Engagement Is Key To Success On Any Social Network

All of us have been using Social Networking site for quite some time now. And yes, I'm just going to start this article assuming that is the case, straight up like that since (let's be honest). You are here, right now using Steemit, which is not very user friendly yet and it's in its beta phase (when this post was written). So if you're putting the effort into actually using it and getting to know your way around this different site. Why are you doing that? We'll get to that in a minute.

Different sites and their ways to measure success or growth within the platform:

SiteMeasurement

Facebook Pages:Page likes and Post likes

Twitter:Followers and retweets

Instagram:Followers and likes

YouTube:Subscribers and viewsSince 

we're talking about social networks and they all have something in common which is users sharing some type of content.– Do you notice a pattern?
– Followers and likes!
– Close but not quite accurate

ENGAGEMENT

Yes, when you have an amount of people sharing content everyday, the expectation is not for that content to float around for eternity. The idea is for people to participate and show their insterest and participate with the community. That is how you measure the success of an article or post or YouTube video. Comments, Lilkes, Shares, Views are a few indicators to follow when measuring success

What does this all have to do with Steemit and getting more upvotes?

As I said at the very beginning of this post we have been using other sites for a while and they are way more user friendly. So why are we here? Money? Probably not your case, but since the other sites have advantages over this one like: Your friends been already there, greater user base and ease of use to mention a few, It's safe to say that without the incentives and the "freedom of speech of the blockchain technology" you would not be here reading an article about getting more upvotes.But hey that's not a bad thing the idea of being part of a community AND being rewarded for participating is great and I'm as grateful as you are for being part of it. I mean do you get paid for using facebook or twitter? If your answer was "no" then welcome to the club.

Putting the Knowledge to Work

Now that you know how success is really measured you can then start to think how do you increase engagement which will be translated into Followers, and Likes (upvotes in our case).If you feel that your content is great and it deserves more upvotes, Hey! you're in the right track then since you have to like what you're creating for others to like it. I mean, if you're creating content that YOU don't like why should others care about it. So here are my tips to post engagement and success on any website.

#1 Be Yourself

Many of us see the success of other people on the big platforms that we're part of and without any type of preparation we try to mimic the success of other people. Desperately trying to be who they are.When what makes them successful is being who they are and the people who follow them like them for who they are. You shouldn't be trying to attract the people who they already have but instead, interact and attract the people who share the same interests that you share and will find value on what you have to offer.

#2 Find your Niche

In the same order I understand that at the very beginning you may not know what you want to talk about and it is always good to try a few different things to see what works best for you. You can also copy the strategies of other successful people (the strategies and anything that is helpful to you). Just don't do the same thing other people are doing just trying to be like them.Most of the time is better to be appealing to a small niche, trust me it'll turn out to be bigger than you imagine. (The internet is a big place guys). Your Niche can be a subject lilke "bodybuilding" or a general topic like "health" or "sports" just make sure that you know what you're talking about and that you like what you talk about.In my case even though I publish different things my main goal is to share my drawings and stuff.Find something that you enjoy doing and talking about when you're not thinking about creating a post. That will guarantee you an endless source of inspiration for future posts.

#3 Interact with the community

Don't just publish stuff and wait for people who don't even know you will upvote and follow you just out of the blue. Ok your content is great... and? remember the platform is not only for you and the people who use it did not register with the sole purpose of praising your great content. Keep that in mind and make sure you enjoy being part of the community and interacting with others.– I'm not that kind of person, my soul is solitary.
– FAKE IT for god sake! it'll come natural later on.Ok that was sarcasm. Try to be as genuine as you can. But interact with other people. I mean is people who you want to follow you? right so... become a people's person.

#4 Share a Story

Even though DATA is important and there are successful Stemians here making money making posts about trends, graphs, data, STEEM, Steemit, Blockchain and stuff. It doesn't necessarily means it will work for you. Are you a data guru? crypto guru? No? go back to the Niche thing.Now, even though not everybody is good at writing a story, everybody has one. What is yours? what parts of it can you share?Don't worry at first about storytelling and things like that just start writing your story. Do you need help writing it or don't know where to start? Just make sure you include the following:

• Introduction (25% of the story).
• Confrontation (50% of the story, The body of what you did, how you did it and what you had to overcome to get it).
• Conclusion (25% of the story. How it ended and what impact it had on your life. Wrap things up).

And that's basically it. You don't have to be an expert in narrative and stuff just write your story and make sure you don't make the paragraphs too long.

#5 Give

Remember that "Giving is better than receiving" ... Ok that's BS but. Do not expect people to give you their time reading your stuff just because you think you're cool.You have to invest your own time building relationships and engaging with the community in order to get other people interested in what you have to say.If you have knowledge about anything (Niche! remember?) Share that knowledge. I bet there's people who also likes the topics that you like and are willing to learn from people who take their time to teach them. And as some one who not always knew what you know today, you know that access to information it's not that easy as it looks like.People will appreciate your efforts and they will follow and like (upvote) if they think it's appropriate or feel that you deserve more for your contributions. You can give:

• Tips
• Tutorials
• Information
• Encouraging comments
• An upvote
• etc.

Bring Value to the Community

Not all your posts have to be tutorials and that kind of stuff but I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of other things you could write about or make a video about that other people may enjoy it could be some breaking news or even a joke that will make someone like you and your post.Remember not everyone is looking for the same thing. Provide what you have, put it out there and the people looking for that content will find it. Remember to share your stuff with your other followers (yes those other networks we talked about). If they are already following you there, why wouldn't they do the same over here? Remember your motivation that is keeping you here on Steemit after all we said at the beginning. That could get them motivated too.