Who Do You Want Reading Your Posts?: Creating your Steemit Contextual Identity
If you are new to Steemit, you are probably doing your best to research and learn as much as you can about this unique platform. This is a 3-Part series. This series' ultimate goal is to help as many beginners as we can, from one Steemit beginner to another. Read About the Inspiration for this Series
Part 1 focused on what you should consider before jumping in with your first Steemit post. I also included several links to Steemit posts that I found helpful in getting started, so it would be worth checking out.
Welcome to Part 2: Creating Your Steemit Contextual Identity!
You might be wondering what exactly a contextual identity is. I define it as the identity that is portrayed through the content in your posts. I will discuss the following topics in this post.
- The Importance of Being Authentic
- Defining Your Target Audience
- Deciding your Main Topic Categories
- Basic Writing Do's & Don'ts
The Importance of Being Authentic
This Steemit mantra has been stated over and over again by countless users. Why? Because it's absolutely 100% true. Let's play with a little word association. Please note your immediate feeling and mental image that comes to mind with the following words.
- Identity Theft
- Perjurer
- Richard Nixon
- Marriage Affair
- False Witness
- Loki or Anansi
- Con Artist
- OJ Simpson
If you're a reasonably decent human being you probably had icky, negative, nasty, or maybe mixed feelings associated with these words. So when users choose to be in-authentic or fake, it gives other users this same negative feeling.
Defining Your Target Audience
Your target audience is essentially defined as the followers that you want reading your posts. In order to define your target audience here are some simple questions you can ask yourself.
- Who are they?.....Male, female? Parents? Age range? Occupation choice? Etc.
- What interests this person? What are their problems? Their desires?
- What type of titles catch their intrigue?
- What formatting in a post maintains their attention span?
(lots of pictures vs. lots of content) - Who does this demographic trust?
- What knowledge or skills do you possess that this demographic would find valuable?
Deciding Your Main Topic Categories
After all of your soul searching marathons, you should by now have a handful of ideas of how you can contribute to the Steemit community. Group your thoughts into a handful of categories or main ideas, and write them down. Some users choose to only post about one topic. This is totally fine and is working swell for some, but personally I have many interests and find it difficult to contain my writing to one topic. I recommend choosing at least 3, but no more than 7 main categories. Once you've decided on your categories, use these as headers in your #IntroduceYourself article to introduce your readers to what you will be writing about. Keeping topics within decided main topics / categories helps to create continuity and consistent interest throughout your posts.
Basic Writing Do's & Don'ts
- Proofread, Proofread, Proofread....And when you're done, ask your mate to proofread before posting. This may seem obvious, but it can be awfully tempting to just tap that post button out of shear excitement without thoroughly proofreading your post first. Proofread for good flow, formatting, continuity of thought and subject matter, and to make sure the point you wished to get across is clear.
- Run a spell-check, and double check for basic grammatical errors. Here's a great article...30 Of The Most Common Grammatical Errors
- Defeat Writer's Block. I suggest when you're starting out to make a list of 100 potential Steemit post titles. This was suggested to me, and I literally laughed in their face. Almost out of spite, I sat down at my laptop that night and started cranking out titles. Before I knew it (30 minutes in) I had produced 50. Then I was like wow, I can come up with 100 easy, peasy! They won't all necessarily be solid gold, but will give you a good jumping off point when you don't know what to write about next.
**Stay Tuned For the Final Installment of This Series.......Part 3
“If You Could Be Anyone?”: Creating Your Steemit Visual Identity
Read About the Inspiration for This Series
Read Part 1 of This Series
@HammockHouse Introduces Ourselves
@HammockHouse Introduces Our Business
@XtrodinaryPilot Introduces @HammockHouse
Image Credits
Nose in Book
How to Write Good