Could this interesting parallel between nature and Steemit make your posts more successful?
I recently came across an article about a very interesting social behaviour that's been observed between whales and dolphins in the past few years:
That's right - dolphins have been spotted getting free rides on the backs of whales. I found this bizarrely cooperative behaviour to be quite fascinating, and it raised some thought-provoking questions:
Is it just for fun, or is there a deeper meaning to this inter-species cooperation?
What do the whales get out of it?
Are the two species somehow communicating by doing this?
While I pondered on the scientific answers to these questions (which marine biologists are still trying to get to grips with), the thought occurred to me that I'd seen similar behaviour elsewhere - on Steemit!
The Steemit ecosystem
If you look closely at the dynamics of the reward system on Steemit, you'll notice that (at the moment) getting a substantial payout is largely dependent on getting an upvote from a whale (a user with a high amount of Steem Power) or, to a lesser extent, a dolphin (one with slightly less, but still enough to make an impact).
Of course, most dolphins (and even some whales) started out like you and me - as minnows with barely any Steem Power. There must be a reason for the dolphins' success in breaking out of the minnow category where others have failed. Of course, this is partly down to their creation of good content, but might there be something more to the story?
I believe there is. Having located a few whales and dolphins, I've been keeping track of their movements over the past week or so - what they vote for, whose posts they comment on, and so on, and I've discovered something interesting:
The most successful dolphins are those who manage to attract the attention of whales by engaging with them directly, then hitching a ride to the top.
Smart
This means that successful dolphins are actively seeking out whales, commenting on and upvoting their posts, and replying to their comments, in an effort to get their attention. If successful, this can result in a whale noticing them and subsequently upvoting their posts - the desired outcome.
Going back to my other questions above, it's likely that the whales are also getting something out of this. While whales have little to worry about, it can't hurt for them to have their own visibility increased, and perhaps this system also takes some of the effort out of curating by bringing intelligent and active authors directly to them. It may be that they are simply rewarding the dolphins who make the most effort. It's also highly likely that whales and dolphins are communicating with each other directly outside of Steemit (perhaps in the Slack channel) to collaborate in this way.
What do you think of this theory? And, more importantly, how can minnows and dolphins use this technique more effectively to make the most out of Steemit and drive it even further?