Much is written recently on the subject of onboarding, and I'm taking mental notes. I've also been working on some action steps to help in this effort to introduce newbies (new bees) to our Hive. Here's my thinking: 1. Starting simple with a written invitation; 2. Studying various views and finding clarity; 3. Addressing the challenges with opportunities; and 4. Asking questions and sharing answers.

1. Introducing "New Bees" To Hive - Inviting Community

Starting Simple with a Written Invitation

I have some expertise in the area of advertising, with a master's degree in and 20 years of experience in digital media marketing. In my view, the art and science of advertising is summed up as follows: gentle invitations for genuine connection.

Keeping that in mind, I drafted a letter that invites people into Hive, to connect with the community. I am beginning to send this message to friends, customizing it to fit each person. I have a feeling this letter might be useful to others as we craft our invitations.

Dear Sarah,

Here’s a website I think you will appreciate: https://hive.blog. It’s a social network called Hive, where we share insights and discoveries. You can go deep with your artistry! There are monetary incentives in the form of cryptocurrency, along with the rewards of creative expression and genuine connection.

Here are three specific communities within Hive that might interest you: "PowerhouseCreatives," "Natural Medicine," and "Hive Open Mic." Let me know if you’d like some support with your first post—this requires some basic blogging skills. I’m happy to help! This website offers something special for everyone, and I'm excited to share it with you.

2. Studying Various Viewpoints - Finding Clarity

Studying Various Views and Finding Clarity

Some excellent posts already exist on the subject of onboarding. A few of the recent standouts are given here. I'm offering my perspectives in relation to each one, and I invite anyone else to add their own input. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in my interpretations.

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Hive, We need to get our shit together! by @whatamidoing

This is the post that lit a fire in me this week. The guy is full of good ideas, so of course my eyes opened up once I saw the title. He says it straight: "If we don't do our best to grow this place, it will fall apart." He supports this thought with the fact that Hive is not a corporation, with a team of marketing wizards and corporate-minded progress pushers. Instead, it is a simple grassroots community, and this means that each individual must do his/her part to be the change we wish to see.

The broad array of onboarding ideas supported here include: Local Meetups, Intimate Communities, and Cross-Promotions through YouTube and Twitter. Regarding the idea of local meetups, we can't exactly meet face-to-face at the moment due to social distancing, but a "meetup" can be achieved virtually through Zoom, etc. That said, our Austin Steemit Meetup group was a blast in its prime, and I hope one day we'll meet again. Intimate communities can be made for specialty niches, giving people a chance to find their voice in a small group setting. Cross-promotions through other blogs and social networks is definitely a win-win, getting more eyes on Hive.

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Be POSH, Engage and help Hive Thrive by @anomadsoul

This author is one I've followed for a long time, with dozens (maybe hundreds) of radical initiatives to his credit. I believe he's the mind behind the #posh movement, which is essentially an effort to spread the news of Hive through Twitter by commenting about quality content. Although I'm not a Twitter fan, I'm understand the value of this big idea: creating links that will make Hive visible to outsiders.

The author says, "The point of this Challenge is to increase Hive content interaction and change the mindset of long term users, to experiment if we as a community can shift to having content consumption as good as content creation." Yes, it's all about generating engagement, and it's also broadening the reach of Hive by boosting visibility outside of Hive. And there are rewards for doing so, thanks to some notable supporters: @blocktrades, @threespeak, and @ocd-witness.

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Help Hive - Sprinkle A Little SEO On Your Posts by @abh12345

This author offers a selection of SEO tips for formatting our content to try and rank Hive higher on Google search results. He is admittedly a newbie at SEO, although his curiosity is admirable and the topics he raises are nicely debated and clarified by @agr8buzz, who brings deeper understanding.

According to @agr8buzz, "SEO is all about establishing authority in the eyes of Google." Google's algorithms have changed over time, sure, but the principles remain the same. Google is designed to simplify searches by providing the most relevant content, and so naturally it ranks highest those with proven expertise, i.e. authority.

I agree that SEO is an important consideration for Hive, and for any other blogging site. So yes, I think @abh12345's article is virtuous because it reminds us to help Google (and our audience) to understand our content. This is achieved by creating unique, accurate page titles. This is boosted by accurately summarizing the page content, using heading tags to emphasize important text, using meaningful URLs, etc.

Most importantly, we must quality control our content by making it original, interesting, and useful. On that subject, a rule that I like to abide by is this: "Is it kind? Is it appropriate? Is is relevant?" Building authority is about acting in an honest, authentic way, cultivating trust. Developing a reputation for expertise in a specific area is what we're looking for. As a Hive, our communal expertise might be in the areas of understanding cryptocurrency, building global communities, and expressing artistically through digital media.

3. Overcoming Obstacles - Revealing Opportunity

Addressing the Challenges with Opportunities

One of the unique challenges with telling people about Hive is that "Hive" isn't enough information. For a newbie, "Hive.blog" should probably be our go-to introduction, because a Google search for the keyword "hive" reveals that there are dozens of websites with higher search rankings for this keyword at the moment. Currently a Google search for "Hive Blog" seems to be enough information to bring people to the right place.

Please bear with me as I share a long list of current Google search engine results, illustrating the challenge of discovering Hive organically. In fact, Hive can be challenging to find, even for a person who knows what they're looking for. As you can see here, we're contenting with #1. Hive | The Productivity Platform, #13. Hive - The Global Community for Entrepreneurs, #36. The Hive | Be Productive or Just Be, alongside 116,000,000 others.

*Question: Does anybody know how to quickly find the current ranking of the keyword "hive" on the Google search engine?

4. Asking Questions - Sharing Answers

Asking Questions and Sharing Answers

I confess that I've been guilty of holding back my questions, due to the risk of looking stupid. Holding back is the truer act of stupidity, and I realize this is a side-effect of pretending I know it all or pretending that I'm somehow above the trivial knowledge. Various shades of arrogance and stubbornness. I believe the remedy for this is vulnerability—being bold enough to admit "I don't know," and being brave enough to say, "Will you help me?"

With this in mind, I believe it's time for me to voice some potential shortcomings I see in the Hive platform, for the sake of possibly bettering it for the future.

Question 1: Is the Hive search engine working well?

The reason why I ask is because I often try to search for articles within Hive that help me to answer the questions I have, but I rarely find what I'm looking for. Sometimes I wonder about a strategy for defining my author rewards, for example, or I'm curious about the dollar value of our Hive $. Let's take a look at a specific situation I'm encountering.

My search for a "german chocolate cake" recipe reveals:

This seemingly simple search reveals an epically long list of results, with no apparent way to filter through the findings. The #1 result is a post published 2 years ago, with zero dollar value, from a person with a low reputation score. The #2 result is an insignificant comment. Meanwhile, I'm wondering where the heck are the recipes I've shared, which are valuable and relevant to this search?

Here is the specific recipe I was looking for: Raw German Chocolate (Original Recipe) - Living Raw Journal Day #8. Somehow, this recipe did not rank near the top of our Hive search for "german chocolate cake", event though it seems directly relevant to the search, from a reputable source, consistently high-quality content.

Honestly, our Hive search engine does its job of finding keywords, and that's the most important part. If possible, I would love for the results to be listed in order of relevance, which might be indicated by the number of upvotes. And I welcome the idea of advanced search filters, if that's a possibility. I'm no expert in this subject, but I used to develop a lot of websites, and years ago, we embedded the Google search engine into our websites, specifying which site to search within. That looks like this: "site:hive.blog german chocolate cake."

Question 2: Is there an ombudsman available when questions arise?

In universities, there is a designated person who is chiefly responsible for answering questions. To me, Hive is a lot like a school for lifelong learners, and so I really like the idea of electing an ombudsman. Imagine if we could "Contact Hive" with questions, and then receive high-quality direct responses. I imagine this would help with onboarding, since most people probably encounter a steep learning curve when arriving on Hive.

The ombudsman's role is to help with answers, whenever possible, and then delegate questions to other authorities whenever necessary. The ombudsman in our case could create an FAQ library, with official answers. Dreaming big, I recognize that we as a community are the ombudsman. Questions can always be directed toward the larger group. But in my experience, some questions get ignored, or lost in translation, or left unanswered. I really hope someone will hear their calling as an ombudsman and step up to be a Hive hero.

I recognize that I am definitely not the ombudsman. I know very little about cryptocurrency and the blockchain, for example. In fact, when Hive first launched, I hadn't been active on Steemit for half a year, and at first I couldn't figure out how to login to Hive. It wasn't immediately intuitive to me to type in https://hive.blog. The closest thing I find was: https://hive.io/, but this still didn't get me to the login page. I contacted the tech support person, who helped me figure it out after a few email exchanges. Anyhow, asking questions and finding answers is a fine study.

Self-Controlling the Quality We Share

I've outlined four strategies to help us with onboarding and boosting visibility. I'll be the first to admit my own shortcomings in each of these areas, and I am stepping up now with a willingness to do my part to help keep Hive alive and thriving. I'm thankful to the various voices who have already spoken on these subjects, and I'm happy to carry the torch as it's my turn.

Here's a quick recap of the subjects covered above:

Starting simple with a written invitation
Studying various views and finding clarity
Addressing the challenges with opportunities
Asking questions and sharing answers

A closing thought that relates with each of the four sections above is the virtue of self-control. Yes, sure, Hive celebrates free speech, and yet, it must also safeguard people from clutter, violence, and lies, in my opinion. This requires each of us to take responsibility for our own self-awareness, self-respect, and self-regulation. Quality control will help to establish credibility, which will help our articles to be discoverable, which will help to keep Hive to humming and buzzing.

How To Introduce "New Bees" to Hive - Onboarding Ideas and Improvements to Boost Visibility