Welcome to another edition of "Daily Discussion," a community engagement initiative I started some months back, designed to stimulate more interaction and engagement on Steemit!
The brilliance of nature...
Today I am celebrating the fact that I have a rare day off by spending a little time simply "exploring" our community-- much in the same way I did, back when I first started here.
As I move around and look at different tags and what's currently popular, I'm amazed by the seemingly huge number of people who are fairly recent arrivals (last 3-4 months), who are producing what I might call "reasonable" content (but certainly no more), and yet are making quite substantial rewards-- as in $50-$150 on every single post.
IMPORTANT: I'm not talking about "scammers and spammers" here, just "regular folks."
Is "Organic" Growth Enough?
Morning glories
Poking around a little more, it's also quite clear that many of these good folks are using all manners of upvote services and resteem services and "group memberships" to get their results. When I look at "who voted," it often holds quite true that only one or two of the top-10 upvotes on these posts actually came from an active human community member.
Of course, that's not exactly a new thing around here-- and "purchased upvotes" have been discussed a LOT, in recent months.
This post is not really here to re-hash that topic.
Instead, I am posing the question of whether trying to carve out your niche on Steemit through purely "organic" growth-- that is, simply writing, following and commenting on other content as a "Human Being"-- is sufficient to make someone "visible" on Steemit?
Of course, "enough" is a relative term. Enough for what, exactly? Enough, I suppose, to where your efforts feel like they are materially helping you reach your goals and aspirations.
Artificial Popularity?
As you can see from the banner at the bottom of my posts, I am a member of the "Steemit Bloggers" group, which is not an "upvote ring," but a group of Steemians who are active writers and content creators.
White-edged lilac blossoms
I enjoy the people I have met though this group and it has exposed me to a lot of folks who create what is-- in my opinion-- "quality content." But I wouldn't say that my membership in the group has substantially boosted my rewards, just the quality of what I am exposed to. Which, in turn, means I got pretty much what I was hoping for-- objective met!
I do realize people all have different approaches, and I recognize that I may be in the minority here, as primarily a "content creator" rather than an "income seeker."
But again, that distinction isn't my point here. My real question is whether it's becoming "obsolete" or "irrelevant" here to engage in old-fashioned organic networking... and it is being replaced by "paid popularity?"
So Let's DISCUSS! First off, do you see yourself as an "organic" networker, using only posting, interaction and engagement to build your following? Or do you use "whatever means you can" to build your following? Are you a "content creator" first, or an "income seeker" first? Whatever your goal and approach, do you feel that "organic" networking is becoming less important on Steemit, or is it holding its own? What about in the future, going forward? As more and more people join Steemit, the battle for "visibility" will become more intense, no doubt. Leave a comment-- share your opinions and input-- be part of the conversation! I want to hear from you-- and others want to hear from you, as well! Share your thoughts and experiences below!
To learn more about the Daily Discussion initiative, please visit the Introductory Post for a full description and participation guidelines.
created by @zord189(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180109 10:45 PST