Helpful Tips on Growing Your Audience

Truthfully, we all want to be liked and rewarded for our efforts, but how can we be rewarded as newcomers to a platform such as Steemit when we started later on in the game and didn't bring a large following with us from the start?

I'd like to address these questions and provide some potentially helpful suggestions to those who are just beginning on the Steemit site.

The most important tip I can give anyone is to BE YOURSELF

Be authentic, and make a real connection with your followers.

No one appreciates the generic comments on their posts as I have mentioned before and often times, if you have nothing to add to the conversation, it may be in your best interest to say nothing at all.

If you have questions and don't understand how something works, ask questions!

By asking questions, you let the content creator know that the subject could be further explored and he/she could spend time developing the subject in order to help their audience comprehend the message being sent.

Never hesitate to ask a sincere question, especially if you are truly interested in the topic at hand. No question is dumb, and no one is going to look down on you for asking!

The only stupid question is the one not being asked.

There are plenty of people within the community who are willing to help you if they see you need assistance.

Most long term users would much rather you receive the help you need than to see you spam the comment section of posts, copy and paste other people's work, or give up on the platform altogether because you didn't understand something.

Acknowledge your audience!

One of my biggest pet peeves is reading a quality post from a well known author or internet "celeb" who feeds off a platform such as Steemit or Patreon but finds himself above commenting to his long term supporters.

If you ever find yourself in that position for whatever reason, I suggest you take an honest inventory of what deems you to be above honest engagement.

If it weren't for your lowly fan base you would have no audience to read your content and with this overtly egotistical behavior you will eventually lose those fans who have supported you for years and rightly so!

There are tons of authors out there sharing great information on the same ideas you are, so never get too big where you feel you're above relating with people who are where you were years ago.

Remember where you came from, and know that there is someone eager to take your number one spot at any moment.

I am sorely tempted to cease lending my support any time I see a person who has let their ego get out of bounds on social media. If you're too good to respond to your audience's often innocent and sincere comments, then you are just too damn good for my $ 20 monthly support on Patreon and too special of a SJW snowflake to receive any upvotes from me.

Let me snatch that twenty bucks back and put it to good use somewhere else

like towards my own goals, maybe even purchasing more Steem, thank you.

Good riddance and fuck off, you outrageously egotistical, narcissistic fucktard!

No one owes you anything and with that kind of attitude you're lucky to have an audience at all.

Pay attention to what your audience appreciates and values when it comes to content

Focus on what kind of material your audience enjoys the most, you just may learn something new.

Write about what you know, write about your experiences!

If you don't feel like you have any specialized knowledge, then pick a topic that interests you, dive right in to researching the subject and share your ideas with the rest of the world.

You are bound to find someone out there who enjoys the same ideas.

Be open to constructive criticism.

There are people who will read your content and have suggestions on how you can improve.

When I first started on Steemit, I knew little, but I acknowledge that I had ample room for improvement. I took the suggestions I received to heart and quickly learned how to improve my format and layout. I'm still working on improving my writing style and technique. I figure I will always be learning and therefore, I will continuously evolve as a content creator.

As long as I am evolving, I am benefiting and so is my list of regular followers who enjoy my posts because they are learning as well. I take pride in being able to help them along and I can be an example to others in how to grow an audience as a small humble little guppie (redfish) with aspirations to grow to the status of dolphin or whale with consistent effort.

Most of all, have fun!

If nothing else, you'll learn and grow as a writer, learn a little about HTML and create new friends! So have fun with it, laugh and enjoy learning your way around the site and you'll soon find more people laugh with you!