STEEMIT 101 - HOW TO BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE - CRASH COURSE.
Dear Steemians,
In my last Steemit 101 I covered the basics of writing articles. If you missed it, make sure to read it: - STEEMIT 101 - When You Are Ready To Publish Your Post.
In Today's Steemit 101, I will cover one of the hottest topics on Steemit:
First of all, there's many names for this. You can call it build your following, grow your following, build your audience and many things. - It might have many names but it means the exact same thing.
- You want to gain more followers.
- You want to get more eyeballs on your content.
And you want that, because that's how you'll manage to reap more rewards. - It's vital for success on Steemit. You can see the most established users on Steemit having thousands of followers. - That's the reason they reap the rewards they do.
Followers.
The truth is, that you can build your audience in different ways. - I will name what I do myself and what I recommend others to do.
Never, and I mean NEVER spam people. Not on Discord or in the Steemit Chat.
- Do not beg for followers!
I guess you've seen hundreds of people doing exactly that.. - But don't be one of them!
Follow for follow and to beg for followers are first of all, disgusting, but it's also more or less totally worthless. - How come so many people are doing it then?
- Because they live in denial and they believe that the "Instagram technique" will be sufficient on Steemit too. - And it's wrong!
On Instagram, you can easily get hundreds of followers in a day. In less than a few hours actually. - The same goes for Facebook. - A quick "Follow me and I will follow you!" is enough to get followers... - And it works on Steemit too.
However, it's a bad thing to do on Steemit.
Let me explain why:
First of all, your entire feed page will be filled with content from people you don't really care about. - Because you had to follow them to get them to follow you.
Secondly, if you have a feed page filled with hundreds of new articles, you'll most likely miss the good ones. - Which in the long run, hurts both the author but also you, as you'll miss out on Curator rewards.
Another reason for the "follow for follow" technique being bad, useless or worthless, is because people don't upvote your content. They don't interact with your content or with you. They don't comment your content.. - So why would you like to have them as followers?
Frankly speaking.. Even if they truly want to upvote your content, they'll most likely miss your content among all the other hundreds of articles from the other authors they follow.
- Just like you'll most likely miss out on their content.
That's why it's BAD!
Promote Your Content.
Just like you can promote your content on Discord and in the Steemit Chat.. You should promote your content outside of Steemit too, if you can.
I won't say that you have to do it, but it will most certainly help you to get more exposure. - However, in the Chat and on Discord, you'll have different channels where you can promote your content. - Don't expect any major results though.
You should obviously promote your content within the channels, but in all honesty, you'll get 2 or 3 upvotes for doing that. - And how can I be certain of that?
First of all, I've been doing that since I first arrived on Steemit. - Almost 1 year ago.
Secondly, because all the people within those channels, are doing exactly what you are doing...
- They promote their content because they want upvotes.
Most people doesn't care about reading a single article in those channels.
And meanwhile you promote your article, you can get lucky and score an upvote or two if you promote your article in the exact right time. - At the time when someone is kind enough to upvote your content before they promote their own.
You'll also see people writing:
@hitmeasap I just upvoted! - Please upvote mine.
And they'll promote their article. - Truth to be told, I've seen this happen HUNDREDS of times. - And even when they say that they've upvoted my content, I can clearly see that they haven't.
- Why would I bother to upvote their content if they can't even be honest about upvoting my article?
The sad part is, that even dolphins are doing this. - Just go to https://steemd.com/@yourusername and see for yourself. - Keep track of who you get upvotes from when you promote your content and others claims to have upvoted yours.
- It's the perfect way to see who you can trust.
How Do I Get Followers Then?
First of all, talk with the people who reads your content. If they leave a comment on your article, make sure to reply! - That's the easiest way to maintain a good relationship and to show that you're serious. - That attracts people.
Secondly, make sure to comment on other people's content too. - As people tend to follow you if they like your content. No matter if it's a reply or your own articles.
Another thing you could do, is to have an image or a text at the bottom of your article. Just as a reminder. Follow me if you liked this article or whatever. - A friendly reminder is much more efficient than begging people to follow you.
And you should obviously be consistent. - Make sure to comment and/or publish articles multiple times per day. - Make sure to leave a few comments each day and to publish at least one article per day. If you can.
As long as you show dedication and put in the necessary time and effort, you'll be rewarded.
To build you following or audience takes time. - Don't expect the world for nothing. - You'll have to work hard, but in the end, you'll get some pretty amazing results. - I promise you!
Make friends. - That's a golden rule. You don't have to become best friends with everyone... But you'll have to set your mark. - You need to build your own brand. On Steemit, your brand is obviously your username.
Make sure that people remember you. - Write good quality articles and put in the extra few seconds to write a superb comment on articles you read instead of "thank you's". - Build your brand - Build yourself!
That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody.
- Rocky Balboa.
