Steemit is an amazing platform for creativity and making connections with like minded people. It seems simple on the surface, but the truth is, for a new Steemian, it can be rather complicated. I've made more than my fair share of rookie mistakes, so thought I'd use them to help my fellow Minnows to avoid the pitfalls.
It's Not Facebook
We've all been there, starting our journey on Steemit thinking it's just like Facebook. We upvote as though it's a 'like' button, comment on posts with a simple 'nice post dude' or resteem anything that makes us laugh.
Every one of these Facebook habits we've developed over the years, are going to cause problems for the new Steemian, unless we retrain ourselves to interact in a new way. Here are a few lessons I've learned (the hard way), during my first couple of weeks on this amazing site.
An Upvote Is Not A Like
On Facebook, we show our appreciation for a post, by hitting the like button. All well and good when you can do this as many times as you wish. Steemit is different, however, because each time you upvote (particularly important for Minnows), you will deplete your voting power. To understand this, I highly recommend reading 
Worry not, there is a cure for like withdrawal. First of all, write a well thought out comment, demonstrating that you read and enjoyed the post, this also has the added advantage of earning you curation rewards. Secondly, add 
Save your upvotes for posts that really impress you, and also for comments on your own posts that are meaningful and go into detail, rather than a simple 'nice post'
This is my first post covering Rookie Mistakes, which can be summed up as Forget everything you've learned on Facebook. I'll do a follow up shortly, covering the Basics about Bandwidth. I hope you've found this helpful and if you've anything to add to the topic of upvoting, then please share in the comments below.