Getting your friends to join Steemit is one thing, but retaining their interest and active participation is equally crucial. So it is important to let them know how stuff works here and what they need to do in order to be successful. There are many things that will help any new user to hit the ground running. One of them is engagement.

What is engagement?

Steemit a is social media platform where users create content and connect with friends. So you are supposed to interact with people on this platform in one way or the other. That is engagement. So on Steemit, you have to link up with people and check what they are up. It is as important as any other thing here. Engagement on Steemit involves many things such as making meaningful comments on posts, following people, joining a community and resteeming posts. This is not an exhaustive list, but the above mentioned activities constitute meaningful engagement on Steemit. So how can you achieve them?

1. Periodically check other people's posts, read them and make meaningful comments

This is the first and important way to engage with people on Steemit. make it a habit to check their posts. Take your time to read any post that catches your eye and drop a meaningful comment. In this way, you are showing interest in someone's work and you appreciate it. Making a meaningful comment is vital and can even be the first step to a strong friendship on Steemit. So in making a meaningful comment, there things you need to keep in mind.

How to make a meaningful comment and what to avoid

• Avoid short comments: Short comments should be avoided dearly. One-word or even one-sentence comments stifle conversation and does not stimulate further interaction with the author. These are examples of short comments:

Fine picture
Nice point
Good to meet you
Thank you for dropping by
I support your opinion
Great
Thanks

The above comment styles do not motivate the author to reply or continue the conversation. It abruptly ends it. while a good comment is not unnecessarily too long, it encourages the reader to make a reply and continue talking. Here is an example:

Instead of just saying: "Great picture!", say the reason why the picture was great. You could say something like this:

"That was a nice shot. I love your positioning and that little flower beside you brought out the beauty of the picture. The image background is awesome too. Please, what device or camera do you use for your shots?"

In the above example, the reader did not just make a short comment, but he explained the reasons for feeling great about the image. He even raised a question at the end. By so doing, the author is prompted to make a reply and continue the conversation

• Tag the author: While making a comment tag the author or person you are replying by including "@ the username " somewhere in your comment. In this way, Steemit will send a notification to the person you are replying. If you fail to tag the person, he or she will not receive any notification and will only see your comment the next time they check their blog. So if the author is @cryptokannon or @steemitblog, make sure to write it this way inside your comment. For example, your comment should look like this:

Thank you for such a great work @cryptokannon. You have a great knowledge of robotics. Though I never believed that one day, machines will replace people at the workplace.

Just as I did above, those accounts will receive a notification from Steemit and they will be quicker to check it. Without such tagging, you wouldn't know when next they will check the post and see your comment.

• Quote a line or sentence inside the post and reply them directly: Doing this shows the author that you actually read the post and understood the details. So to quote someone you are replying, simply put a > sign before you copy and paste the exact sentence you want to reply.

Here is an example of a story.

"Being a president of the world is not a big deal. anybody can easily do it. But, it requires a great amount of discipline, self-restraint and commitment."

Here is how to quote a line in the story. Before replying. Just put >, hit the space bar, copy and paste the part you want to reply directly. Then start typing your reply from the next line. Here is how it will look:

It requires a great deal of discipline

@focusnow I agree with the above assertion. A person who is not capable of making their bed in the morning should not be a president. He lacks discipline completely.

So from the above example, you are able to quote a thought inside the story and comment directly on it.

• Your comments should be honest and objective, but avoid being rude: You must not agree with everything in a story especially when you spot some inconsistencies. So be sure to express yourself in a tactful way. You can always make your point without stepping on people's toe or being dogmatic.

Note: Always make it a point of duty to reply every comment made on your post.

Ok. So the above 4 suggestions can help you to make a great comment and connect with authors on Steemit. You can start right away to read and comment on posts. You can even win 10SBD just for making a comment. To join, comment on any shopping game post before @steemcurator01 votes on it. Click here to see all the shoppinggame posts.

Another way to engage with authors on Steemit is through following them.

2. Follow people who commented on your posts (or anyone you wish to follow) IF you like the content of their blog.

You want to build your fan base and have as many followers as you can get. If you feel great when you see many people following you, then take the initiative to follow others. But first, check the content of the blog to see if its something you like. Its not a strict rule, but when you follow people with similar passion, it becomes easier to check on them frequently. And also know or remember that when you follow people, their new posts appear on your feed.

How to follow anyone on Steemit

There are at least 2 ways to follow Steemit users. It include the following:

• Go straight to their blog if you know their username. On top of every blog page, there is the "follow" button. Click it to follow the person. For example, you could follow me by going straight to my page and clicking the follow button: https://steemit.com/@focusnow. See the illustration below:

• You can also open a post. Then click the person's username to reveal a pop-up with the persons profile shot. Click the follow button on the pop-up. See the illustration below:

When you follow people, it shows you want to be their friend and support their work. I have noticed that most users on Steemit usually return the favor.

How else can you engage with users?

3. Join a Community and participate actively

Communities are interest-based groups on Steemit. So whatever is your passion, you will always find a community with the same passion to follow. The importance of joining communities and connecting personally with members is to receive support for your work and to spend time with friends that do the same things you do.

There are many communities here on Steemit, steemalive is one of them. Click here to join steemalive. To see other communities, click here.

4. Resteem great posts especially posts from people you follow

Resteeminging a post from another user is way to make that post appear on your own blog. This way, you help that person's post gain more exposure by making it visible to your own followers. They will likely interact with the post. So you can always re-blog your friends posts to help them. This is a great way to support their work. It is also a way to engage with the author.

Conclusion

Engagement is very important on Steemit. In fact, it is the fastest and most important way to succeed here. When you engage with others in the above mentioned ways, you are drawing the kind of support needed to make it to the top on this platform. Can you start to implement these suggestions starting from this post? It will be a great way to appreciate the effort and time involved in making this article.

Kindly suggest others ways not mentioned here through which we can engage more with friends on steemit. Thank you in advance for your nice suggestions!

@steemcurator03