If you're like most Steemians, you're not really putting your witness votes to good use and you have many many votes left.
Why vote for witnesses and what does that even mean?
Voting for witnesses is a bit like electing your government, only of course the witnesses serve the network and us, instead of the other way round, plus you can do it anytime anywhere. Like today for example. Right now.
Steem witnesses maintain the Steem blockchain. They produce the blocks and perform a number of other services. They give their energy to the blockchain and they're getting rewarded for that in Steempower. The higher they rank, the more they earn.
Some give energy in the form of electricity and others add huge amounts of creativity, productivity and manpower on top of that.
If you spot some, who are doing just that, vote for them! Support them! Like 
Meet in this interview with Crypt0
@Aggroed is (to me) the unofficial president of Steem. I don't think he'd like to hear that, since he's not a big fan of centralisation ;) but most of the things he's contributed to the Steem network are things that - honestly - I would have expected to be part of the roadmap of Steemit Inc.
Not only is he behind 
And he's doing it at a speed that's just unbelievable!! All Steemit Inc has managed to do over the past two years is change the Steemit logo... Oh, no wait, that's unfair! They also changed the color of it from blue to turquoise!
Please check out his latest post in which he describes all the things he and his team are working on. Really take in the huuugeness of all these projects and developments.
I specifically love the part about the exchange! So many Steemians have been rooting for Steem to be listed on certain exchanges (right now Coinbase) - which is great, but wouldn't it be even greater if we had our own exchange and we wouldn't have to beg to be listed on others?
It's important that we vote for witnesses that are doing great work for Steem, so that they get paid and receive the financial support to keep on doing what they're doing.
It's just a click of a button - it's the least we can do for them. Seriously. Especially if they actively make the Steem network more valuable.
Some of us look at the Steem price and hope it will go up again one day.
But others actually put in all the work to practically make that a reality.
Let's click that button for them.
How to vote for witnesses?
Super easy: Just click here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
And while you're there, have a look through that list. Do you see any familiar names of people who you know do a lot of good work here? Vote for them! Also vote for the ones who create your favorite apps or Steem interfaces that you use on a daily basis - without them they wouldn't exist!
- Do you use and love
,
,
or
? Vote for them!
- Do you love Steemfest? Then vote for
, because without him there wouldn't be a Steemfest.
- Do you like all the outreach work
is doing in Malaysia? Then vote for him!
We all benefit from the great work these people are doing (and there are many more besides the ones I mentioned) - vote for the ones you know, like and trust to move Steem forward!
About the author:
Anja Schuetz is a cryptocurrency mentor for absolute beginners, with specific focus on women and non-digital natives. She also consults as a Customer Communication & Operations Manager for blockchain start-ups.
Anja offers a Free Bitcoin Beginner's Course when you sign up to her Conscious Crypto Museletter here: http://anjaschuetz.net and has also written a Beginner's Guide to Steemit