A bit overdue but I was busy with several mentoring programs, promoting Steem events and joining new groups. I have also started with a major charity project which we have been doing for the past 10 years but has now decided to do crowdfunding in Steem as well. To know more you can click on the link below.
Promoting Steem to Gift in Kind Foundation| Our first step to modern fund raising
COMMUNITIES
Steemit is a social platform and as such you can find success when you engage with the community. On your first few days you would most likely not know what to do. Either your introduceyourself did really well that you get a lot of comments and some invitations or like me that bombed so hard that I had 5 votes for my introduction and had the misfortune of landing in a crappy group. Don't fret it wasn't the end of the world!
After leaving that group I was looking around for a new one to join and humans are creatures of habit and familiarity so you would have chosen a local one where you'll be able to converse at ease. Be it one of the many Philippines, Nigeroa, Aceh, Indian or whatever race or region you have this would have been the most logical choice for you.
STEEMPH
One of the biggest Filipino groups as they have taken under their wing majority of the regional group. They are supported by a couple of their own witnesses and have 
They have the most active group Steemph. Cebu which have a lot of great contests and events.
Several people of their core group are also part of several major curation guilds thus giving you a bigger chance of getting those most sought after curation nomination.
They are also involved in several different programs for promoting Steem events, charities and outreach programs. They also host different games like Pinoy Henyo a guessing category game and a very fun Rebus game.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
Steemph
STEEMITFAMILYPH
Okay this might sound a little biased because this is my home, my Ohana. I found them a month after I joined Steemit and I have never left. From about 40 people that were mostly relatives, classmates and friends based in Baguio we grew to almost 800 people at the last count in the Facebook page and have over 400 members in the two Facebook Chatrooms that we have.
This month we started our curation trail in order to encourage people to create good, unique content and we are happy that we were able to provide over 169 unique upvotes and showcase a lot of talented Ohanas and those from our partner groups.
We recently publish an update on our activities.
Curation Update of @steemitfamilyph
One of the main goals of 
This year we will also be supporting the Outreach program of Gift in Kind PH and will be helping create a better future for the Aeta children of Banawen Zambales.
We also have several members involved in curation guilds and take mentoring seriously. We are all about inclusivity and we encourage people to swim out to different shores (groups0, find their niche and be with people that have the same interests as them but know that they are always welcomed back to Ohana.
We have also started with our own Discord server to be freed from the shackles of Facebook and the limitations of Messenger. A better way to create channels needed and different initiatives that we want to run.
If you are interested you can join our discord server below
Steemitfamilyph
STEEMGIGS
There are a lot of different nationalities here and the recommended language to use is English. This is a great way to sharpen your English skills.
One of the primary reasons Steemgigs was created was for it to provide an alternative way of freelancing and hiring for the people in Steemit. Yet is has grown to encompass all.
Terry has a favorite saying
Everyone has something to offer
SteemGigs: A Core Aspect Of Our Model Is Steemit/Steem Growth!
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
Steemgigs
Peace, Abundance and Liberty powered by Minnow Support
If you are lucky to have one of the moderators find your introduceyourself post and dropped a link to your post to invite you to join then I consider you very lucky.
They have a diverse set of nationalities and interests and you often can find kindred souls in the topics of art, photography, literature and even crypto!
If English is not something you are comfortable they do have country specific channels you can use.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
Peace, Abundance and Liberty
THE STEEM ENGINE
I am relatively new here but found that it is run really well with interaction being encouraged. I was able to find several great authors that I immediately followed because they had great posts and I liked their writing style.
They also run their own curation trail for members and give a boost in votes.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
The Steem Engine
Steem Freelancers Guild
Relatively new in Steemit but is looking to do really well. They are working to build a community for Freelancers and for people looking to hire. By having a one stop shop of services and freelancers they will be able to make connections to other communities.
I look forward to supporting them in the coming months.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
Steem Freelancers Guild
QURATOR
This is a community dedicated to rewarding authors who post original and good content. They have a daily curation post and often have Photography and Food blog contests that winners can avail higher tier upvotes.
I really recommend that new people join their auto voting list as it definitely helps out when you are starting. It used to be 2 SBD for a lifetime registration and you get 1 upvote from the main account and those that trail it every 24 hours. I am currently at Tier level 2 and I get a $0.40 to $1 upvote from them.
They will be updating it shortly to 4 Steem when they reach 1000 members so join them now!
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
QURATOR
THE WRITERS' BLOCK
I have always been a fan of the written word and one of the communities that I first sought out was for writers. I quickly found The Writers' Block and promptly joined. They have a lot of workshops and feedback sessions from professional writers and is such a great experience to receive critique to your work so that you can get better.
They have a huge Library of Knowledge that is just full of information and styles you need to get better in writing.
They also have a curation team that seeks good writers of literature.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
The Writers' Block
CRYPTO EMPIRE
This is the newest group that I am in and I enjoy being mentored by some of the more prominent members here like 
I unfortunately have the hubris of thinking I am doing great because of how
Then just listening to them talk about plans and techniques just showed me how much I don't know. It is both humbling and exhilarating as I know my growth will become a lot faster.
If you are interested you can join their discord server below
Crypto Empire
PROMO-MENTORS
I am particularly proud to be part of the 
The aim here is to be able to bridge the gap that many people new to blogging, cryptocurrency and Steemit face especially during their first month. We want to be able to guide them and give them exposure to a bigger audience.
Whenever we find exceptional talent we give a community vote to bolster their confidence and know that someone is out there looking after planktons and minnows.
This is founded by 
Invitation is done by mentors and scouts who will look into your work, If interested you can message me in Discord using the same name.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A COMMUNITY?
So we talked about some of the communities that I have joined and there are so many more out there for you to discover. It's okay for you to get scared, to try to keep close to home, to your friends but Steem is so much more. Once you are ready go and join different communities. You do not need to be limited to just a few people.
Steem is huge and communities are great as a foundation but you can find other groups to be in. The more people that you know and interact with the better the chance of getting noticed.
VOTES
This is the most basic reason why being in a community is beneficial. It is to your advantage to get votes and views on your post. The more people see your work and like it, the bigger the chance in getting upvotes and even resteems! Your community could be your first followers and by engaging them and leaving great comments to each other it fosters a relationship.
There a lot of people that just drop their links to the post promotions channel and leave. With no engagement to the community you lose out in transforming members to followers. I have seen people with good posts but don't get any love from the community because they don't interact.
I would rate myself as so-so in terms of writing but my engagement level is top notch. I reply to almost all comments except those spammers and the follow you so follow me comments. I go to other people's post and leave meaningful comments.
It is part of my personal brand that I create good posts and leave good comments that will leave a mark on the author.
A lot of these communities I enumerated have community bots that upvote you. The following has it available for a small fee.
- Steemph - register for .001 SBD in the registration channel
- Steemgigs - register for .001 SBD in the general channel
- PAL - register for .001 SBD in the registration channel
- Steem Engine - once a member you need to comply with their engagement posting to get a community vote. You can also do a vote trail for additional rewards. Best to discuss with one of the moderators.
- Qurator - Once updated fee will be 4 Steem for Tier 0 membership. Level can be as high as Tier 5.
FOLLOWERS
I know I talked about it already but I cannot stress enough how important it is to engage the community. Far too many people in Steemit asks for upvotes, asks for follows without making people want to do it. If you are merely going their and talking to people when you just posted and want attention then you are not really interacting.
It is those that share themselves that receive more in turn.
MENTORS
This is going to make a huge difference for you. In work, school or your activities outside of Steem you always look for a teacher or mentor so how is it any different here.
When you find a mentor who takes the time to teach you what they learned in Steemit it is a huge advantage. You learn best practices, techniques and writing style guides.
A mentor will do everything that they can to make you succeed. Choose your mentor well as there are some people who teach the wrong things like vote begging and cheats that lower the quality of Steemit.
So that's about it for my Community post and why it is important. I hope that you were able to get some things that you can use.
I discussed some of the communities that are in Steemit and the benefits of being communities.
I will look for other questions that
