Sharing with our friends on Facebook, followers Twitter, and viewers on YouTube is the most effective method to get new followers on Steem to begin! As we continue to write, Google search and social sharing can also greatly assist us in building followers automatically!
With the solution seeming to be so simple at first and the reality often being frustrating to begin, the secret is consistent posting and sharing over time while individually responding as much as possible to requests by friends and family to learn more about Steem. While buying Steem Power also helps, ultimately if we want followers we need to bring our existing audience and do a great job with our posts daily.
What works to get more followers on Steemit?
Would you join us in reviewing part 3 of the interview with @followbtcnews where I answer questions about Steemit starting with more detail about this question! If you would like to read part 1 & 2 of the interview on Steemit go to:
1. https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@jerrybanfield/how-to-start-on-steem-youtube-and-facebook
Jeff:
Jerry, after they join Steemit and they start communicating with other users and they're building relationships with other people, they're writing content, what other ways can they use to maybe bring people to Steemit to be their followers?
Would you suggest maybe they post videos on YouTube or the new DTube even?
Do you suggest that they also cross promote and put these Steemit posts on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter?
Jerry:
Definitely, because that's what I'm doing, every one of my posts goes out automatically on Facebook and on Twitter. I make as many videos as possible where I talk about Steem as well, which plenty of the commenters have indicated, "Oh, God, not Steem again. Aw, he's talking about Steem, I’m done." Yes, I tell everyone about Steem because I have a passion for it. I think this is the opportunity a lot of us have been looking really hard for.
I was one of the first Facebook users and there was no good opportunity on Facebook when I first signed up that even is compared to this. Imagine, if I had been able to put a hundred or a couple hundred dollars, which even as a broke college student I could have put that into Facebook. Imagine being able to put a few hundred dollars into Facebook when it first started and today that'd be worth a whole lot.
Imagine if it gave you a more influential position on Facebook, and that's what we've got on Steemit, which is making it easy for me to sell everyone on it. My wife's been one of the toughest sells, but she finally let me sign up for an account, and now we're seeing about how to get her dad. He has a new podcast, which would be perfect for DTube. The magic of Steem, is seeing how friends and family respond to it.
You know whether it's going to work or not. A bunch of my friends have signed up. Several have even put money into it. Even one of my friends, Joe, is the most skeptical about everything, he will always give you all the reasons why things won't work, which is helpful for me because I come at you with the reasons why everything will work.
Joe even put a few hundred dollars on Steemit. My friend Albert put over a thousand onto it, my friend Joe Parys put several thousands onto it. Friends and family give validation to our ideas. If we bring ideas that suck to our friends and family, they'll let us know, but if we bring them something good, they'll let us know too. Getting our friends and family on, is one of the easiest ways to help get the ball rolling for us on Steemit too.
Jeff:
I absolutely agree. That's great advice too. I have a habit of talking to all my friends about Steemit all the time. I think they're about ready to kick me in the butt every time I tell them this. I think they are sick of it, but when there's something good and you know is good, you're doing the right thing by telling your friends and the family because you're trying to help them.
I definitely agree with your view of this is almost like if you could have got in early on Facebook, you could be retired right now. It definitely could be the same thing with Steemit. Right now is 100% the early stages. Steemit is still in beta phase and it's still being worked on. The user interface is still being worked on by the dev team. The blockchain has been through 19 hard forks and has succeeded.
It went just perfect on every single one. Let me tell you some hard forks are not the easiest thing in the whole world, but Steemit has gone through 19 of these just seamlessly. It's great. If that keeps up, then anybody that joins Steemit has got a lot to look forward to I think.
There's a lot of information we've gone through here, Jerry. I think you've given us some great advice for people. I know you also have a website, JerryBanfield.com. On that site, you also list a lot of your posts that you make on Steemit.
Definitely, I really like your site here. It shows a lot of tutorial videos that you've done, that I think people should take a look at, because they can get some valuable information. I've read through a lot of your post on Steemit and you give a lot of good tips to users on how to succeed, not only on Steemit, but maybe other aspects of life too, a lot of different things.
How to use headlines on Steemit?
Jeff:
I'd suggest for everybody just go take a look at some of these posts. Look at the topics, look at the headlines. Even, Jerry, as you wrote in one of yours, I remember reading it, you even gave a tip to everybody about the headlines in the thumbnail. So when somebody makes a post on Steemit, if I'm not mistaken, you suggested that the headline is very important to grab people's attention, to get them to read that post. Is that correct?
Jerry:
Definitely.
We have a lot of choices about what we read and watch online. The headline in that first image both is good for branding which is why, for better or worse, I use my face in most all of my thumbnails on everything. That way, even if you don't watch a video or a post, you see my face again.
So maybe after you've seen my face 10 times in the suggested video feed or just seeing my face or wherever it's at, you're more likely to click on it. I look at those, the headlines in the thumbnails, like a brief space where you have to sell on why this is worth watching or reading, and if you don't make use of that, it's hard to get anyone else to come look at it.
Jeff:
Okay. Let me ask you something now, to dive into that just a little bit more. Heck, this is probably going to help me maybe actually too, so I need to know. When I'm working on the headline, the title, which is the first sentence in our post, that first sentence, if I'm not mistaken, is what is going to show on the trending new post page or whatever, that's the first thing people are going to see.
I'm sorry, I'm talking about two different things. Let me rephrase. You got the title, then you got the first line. In the title though, I've seen some people post those emoticons or emojis in those titles. What do you think about those? Is that something that can attract attention or do you discourage against that or which way do you go with that?
Jerry:
I try to do actionable titles.
I have for example one post I called "Revealing Truth and Discovering Inspiration with Steem." I try to focus on titles on things like this last one, "23,349 Views from Google on One Steem Post," things that you can immediately intuitively understand and that prompt curiosity, often with the reader saying, "Really? How can I get that many views on one Steem post?"
Sometimes I just keep it simple with a book title and a chapter, and I'd try to go simple on my titles, therefore I try not to fool around with a lot of gimmicks because I've fooled around with so many gimmicks online already and I've learned to keep things simple. I focus on being useful to people and gimmicks often come with a higher cost than they do overboard.
I see putting lots of emojis or crazy symbols in there could help, but it's also a gimmick that might discourage people from reading, or it might annoy people right away too, and they won't even read the rest of it after that.
Jeff:
Okay, all right. Well, that's good. That's good information to know. That's what I was looking for. I'm sure the listeners and viewers will be pleased to know anything that will help them get their content seen. I'm looking at the titles here and I do see how they're really captivating as far as you either make a statement or a question, but it peaks the curiosity right there in the titles.
Definitely, I can see how that's going to help attract people to click on that title and read more into it. You stated in your post, once they click on that post, I think they're more liable to go ahead and finish reading that, that the whole thing is just getting them to actually read it, and that's where that title and that first line comes in. That's great information.
Jerry, we pretty much went through all the questions that I had for you today and you've been awesome. You've given us some really valuable information that I think it's going to help a lot of people already on Steemit, and also a lot of people that are considering to join.
Do you have anything else before we say bye to everybody, that you'd like to announce or tell them, or just anything in closing?
How to get more Witness votes?
Jerry:
I'm always trying to learn something because we each have divine gifts that we are able to give, meaning each of us has things we can be really good at.
One thing I noticed is that you're doing much better than me on the witness votes. If you look at the witness votes, you'll notice that Jeff @followbtcnews has several positions above me in the witness votes.
I'd like to know, Jeff, what are some tips you have on getting higher up in those witness votes?
This has been one of the biggest challenges for me on Steemit.
Jeff:
I got to admit, Jerry, that is probably the best question of the whole hour, only because it's the hardest one to answer.
I started off very slowly. When I first started as a witness, I was 197 I think, and slowly I got to 140, and then 120. Then finally, I got under a hundred and I started actually to sign a block every once in a while.
Slowly, by working hard on the Minnow Support Project with @aggroed, @ausbitbank and quite a few others, communicating with a lot of members in the Minnow Support Project and doing a lot of curating communication with other members, that's helped to get some votes.
Also, what I have found out is that by building tools in apps for the Steemit platform on the Steem blockchain tends to gain a little bit of recognition from some of the top guys, that see that you're trying to do those things and I've been lucky that I've got a few votes, a couple from the big whales that have blessed me with those votes.
Now, Crimson Clad @crimsonclad and myself, and this is something else, is that actually there are two of us that run this witness node.
It's me @followbtcnews and it's @crimsonclad, who is also a moderator in the Minnow Support Project. Now, we were tasked with building the official website for minnowsupportproject.org, I want to say about a month ago. When we did that, Crimson Clad actually did all the design on that website. I just pretty much handled some of the back end, paying for the theme, the plugins and the server, stuff like that, which Crimson did 100% of the design.
To make the long story short, by doing that, it gained a little recognition from some people, who decided to give us their witness vote after doing that. Right now, we have two different tools that we've had developers working on now for about a month, that should be launched, hopefully, within the next week or two, that I've shown to a couple of the guys and they've been supporting us with that. Honestly, a lot of the votes I got just came from communicating with the guys in the Discord channel.
There's a lot of Discord groups and a lot of whales who hang out in there, a lot of members that I just communicate with, and I talk with, and I have fun with sometimes. I'm lucky enough to get their votes sometimes, but believe me, I'm nowhere near the top.
You and I both know that we struggle to get in that top 50 and once we get in that top 50, the votes come just a little bit easier because then we're actually on the page where people just got to hit the button to upvote us, and they don't have to type in our name and all that.
I will say though, you've done really good with witness votes also because you have a lot of votes and you moved very quickly to where you are now, which is not an easy thing. I definitely think you're on the right track as well as I am. I think it's just going to take us both a little bit more time to get where we want to be.
One person, @aggroed actually, moved very quickly. He sat in position 51, if I'm not mistaken, for a couple of months. Finally, he got one vote that pushed him in the top 50. Once he hit top 50, it was a week and he got to number 27. Today, @aggroed is sitting at number 17, he's in the top 20.
It's crazy!
That's because he's providing value to the community. He started that Minnow Support Project. The bigger guys see that, so they say, "Okay, he's helping." I think it's just a matter of getting noticed by the bigger whales, and getting their attention, and hopefully getting their respect to bless us with their vote. I guess that's really the only thing that I know as far as that goes.
I hope that helps a little bit. I know that's not the magic answer, but that's pretty much all, as far as I know, what I've done and what I've seen.
Jerry:
That's very helpful, Jeff, I appreciate it.
@teamsteem has helped me with a lot of votes, and he's voted for me. He suggested I go to Discord. Several people suggested I go to Discord, but I often don't take suggestions very quickly. I just started in Discord, so I'm just seeing what you're talking about.
Wow, a lot of the people that you might struggle to reach with a post or a comment on Steem are just sitting there right in the Discord. Which Discord channel do you hang out in?
Are you in the Steem Speak, or are you somewhere else?
Jeff:
I'm actually a member of all of them, but I hang out, most of the time, in the PAL Discord, it's the Peace Abundance Liberty, which is the Minnow Support Project.
Jerry:
Sure. Would you send me an invite on Skype after the call?
Jeff:
I absolutely will. I'd like to see you over there. I'm actually a moderator and I'll make sure you get a nice warm welcome. We'd love to see you. We're always looking for good people to join. I think everybody would be glad to hear from you. It's a great place just to hang out. You'd meet a lot of good people.
One of the best things about it is the Minnow Support Project. We're there just trying to teach these new people that are joining, how to succeed on Steemit. I think it's been a great thing. You're definitely a 100% welcome over there. We'd love to see you.
Jerry:
Thank you, Jeff. What's the easiest way to contribute to the Minnow Support Project? Let's say, if you've got Steem Power, I'd rather contribute something quick like delegate Steem Power, or versus someone who maybe has time and energy, and wants to maybe earn some money and recognition out of it.
Jeff:
It's funny you mention that, because right now, our biggest delegator who has been Jojo, was delegating 100,000 Steem Power to the Minnow Support Project, he has had to pull his delegation because of some personal reasons, but he's been great.
Actually, Minnow Support just posted this morning that they're going on a drive right now and they're looking for help. Delegating is the most important thing right now for Minnow Support to get some more delegators because we need the Steem Power. We make over 2,000 upvotes a day strictly on minnows. Obviously, to make that many upvotes, we need as much Steem Power as possible.
What I'm going to do is also send you a link in Skype when we're done. It explains it, about how to delegate, if you want to delegate to Minnow Support. I'm also going to send you the invite link to join over there.
You can delegate whatever and it's very easy. There's an application that was built to make it very easy to delegate Steem Power. You know as well as I do, when you delegate you can take it back at any time, but it takes seven days to come back into your account after you un-delegate it. It's still always in your control.
The money is still in your account, it's just that power is loaned out to somebody else. One of the best ways right now to help Minnow Support, to help the minnows, is by delegating any amount of Steem Power. We encourage the minnows, not to do anything over 10 Steem Power because you need that for your bandwidth issues and stuff.
What I'm trying to say is anything helps, that's it. You definitely would be a welcome addition there, and I'm going to make sure to send you the invite link in and another link to a Steemit post by Minnow Support they made just this morning with the links that talks about it and how to do it, and stuff like that.
Jerry:
Excellent.
Well, thank you, Jeff. That's been extremely helpful. I always am looking what help can I give and what help do I need, so you've given me the help I was looking to get out of this interview as well.
Jeff:
Good. I'm glad to hear that Jerry. That's great, buddy. That sounds like something that's going to help everybody out. I can't think of anything else, Jerry.
I think it's been a great show. I know I, and I'm sure all the listeners and viewers, appreciate you taking the time to come on here and talk with us today, and show us a lot of new stuff.
I know I learned a few things today that I think is going to help me with my actions on Steemit. I want to thank you for coming on, Jerry. I know I'll definitely be interacting with you on Steemit and on Discord.
Jerry:
Thank you very much for doing this with me today, Jeff. I'll look forward to you sending me those links, and I will talk to you soon.
Jeff:
Thank you, Jerry. You have a great day, buddy. We'll talk to you after a while.
Jerry/Jeff:
Bye-bye.
Final words
Thank you very much for reading this post, which was originally filmed as the video below, and is the third and last part of the interview with @followbtcnews.
The feedback on the video was so positive that I spent about $100 to get this post created for you here out of the video, and then edited it prior to publishing! I appreciate you being here and I hope you have a wonderful day today.
If you found this post helpful on Steemit, would you please upvote it and follow me because you will then be able to see more posts like this in your home feed?
Love,
Jerry Banfield with edits by @gmichelbkk on the transcript by GoTranscript.
Shared on:
- Facebook page with 2,256,467 likes.
- YouTube channel with 199,690 subscribers.
- Twitter with 105,563 followers.
PS: Witness votes are the most important votes we make on Steem because one vote for a witness lasts indefinitely! Would you please make a vote for jerrybanfield as a witness or set jerrybanfield as a proxy to handle all witness votes at https://steemit.com/~witnesses because when we make our votes, we feel in control of our future together?
Or
