Why is Engagement the Most Important Aspect of Blogging Platforms?

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When I first started on Hive I was told that the most important thing for a minnow to do on the platform was to comment, a dolphin to create, and a whale was to curate.

Writing comments was the way I earned the most Hive on the platform for the first 3 - 4 months I was on here. I was a terrible writer and enjoyed learning about Hive and crypto so writing encouraging comments was what I would do.

The Difference Between Comments and Engagement

First of all, I think it's important to differentiate between comments and engagement.

A comment is something you just leave behind without much thought. Nice video and thanks for sharing are a few examples of comments that mean little to the author and take very little time or effort.

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What I do with the spam comments

Engagement is when someone actually reads the article and shares something specific that they learned or took from the article. Hey I really appreciate you sharing you're struggling with x and it really means a lot to me to see how you used y to overcome that struggle, which is something I'm going to try in my life to overcome this obstacle I'm going through.

A comment like that really lets the author know that you helped them and can motivate that author to keep creating more than getting paid a few cents for you view or upvote.

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Counting the crypto I earn from making great comments

I'm not going to lie the money that I earn from my articles is nice, but the friends that I've developed through engaging in blog posts are what keeps me coming back to these different platforms to see how everyone is doing and growing.

My Engagement Journey

Engagement, in my opinion, is what has opened up all the doors and opportunities for me on Hive and allowed me to get to where I am today.

When I first started on the platform I would get a little jealous of others making low-quality posts and earning large rewards. After doing a little digging I found out most of these people were working their a$$ off with thousands of posts and many more thousands of comments.

I'm not overly talented when it comes to writing and not very lucky so I quickly discovered if I wanted to be discovered on the platform, I needed to start putting in the time and engaging on other people's content that I enjoyed reading.

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It was a comment on a post either by @acidyo or @ocd that allowed me to be a curator for @ocd. I was chosen, out of the many who applied, and was delegated 1,000 Steem Power to help curate low valued authors. What I earned from curation and with that delegation was a huge jump start for earnings on the platform.

It was commenting on @sirknights posts that allowed me to be an apostle in @SteemChurch that allowed me to find and curate more great content on the platform using an "angel" account as well as helping myself and undervalued authors grow on the platform.

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This is also what lead me to create @steemusa with others on the platform. Engaging with others to help grow that platform is how I met some of my favorite authors on the platform @enjar, @dswigle, @tattoodjay, @topkpop and many others.

Engagement is the Foundation of Buidl

I really appreciate @abh12345 Hive's Engagement League and encourage anyone that hasn't signed up yet to do so.

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Engagement League

If you feel like commenting on hundreds of posts doesn't bring much value or seems lame and boring, but you are competitive, this is a great weekly competition to help drive you to win and make more comments each week.

Unfortunately, I'm spending more time writing nowadays and don't have the free time that I used to, but I really miss reading all the great content on the platform and engaging with new authors daily.

If you're struggling on the platform to get the value that you think your posts deserve, find other people who write better articles than you, that get rewarded less, and start commenting on their posts and encouraging them.

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Remember, no matter how hard you're working on the platform and the hustle that you're putting in there is always someone hungrier and working harder than you that is being rewarded less.

Wake up earlier than everyone else, and start working harder than everyone else, and one day the effort you're putting in will be noticed and rewarded.



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Great post. Really emphasizing the value of engagement. I believe that this will help me out a lot.

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Welcome to Hive, finding things, post, blogs you like, and leaving a comment can and will help a lot. When I first joined, what was steem back then, I joined to read stories and did get to read a lot of them. I left comments to the Authors about the story, my speculation of what was coming and just general comments about the stories. After awhile some of the comments got votes, and when I made a post I would get votes and comments from them.

It can take effort but that effort will pay off in the end I believe.

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I think the time I've put in engaging with others has definitely paid off and glad it is paying off for you as well.

Isn't Hive awesome in the variety of content you can read about. I know I was more interested in reading about content about investing and crypto and didn't read any stories.

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There is a lot of good content on Hive, I just wish people could get beyond the term 'quality' it is so subjective. If a person likes something, it is quality to them. I find lots of new users via re-blogs, but most often because I see a comment someone made and I get curious about their account. So engagement does lead to discovery of new people/content.

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Thanks @bashadow. I understand and might need to spend more time reading and responding to posts and comments. I believe in working hard and hope this translates here also.

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I'm glad is their anything specific that you took from this post that will help you out?

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Just taking the time to read and enjoy the articles and posting comments on those posts that caught my attention.

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If there's one thing I learned, it's that if you want support, you have to give support. It's supposed to be a decentralized social network, so let's use this social network not only to share our work, but also to get to know each other. Because I'm one of those who is motivated by reading the comments they leave on my posts, that makes me want to visit those people's account and explore their posts, the same thing happens when you comment, they visit your profile and find something they like, that's the good thing about comments. At least one of many things.

I really liked that advice about going to explore the little ones, because that motivates them (or me, because I am an equal novice) a lot, that you are really interested in their publication and that they are not being ignored in the communities, that speaks very well of you.

Thank you for this article, it is very helpful, hopefully we will continue to grow in this topic of comments, we have much to learn.

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Yeah, it is definitely the best way to get noticed by others is by somehow finding some way to provide value to them.

Since I'm not a coder and didn't have much Steem/Hive Power the best way I could provide support to others was encouragement and positive feedback on their posts.

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Thank you for explaining the difference between comment and engagement.

I do feel even manual upvote as an engagement. Because that person like what he consumed.

Engagement > Comments > Upvotes

Like how you end it

Wake up earlier than everyone else, and start working harder than everyone else, and one day the effort you're putting in will be noticed and rewarded

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Thanks for the awesome comment. It is really important to understand the difference between comment and engagement.

I ended it that way because it's definitely one thing I noticed when I first started out on the platform and was getting frustrated by the lack of upvotes. I thought I was putting in more effort than everyone else on the platform only to realize I was putting in a lot of effort, but others (such as yourself) were putting in much more time and effort than I was.

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Hello @gniksivart..
This is a very informative and encouraging post for the people like me or the newbie here on the hive platform. You are right hard work is the key to success in any field so as on the hive too. I learnt a lot from this post and I am sure this will help me a lot in growing here. Thank you for sharing your valuable thoughts.

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I would be interested to know what do you think is the one most valuable thing that you learned specifically from this post?

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I consider myself pretty well engaged with Hive, but I struggle to make the top 10 in the engagement league. I am still one of the top 100 commenters since this all started though. That has helped me build a following despite not being a great content creator. I usually get good comments on my posts and that has value for me. That is why I reward comments. I find it sad when a good post has no comments even if the rewards are good.

I think it is vital for people to find the content they enjoy and support that rather than just chasing the money. Billions use social media with no rewards because it is fun and Hive can be fun too. I would give up if it were too much like work as it just does not pay enough for that.

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Billions use social media with no rewards because it is fun and Hive can be fun too.
This should be tattooed on the inside of some peoples eyelids so they can see it every day and be reminded that Hive needs to up its game if it wants people to join Hive. Simply saying "Get paid for what you write" is not enough. We need to be promoting communities: Art, Dogs, Cars, Games and events such as meetups to show that it is worthwhile investing the huge amount of time Hive consumes and it does eat up the hours I assure you.
"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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People should feel free to invest as little or as much time as they want. I cut down on other social media as Hive has more value to me, but I can be obsessive. We need a good mix of content so there is something for everyone. Many just don't care about crypto news. We need more people and it's a chicken/egg thing of needing content creators who want a bigger audience to attract them.

!ENGAGE 20

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Hive does have a great variety of content, but I agree it can be a little crypto heavy.

I do enjoy some of the more thoughtful actifit posts on here where people post about runs and how they're improving or how the run went and other details.

I'm hoping some other community takes off like Leo does in the future. It would be nice to see some competition for them in the future with other communities.

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I find lots of music and comics that I enjoy. I am not so into crypto really. People seem to like my running posts, but then I like keeping a log of what I do.

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Yeah I want to get more disciplined with my exercising and start keeping better logs to track my improvements.

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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It's easy to wait for everyone else to make the improvements for you, and definitely don't take this the wrong way, but what have you done to make or promote the communities and start a meet-up and such.

There are no Hive CEOs to do this and if we want to see Hive improve we have to put in the work ourselves to make it the place we want it to be.

(This is supposed to be an encouragement, but I fear it comes off more critical than I'm intending and want to apologize in advance for not being the best word smith).

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So you've clearly not looked at the work I've been doing on Twitter or the fact I do a weekly post on Hive titled #itsfriday or the fact I bought and created a community on Hive titled #seriously or regularly promote and contribute to the Dogs https://hive.blog/created/hive-125335 community? And every day barring weekends share peoples work across my Social Media feeds? I think I've earned my "What have the Romans ever done for us!?" Badge?


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Are so called Whales not CEO's? Or better still, shouldn't Witnesses be Ambassadors for Hive? How about we create a Community Manager? I propose @steevc or @nathanmars

P.S. No offence taken by your comment. 😃


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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Awesome my man thanks for all the hard work! Why not you for community manager ;)

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ROTFLMAO

I speak my mind far too much for some of the hyper-sensative folks on Hive. There'd be too many tears plus I'm like Marmite. You either like it or hate it there's no inbetween. LOL


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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I’m only good at managing myself.

I’m More of an individual contributor who inspires our community

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I would give up if it were too much like work as it just does not pay enough for that.

I wish it did pay enough to be work. Haha.

Yeah I'm sure the competition for the Hive Engagement League is much greater than the few times when I was winning it when it first started out. I can definitely say the weeks that I would win I was pretty much commenting and engaging like it was a full-time job pretty much all week long.

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We each decide how much it means to us. I tend to get sucked in when I try to respond to all the comments and posts I see. Time just whizzes past :)

!ENGAGE 20

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Time definitely seems to fly by when I get sucked into Hive.

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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Me gusta mucho esta iniciativa de comentar los post, de esta manera las personas nuevas aprenderán y no se sentirán solos. Gracias por tu aporte en tu contenido. Excelente

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I think the problem with engagement is that it costs time to build on. Time isn't something most people are willing to invest when they could be creating content somewhere or working a regular job. I'm not saying engaging with other content creators isn't worth it, I'm saying that investing on a social relationship on the blockchain tends to take a lot of time that most shy away from.

For content creators that are already secured with their autoupvotes from generous high hp holders, the initiative to engage becomes less attractive because they no longer have to practice better public relations to be visible. They have substantial and regular sources of rewards to be happy with.

I think engagement still is a necessary part to thrive on this blockchain. Because your fans may leave anytime. This is when bonds matter most because people still welcome you into their social circle if you had good rapport with them from the beginning.

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I am definitely guilty of this and haven't engaged near as much as I used to.

When I was helping to lead some communities it was almost my obligation to be active on the platform and that definitely burned me out after a while and still trying to find a good mix of being active on the platform and avoiding burn out and getting behind on other real-life obligations.

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I think everyone goes through with this and they would be really lying if they didn't. Engaging with other people here can be taxing and the rewards aren't as profitable as when you focus on real life matters. You can also get mixed up on blockchain drama if you're not careful. But I think that's the aspect that people miss out a lot when judging someone's rewards for their posts. It's not that the content is worth the reward, it's more of people rewarding the person for the social and other intangible aspects they have contributed to the blockchain.

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it's more of people rewarding the person for the social and other intangible aspects they have contributed to the blockchain.

Definitely a great point

You can also get mixed up on blockchain drama if you're not careful

This is another thing that I got caught up in that I think led to my burnout and I am glad that I recognized it and try and stay as far away from the drama as possible because all it does is take brain space that it doesn't deserve.

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Be careful what advice you give. I've seen a lot of posts over the last few weeks that could have been this mythical "Good Content" that very few Hive authors actually believe in and yet when I pointed out to one poster how they could have improved their work I was basically told to shove off and mind my own business because:

"I do not write for your pleasure"
You are right. You build up relationships and allies by interacting with them but I have to agree with @adamada it all takes up a heck of a lot of time unless you're not in full-time employment I suppose?
"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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I could argue that most people that enter the platform aren't content creators or just testing out their hidden talents. There are more rewards to created a post than curating and commenting so people don't want to miss out such opportunities.

I can totally relate with you when it comes to receiving backlash for giving constructive feedback. Back when I was active (semi active now due to career reasons), this was frequently the dilemma of connecting to people, either you give them praise or face toxicity.

The remedy I found was just sticking to a circle of professional artists or artists that acknowledge they have more to learn (like I still do). It becomes an inside joke within the community to spot fake artists just forcing themselves for petty rewards (plagiarist posts, and spam art that was made in kindergarten)

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In some respects, I really wish we could play down the financial incentives rather than using it as the main reason for joining. It seems to me, and I could be wrong here? That the vast majority are solely interested in the rewards which is why there are so many automated bots, contests and so-called giveaways.


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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Remove the financial rewards and we get a less appealing version of a social media on top of a blockchain. There are exceptional content here that occasionally gets posted but the bulk what can be seen here are usually content you can see for free on a regular social media newsfeed. This blockchain can reward you for just posting a picture of what you ate for dinner with only a few sentences. Having functions that automate the reaping of rewards sweetens the deal.

I'm just glad that the ecosystem right now rewards the people that do devote their time developing their content compared to what the old blockchain was. The old blockchain made it difficult to have visibility because less incentives were given for curation. Even if Hive has it flaws right now, it's still looks better than Steemit as there are now more incentives for content creators to post and be noticed than the environment 2-3 years ago.

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You should talk with @fknmayhem who said:
https://twitter.com/fknmayhem/status/1308351904670384129
He seems to think, as I said, we should maybe do away with financial rewards or at least in the manner they are earned now.


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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Taken out of content, slightly. That was about the 75% curation removal headline.

But, I doubt that the "current social media" highlights the best this blockchain has to offer. And I also doubt, based on a background in online publishing management and internet startups funding, that there is potential to scale the value of HIVE to make it worthy. Making content transactional is a difficult game and will definitely not lead to a $2bn mcap.

I never said to do away with rewards. Why would I say that, democratized publishing is one of my main focuses since more than a decade and a half. And on Hive I consider myself a creator.

But I do support a gradual move of rewards to layer 2, in order to create more and new token utility and remove a lot of constant down pressure on the token.

Rewards for creation are a "Trojan horse" to speed up user acqui. Our true assets are "central userbase, fast and almost free tx, and censor-resilience.

"Social media" was an experiment and should be merely a vertical going forward. We have games, we can add DeFi (have it already sorta), we do a lot of time stamping, and the chain's speed and proven scalability allows us to even operate HIVE as a real life payment token at scale.

Inflation averaging around 13% isn't sustainable.

Moral of the story: max 280 chars barely ever tells the full story. Taking that limited number of characters elsewhere usually will tell even less and may damage the intent of those words, characters.

Bonus: I'm definitely not the only one who advocates layer2 rewards. But I don't think we're ready for that yet and are IMHO at least two years and a half away from a possible, complete switch. A switch which isn't hara-kiri.

Bonus 2: I will be more careful with my tweets going forward.

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Na, My bad. I misunderstood.


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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People reap what they sow, I would guess after that they will get no votes from you and a lot of others that saw the comment will give no votes to them.

It does take time to comment, but sometimes that time just needs to be taken. It is a shame we can not type as fast as we think.

!ENGAGE 20

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Over 30 years I've used a keyboard and still cannot touch-type. LOL


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"

Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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It does take a lot of time upfront, but after you start to get noticed I find you don't have to put in as much time anymore.

It's an off and on a thing or you could just consistently put in a little time each week and grow it off the consistency rather than the quantity.

It's all about growing people you enjoy interacting with so you don't have to put in alot of effort all the time just put in a little effort commenting every day.

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Commenting is one of the things I also try to stress to new users. I understand when starting it is hard especially if you are not a Blogger and just a user/reader sometime poster. Even as a professional blogger for their account to grow they need to grow a following. Some will just auto follow everyone, I think most people follow other people when they have interaction with them.

I may not have a big number next to my following stat on peakd but I do follow a lot of people via the list function of peakd.

Another thing learned by looking at and commenting on post is you do get ideas for things to do, say or show on Hive when you are ready to start up a blog or to start social posting.

!ENGAGE 20

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I have found that reading others posts and then leaving a comment has helped me to get ideas when I was first starting out and struggling to find things to write about.

I was never one of those people that writing came naturally but after leaving a lot of comments and starting to write more posts, it's still not easy, but it is becoming a little more natural then it was when I first started.

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Brilliant post learning everyday and this post was really helpful thank you starting to find my feet now keep up the great work

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Congratulations @gniksivart! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You distributed more than 38000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 39000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:

Update for regular authors
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I have always said that we should comment since we will never know what positive consequences it will bring immediately or in the future.
Thank you for joining the initiative and for telling us about your experience.

Por aquí pasó | El Comentador |

@garybilbao

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No problem!

I just wished I had more time to engage on the platform like I used to.

I definitely enjoy those who engage normally on my posts and try to return the favor when I have the time.

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Si está luchando en la plataforma para obtener el valor que cree que sus publicaciones merecen, busque a otras personas que escriban mejores artículos que usted, que obtengan menos recompensas y comience a comentar sus publicaciones y animarlas.
Usted me leyó la mente, aquí me describo...esto lo estoy practicando, publicaciones sin comentarios me dedico a leerlas y hago su comentario respectivo.Y me han respondido. @elcomentador

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