Why I Am Going To Spend More Time Curating Quality "Introduce Yourself" Posts
Hi Friends!
Last night I had a really fun interaction with a new user @devilsd on his Introduce Yourself post. I saw it because my friend @mattclarke resteemed it and decided to pop in and say hello. It made me realize how I'm not doing a very good job of making an effort to encourage people on their introduction post.
Be Part of Someone's Steem Story
I recently looked back on my own introduction post because of a challenge @anomadsoul was running after HF20. It was pretty amazing to see how many people stopped by and welcomed me - including big users like @firepower and @flauwy. My intro post only made like $2 too - so it wasn't exactly a very visible post. I honestly don't even know how all those people found me. The point is that I remember how much it meant to me to have so much encouragement on my first post!
That got me thinking to how freaking awesome it would be for people to reflect on their own Steem journey's and look back and say that I made an impact on them somehow when they were first starting out.
So... I'm going to start trying to find more quality "Introduce Yourself" posts that I can curate with a vote, and leave an encouraging comment.
How To Find Quality Introduction Posts?
This can be SUPER hard and honestly part of the reason that more people aren't spending the time to do this. The #introduceyourself tag is run over with all sorts of content that doesn't even apply - which is unfortunate. It can be hard to sort out legitimate new users and people who are just scamming and stealing content too.
Luckily, scanning the introduceyourself tag isn't the only way to spot these gems. There are some cool projects like @welcoming and the @welcomewagon who take the time to sift through and find promising new users. So checking their pages can be a great way to find people.
There are of course awesome projects like @helpie and @curie that help highlight new users as well. If any of you reading this post have any tips on ways to sort and find good Introduce Yourself posts - please feel free to drop that below.
It Takes 5 Minutes... and Really Helps our Community
It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own feeds and not take the time to seek out new people to follow or support. I know that I already feel like I have a hard time keeping up with all my friends and people I like to follow, but just taking the time to do this a few times a week can make a big impact.
Encouraging new users has been really top of mind for me lately. That's part of why I started the Minnow of the Month contest - which has been super fun! @lifesacircus is the October Minnow of the Month and she is absolutely crushing it right now.
As much fun as I'm having with that new contest/initiative - I really could be spending even more time curating Introduce Yourself posts. So if anything, I hope this post encourages people to do the same. It is honestly is a bit of accountability for me too!
More of my Steemy Adventures
| The Steem Sister Show Has a New Page! |  |
 | The Steem Monster Show with @littlescribe and @coruscate |
| Watch My Talk at the Steem Creators Conference |  |
 | Follow The Muse Project - Empowering Women on the Blockchain - with @ogc and @coruscate |
| Learn More About Mene 24k Gold Investment Jewelry |  |
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Thank you for the mention - I hope I can help out your curation actions :)
Greets, Martin aka @theaustrianguy
The Martin! I love what you are doing and I'm definitely going to be stopping by your page a ton now to find some cool new users. :) I know what a positive impact you guys had on my sister when she did her intro post. Keep up the awesome work! :)
The welcome I received was certainly more than I was expecting.
I like to think that im diligent and do my research when coming into a new challenge. I read a fair few articles about how to do an introduction post and what to avoid, although i did make the mistake of not fully understanding the SteemPower mechanic.
After these first 24hours ive learnt so much already from great people like you @coruscate and being a Moderator of an community of ~18K members i fully understand the value of first impressions and the value of having a welcoming and uplifting community ready to help newer users get a grasp.
Another user @acidyo "delegated" some SP to me so that i could reply to the wonderful comments everyone was giving me. With the amount of support i received already, his delegation was more than enough, in fact it was probably to much to ask for haha. But i could not thank you enough for that support and when the community stands up and provides that level of openness to its newer users it can only become a better platform going forward.
I can attest that the 5 minutes you spend helping someone new, it makes so much of a difference!
Thanks again.
aww so cool that acid delegated you some SP! This is definitely one of the most generous communities I have ever experienced.
Stoked to have you here!
Nawwww, this is a great idea!
For a while I was running @thefreshfive, that would grab five exciting new Steemians each day, write a little bit about them all and upvote them and any comments they made on that report. It was really fun, but after a while we kept finding that barely any of the people we introduced had stuck around, and we weren't really finding any support from established members so it was tough to keep up financially.
We possibly went too hard too fast, so I really like the idea of just spending 5 minutes to help out a newbie... everyone's got a spare 5 minutes!
Oooh the fresh five!! What a fun idea. I can see how that would be a LOT of work though. That is one reason why I think I go in waives of stopping by the introduce yourself tag. Sometimes people continue on - but many don't. Five people every single day would be a lot!
totally true! and thanks for the reminder....I will go look at that tag more often too! Now I just look when I bump into them, and it shouldn't be this way =)
Thanks for stopping by @evecab! So excited to meet you at SF3 soon!
likewise =)
When the Resource Credits came into play, many were saying, "These new members will NEVER be able to do anything." I wrote a post not long after saying it's not all up to Steemit Inc and these witnesses. There are thousands of us here. All we have to do is push the button (vote). That first post will help get them started, if we push the button. That's all it takes, problem solved.
I try to get to one per day. I don't always make it, but I try, and it's more than I was doing before. We're not all going to agree on which posts are the best but if everyone tried to shoot for one noob post per day, that would help a lot of people get started.
Also, it seems many people quit. My feed has been quiet. Some fresh new faces and new stuff to look at is better than ghost town.
Have a good day.
That's super cool that you try to reach out to one new person a day. That's a great goal. I love your approach of the community supporting these new users when they first start out by delegating them a little steem. Maybe i'll have to do the same for a few people. :)
Delegating is helpful but I won't be taking that road. If I passed some SP around, I then have to constantly monitor progress. What do I do with the delegation if the new member doesn't post for five days? Do I assume they're not coming back? The delegation takes five days to be removed so what happens if I cancel it, then they return after ten days with a post? I'd have to first see consistency and want to be able to do more of a background check before I ever delegate. I could easily drop 50SP on 50 promising new members but to me, that's much like paying someone to come in for a job interview.
It's not a bad idea, it's helpful; but delegating is something I personally won't have time to follow up on.
Brilliant analogy with the job interview thing. I think if it didn't take so long for SP to return - i'd be more open to trying that a bit more often. Like you said - you've gotta keep an eye on whether your delegation is being put to good use. All good points here.
Ps... loved your "pick one person a day" approach. Found someone already today. I don't speak a lick of spanish - but we are a both flute players and so I directed him to the spanish Open Mic posts. Hopefully that helps him get plugged in with the music community here. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the extra dose of motivation on this subject.
Thanks for everything you do for this place. That's a long list.
I definitely agree that we need to just take a few minutes each day and read some of these introductions. It is people with the influence, such as yourself, that can help these people get noticed and get encouragement. Unfortunately, there are many who are completely overlooked and never receive more than the bot comments and a few cents in payout. Scott and I started going deep into the introduceyourself tag and seeing who is still low on these items. We then are introducing them in a post going out to those who follow us in hopes those friends will show them some SteemIt love. This is really important now that HF20 has made the changes causing the new accounts to have issues. If you want to take a look at what we are doing, here's the link to our most recent curation post: https://steemit.com/curation/@xcountytravelers/hey-have-ya-met-october-12-2018.
Thanks again, for saying something and encouraging your followers to take a few moments to help others.
Scott & Ren
This is SO helpful!!! I'll definitely be checking your "Hey have ya met" posts more often now. Thanks for taking the time to do this. It's super helpful to the newbies you are highlighting and super helpful for people like me who want to give some love to newbs without sorting through all the chaos of the "introduce yourself" tag everyday.
Make sure to let me know if you start doing some type of curation post. I would love to see who you find!
That is a nice goal, especially for people who have enough steem power to have the appreciation show up as more than dust.
It's things like that show why you became the (unofficial?) face of steem... keep it up.
Thanks for the shoutout; more than happy to call you a friend :)
In fairness I rarely visit #introduceyourself, I saw it off @thecastle's resteem.
We need to be quick on the resteem button if somebody jumps out at us.
I still can't believe @robertkiyosaki didn't get noticed for a week.
Oooh wow I didn't even know he was on here. Looks like he didn't make it past the intro post though. I saw your comment on there about verifying his identity. Totally fair points - it's hard to know if people are who they say they are without proof.
Hopefully he'll be back one day. Would be an awesome addition to the steemisphere.
I stopped by intro posts often earlier on my journey here. The real world has gotten much busier since. Life isn't slowing down any, but I do want to try and stop by there more often again.
It would be great if we all find some time to do so and help onboard new users.
Thanks for stopping by @beeyou!! <3
I totally hear you on life getting busy. It's easy to forget to do little things like this. I used to be a lot better at it - and so this post was just as much an accountability piece for me to actually make sure I start doing it more. haha
Have an awesome day!
YES!!! Its so true how you remember each new person and the support really makes a difference! You've inspired me to do a post for two newbies who are my REAL LIFE friends... stay tuned!
aww YAY! I saw one of your friends posts - which is killing it. So awesome! Excited for the Crypto babe takeover that is going down.
You have TWO cats?
bahahha omg i'm dying @aussieninja.
I think we've established that Steemit needs a Willow page. Could be our first animal celebrity. :) @lifesacircus.