Simple Networking Skills To Unlock Success

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Networking is third in the post, "Superior Growth Is Practiced Not Preached" where I show that the information I am providing works. The past thirteen to fourteen years of blogging taught me all of this the hard way. I had to make all the mistakes and end up with dead blogs time and time again.

I don't want you to have to go through the same issue on the STEEM blockchain. This platform makes it easy for hard working bloggers to make a great side income (especially when SBD is above a dollar). You all are like my extended family and I want everyone to succeed. It is a pipe dream but even if one person learns from these posts and cuts the mistakes they make in half, then it is all worth it.

Before we jump into networking and why it is so important let's recap the parts that are more important. First is getting a niche and sticking to it. On STEEM we can get away with more than one but growth will aways be faster and easier when we focus on one niche.

Second thing to hammer down is our content. It does not matter how specific our niche is or how much we network if our content is trash. Aim for evergreen content that will help people for months and years to come. Plan out the posts, put in time and effort, and make the newest one better than the last.

Without a solid niche and great content networking won't work. We will still meet a lot of cool people and make new friends but this will not help the growth of our blog. Sometimes, spending a ton of time networking without the first two pillars will have the opposite effect. Causing us and our blog to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

We can get the other parts like our schedule and goals set in place while we network. It is better to network and meet other STEEM bloggers than too much time setting goals. We can plan out our schedule beforehand in case someone asks when we post but will not kill the networking effect if we don't.

When networking there is not an instant form of feedback that will tell us our efforts are paying off. As with most parts of becoming a better blogger, it takes time. It is not common to build friendships overnight even though it may happen.

We also need to stay conscious of how we come off when chatting.

This is more important now that all communication is digital and text based. At least in how we network in the effort to grow our blog. We won't be talking about our work in person a majority of the time. Make it imperative to stay mindful of the words and phrases we use in the digital communication.

Top Networking Tips

Be Friendly

This is obvious but what may not be is our demeanor as we get comfortable in a group. We may joke with other people in a way we think is only a friendly jest. However, since most of our talk is in text form, we may not realize how the joke will sound to the other person. It is better to not joke with someone if the intention is unclear or we are uncertain if it is offensive or not.

We never know what someone is going through or experienced in the past. By always staying mindful of this we are better suited to keep a friendly manner. This helps both our image and the image of our hard work. People talk and we do not want to give anyone a reason to talk bad about us.

Give More Than You Receive

When we join a group intending to network and build our blog, it is best to give from the start. Entering a group only to get more upvotes, views, and comments is bad. People are good at sniffing out other people's intentions. When we join a chat room to take and not give only hurts us.

The best approach is to give other people upvotes, views, and comments and not ask for any in return. This may sound counter productive but we gain more when we ask less. When the other people we are networking with see how much we help the community, they will want to give back to us in return.

Don't Beg

This ties in with the last tip and is a big deal in many circles. It is never wise to ask for an upvote or comment. If the first message we send to the community is asking for upvotes the others will find us unpleasant. It then takes a lot more effort to build up trust than if we never destroyed it.

This also goes for directs messages too. I can't think of anything more annoying than getting a message from someone at random asking to upvote a post they wrote.

This applies to "vote for vote" requests, stop doing that.

These tactics do not work and only make the person asking look like they are too lazy to spend their time writing quality content. Be patient, write good content, and help people! Don't beg.

Top STEEM Communities

All the groups listed below use Discord as the chat service. If you do not use Discord, you will need to make an account and either download the app or log in online. If you join any of the groups listed in this post, please tag me in your hello message (@jrswab) so we can connect!

P.A.L from MSP

This was the first group I learned about after getting serious on STEEM. This community has a lot of great people I now call friends. It is were I learned about the next group in the list and that I am thankful for. Also, the witnesses listed in PAL engage with the rest of the community in their free time and help when needed. It's awesome!

The Writer's Block

This group is all about making the STEEM community of authors the best it can be. Here we find workshops for fiction writers and poets to sharpen their skills and post the best content possible. Everyone here is friendly, encouraging, and happy to help all levels of writing experience.

Steemit Bloggers

This is one of the newer groups for me and I like it a lot. They have a rule that to stay in the group you must upvote someones post each day. There are sections for any niche and it is easy to find new bloggers you may not have known about before.

Thanks For Reading!

If you have a topic that you would like me to cover and share what I learned over the last ten years of blogging please let me know!