I have failed quite a lot this year in my opinion.
Here were the last two times:
4th of September 2021
25th July 2021
It has actually been about 30 times in the last year I have failed to get double digits on comments. This is the 347th day of 2021 and since I post on average twice a day (estimated) that means that so far, I can estimate to have about 700 posts this year. That means just over 4% of my posts have failed to get into the double digits for comments - but I don't have a single post this year that has failed to get comments at all - I don't know when the last one of those might be and I have been posting daily for 4.5 years.
Does this matter?
In the grand scheme of things, probably not much, but to me it does. The reason is that I like to create content that is engaging and people are willing to think about and comment on with more than - nice post, great pic, or some inane meaningless line. Most of my posts accomplish this and I suspect that when evaluated on average and compared to all other posts, my content probably gets some of the best comments on the blockchain - especially considering that I do this a couple times a day.
Since I try to answer all (I manage most of them I hope) comments with something meaningful in return, I end up spending quite a bit of time engaging with all kinds of people on Hive and, at all levels. I don't give priority to reputation or wallet, I just interact with people who take their time to give some thought to what the topic at hand is. I enjoy getting a wide selection of insight and I believe it has value in developing the content creator and consumer side of the community.
It took me a while to scroll through to the start of the year to look at all of the comments on each post, but taking a guesstimate, I suspect that I likely average around 30 total comments per post (perhaps @abh12345 can run the numbers one day) and most of the comments are probably quite decent. The average for my last 10 posts is over 40 and due to the "too long, didn't read" nature of it, it isn't the easiest to engage with - yet gets engagement. The idea that longform content doesn't get attention doesn't hold up.
Yes, I reward (most) comments too, which likely accounts for some of the comments I get, but not all - as I do think there are quite a few who generally enjoy engaging here on these posts. However, part of the distribution on Hive is through rewarded engagement, so I see rewarding comments as a value-adding mechanism itself and is highly valuable for those who might not be the greatest content creators, but still want to participate in the content communities.
A couple days back I wrote a post mentioning the importance of intention and I wonder what people really intend to accomplish with their content - what is the point? I hear people talk about "presenting the truth" and the like, but if no one is consuming or engaging with it it is failing to do anything at all. For information to have value, it has to be consumed, it has to be onboarded, interacted with, affect some kind of change in thought or behavior - so much of the content I see, doesn't seem to have any intention behind it at all, other than to collect a reward. It doesn't even seem like the people writing it are even interested in what they are writing about most of the time themselves.
As a content creator who values engagement and interaction, it is my job to build the conditions for consumption. A lot of people seem to still believe that votes are the only way to get visibility for engagement, but this actually doesn't work very well in most cases, especially since now, most people don't visit Trending on hive.blog at all. We can actually see this "vote for visibility" largely failing when we visit Trending, since many of the posts that appear there have little to no engagement at all, despite the votes on it. If upvotes don't heavily affect increased viewership and engagement, this also destroys the argument of downvotes are censorship - something to think about.
The only way to really increase readership is through building an audience and getting a post into Trending once, twice or ten times, doesn't do that at all. In fact, there are many accounts that are commonly in Trending for years on end which have close to no engagement, because regardless of the votes, the content doesn't have a readership - there is little audience.
The easiest way to get a post viewed is to attract followers who care about the content, something that not many seem to think about. If the content isn't attractive to the audience, why would they follow? "Attractive" doesn't mean pretty, it means that it offers the viewer something they value enough to spend their time on to read, look at, engage with and potentially even upvote. If they do not see it as valuable to them either directly or indirectly by being valuable to other people they value themselves, they are unlikely to use their stake potential to reward it, let alone give the account a follow and even less, share the content.
Sharing is not only through reblogs and Twitter either. I think that part of the reason I have been able to build "staked support" from within the community is that some of my posts have been shared privately in discords by people who have been interested in what was being said. Not all has attracted positive attention based on topic, but there is a social network at play here and the reputation of people goes beyond stake or that silly metric next to the name. Having trusted people share content is probably the most valuable share a content creator can get.
My goal for content creation isn't to create something attractive for the entire blockchain, it is to provide something of interest to those who are likely to read it and, those who might be likely to read it. I like to write across many topics however and due to broad experience and my own interests IRL, I am able to generally write in depth or, explore areas I don't know much about on many things.
But personally, my goal is to create and explore topics I care about, that I have myself invested into, the things where I have skin in the game. This is not just financial skin, but experiential skin too and of course, areas that I am looking to invest myself into in the future. Because of this approach, it is more likely that a lot of what I write is going to connect with people on their personal levels too - because we aren't that dissimilar from each other that there is no overlap in our likes, loves, desires and fears.
There is the common suggestion when creating anything to, "know your audience" and this is apparently very hard for many people, as all they think about is what they can get out of it, rather than what others could. They create for themselves alone, which is absolutely fine, but this isn't necessarily attractive or rewarded, since people are less likely to find value when they consume it. Which then begs the question, what is the intention of the content?
Many people don't care at all about whether their content gets consumed or not, as long as they get their own goals satisfied. For many, it is the reward and for others, it is having their ego stroked by a narrow group of readers, or getting attention, anyway they can. For me, I love to write and do so daily, but if there was one way to kill my enthusiasm to post like this on the blockchain, it would be if I was consistently getting no interaction with the audience. I am not a "throw it out into the ether" creator for likes, I want some level of conversation to be generated too. I know that for many reasons, engagement on posts ebbs and flows, just like votes do, but I hope that don't fail to generate interest too often.
There are already far too many platforms that have meaningless content that generates nothing of consumer value, but trillions for the platforms that encourage it. There are already many "aggregator" sites that collect news articles, many regurgitators of current affairs on both mainstream and fringe topics, and SEO content to enhance Time on Site (ToS) numbers - what is missing is peer-to-peer content, where people actually generate content to be valuable to each other to support building of communities and the relationships that strengthen them for improved experience together.
This can encompass all kinds of content - but still, intention matters.
If no one is engaging, the content is likely not having an effect on anyone, making it socially valueless. Is that the result people intend to have with the content they produce?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
All of the shots were taken in Belgrade, Serbia back in 2019 - When I was allowed to travel.
Happy to try and get you into double digits on this one, mate.
Phew - made it. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if it didn't? :D
Dude, I don't know how you manage to come up with something to post about twice per day for so long. I kept up with once a day, more or less, for quite a while but it was a challenge. Props to you!
I enjoy it so much. I am a bit slower these days with my thought processing since the stroke in the summer - but I really love being able to dive into all of these different thoughts I have and see what lays beneath :)
That’s great man, I have thankfully steadily increased my posts engagement as well and quite enjoy it! A pretty fair number of my posts get 0 engagement for one reason or another but the past month or two that’s only 2 or 3 out of 7 posts a week where before it was 5 or 6 posts a week. I think posting daily definitely helps keep that going and improving, folks will spend time there if they know you are consistent I think.
The trending page is a joke and only people outside the platform even look at it lol. I asked PeakD if they can create a post list sort option for most engaged as well or most comments, something along those lines. I think that would be cool to visit! You and your brother would be up there often but I know others like DanDays would certainly be on there as well! I think it’s fun to see why a certain post got a significant number of comments and stuff.
I aspire to be one of the top commented posts one day!
I also thought about it. Yes, that would be great!
Good luck with it!
I’ll have to make the suggestion in their discord! Thanks for checking it out :D
Thank You!🙏
And, they will get to know you the more you engage and connect personally. I think this is why it is valuable to be authentic, otherwise you end up engaging with people you don't want to engage with :D
I agree. There should be an engagement sorter also, as well as suggestions based on most engaged users etc referenced with topic - as it would likely be a better metric for finding posts for many people.
Good luck! It is crazy how many comments some posts get - one of Acidyo's the other day had 700+ from the last time I saw it :)
Yeah I know, I only post things I’m interested about and get comments for that. I can’t fake content for sure lol the words don’t flow as easily when I’m trying to bullshit something! Not a bad thing I reckon lol.
Damn now I’ll have to see what the hype is about hahaha, I doubt my phone will load the comments on it, it crashed the app on one of Galen’s that got 500!
I am the same - I am not a good politician and, worse at selling myself. I actually have a bit of an issue with this when it comes to the internal politics at work, where I have to interact with some people who care about appearances and corporate ladders - I am a far better delivery agent where I can just do what I do as well as I can :)
You just have to wait - and wait... :)
Some pretty nice street photos. I like to comment, I also feel that some post are under-commented. I have a few people that i try to comment on because I like their postings and want to show more than a vote support. I have a hard time with averaging more than ten comments a day, but I do like to comment.
I don't just comment on the post, I sometimes even comment on the comments a post gets. I do not worry to much about my own content, most of it is for my benefit and memory, (self tracking kind of post).
I do wish more people would take to leaving comments and really making Hive a very valuable social media place. I think we will get there one day.
It is very difficult. I find it hard to get off my posts, but I feel I am firstly obligated to answer the people who take their time for my content and then, I can go wider.
The curation initiatives should include comment support. I know some try, but it is hard.
It would be pretty hard initiative wise I think to do comment support along with content support. It took me almost an hour to read your post, make my comment, then read the other comments, and reply to one of the comments. So the curator would need to read a lot, some post get a ton of comments, you get a lot, but your bro? christ he sometimes hits more than 500 on his engagement ones. I try to read some on the topics that peek my curiosity, but it sure makes for a long read at times, and he does get a few spammy type comments.
That actually depends. If it's longform, it has to completely capture the reader within the first paragraph or two. The exception being a person who already knows your work. They'll be more likely to hang in there a while.
As for sharing off blockchain, I recently shared a post with a person who isn't on Hive. That post belonged to a New Bee whom I just met. @emstone . The post about the life of her dog Max was so interesting, that I couldn't resist :) ... We need more content like that.
😀 Max will become Hive's legend if you keep sharing the article that much! Thank you! This cheered me up and made my day much better. 🤗
My pleasure, we really do need more great stories that inspire :) And like Taraz said, the writer has to care about the subject for that to happen. And you certainly love your subject in that one ❤️
Hey :)
Out of curiosity, are you using a discord bot for notifications? Just interested to see who is these days.
Will have to have a look at this legend too at some point!
No sir, I am not using Discord. Is it worth joining?
No need for the sir. :D
Just wondering how you are seeing the tags :)
I am being notified by Ecency whenever someone likes, makes a comment, or a tag. 😊
Oh yeah - I forgot they do it :)
This is why it is so important to actually build a following, rather than thinking that one post will be enough to gain consistent attention. People like people, not content :)
Would like it if more people shared Hive content offsite and I hope in the future, the evergreen content gets visited often, even if not upvoted.
What is evergreen content?
I disagree, people do like content too. But when it's both interesting and from someone they like, they downright love it :)
It is content that is not time sensitive and can be viewed "always" - for example, a lot of renovation DIYs I might watch are over a decade old and have tens of millions or more views.
A can agree with this :)
To have people to care about the content and also about the writer of the content. Yes, this is quite a huge engagement growth factor.
I like your street photos, they capture quite an atmosphere. The boy who plays the accordion is a nice shot!
I threw in some coins, even though I dislike the accordion - a lot :D
We have created a world where the largest content platforms don't actually care about the people involved and, it is almost impossible to actually interact with them directly.
Oh I find the sound of it quite french...kinda lovely and nostalgic.
If people do not interact then it is all a huge sad monologue.
Echo echo anybody there?
Sending you some
energycomment.Even your failures are inspiring because I rarely get comments at all. Some of my posts get great upvotes but getting comments seems to be the harder task.
"sending comment" is good :)
It is not an easy process and I think for me, it has come through the development of my other content too, where people are interested in the topics surrounding Hive and the blockchain. We are all connected through that topic.
Wow, I can't believe you're still here every day!! Amazing.
Agree on the interaction and intention... I guess (besides being otherwise focused), I'm also missing the personal interactions once a year and the feeling that I'm interacting with friends I know. That's probably part of what keeps me from being here more often.
Greetings from snowed-under Bulgaria :)
Still plugging away at the keyboard :)
Has the last year or two been harder socially for you? It has for me and I am "feeling it in terms of my energy levels. I need more people around :)
hopefully the weather is still decent for you :)
I just posted an update on my blog. I guess you inspired me :)
I am incredibly lucky in terms of travel and social life. I must be one of the few people for whom life actually improved over the past couple of years (with annoying restrictions here and there, but nothing compared to what other people are living through in their countries...). I was not happy in Berlin and this pandemic shook me up and changed my life completely.
I don't have a physical home anymore where my stuff is - I gave everything away this summer - and I have a chosen temporary home here in Bulgaria now. There are a few select people that I consider "my home" now, which I meet or travel with throughout the year. People, personal relationships and social connections are the most important thing in life and probably also the main thing that will get us through this weird time.
I hope you're still having a somewhat normal life with your family xx
I am following you since last 8 months and i never felt you just post your thoughts irrelevent but actually you add value and engage with commentators .No matters how rough and non-sense comments are ,you still appriciate and reward them through upvotes.
I wish other contents creators have same willingness to priotised the engagement on hive .if it happens then i am sure hive will rank more higher than reddit or quora or even facebook. 🙂
I do my best to comment back, but it has been hard the last couple months to get to them all. Hopefully people are understanding :) At least compared to the other platforms, I think the engagement level here is great.
I am am pretty sure we would rank higher too, at least we would have more visits and transactions :)
This is one of the best jobs. The subject that you like the most and explore. I think it's best to highlight that issue or work on that issue.
And the bonus is, even if no one engages with it - it at least has personal value still :)
Posting daily and replying the comments for 4.5 years need alot of efforts. This might make or might have made pressure on anybody. Have you ever felt that "I didn't post today :O"
Glad to have you here ;)
It takes some effort and sometimes there is pressure to engage, but I am a little more lenient on myself these days - perhaps I am getting too old ;)
I haven't really felt this, though I haven't "not posted" for a very long time :) Sometimes, I have cut it pretty fine though...
You are one of the few people I read with pleasure every day. And I find my thoughts in your lines. Thank you!
I would also be very grateful if you could recommend a few Hive members for an enjoyable read. Perhaps from your list?).
ooh... Handy tip:
https://peakd.com/@INSERTACCOUNTNAME/feed
This will give you a look at other people's feeds :)
And yes, that's how I found you.) But it took me about a month!) But thank you!
That is cool. a lot of people don't realise it is possible. :)
🤣😅
There are a few that I like to read always, generally because they are funny. @meesterboom and @brandt come to mind - @nonameslefttouse (when he posts). @edicted for an interesting look at crypto stuff (among other things). My brother @galenkp for a range of topics. @kommienezuspadt for the pics especially, @riverflows, @denmarkguy, @dandays... There are so many :)
I'm honored. I speak highly of you as well Taraz. Brandt and I just had breakfast together this am and you were amongst our conversation.
👊🏼
I hope it was risque.
I'll never say...
We risqued the shit outta that diner.
I had to make a new list from this post Recommends You and another mentioned people I had not seen before. Now it is just a matter of finding time to take a look at their content.
I should do the same - though I feel like I spread myself too thin.
You have a lot of comments that you like to give engagement votes to. I try to give votes now on comments I receive back, and make a few comment votes. So I am not spread as thin as you, I don't like going to bed knowing my vote is going to be at 100% when I wake up, so I use the two small games I play to vote comments, and a couple of other people's curation trails, and of course my list.
I mostly use my list though for content discovery, my music and delegated to in the past list sometimes get my extra votes, and on rare occasions the Developer list I have get some.
I like the list function it is multi purpose.
Oh, great! That's enough for now) Thank you so much!🙏
Nice of you to give me a mention, I appreciate it. I'm a regular reader of most of the others on this list, definitely a great selection!
!PIZZA
I'm as shocked as you are to see you on the list if I'm being honest.
!BULLSHIT
!BULLSHIT right back at you, cause look who it didn't stick to ;)
Next time you get a chance, you gotta check out this Gary Owen special.
I'll check it out, thanks for the recommendation!
Thankyou for the mention, made my day!
Definitely I always find your content interesting and educative if I may but it that way because I have really learnt a lot from your post. No doubt your content is always an interactive one where people have the opportunity to share their own idea or thought to a particular topic or post, and not only are they sharing their thought it's also attracts others to participate as well in making the content an interesting one to learn from.
Hopefully when people take the time to comment here, they are doing it for more than just the vote ;)
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
@brandt(2/7) tipped @tarazkp (x1)
Please vote for pizza.witness!
I saw this one this a.m and didn't have time til now. I'm glad I didn't space it.
You're my numbers guy, my stats and how mechanisms work guy, I trust your explanations. I hope I wasn't part of the absentees on those single digit days.
Out of all your twice and three times a day, 1,000 times a year posting, that was stellar. Great photos. A+. I fully agree with you a thousand percent.
I just deleted over 200 words in this section of me talking shit on trending
Very nice, Taraz.
Dude is the tara in Taraz pronounced like tara in tarantula or like the tara in terrace?
👊🏼
Your content is always top-notch, newsworthy, within this circle, or a larger circle... and it's current. What's not to love? You can write like you it's your job and there is one of the things that sets you apart from many. You take this seriously. Look at the potential!
I can always count on you. Even when you were taken down by a stroke, you didn't miss a beat and took us along for the whole process. It's all about the interacting that you do and I think you get a fair amount of comments every day, but, not only that, many of your comments are stellar. I have always tipped or upvoted all (most anyway except obvious spam) comments because if someone takes the time to read and comment and I have the means? Why not? It is my way of saying I appreciate them. When I had no VP or HP, I would use what I had to engage tipu and tip instead.
A single-digit amount of posts that weren't double-digit? That is awesome!
The pictures in Serbia are awesome. I love people watching pictures. I really like the little old lady with the babushka on her head just sitting and the girl on the bus. As an aside, you posted the same picture twice, not sure if it was on purpose, The two girls looking in the store window.
What were you doing in Serbia? I am curious as to what takes people to certain places.
I like your talking about intention. I like that this platform seems to thrive on actual interaction and not on just surface shock value. I try to post things that are meaningful to me, and that I think will help others. I do put up my fitness stuff, but that is important to me as well. It helps keep me accountable and finding other like-minded people that do the same thing helps us all I think.
I thought about asking you if this was your main job because some people have told me that there are those on this platform that make a living from posting. This still blows my mind, but then I remembered in another post ho?w busy you are and that you really don't do hobbies because of how busy you are. So, is the interaction what keeps bringing you back along with a love of writing? I think fulfillment can be found in genuine interactions with people even if they are only online.
Also, I wonder why you would consider that failure? If only 4% or so of your posts did not get double digit comments, that means that all of them got comments, and 96% did. That sounds a lot like success to me. Those are my thoughts from your post. :)
This is what my plans are ....thanks for this motivation @tarazkp
Great content - this is my heart - to share content that will help others - always being there to build others.
Thanks Taraz - I learned a lot from this post.
I read this with smiles and was going to upvote this post then comment so fast, only to realize it's beyond 7days but the insight, nuggets, and wisdom here is truly timeless.
As a fairly new content creator on Hive - 3months old 😃, I've struggled with paying more attention to either upvotes or comments but I finally made peace with making content I enjoy, with hopes that my kind of audience enjoys them too and engage. I currently engage with other people's posts across diverse communities but my only hope is to actually make true connections with people beyond the reward (which is also a plus but not the only focus).
Thank you for using this post as a reminder on what is truly important for us as content creators @tarazkp
Hmmm….
So writing blogs explaining things means I need to find an audience interested in reading about How things work Perhaps posting in Leofinance seemed like the best place. But maybe SteemSocial is better. I like to explain how the blockchain works, crypto works, perhaps I was missing my target audience all along.
It may take a while to get people there interested in my writing, but it’s worth a try.
I get this…
I am very active on Twitter and routinely get my names on those lists of most Active Hiveans on Twitter, but to be honest, I get kudos for spreading the word, but still no engagement on the posts. I think it may be to entirely different pursuits, but 100 plus votes per post is a form of engagement, but I guess comments would make me feel people are reading and taking something from the posts.
This requires more thought.
This…
I have I think Skin in the game…. I think of my Skin as my money, my time, my effort.
I am blessed with no shortage of ideas to write about. I am blessed with desire and motivation to contribute here and produce good content. Perhaps I need to reread this section…
This is so important:
I feel guilty complaining or sounding like I am complaining, because I get 100 plus upvotes and 2-10 dollars per post. It’s definitely much smaller then someone as accomplished as you, but I am very aware that there are many here who toil in obscurity, who would love the level of votes and rewards I receive.
But I guess I would like to know that people find my writing helpful, educational, clarative , enlightening, sometimes you want to know that what you write brings light to the darkness….
Maybe that sounds silly, but I honestly like writing purposeful and meaningful posts, and I guess engagement makes you feel successful at that endeavor.
I guess I seek that in the comments. I would like to know someone read my post and said: Now I get it.
Yep…
That’s it. The virtual human interaction. The Holy Grail of Writing. Congratulations, you have found it.
Bask in the sunshine of your success. I know you won’t bask for long. You are a writer. Writers write. Readers Read. You have found your calling, your purpose, your intent.
Peace be with you @tarazkp