Going to be talking about Steemit in this weeks Arsenic Lullaby Mass email (about 8000 or so fans) Here's the rough draft, might punch it up a little as far as making it more entertaining and less dry. As far as the nuts and bolts of it, I'm open to suggestions if I missed something important or got anything important wrong. Keep in mind I'm trying to keep it simple
Steemit. Because not all likes are created equal
If you are a "content provider" the time to move on from facebook and finding other platforms is long past. To be clear, a content provider in this scenario would be blogger, musician, comedian, artist, writer, video maker...if you are posting things that people are interested in, you are providing content for the social media site. That content provided by content makers is why people go the that site. You are providing that site with a service. You think FB would have grown this large just from pictures of cats? It would not have. Nor would twitter or nor would have Myspace. All of these sites live or die based on the quality of their content (given to them by you).
And what are you getting out of it? Exposure to their audience and a fairly user friendly platform to use to post. OR so you have been made to believe. That platform is run by a nefarious algorithm that I'm sure by now you have noticed is working against you. It shadows bans, it censors, it gives less priority to posted links. It admittedly only shows your stuff to AT BEST 10% of your friends. And if it is a link to your site, a kickstarter, some store, anything that leads users off of FB...that algorithm knocks that percentage WAY down. Consider that. YOU built up a following, from scratch, YOU provide content keeping the people YOU brought to FB interested, and FB kneecaps you if you want to earn a living, or keep your followers informed of your projects that may exist off of the site...while it makes damn sure all those people you brought to the table see ads paid for by companies with more money that the Pope.
Hardly seems fair.
AND, you may have noticed that FB is taking a dive. Millennials have left and Gen Z never showed up. Those are the two age groups most valuable in helping a creative enterprise grow, because they are enthusiastic, and know how to spread the word online. I won't go so far as to call posting on FB a complete waste of your time...but it's getting there fast.
I've been looking around for awhile for better platforms and have found an interesting one that I like. It is called Steemit. Steemit is a social media platform made for content providers and caters to them and what they need out of a social media site. It is full of quality content makers who have left FB and full of enthusiatic users looking to help other grow. It's easy to use...it has a blog type format for posting , rather that twitters stifling 140 character limit, or FB's half assed hybrid where you COULD post an entire blog but it's condensed and you end up with an uninteresting wall of text.
It is a lot easier to tell a story and be entertaining, which is great for providers AND great for those of you who like following musicians, comedians, artists, ect. Most of what I'm going to get into applies to content makers, BUT those of you who like finding new things and following the works, antics and struggles of us will have a good time being on steemit. The attitude and interaction you'll get will be much more rewarding since WE have a better attitude on there, not having been broken down bhy the flopsum and jetsum of F's more moronic users.
Here's what I like about it...
1-no censorship
2-no confusing algorithm. In fact...as I understand it and have seen, the only criteria the algorithm uses in when something was posted and the popularity of the post and the "reputation score" of the poster. "reputation score" that's a idea that should have happened long ago. Basically...the more content you provide that people like..the more your score goes up and them more exposure your posts get. You actually get credit and help from the f*cking platform if your posts help them. what a concept, huh? That's as level a playing field as we can hope for. Some giant record company posts something and people don't gaf...it doesn't keep showing up. You post something and you've been contributing to the site...your stuff DOES show up. Wow..imagine that. A merit based algorithm.
3-users who are enthusiastic, looking for new things, and know how to spread the word about new things.
FB may have far more users than Steemit (for now) but not all users are of equal value to people like us. 1066 likes from people who will never do more for your work than click like is not nearly as valuable as even 20 likes from internet savvy users who are ambitious and specifically on the site to find new things. They are there to build something, and help others build something. The whole place has a COMPLETELY different attitude and a COMPLETELY different breed of user. The people there are pioneers and on the fore front of knowing how the internet works, how best to promote things, how the culture of the internet works. They are the people who find stuff first, and figure stuff out first. They are the type of people you have been looking for on FB, but could not find..because they left..because FB was old news and they stay on the cutting edge of things.
Let me give you an anecdote. The first week, I posted some comics. People there not only clicked like, not only shared it without being asked, not only left positive comments that were not moronic...but found my website (without me posting a link), found the store, and bought something. Compare that to FB where even if you manage to navigate the algorithm so people see it, even if you beat people over the head about ordering, even if you post a direct link to the direct product, even if you post a giant coupon code...you'll get more stupid questions than orders. Having been on FB so long, I about fell over when I got orders off of Steemit.
To paraphrase the Grinch...they came without links, without coupon codes, or explanations off how to use the store, they came without dumb comments, missing the point, or making comments that had nothing to do with the post"
It's good there, I like it a lot.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW, TO DO WELL THERE.
1-This is a community, more than a platform. People help each other. People interact. People are trying to build things and trying to build the platform. Meaning...if you just throw up a post and wait...you're not going to get much traction. You have to pitch in, you have to make friends and connections. You have to find your tribe. Say you are a comedian...there's several groups there, several weekly contests to enter, and there are such things for every sort of content provider. The help is out there, but you have to go find it and introduce yourself. ...look, if my anti social ass can do it, it's not that hard. Hashtags are useful, but the most important thing is to interact, to give back, to reciprocate, to be active on your page and others. This is not a selfish place like FB, so you also cannot be selfish and expect to get far.
It's more of a team effort there. It's a "a rising tide lifts all boats" type attitude.
And the tide IS lifting all boats. I've been publishing comics for a long time, and you'd think by now I would have mined all there is to mine on the internet, and part of me thought that as well. That, as it turns out, is incorrect. I've met other illustrators, comedians, publishers, stores that I had not previously known about or interacted with...and those people are now friends, allies, co-conspirators. Advancing your projects, ideas, careers is about always growing. and the is plenty of growth to be had on Steemit.
2-The sign up/verification takes about a week (for now). They bring people in at a pace that the platform can manage. They don't want a VIMO situation where the whole world tries to jump on at once, the platform crashes and people never come back. So you sign up...and in about a week you get an email with your password and you're off to the races.
3-You can get paid for each post through crypto currency. This parts a bit confusing...but for all intents and purposes...it doesn't really matter if you understand it or not. SO...if my explanation starts making your eyes glaze over...you can just skip it. STEEM is a crypocurrency like BITCOIN, it is publically traded on the same exchanges the BITCOIN is and it's been around awhile and fairly well established ( in as much as any crypto currency is). For reasons I don't understand they have broken the simple concept of STEEM into three different things. I explained what STEEM is. then there is SBD (Steem Bit Dollars) which is one dollars worth of Steem. ...let me try to explain that...a unit of steem is worth about 1.20, but that fluctuates like any publicly traded currency. A SBD is always worth 1.00...it is always 1.00 worth of Steem, whether that is a half a unit of steem or 2 units of steem depending on the current market value. Then there is steempower...which is also steem but it is allotted to your voting power. The more steempower you have the more money someone gets when you vote on thier post. I think my vote is worth about .01 cents right now. Someone who's been on there longer...their vote could be worth 3.00. In case you are not confused enough...it does not cost you anything to vote. I don't loss .01 everytime I vote. that .01 comes out of the daily cryptocurrency Steemit generates.
"...i don't understand one sentance you just typed"
...that's okay...I don't really either. All I know is this- somehow I get paid based on people liking my posts, and somehow other people get paid when I like theres...and probably someone out there is making a lot more than all of us for figuring out how to connect a crypo currency to a social media site. Think of Steem as a commodity. The more steem you have the more influence you have on the social media platform. Influence on a social media platform is really f*cking valuable in 2018, so investors buy Steem, and that goes into the pool...and the pool gets divide up by content makers. Or something like that...and the bottom line is that being on Steem paid for my 8ft by 12ft Banner for Comic-Con International this year. It all adds up whether you understand it or not. Let's say you post something and interact a couple times a week, and make say...let's lowball it...5.00 a week. How many weeks have you been on FB? how much would you have in the warchest if FB gave you a percentage of what they brought in? If you got 5.00 worth of the pot every week that you were on? You'd have a lot in the warchest...instead Zuckerburg has a lot in the warchest and you have a frustrating algorithm that vexes your efforts, less and less people seeing your work (as less and less people log on), every post you make turning into a political argument, and a bunch of pictures of cats staring back at you on the newsfeed...from cat pictures it started and to cat pictures it has returned.
HOWEVER...you can ignore all that, really. Because the benefit of being on steemit has more to do with the connections you make and the quality of exposure you get.
3-there's a SHITTON on bots on there...you can just ignore them, unless you're a complete idiot, they are harmless.
So, there you go. I'm on steemit a couple times a week. I've posted a few exclusives and posted daily from Comic-Con International...y'know..because I like to give back.
See you there.
I think that pretty well covers it, but it's rough...if I missed something lemme know!!