Gaining followers is a crucial aspect of success on Steemit. You need eyes on your content in order to gain traction. Everyone has a strategy. But some strategies are better than others. And one approach to gaining followers is particularly pernicious...

Spend any amount of time on Steemit, and you will see this practice.

F4F, or follow-for-follow, is the practice of following random Steemians in the hopes that they will follow you back. There are countless YouTube videos that recommend that you start clicking follow, follow, follow, etc. until you’ve followed thousands of people. Then, a small percentage of them follow you back, and you now have a sizable “following”. This is true, if you can call that an actual following.

So how much is one follower on Steemit actually worth?

F4F Followers

There is no single answer to this question. But it seems safe to assume that not all followers are created equal. The act of F4F can yield you a lot of followers, but none of these people actually care about your content. F4F will give you an impressive number of followers, but the level of engagement you will get from these Steemians is next to nothing. The reason is that you followed them for selfish reasons, and they followed you for selfish reasons. Neither of you were actually interested in helping each other.

What is the value of a single follower on Steemit acquired through F4F? Probably next to zero.

Real Followers

The best kinds of followers are the followers that care about you. They are the followers that care about what you create. Valuable followers are Steemians that you have created a relationship with. For example, meeting Steemians through Discord channels, geared towards creating authentic engagement between users, is a great way to meet real followers. I’ve had some early success through The Steemit Bloggers Discord and the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Discord. These groups have allowed me to have authentic conversations with individuals that are interested in topics that I think are relevant and important. I’ve become a real follower to people from these groups, and a few of them have grown to care about my blog as well.

What is the value of a single follower acquired through genuine interest and interaction? It’s impossible to put a price tag on a real follower. They will continue to provide value for you again and again, and you will reciprocate their generousity, because you have a real relationship with this person.

So what is the value of one follower? As we see, the answer varies greatly. A follower can be worth nothing, or a follower can be invaluable. We think of followers as a mere numbers game, but a single follower that truly cares about you can be more valuable than legions of apathetic strangers.

Don’t make Steemit a race. What’s the rush? Steemit is meant to be a platform that we enjoy and encourages pro-social behaviour. Be authentic and be generous. These are qualities that people like in face-to-face interactions, so why would it be any different online? Attract real followers that care about your success on Steemit, and your experience of the platform will be richer because of it.

So please, don’t follow me, unless this message truly resonates with you. I’d love to see you showing up in my future articles, but unless they’re helpful to you, there is no reason to follow. I want to provide value to my followers, even if they are few and far between. I would rather one close friend, than one thousand acquaintances.

How Much Is One Follower Worth On Steemit?

F4F Followers

Real Followers

If you found this article to be valuable, please feel free to follow me!

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