So. You finally got your notification email and you've copy-pasted your password to half a dozen different places so you don't lose it. You are now officially a Steemian.
Now What?
Well, if you're me, these are the things that out of ignorance, you WON'T do. If you're not me, you will read this post and get a sweet jump-start on things. New Nigerian Steemians, take note.
SOME DAY, I'M GOING TO MAKE THE NOPICTURES TAG TREND. UNTIL THEN, I AIN'T GOT NO DATA. DEAL WITH IT.
Get Telegram: If you have both phone and laptop, download and set up Telegram for both. Right now. If only phone, get Telegram anyway. You will see why in a bit.
Get ESteem App: it's really great for a variety of reasons. No, I won't tell you why. Let it be a nice surprise when you do.
Get Markdown Pad: if you are using a laptop, go download the latest version of Markdown Pad immediately. It is so useful for learning Markdown and it will save you so much data because you can type and format your posts, save them and then copy-paste the finished product directly to Steemit.
3b) Telegram-plus-Esteem Protip: To maximize the benefits of both, create posts in Markdown Pad, Telegram them to yourself from laptop, retreive it from Telegram on mobile and then paste it to Esteem app. Ta-da!
Learn to love steemdb.com: it is absolutely indispensable for tracking follows, resteems, incoming upvotes and pretty much every stat you could possibly want (except mentions -- but if you're a redfish, that probably doesn't matter yet anyway)
Join Discord: seriously do it. Join ALL THE DISCORDS. It's a bit like hacking all the internets.
Bonus: here's three things I did do that you had better do too!
- Comment. Comments. Comments: the single fastest and most efficient way to grow as a redfish/minnow is to make good comments and lots of them. It's really not that hard. All you have to do is read the damn post and write a comment that shows you actually read the damn post.
As for why, you will get more upvotes for your awesome high-quality comments than your non-introduceyourself posts (that no one will read coughcough) AND you will get noticed by people you want to notice you AND you will find yourself engaged in fun intelligent conversations with like minds and interestingly different minds alike.
So yeah, definitely do that.
Do Lots of Research: there's a really good self-help saying floating around the internet lately: "Everything you need to succeed can be learned*. Most motivational quotes are annoying as hell but this one is both non-annoying and true, especially in the age of Google. For every question you could possibly have about Steemit, someone has written a 3000-word tutorial (or a 300-word tutorial) or made a video. Thank them by reading it and learning it. If it's less than 7 days old, upvote it (yes, even yours helps)
Keep Posting Your Best: yes, even when your last three meticulously-researched exquisitely-formated posts made $0.11 each. Yes, even when they made $0.00. Why? I'm not going to give you the usual trite crap about never quittig; look, sometimes failing at something means you need to go do something else.
No, it's because a backlog of good posts is like your CV (aka curriculum vitae aka resumé to any Americans in the audience) When your great comments finally get you noticed by 
However, even that is not the only reason. More important is this: do not make the mistake of trying to save your best material for when you're a whale.
I repeat, do NOT do this. It is a trap.
Instead, cultivate an abundance mentality with your mind. Writing makes you a better writer, a faster writer, a smarter writer. Ideas will breed ideas, new thoughts will occur, short comments will turn into lengthy posts. Trust that your best material is still in the Future, waiting like gold to be seized by your now-more-practiced ever-more-ready hands.
Yup, that's it. If I had done those 5 things in my first week, I'd be considerably further along. If I hadn't done the three things below that, I'd still be flailing around and getting nowhere. As is, I am doing them in my sixth and seventh week and seeing more growth than than I did in the first five. Don't be me; get a jump-start on this amazing platform.