Include some kind of verification from the start!
If you do it straight away, one of the whales and orcas who peruse #introduceyourself may be able to upvote your post right away. This gives it a good chance of getting into the 'Hot' page, and from there it can gain momentum, giving you your first payout and your first followers.
If you don't verify your identity from the start, it may take some time for a member to verify you and the upvotes to start rolling in, and you may lose this chance at a running start!
How to Provide Verification
Here are a number of options from best to acceptable:
The ideal verification is video footage. Mention your username, mention Steem, mention the date. Video is much harder to fake than alternatives! Remember to include it in the opening post!
Link to your Steem profile using another established social media account. Include that link in your post from the start.
A photo with your face, your username, the word 'Steemit' and the date. This isn't that hard to fake, but it tends to be 'good enough' most of the time.
Good luck starting your Steem journey!
Image from @frenkel's post, a good example of an introduction which is verifiable.
Important note: Just to be clear, you don't need to prove your identity at all, if you don't choose to reveal your identity. This post is only for those who choose to use their real life identity on Steemit.
And one final side note: Please don't overuse the 'introduceyourself' post. Generally you only need to introduce yourself once! Sometimes there may be a good reason to redo it, and that's ok, but many people are using the tag over and over.
Some even use it for totally unrelated posts. That's not really fair to other new users and it's not fair to those of us who are using the tag to find those new users.