Are you Smaug, the dragon from the J.R.R Tolkien story, The Hobbit?
Smaug, lives in a vast cavern under a rocky mountain called The Lonely Mountain, and his sole purpose is to guard the treasure that lies within. He rarely leaves his dark, dank lair to venture out into the world. There he sleeps upon his mountain of treasure alone in the dark. When he leaves his cavern under the rock it's to gather treasure and he terrorises the nearby folk for it, getting very angry if he doesn't receive that treasure...It sounds like a lonely, isolated and sad existence to me.
I think some parallels could be drawn to some users on hive. Ok, we're not dragons however cool that may be, but many behave in a similar hide under a rock way. src
Simply throwing out a post or two and expecting to be rewarded with some treasure, upvotes and follows, is not enough though.
I've noticed a few onboarding initiatives lately, the most recent of which is the Hive People Project by . This is exactly what we need, among other things, to get this community pumping, but what does it mean for us here as new people onboard to hive?
Firstly, I feel it is critical that we onboard more users so I'm not suggesting it's a bad thing but...It will mean more competition for those already here...It may make it more difficult for people to get noticed, myself included.
So what's the answer? Get noticed as quickly as you can right now of course!
You see, as new people come onboard established users, like myself, are going to rally around them, help them along and hopefully help them survive and thrive as that's what we need here. In my mind it just makes sense to place yourself in a position to be one of those people who gets supported.
Also, all these new users, the newly-onboarded, are going to be looking for people to connect with...There's another opportunity for some of the younger accounts here to capitalise on. I certainly will be.
As the platform grows it would make sense for a user to want to grow with it. Of course there'll always be those who are happy to sit where they are, work within their own little group, or not create content at all and it is those people I'm not talking about here. But to those who want to grow and build along with the platform...
...You can't sit under a rock
You need to get out there and let people know who you are, that you're around and that you're willing and able to engage with others. If you stay under that rock no one will know where you are, no one will see you, and certainly few, or none, will engage with you.
Just a word on engagement...It means: To interact (comment and reply) with others on their posts. Effective engagement means interacting with interest, relevance and some effort. One or two word replies like nice post will earn what they deserve - Nothing.
Emerging from beneath the rock
This is done in several ways.
If you are Smaug, you awkwardly kick off with your legs, flap your powerful wings, run along and then when your air-speed reaches the right speed you spring-forth into the air to wing gracefully away to pillage and plunder the poor-unsuspecting village-folk.
But you're not Smaug, or any other type of dragon...You're a hive user. So...
You post and engage instead. You crawl out from beneath the rock and show yourself to the community.
Commenting on other people's posts, I suggest reading them first or you may look a bit silly, and continuing a comment-ethos with users is a really fast way to get going, and to build your account. But you need to have something of value for those users you're engaging with to see when they come to your profile page to check you out. This is where your awesome posts come into play!
Through your posting you have the chance to demonstrate who you are, what you're about, your diversity, your hobbies, skills, thoughts, opinions, family, education, sports, likes and dislikes. It's essentially you in a nutshell. You don't have to be an amazing writer, you just need to apply three simple elements, in my opinion anyway:
Passion, personality and effort
If you do this people will see it and you will have a greater chance of capturing their attention, provided you've done the engagement-groundwork as well.
Messaging users like me on Discord to draw my attention to your post will get you nowhere...Especially if I have no idea who you are. In fact that's a fast-track to getting muted. Tagging larger accounts in all your posts is also the antithesis of legit. (That means the opposite of legitimate.) Just engage and post as above...Everything will come together if you do that with consistency; Not over night of course, it takes effort and persistence over time.
G-dog's top ten tips for emerging from beneath a rock
- Take part in the hive posting initiative (See below)
- Join the engagement league (See below)
- Set a daily reply/comment goal
- Engage on other people's posts
- Post with passion, personality and effort
- Post and comment with interest and relevance
- Be respectful, personable, kind and good-mannered
- Remove the reward-value as the reward - Make it about enjoyment instead
- Exit your comfort-zone and expand your paradigm
- If you're a dragon get video of you flying and post it; It will be cool!
- Have a lot of fun because that's what it takes
- Welcome and support new users
There's other things of course, but these are a few good ones to start off with. (Yes, I know there's 12 tips in that list - You see, I added some of my quirky personality to it.)
It's all about community here on hive; Relationships. Build good ones and you'll have more enjoyment, build them not and...Well, you'll not have them and the rewards that come along with them.
There's plenty of people around who will help you...I could list many for you, but I won't. What I will do is make myself available to answer your questions about this post, or anything else I can assist you with and direct you to others as required, so feel free to post them below in the comments.
If you're under a rock and want to stay there that's fine, that's where you'll be. If you are there but want a little more then that's fine too...Do it!
If you are a dragon and can fly I'd like a ride and will pay in crypto for the privilege.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
Engagement League:
This tracks your personal engagement on hive through a weekly post that comes out on Sunday. does all the work, you just need to engage. It's a great way to track your engagement goals and a good way to get your name up there with the best engagers on hive!
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ENGAGEMENT LEAGUE
Hive posting initiative:
This is an opportunity to showcase yourself to the hive community and win a 2000HP delegation at the same time. See the post below for details.