There are plenty of ways to use Steemit.
Some of us go for shortposts, some of us go for longposts. However, you should start considering an optimization guide like this if you're trying to achieve the following (other than payout, obviously):-
- Get people to read through your material.
- Get people to understand your material.
- Get people to share your material.
- Get people to take action, if any.
Please note that optimization in this case doesn't mean that it's, in some arbitrary sense, the best practice for the network. This guide is written after acknowledging that Steemit is largely community-driven, and hence, requiring lower-bandwidth communication techniques to achieve effective mass collaboration.
One of the lowest bandwidth communication tool these days are visual memes you see on 9gag and the likes. While simple roundtable jokes are good for morale in a social landscape, this format is not what I'm covering here.
Keep it simple, stupid (K.I.S.S.)
In the spirit of this post, I'll try to keep things short. Keeping things simple is by far the best practice. The one practice that will make the best out of a post's value. Take time to shape your content. Find different ways to represent your ideas. Make it low-barrier. Here are some ways to do it:-
- Edit and format. For writing, use breaks and header formatting. There's a reason why magazines, textbooks, and newspapers use the formatting that they use. It works. It gives contrast to elements in your content.
- Don't demand too much from your reader / viewer.
- De-clutter as much as possible! Simple test - if in textform, try reading through. Do you feel uneasy? If yes, de-clutter again!
- Strategize what you emphasise. For example: avoid bolding all over the place! That's the best way to lose emphasis.
The whole purpose of a K.I.S.S. is to keep people engaged. 
Conclusion
Making things simple doesn't mean that one needs to dumb down complexity. And simplicity also doesn't mean that the content has to be short and non-exhaustive. I just think it's way better to pack complexity into simpler presentations with better pacing. All it takes is just the time and experience to come up with something immediately digestible and actionable.
Actually I'm just talking out of my arse all the while. Effective or not, thanks for reading all the way through.
- If you agree that this practice is worth spreading, please re-steem.
- If you have a good guide on this topic, please write a post / comment!
