and your follower numbers will shoot to the moon.So check out all of the #introduceyourself or #introduction posts. Find new people. Leave a comment that shows that you actually read their post (aka: say something about
You'll also gain a lot of interesting friends.
DO NOT FOLLOW-BEG
Don't beg for people to follow you in the comments.
The best you'll get is a following of people who are only interested in their own follow numbers and won't even see or upvote your posts; the worst you'll get is flagged for spam and/or muted by whales who would otherwise help you out.
So DO NOT post anything that looks even remotely like this:
Wow! Great post. I followed you, follow me back.
Do NOT do this.
It shows that you didn't read the post you're replying to. It shows that you're not interested in building authentic relationships. It shows that you're trying to abuse the system for your own selfish benefit.
If you care about Steemit, Steemit will care about you
It's as simple as that.
If you post on this platform like a human being, and treat others like human beings, you will be rewarded.
You will become popular.
You will get upvoted and resteemed.
All your dreams will come true.
Any questions?
Feel free to ask.
I'm pretty friendly and I try to reply to every comment.
Good advice. I would recommend writing posts from the very beginning though. It is always nice to have something to show when other members visit your blog. It does not have to be long and perfect but showing initiative means a lot to me when I am deciding to follow someone. Steem on!!!
I wrote a starters series a while back. It's probably due for a re-post what with all the new people -- but I advise to make a really good #introduceyourself post and maybe resteem two or three posts that you really like before you start commenting. Then let those stay on your page for the first week while you comment, that way people have an idea what you're all about when they come to your page, and if they like it they'll follow.
Before reading your article, Shayne, i was actually thinking myself that since I have just joined, probably i should spend the first few days just to observe how the system, commenting and voting works before writing my first and most important post #introduceyourself. Good advice, thank you :)
People are expecting too much from Steemit. Lower down expectation is the key to success on Steemit.
That's true, but the high expectations are what get them here in the first place so I suppose it's a neccessary evil.
As soon as you start interacting with people on a personal level, you start getting a response, albeit a slow start.
When you first join it's hard not to notice the "Steem is gonna be worth 10 brazillian dollars in 30 seconds time" posts that are making hundreds of dollars and amazing artwork making a few cents.
My new series focusses on other members of the community and I'm getting a much better response.
Agreed! and probably the 'giving' approach is more beneficial than the 'receiving' approach.
Got like x2 followers in 3 days of engaging on other people's posts. I should have done that from the start but didn't actually understand how Steem and Steemit were working. This posts pretty much sumps up everything I'd say now. The best advice is to leave RELEVANT and not "follow me i follow you" comments. It's also quite educative on many basis, I learned some weird but positive stuff I couldn't imagine it really exsists, so much diversity here it blows your mind. Thanks for this post, I bet it will improve the comments section discussions and bind us more on this exciting crypto endevour. Upvoted!
Very true. In the attempt to gain followers, you'll actually have the added bonus of learning new things and making friends. Steemit is pretty brilliant that way. :D
Very well said @shayne. This is the best guidance for anyone who is trying to gain relevant following. As you correctly pointed out there is no use of building pointless relationships using the follow comments. This is especially true for Steemit because here the community is very strong in terms of filtering out weeds :)
Indeed. The Steemit platform rewards you for being authentic. It seems to be a great natural filtering system.
Yeh just talk to people like you would in person, you know like in the old days before tinternet!
Right??? Seems so straight forward. But many seem to be struggling with it. Maybe it's the new medium? I don't know :/
Great tips for a newbie like me, @shayne
I just posted my introducemyself blog last night and I have yet to learn the ropes here at steemit. A great deal of time is really required considering the all reading I need to do! 😅
Good luck!
Thanks, very good post for new people like me.
These are some very useful tips, I've been on here less than a week and I've got almost 60 followers, mostly just from trying to write good comments and supporting other users. I've found even most of the 'big guys' on here reply to well written comments and they like to support people who engage with their content. Most of my posts however have attracted little attention, though I have already had a few of the "I followed you follow me back messages" that you mentioned in this post
60 in less than a week?? That's awesome! Good job. Keep it up. I find that after about 200 followers you'll get pretty reliable upvoted. Good luck!
Great stuff. That's how I built a following, but it takes time and effort (and around 5,000 comments/posts). Only think I would add is that you should have some good content on your blog also. Give people a reason to follow you. Sometimes I check out someone's blog after a good comment and see nothing but resteems, so I move along. Other times I see great stuff, vote it up and follow.
@lukestokes . I agree, I try my best to bring life into my work . not always good lol. but I try at first every poem I put up was plan and honestly boring . but now that I am trying to bring them to life , it is a big hit :))
Yeah, I wrote a guide a while ago about that. Write a good #introduceyourself post and resteem a few posts that really connect with you, and then start commenting exclusively for a week.
That way people have an idea what you're about when they check you out from the comments.
Very well put.
I keep telling people that the only thing it takes to make an earning on the platform is time. Time because it takes time to read the posts and interact with the authors and other commenters. If you prove you have read them, people know you've spent time reading their post and most of the time will reward you for it.
Don't try to cheat by spam posting the same comment everywhere cause like in every other field, time cannot be cheated. But time can be diluted by becoming a faster reader or being good at multitasking. :)
Exactly. After monitoring the Steemit accounts of a couple people I know IRL, I noticed that thoughtful comments really do = more reward. Also, I noticed a post doesn't necessarily have to be long to be successful. It could be short and sweet, like a simple photo that people find interesting or beautiful. In fact, sometimes a post of epic length could be a turn-off due to the short attention span of most people!
No one likes spam
I will differ with this comment.. the last few times I have been to Costco everyone is buying up Spam! wth! People really do eat that stuff :)
I call it mystery meat... like a Mcdonalds hamburger.
I like SPAM, just not the digital kind.
Mmm, sliced and fried like bacon with toast and some scrambled eggs.
It's Shoulder of Pork and hAM, what's not to like?
The funny thing is you can fry it, boil it, microwave it and it still tastes the same..Is it even meat??
Next thing you know, you'll be telling me that Aldi Turkey sticks and crunchy peanut butter is odd. ;-)
about 6 million cans of SPAM are eaten each year in Hawaii. That’s around 5 cans per person!
This is such a good comment that I might even write a post addressing it. It's so true.
When you write this one, remind people that everyone can see your stream of comments when looking at your profile, if they look and see "great post" 50 x .... yeah.
I verify everything you said. I gained 100 followers just by doing as you wonderfully pointed out. Eventually I'll prob blog similar things to whoever is new and following. This minnow is thin but really gaining a lot in my first month. Thanks Shayne!
Thanks for the testimonial!
3 weeks ago I had less then 100 followers but for
some reason I remember your name so I follow.. I find you get a core of a few followed people that consistently vote. For whatever reason you made my list?!
lol, well lucky for both of us. :)
I've been here a week and managed about 100 followers. Here's what I did:
I found good content provider who has similar interests as myself, and looked at his followers and who he is following. I carefully clicked on each on and followed them all myself.
(I asked myself, if a stranger started following me and engaging in comments and upvotes, would I be upset? Naw. Like neighbors you don't know baking a pie for you)
After a lot of clicking, I began monitoring my feed and upvoting, offering genuine comments with NO requests to follow me. I found many people responding to my comments and I was careful to reply and upvote.
I watched my followers jump from single digits, to 20 to 50 to 80 to over 100 over the course of the week.
I've been careful not to discriminate too much based on reputation, but on content alone. Mostly minnows like myself, but as they grow, I grow. :-) Trying to keep this as 'organic' as possible.
This has been my experience so far. Any comments or criticisism are appreciated, I'm still learning, like many people here. Steem on! @ironshield
Write a post about it! With details and analytics
@shayne . Thank you for sharing this great information and I agree . You have to make your work stand out , Try to give it a good head line ,and try to stay on topic of what your blog is about . you have to drew people into it and get them wanting to know more about what your Blog is about, I honestly don't open some up because I am not interested on what there headline says it is about :)))
Been doing a lil more of this. I think most people who come into Steemit are initially blinded by the potential for quick cash. Social networks should essentially be a tool to connect and interact with people outside of your world bubble. I've made a few internet friends by commenting on others posts here, and that's pretty cool.
People seem to need retraining on how to use a social network: you make friends FIRST, then start sharing things with them.
How could you do it the other way around? I don't even know, but that's what so many people here seem to expect. :/
It works...it WORKS!! Like the man says...just DO it LOL.
Yep. It actually works. I wouldn't lead you guys astray.
I made my first post 18 days ago. Maybe 14 days ago I found your advice. Today I am at 99 followers even though I post what I love and don't just post stuff that seems "popular." I'd say about half of the followers I've gained were from your hint about the new Intro posts. I've been commenting and upvoting and GENUINELY reading their posts and being sure they can tell that from my comments. Also sharing little tips I may notice they missed that I think of as a not-quite-as-newbie.
Thanks so much for your awesome advice!
That is such awesome news! I'm so glad this has helped you out! :D
I was feeling a bit down today as a newbie here, a bit like eating alone in the jr high cafeteria all over again. I will try out your formula and see what happens, because so far I feel a bit lost in the crowd... Le sigh...
Give it a week, make the comments good, and do it as often as you can. Please get back to me with the results!
:D
Great posts and tips @Shayne - thank you! I can agree 100% as a member of 3 weeks, this works! I am shooting for 200 followers by my 1 month mark which is 3 days away - gotta get busy, this helps - thank you!
meep
You did it!!!
WELL DONE!
Thank you @Shayne !! Cheers to the next two thousand !!
Thanks @shayne for such a great post. As a new member to the steemit community, one thing that I did catch on is that there are a lot of people who will post for the sake of posting. Something that I'm coming to think of as "Artificial Interest", which is fine and dandy, I mean, thanks for the comment it helps! I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything. But I notice it's far better to actually gain the genuine interest of a member. It's far more engaging, far more rewarding! I'm still new, but this is what I've gathered from my experiences so far. This is especially important for someone like me who's posting about graphics design, so I know I will try to my best to engage with my readers, and engage with other members on their posts. Thanks again for the post!
Just keep being authentic, my man. Engage, be authentic, and treat others like human beings. You're doing great!
Great post! I followed you, now check out my...just kidding.
As someone who has spent some time putting together a few posts that I was sure would trend and ended up going nowhere, I think your strategy is spot on.
Genuine enthusiasm in other people's material will end up with those people reciprocating. I've been on here a few months, and I've realized that my participation in other people's content has been relatively minimal compared to what it could/should be.
I'm making it a goal to curate and respond to posts more than creating original content, at least for a few weeks.
great post ! I followed you, follow me back ! Just kidding XD In all reality, this post was really helpful! I struggle with commenting on other's posts and reaching out in the community. Thank you for the tips ! Keep it up (:
You are welcome!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:Congratulations @shayne!
Awesome.
Ohhh. Cheers for this. I've been doing it accidentally [or is that naturally] ... that's how I came across your post! Thanks. I'll take it on board and do some more commenting. I have already noticed the not so subtle commenters who don't seem to be saying anything that indicates they really read. I get them on my website too so my radar was flashing. I'm about 6 months new here but I dipped out and came back again, so new in almost any significant way. The thing I wish for is a search tab at the top of my homepage rather than just tag categories. Is there a reason there isn't one?
Cheers for a good post. :-)
Sally
My guess is Steemit being in beta.
There are way more spammy comments lately on Steemit! People trying to use this like Twitter.... hopefully we can keep the integrity of this place in line.
I hate twitter, so I hope so. I've been trolled good and proper on Twitter. It's a homeopath thing in part [I'm a homeopath]. If you use the #homeopath tag on Twitter you get the skeptics welcome wagon and they are fierce, well paid [I suspect, or at least zealous] and they have automated conversations they throw at you far faster than anyone can type. They set up troll rings and all come out of the woodwork at once [up to 20 of them I had]. They then try to intimidate you with nasty pages about you on their personal websites [there are a few on me]. It was a painful process. I was pre-warned and it was still tough really. I stopped tweeting. I don't like that element of Twitter at all. It's a bit prone to road rage like behaviour. On the brighter side, many folks on the #homeopathy hashtag came out to tell me who to block and to help me out, because they know it happens all the time. They were very kind and supportive, but you know ... it drives you away to deal with one after another, after another troll.
Good stuff as always, nice post dude.
Thanks a lot
Very good and very true. Thats how i have everyone of my 290 follower. Not one actually cares what i post. JK
Lol!
lol!
Using irrelevant tags, especially popular tags, makes it hard to find good and relevant content.
Please try to use only relevant tags when posting!
#introduceyourself
The “introduceyourself” tag is for creating a post that tells us about you. Users are encouraged to use this tag exclusively for that, and not to reuse it.
Great advice and really helpful ! I will keep this article as reference
Awesome!
great advice!
This is a very helpful and valuable post. As a newbie I came here and first what I experienced was - follow me / I’ll follow you, then I was even replying to bots, not knowing they are bots. Of course I dream one day to have a nice number of genuine followers and so I started to play same game, basically repeating the what other were doing. How stupid, how wrong. My intention however is to create a relevant content, something interesting for community, of course I also hope that one day I can be fairly paid for what I create, so STEEMIT will need to improve also I guess, too much quality blogs stay uncovered, while other copy/paste BS is rewarded, but anyway I am optimistic about the future. Thanks @shayne you opened my eyes.
Your struggle is the reason why I keep posting these tips.
New people won't know what the good practices are unless people are posting trending topics about them.
In any case, I'm glad you found your way and I welcome you to Steemit :)
Great guide especially to starters like me. I've just started this week and still have to understand all of steemit's features. Thanks!
You're welcome! This is probably one of the most useful tips I've discovered on steemit :D
These past 4-5 days I have indeed trolled the introduceyourself posts. My followers have shot up drastically. It works, especially if you read their posts and show you have in your reply by referencing something you read there.
Exactly right. In the old days this would be called "being friendly", but today it's called "personal online branding" lol
Post is really good, and I like it especially "don't beg for follow" part. But the last photo makes me think :)) I am not sure to follow your tactics now.
Not a Napoleon Dynamite fan?
Upvoted and resteemed and...
I'm still following you.
(I wish I knew how to do a really scary emoji)
I couldn't keep quiet for a week and had to post right away.
But, as far as I now, I still haven't pissed off any whales, I'm pretty sure that's from your Cognitive Dissonance post. Click the link to read @shayne 's great piece.
Anyone here should read that post, it'll help keep you out of trouble.
I should probably write evolution of those sorts of topics so new people can stay current. Thanks :D
thank you for the advice....your thoughts on re-steeming ?
I like to resteem things to either help out friends or to share tools that I think are super useful. Or steemit news. Otherwise, why not just write a post about the topic of your own?
i sure do...this week I learned about resteeming....balance is needed by me
Great advice shayne! The do not follow-beg bit is especially good, for I tend to almost always follow people that leave a quality comment on my posts. Spammy-begging stuff not so much. I remember what it felt like being new so I try to take some time and look for new users to follow.
Also, loved this tidbit of Steemit-truth:
Indeed. I try to reply to every comment I get. But when it's clearly spam or if it's asking for a follow or to check out a link, I usually just ignore it.
Authenticity counts for a lot.
I like it
Excellent advice! Upvoted and resteemed!
Thank you :)
Thank you for laying out the strategy so clearly. I was sort of doing this but not consistently.
Doing it consistently will keep your reputation good around here. Also, it'll help you to discover the newest talent for you to follow yourself.
I 100% agree with this strategy. Just be authentic and creative with your comments! I know that helped me :)
authenticity will be the thing that makes or breaks this platform. So far, it seems like real people have the advantage over the bots and scammers, so that's good! Just be as emotionally naked and authentic as possible.
Totally agree!
So true! This platform is like church. People can tell when someone is being authentic or not. Telling the truth is actually easy when you get past the fear! The Bible tells us we should fear nothing but the Lord. Tell your truth, have fun and be genuine then get paid!
Couldn't agree more!
:D
Be sincere when communicating in your comments and be grateful for each response/upvote. Gratitude and sincerity will go a long way.
It most certainly will. You get what you put in.
Great advice! By the way, did I ever tell u I met this dude in real life. True story ;)
No! You are a legend by proxy!
Yeah it is was @ a hollywood party ...Being the wild man at the time I yelled PEDRO in a crowded men's bathroom..I embarrassed the $hit out of him...True story ;)
Nice post ! Short and to the point !
That's what she said ;)
LMAO
I'm new for steemit.
Your post is so useful.
Thank you!
Excellent thats all very true. Have a great day.
You know what THIS DOES WORK. I have gotten some upvotes
just by being social and staying involved.
YES I HAVE NO LIFE ANYMORE!
I AM HERE TO STAY!
You'd think it was common sense...
lol
RIGHT!
(Hip Hop Artist: Common Sense)
I cracked this method the very second day at steemit
Oh and I also finally followed you! great POST!
Great post Thank you very much for your time and informations !! 😎👍
I follow you now greetings from Cologne Germany my name is Lars @laloelectrix #upvoted and #resteemed
Welcome!