Today and yesterday's agenda involved some steemit-growth endeavors. Two different scenarios; both however, involving basketball.
Improvisation was key in both cases. For one, i had to improvise to be present for each meetup as i haven't been doing well physically. "Self-sacrifice".
First stop, was my falling ex-basketball team. They've lost the last 6 games and where all out to win yesterday's game and they wanted me to watch.
They've missed me too as was obvious all through, after the game; with many of the players coming around my seat to tell me how much this was the case.
I used to be rock solid in defence for them but i knew they missed me for many more reasons beyond basketball. I am sure they missed someone to laugh too & at.
They used to laugh at me for wanting to surpass google.
Before steemit even, they used to call silly, the innovations i embark on. In the Philippines, it is mostly about jobs, jobs, jobs! Well, and fun, fun, fun!
This basketball team was my ex-company's basketball team. At work (call centre), in those days, i used to be doing steemit on my PC, in the short intervals between calls.
There used to be 4-posts limit here on steemit at the time and within my shift, i would try to exhaust doing 4 posts a day. There was no earning too but most of my posts in the past were mostly excerpts of my dreams, innovations and visions, being dented into the permanence of the steem blockchain. So, it was all good!
They all got to know "steemit" too; at least the "word"; for they would always come all the way to my floor and cubicle, just to have some laugh trips; "Terry, what are you doing again"; then they would look at my screen and see steemit.com
Yesterday, however, they would listen to what steemit really is.
Upon telling me the date and time of their game and probable dinner afterwards, i decided to improvise: "i was going to hijack the event and turn it into a steemit agenda or at least infuse some steemit into it".
Things didn't go too as-planned because they lost! The mood went sour and many weren't going to show up at the dinner. However, i informed them (the absentees), that i would reach out to them, in their group chat.
We ended up, 9 people at the dinner. They chose a bar as it was night time.
Upon, getting to the table, i chose to seat at the top end of the long table. Basically, i wanted to have access to everyone during the talk but this bar was lit up. There was a live band!
Too lazy to quit, i had to adjust positions to speak to the major influencer of the group. His name is Jay and he will be joining steemit soon. Basically, he can get them to be serious for split seconds and talk them into action. He knew my journey on steemit, from when it started and yesterday was when i explained it in full, especially the parts that has to do with the "steem" blockchain.
He was quick to grasp because, he is older and has had exposure to business, brands, among other things. Then i spoke to his close friend too. This is powerful enough!
Get these two to sign up first and all other signups will follow in the group and DM chats.
An effective way to get new sign-ups to steemit is to target a community leader or at least the Big Bro of a group; team captain, youth leaders etc This works!
Too, improvisation is key! If you are low on budget to host a steemit meetup, then hijack an upcoming event and infuse steemit into it.
I did end up adding to their budget for drinks and food yesterday but it wasn't as much as it would have been, if i was the host.
I am going to applying the above in an upcoming Hackathon later in August, that will be carried out by 
Today meetup, was an even bigger meetup. Well, not exactly but this task was huge-er. I was going to invite the owner of a big basketball community in the Philippines.
Dealing with established communities and brands is a harder feat. In this case though, i met with the owner of http://www.oneunitesports.com.ph/ and those host and creator of BPO Classics Philippines and Next 5 hoops. after a quick Facebook chat on Sunday evening.
I met with him earlier, at his office earlier and owned Basketball Gymnasium at Phenom Sports Centre.
Phenom Sport Centre recently hosted a friendly basketball game between the Singapore men's basketball team and St. Claire College of Caloocan, Philippines.
The meeting was arranged for 1 pm and it was pretty brief. The truth is, he didn't have too much time to spend but a hasty yet elaborate discussion about steemit occurred.
I tackled steemit mostly in terms of SEO, community and brand building. Though, they cover all their events on http://www.oneunitesports.com.ph/ with the aid professional sports writers & reports; i wanted them to move their brand on to steemit as well.
I also discuss growth of the Filipino community on steemit and how it will create more exposure to his brand as he will have access to a ready-made audience and how bringing his own community of basketball enthusiasts as well, will introduce youths in the Philippines to a new world of empowerment and growth etc.
We ended the meeting on a high note as he took all the resources, that he will need to do a little bit more research about steemit.com and he will get back to me on his decisions.
There is potential if http://www.oneunitesports.com.ph/ joins steemit!
Basically, basketball has real hype in the Philippines. Even i, get extra attention just walking the streets as i am a bit tall and people instantly think basketball, when they see me, due to their love for the sport.
So i am hoping to see One Unite Sports here soon, as well as their incessant press releases, stats, game-plays etc of every sporting event that they host throughout each year, including volleyball tournaments.
Other endeavors have been successful as well!
@jassennessaj and his crew had a successful budget steemit meetup last Sunday and here is a list of new steemians from their efforts that you may want to consider visiting:
Please do well to visit this new ones. An encouraging comment whether in English or Tagalog will help them feel at home.
When passing across tips, e.g directing them on where to get free-to-use picture, proper para-phrasing etc it is crucial to maintain friendliness.
I created a new branch of #steemgigs called hooray-brigade which i haven't announced yet but kindly join here.
If you would like to get some incentive for leaving a loving and educational comment to new steemians, while learning in the process, then please join in here!
Hooray-brigade is currently in beta so to speak; so for now, it is open especially to newbies, who themselves are in a state of learning, when it comes to steemit.
Basically, you will be learning about steemit, by looking to answer questions from other newbies, who need steemit-direction.
Currently, we will target #philippines. So simply join in, on hooray-brigade, visit #philippines to look to welcome other newbies there with a friendly comment, tip or suggestion. Try to source for any form of steemit-related question they may have; find answers to these questions; relate the answers back to them in a very friendly manner and submit the link to your response in hooray-brigade as we will like to upvote these comments in return.
We will also answer some of your questions on hooray-brigade and train you on approaches to take, to maintaining friendly, loving conversations.
This is an awesome way we are creating to teach newbies and steemians in general, to engage, promote peace, friendliness and love and teach others while learning. This is a fast way for newbies to learn about steemit.
Please join the comments to leave any suggestions for growth of steemit in the Philippines. Too, if you are considering budget steemit meetups and signups in your area, consider contacting me here: https://discord.gg/feucZRj. I am still @surpassinggoogle on there as well as on www.steemit.chat
Join us on Steemgigs community on discord: https://discord.gg/CGuPyyT
Everyone has something to offer!
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