Let's Talk—How Can We Improve Engagement on Steemit?
Steemit brings new opportunities to try some interesting experiments. Currently I'm the 13th most followed user on this platform, down by 1 position as I took a break from writing to focus on other things in the past 4 weeks. In the process of getting there from 60-70 most followed I learned a few things and I'll share a couple of them today.
From mid-May to July I concentrated on gaining many followers to the point that I grew my account from 600 followers in mid-May to over 5000 by July by simply posting every day. I was following a little over 2000 accounts at the time and in mid-July I decided to do something different and followed many more users.
As someone who is trending regularly it was easier to gain traction on my posts and have giant leaps in follower counts. On an average when I've been posting regularly without following anyone I was getting about 50-80 followers a day and that doubled up with me following other users.
This is a strategy that works well if you want to increase your numbers but the real question is this: Does this result in better engagement?
This is a question that I've been asked a lot on and off Steemit.Chat in the past few months. It's no doubt that anyone making the trending page on a regular basis is going to have tremendous engagement (votes+comments+views) and increase in follower count.
Let's remember that our world is a place of perceptions. Having a huge follower count certainly helps. Unlike Instagram where you can buy hundreds and thousands of fake followers via services, this isn't currently possible on Steemit and unlikely that it'll ever be. Here people will have to manually follow you to increase your follower count.
The result of this lil' experiment was interesting. I'll lead with the positive bits first based purely on observation and some tracking using Steem explorer tools such as @spectacles as well as Steemdb.com.
In recent times I've been helping my friend @sjennon and her partner in development @pilcrow with some ideas for their app @spectacles. It provides some unique insights into your account and it's currently in beta version which you can test out here!
The Good
- Increase in resteems
- Increased view counts
- Very slight change in number of upvotes received
- The perception and appeal of a large follower base.
- Increase in comments
There are some shortcomings to the follower system that is likely to be improved in the days to come and that's something I would like us to discuss and maybe come up with some ideas that Steemit could consider working towards and improving the platform.
Not So Good
- Upvotes or lack thereof. Now i'm not talking payout value here but purely number of votes that you receive. Before the jump from 3000 followers to 9000 I used to receive about 220-270 votes on an average. Now I receive around 300-340 and sometimes 400 and above. At 3000 followers this was approx 9-10% engagement but with 9000+ followers this is roughly 3% engagement. Some of the authors who make it to the front page and rank within a few minutes seem to have bot farms following them in addition to high stake holders of the platform following their posts. Just so you know Facebook pages give you 1-2% engagement without paid promotion but that's not an accurate comparison.
- Ghost followers or dead followers. People who follow you but never interact with your account. This figure includes those who are inactive entirely from Steemit.
- People comment but rarely upvote. There are a many times when the comments on a blog exceeds the votes on it. What can be done to get people to upvote more often. Even if it's a small 1-5% upvote.
- Better notification system as we move to sub-communities.
You can view these are other details with @spectacles. Be sure to follow them as well as @sjennon.
Some of the things that you can consider doing:
- Interact with other users of the platform via comments and Steemit.Chat.
- Build a profile on Steemit, add description etc.
- Help people achieve their goals and in turn that has helped me increase my engagement on Steemit.
- Participate in contests or host contests.
- Have a content marketing strategy to push your content outside of Steemit and build your audience.
- Get involved in community building activities.
Building an excellent audience on Steemit will have many perks. I'll write to this effect as we go.
Meanwhile what do you think can be done differently to improve engagement so as to get your ghost followers to engage with your content once again and bring dead followers back to using Steemit once again?
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
- Successful #2 India Steemit Accelerator and Steem Cryptocurrency Meetup 2017 at Robert Bosch India HQ!
- My 1st Steemit Anniversary — Looking Back at an Amazing Year Of My Life!
- Dummies Guide to Basic Steemit Account Security + Account Recovery Guide! Must Read For Steemit Users!
Hi @firepower! @cardboard is sending you 0.15 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
send tips with @tipU | earn interest in @tipU profit
These are exactly one of the reasons me and @pilcrow created @spectacles. Right now, Steemit doesn't give you any insights at all when it comes to user engagement and I believe there was a giant gap which could be filled. I haven't figured out the 'how to gain follower'-secret yet, but I did figure out how to engage with my followers and have a base of upvotes due to my Steemian friends. However, this could only be improved. And in bigger numbers.
Steemit is about giving. Without the users, upvoting and bigger users helping out smaller ones, Steemit could not exist. This is where we want to step. We hope with @spectacles that you get more insights in people's activity when it comes to your posts, so you can reciprocate on that. It basically helps you to exchange and get the data which you can base your next steps on.
Right now, @spectacles support some basic data, and with the help of our BETA testers we hope to provide some more information before the launch!
@firepower, thank you so much for your support and setting up our #spectacles channel! It's a really useful resource to get in touch with other Steemians. <3
@firepower aka my beloved Big B - "Meghan Bhai..."
I am awestruck with each post you write, you share, and the dedication I see is - actually working as a magic spell. That cannot be just expressed in words.
Leaders aren't born, they are created!
Networks don't come self-created;
Leaders connect the threads to build the Web!
...AND...
We love getting Grouped as we see in subreddits. That will bring traction to all those potential posts that get buried under the whale-commanders
I welcome you from the bottom of the heart ♥ - @spectacles : @sjennon , and @pilcrow for the revolutionary idea 💡.
wow.. @sjennon
nice work on @spetacles you and @pilcrow are doing.. am very interested in this as i have issues tracking my supporters and followers....
good one..will check out your blog for more info...
Thank you so much! And yeah, you're not the only one! Haha! Stay tuned :) We hope to give you more information soon!
Please do dear...and find time also to look into my blog posts .thanks...😋
This is all true. But what I see lately, is that "whales" are just self voting. There is no "bigger users, helping smaller ones"
I've had a few of my posts get big upvotes from influential people with high Steem Power. Not all the time, but every once in a while. It feels great to get noticed and appreciated.
I think the "engagement" part of @firepower's post is the thing we should be looking for. How do we connect with people who have similar interests and goals? Apps can help, and I'm looking forward to using @spectacles, but social leadership from a few influential people here may go a long way, too... maybe I can be one of those influential people. All of us have leadership potential. We just have to decide to use it.
We can't really force for whales to up vote the minnows. With @spectacles we hope we can help people to get more insights in their followers and their activity when it comes to their own account. Maybe you have someone upvoting for you for a long time now, but you hadn't noticed - this is the time to give something back to that person and give him an upvote in return too.
I would love to hear more of your thoughts @matthewdavid. If you're on Steemit.Chat, I would love to have a chat with you :)
Thanks @sjennon
I'm not on Steemit.Chat yet, but I'll join soon and connect with you there. I appreciate your comment and look forward to talking with you more soon.
Sure! I am glad to find you on there once you've registered.
Looking forward to talk!
Hmm, @sjennon, I love what you and @pilcrow did with Spectacles, it works great and I truly appreciate it for getting insights in what's happening 'behind the curtains'.
But I don't think I fully agree with you here. Maybe we cannot force whales to upvote minnows, but we can surely explain how we see things:
Whales usually have a large amount of Steem or Steem Power (which is just Steem that you can't withdraw immediately), that's what defines a whale. So it's always in the best interests of whales to see the intrinsic value of STEEM go up. Currently, Steem is valued quite low (it has been higher before at least) and I think the potential for it is huge. Most whales would agree with that, otherwise they'd probably hold different assets.
Now, having whales self-voting a lot does not make Steemit more attractive to new users, therefore it doesn't help their interests a lot. Supporting the minnows on the other hand (as long as the minnows create decent content and engage in meaningful and positive ways) does create an attractive atmosphere, which will lead to faster mass adoption and ultimately, drive up the value and price of Steem.
I see whales understanding these principles, so I'm not too worried, just hope to see more of this kinda stuff:
newbie here, and trying to learn as much as possible thanx for your insight :)
-splendorhub
Yeah.. And that's kind of increasing the gap between whales and minnows - which is a shame. Haven't figured out the solution is for that tho. However, for the whales that are willing to help out - I am sure they can track with @spectacles who to help out too.
This sounds perfectly awesome, I will contribute one way or other by joining the @spectacles and thanks @firepower for informing us about this new tool.
Looking forward to it! :D We are super hyped for the launch!
Great initiative and work. Thanks @sjennon and team :)
Thank you! ;D We plan on opening for public soon, so stay tuned!
Sure! :)
Somehow I figured out the"secret to gain more followers " If you follow more,it reciprocate to at least 30%. I figure out with @carlobelgado ... Please check his profile, he follows around 35,317 and his followers are 11,632 would that be possible or coincidence ?
how much engagement are you triggering? that was the main point
Exactly, I had the same question
https://steemit.com/steemit/@codero/how-to-make-usd100-per-post
Follow me @codero
@firepower aka my beloved Big B - "Meghan Bhai..."
I am awestruck with each post you share, you write and the dedication I see - that actually helping build their own branding.
Leaders aren't born - they are self-made!
Network doesn't come self-created;
Leaders connect the chords that builds the Web!
...AND...
We love getting Grouped as we see in subreddits. That will bring traction to all those potential posts that get buried under the whale-commanders
I welcome from heart - @spectacles : @sjennon , and @pilcrow for the revolutionary ideas.
You're very welcome! We are really looking forward to launch :)
very good and helpful for steemit baby :)
Another wonderful informative article @firepower :) The app looks interesting and waiting for it to be live. As you mentioned, a better notification system could definitely help to an extent to notify all the followers including ghost ones. To make them engage, it would be the question of motivation/incentive. And it may be that the engagements are decided based on the individual profile strength than the real content or one's effort. In my opinion, if we can conceal some information that decides one's engagement that may do justice. Having said this, these are just my genuine points from my observation and not to hurt anyone's feeling :)
Bhai I think it happens with everyone irrespective of how good your post or how good the number of follower you have. As you have mentioned it is more important to build relation by commenting,upvoting on other posts or may be chatting .I have been in steemit for around 3 months and i have seen so many good post not getting upvotes and not so good post earning huge in number. You are doing a great job for Indian community, promoting Steemit, helping out others and I am really thankful to you for that. I remember the day i started with a reputation of 25 struggling here and you have really helped me out ,replying to every question /doubts i have asked and now i am in 53. Just a suggestion from me, if you can take initiative to get all Indians together so that we can help each other and rise together as done by other communities such as China,Philippines etc
Following more people to gain more followers is a good idea. I will start adopting it now !! Thanks for this strategy, but you are saying that here we can not increase fake followers like on instagram !! I doubt it because people are using steemfollower.com . I don't want fake followers so I never use it, but they say it can give you many followers. Just got reminded of it when you spoke about fake followers. I don't want steem to become like instagram so a little concerned about it. Hope someone looks after this steemfollower thing. Thank you firepower for all your support and such helpful strategies.
For increasing traffic on steemit I believe that we all should support only the talented people here. Sometimes people only upvote those people back who vote them first or keep them upvoting for long time. If this continues to happen, steemit won't remain an attraction for the talented ones because any group of people can come here, support each other no matter what they upload here is qualitative or not !! People ask me as well to make a deal with them to upvote each other's post. I find it very irritating and it can harm steemit's image I believe.
Thanks for posting this :)
Cool thanks!!
You definitely have a point about people commenting and not upvoteing, cheers mike
It is taking me some time to adjust to steemit. I am a big user of twitter(around 700,000 followers) and enjoy the short fast exchanges. I would, however, love to have some of the features i use on twitter like tweetdeck, where I can set up column on my own to track those I really like to follow closely. also direct messaging would be good. One more thing, I would love to see more transparency regarding the bots that are set to automatically upvote some accounts into the trending area, knocking others of us out of it. what I love about steemit, is that almost everyone on here is dedicated to making it a better place and believes in a win win game plan. Thank you for working so hard on this for us. As far as followers, I refollow everyone that leaves a comment on my post, thinking they had an interest in my post,and thus could develop into a good friend.
Well written post. The increasing number of people coming here, are adding to large amounts of new posts daily. When this happens posters can only respond to so many posts and up vote. That has to effect the number or replies vs. upvotes or no responses as well.
You have shown us new posters how to grow on steemit. It is very hard in the beginning to figure out what is going on here and who to follow. Their could be a lot posters here looking for large sums of money in the first few weeks. Knowing who to follow and even how to follows is not explained when some one comes here. Once they do not see any results they become ghosts followers as you stated. Keep up the goodwork ! I look forward to reading more of your posts.
One of the reasons that I joined Steemit was to be able to find my " Tribe". A community with common interst that could add value to one another through posts and comments. The "money" aspect of steemit is very distracting. I I hate to admit but I have been caught up in it. More engagement brings more value to all involved. I will be keeping my eye on this project
I agree that the money aspect is sometimes distracting instead of a helping factor. I think it's in our culture to become greedy, and this causes is sometimes to make the wrong decisions.
A while back I decided I want to focus on the programming community on Steemit, so I try to interact (upvote and comment) on as many good or interesting programming posts I can find. I'd rather have 100 followers who are programmers than 1000 who aren't.
But still, every once in a while I'm tempted to follow people or engage with posts because I think they will earn me profit, instead of being actual quality posts. The money is an incentive to keep posting (and to keep developing @spectacles, as @firepower mentioned) but it's also a constant devil on my shoulder telling me "if you do x you might earn more money".
I guess what I can take away from this all is that I recognize my own greed, so I can make a deliberate choice to not succumb to it. But it's a constant battle. It's in our nature, I guess.
Well said @pilcrow.
I notice and appreciate your engagement with the javascript and programming community. I was pleasantly surprised to see you prominently mentioned this post by @firepower ("Hey! I know that guy!"). Keep up the good work.
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words :)