My experience at the Blue Waves Academy: Bluewaves Mentorship ProjectsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #bluewaves7 years ago (edited)

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Official Image of the Blue Waves Academy from Here

After being taught about steemit and cryptocurrency by @destinysaid through the @africaunchained project, he recommended I join the @bluewaves academy. This academy was set up to mentor minnows and redfishes by mentors @ogochukwu and @dragonslayer109 in the way of steemit and understanding the etiquettes needed on steemit.

I was one of the first 30 minnows inducted and I've learnt more and understood other concepts that were not very clear to me. We were mentored on the following categories: Personal Branding, Steemit Etiquette, Content Quality, Steemit Mindset of which I'll share what I have learnt.

Personal Branding

One should promote himself/herself on steemit. Yes, branding is mostly known with companies but you too can brand yourself. How do you want to be viewed by others and what do you want to be associated with? Many come on steemit and think it's a bed of STEEM that can be slept upon by just posting anything which is not so true. One needs to be a force to reckon with and deserving followership. Adding value to steemit and bringing new innovations is one of the ways to brand oneself.

Steemit Etiquette

Many (newbies) minnows and redfishes do not know how to socialise on steemit. Just like every other social media, one needs to make friends and engage with other people. When making comments, one should do it right, not like the spammy "follow me as I have followed you or upvote me because I just upvoted you." One should not go upvote begging and there has been a trend of sending messages with post links in memos to dolphins and whales which is not good of good steemit etiquettes. One should try to follow the rules of steemit judiciously in order not to be flagged and discarded like a soiled diaper.

Content Quality

One of the most important things on steemit is the quality of posts. One shouldn't copy and paste posts from other people, that is intellectual theft. When writing contents, if researched, it should be referenced well and all images used it not originally one's should also be referenced. Whatever niche, one should always make one's post worth the read. It will be a brain sore reading a post that doesn't make sense at all. And one's post always goes in line with personal branding, doing what one loves and doing it well.

Steemit Mindset

Every newbie coming to steemit thinks they are in an upvote factory where you post anything, upvotes will come rolling in and viola, blockchain wallet grows bigger. But after a few days of blogging, one sees it's not that way. As stated earlier, one needs to engage with people and add something meaningful to steemit. You have to give, help out in any way and contribute and maybe the blockchain revolution will bring smiles to your blockchain wallet. Steemit is not a quick way to riches but is a lifelong investment that can be one's legacy.

Conclusion

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Credit

Above is the summary of what I learnt. I have graduated from the academy and made new friends. The final question asked before graduation was, "if you had the power to change something in steemit, what would that be?" My answer is to change the way flagging is done. Many users flag indiscriminately and an example of this is @oluwoleolaide's post where he shared with us how a serial flagger goes around flagging newbies.To reduce the occurrence of this, a team will be set up to overlook all flagged posts and crosscheck if they are worth it and all flagging will be done in form of an application making it a long and hard process for ingenuine flagging. This may be a wish but it will go a long way in helping newbies if indiscriminate flagging is stopped.
I have read a lot of posts on how to survive and make it on steemit, the dos and don'ts of steemit (my favourite are that of @inquiringtimes and @luzcypher found here and here respectively), they are helpful but mentoring is nothing compared to reading. So I encourage every minnow to join the @bluewaves academy here.
Thanks to mentors @ogochukwu and @dragonslayer109, It was an amazing experience.

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I'm still been mentored, but with your post i feel like I have learnt everything. However, that won't stop me from continuing my class. I must get my own certificate 😂.

Kudos @learnandteach01

@hornblende.
Thank you. One never graduates from learning. Though I've learnt a lot from my mentors, I'll still always go back to them for guidance when ever I am lost.

Enjoy your class and collect the certificate. I'll eat rice and amala on your graduation. 😁


@learnandteach01

Lolz

When you graduated did you give me any amala and rice.
See the odd combination amala and rice.

The best combination ever.
I didn't celebrate mine as per 1st set. You are the next set and there is publicity. So let's celebrate your.

Such a great experience. I'm happy that you learned something. Steem on.

Thank you very much @bob-elr. You were the first friend I made there. Didn't want to do a friend shout out on the post. Lol.

Lol you're a good friend actually.

Am very much enlightened and inspired by this post, pls am a newbie how do I join this bluewaves academy

Hello @piusrita
You can join the academy in discord. This is the invite link..
https://discord.gg/3he9Ew

I think I will have to join the bluewave academy too. Thanks @learnandteach01 for the enlightenment

Hello @fatherfaith
You are welcome. It will be great if you do join the academy. This is the invite link.
https://discord.gg/3he9Ew


@learnandteach01

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You were very well taught and equipped for this journey on steemit. And I do agree with you that it is a life-long investment.
Thanks for sharing

Hello @edith4angelseu
You are welcome and thank you for reading. I am really glad I joined the academy.


@learnandteach01

Hmmm,this is much more than just information...its very educative ..thanks for sharing and kudos to you. .

@princeola
Thank you too and you are welcome.

Hello, @leanandteach01. Thank goodness that today I have time to check out your blog to see what you do here. Firstly, I'm glad that you've graduated from @bluewaves academy organised by @ogochukwu and @dragonslayer109.

My answer is to change the way flagging is done. Many users flag indiscriminately and an example of this is @oluwoleolaide's post where he shared with us how a serial flagger goes around flagging newbies.

Responding to this statement of yours, I will give a concrete example with the comment of @pharouq66, whose comment, as far as I'm concerned, is spam and undeserving of any reward. This makes me sad that you approved of a spam comment, oga o!, by upvoting it. Maybe you do not even realize that his comment is a spam. Newbies MUST as a matter of urgency seek to learn how not to make spam comments. I have zero tolerance to spam and downvote, as many as I can, any where I find them on planet steem . Newbies need to understand that steemit is not facebook, neither is it instagram or twitter. There is money involved here, so whoever wants to earn has to prepared to work hard and smart (not by spamming /scamming /trolling) for his money. Thank you for your lovely report on @bluewaves academy.

@maryfavour for @redfshpillar.

Hello @maryfavor
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I am honoured.

This makes me sad that you approved of a spam comment, oga o!, by upvoting it. Maybe you do not even realize that his comment is a spam.

I think I was oblivious. Thanks for bringing my attention to this. I usually thought spam were the:

"follow me I follow you. Or
Upvote me as I have upvoted you"

I'll try to correct this and help other newbies understand the concept of spam.

Newbies need to understand that steemit is not facebook, neither is it instagram or twitter. There is money involved here, so whoever wants to earn has to prepared to work hard and smart (not by spamming /scamming /trolling) for his money

I guess, this will be the gospel.


@learnandteach01

You are most welcome, @learnandteach01. I hope to find time to participate in the mentorship class of @bluewaves academy next week. @ogochukwu invited me. Meanwhile, you can read this guide from Witness @patrice in @spaminator to have a better understanding of what is considered as spam in the steem community. Cheers.

@maryfavour for @redfishpillar.

Thank you. I'll go through the guide. It will be great if you can find the time. We need more mentors and it will be a memorable and enlightening experience to learn from you too.

The academy has done well,making people grasp the realities of steemit is no little task.

While you might not consider this comment of yours as spam, the steem community considers it so, because it adds no value really to the theme presented by the author, @learnandteach01. Check how other people made comments on this thread and learn from them.

@maryfavour for @redfishpillar.