Growing a Community: It's All About ENGAGEMENT and CONNECTING!
As I close in on my first anniversary of becoming part of Steemit, I have been reflecting on some of the things that "make or break" a community.
Why do we go to certain places, and keep coming back? Why do we enjoy the content created by certain people, and keep going back to see what they are up to?
Guarding the top of the stairs
As often as not, it's because we start relating to these people, and we start interacting with them. In a sense, they become our friends or — at the very least — friendly acquaintances we start caring about.
It happens even for those who claim they are only in it for the money. We still end up with our beaten paths... there's no "magic number" of shiny logos per page or other features we can logically ascribe our behavior to.
Even in business, people are more likely to become friends with their most regular and rewarding contacts... even if those contacts aren't necessarily the ones who spend the most money with us. The sense of kinship and belonging draws us in.
What's more, something merely being "interesting" or "useful" to us only goes so far. There's a difference between merely reading content... and actually interacting and engaging with it. And therein we find the heart of what community building is about!
Daisy and myself... NOT seeing "eye-to-eye! But we're still friends."
New Initiatives!
Because I am very oriented to interaction and building connections, I am very excited about several new initiatives currently in their developing stages here in our community.
We often hear complaints about the "lack of equality" on Steemit, and how the early "Whales" control everything... of course, it's one thing to complain, and quite another to take steps to create change. And so, it started with long time Steemian @steevc developing the idea of the "10,000 Minnows Project," an idea to create a much larger "middle class" in our community.
Subsequently working, we have the the initiative by the @steemcommunity witness team of @abh12345 and @paulag to mint 250 new minnows by the end of March!
It's a pretty ambitious thing to attempt to do, and even though I am not part of the "target group," I still wanted to give their efforts a plug! We need more initiatives like these to help grow our community!
Thanks for reading, and hope you've all had a marvelous day!
Well, congratulations, anyway, @curatorcat, on being around for a year tomorrow. Happy anniversary, as it were!
As you say, we all seem to congregate where we feel we should go, and it does help to keep us around when so many just drop off. I'm glad you found what you enjoy doing, which is at least partly helping others. I wish you well and another great year. :)
thank you so much for supporting these efforts - if we are successfull at this run, then you have time to grow so you can get your self into the next one :-)
You're welcome @paulag! And thanks for running the power-up leagues!
I think it goes a little slower for some of us, when a large part of our focus goes into helping others, rather than just building ourselves.
For example, most of my posts are 50/50 because I often find I get more response when I have contests, but that also means I'm often giving away part of what I make... for example, tomorrow is my anniversary, and I'll be using some of my "liquidity" to hand out SBI shares. Makes for fun posts, but also makes for slower building.
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This month might be too soon for you but if you keep up the work it won't be too far away. The two important parts are to be consistently engaging with others and that you will grow faster the higher your SP. That first 500SP is a tough milestone to get to without buying some STEEM but it is achievable with a lot of work and effort.
I plan to keep pounding away at it @niallon11. My original ambition (on January 1st) was just to see if I could get to Minnowhood by July 1st; the current initiatives just add a little injection of inspiration to my schedule... we'll see what happens!
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You may not be part of the initial group but I can see you creating good stuff, keep it up and people will notice you!
Thanks @slobberchops! This blog is an "experiment," in and of itself... trying to see how well a pretty tightly defined niche ("cats") can work within the context of something like the Steem ecosystem. And so far, so good, I'd say... just adding something non-crypto, non-technological to the mix.
Certainly hoping I can make it to Minnowhood with some group before the end of the summer!
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I like it how different people are, with interests in diverse things and how sometimes you see something resteemed that's exactly what you were looking for.
Well, Leo is certainly a very handsome fellow!
Part of the beauty of the Steem ecosystem is precisely that there are so many possibilities here... and building and supporting an active community will only help strengthen that.
Thanks for visiting!
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Hey you are two thirds of the way there :D Might be tough to reach 500 by the end of March but lets see how far you get.
The dog doesn't like to look at the cat? My mum's is like that - the dog will face ahead and try to peak by turning its eyes :)
Probably not going to happen @abh12345, unless I suddenly have a couple of posts go semi-viral... which seems unlikely, although I do have a couple of "Occasional Orcas" who periodically toss a substantial vote my way.
I'm just happy to be part of — and possibly help with — the overall effort. I remember a long time ago reading a cool post by @lukestokes on the general idea of "selfish giving:" When we help others succeed, we build a healthy community, and when there's a healthy community WE ultimately are the beneficiaries... so we're helping ourselves.
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Good luck on the semi-viral posts anytime soon :)
Yes I remember that post and think I wrote a post off the back of it as it gave me new insight into how I think/try to do things here. Sadly not everyone is pulling on the same side of the rope, and some of them happen to be rather large also :)
Occasionally, I come across a few posts that make me pause and consider what we are doing here, and they leave an impression that makes me keep thinking for a long time.
Recently, it was @hashcash's Do we want to kill Steem? that got my attention; particularly the reality that we can only keep treating this place as a "cash dispenser" for so long before it simply becomes worthless...
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