Twitter, or rather X as it is now known - is a platform which I have had very much a love / hate relationship with for a very, very long time now, because it is not an easy nut to crack and nobody - not even the most knowledgeable, seem to know what the actual fudge is going on with that algorithm.

However, despite all of that - I still maintain that as far as mainstream social media goes, it remains one of the most powerful tools around when used correctly - and I say this from a position of having given literally every other platform known to mankind more than a handful of attempts each - and I won’t say that they all completely suck… but if you want to look at ROI (time wise) - X definitely marks the spot, with a few possible runner ups which perhaps I will get stuck into another time.

The reason I decided to write this post though, was simply to share a few of my thoughts as well as a couple of things I have learned about X along the way. I know that a fair amount of you here make use of X to share your Steemit related content and I have also been following the official Steemit.com account for a long while now - which is also relatively active.

I know that the “how to market Steemit” and the “what to market it as” questions come up relatively often and it is a little bit of a catch 22 because the LAST thing anyone wants is an increasing influx of greedy opportunists and fly by nights.

Steemit - to me anyway, is one of the few remaining “traditional” blogging platforms where written word is still the main driving content medium. Sure, the branches do stretch a little in various alternative directions with some shorter visual content - but I think the fundamental “ethos” of quality written content is still the main name of the game. That is the way I perceive it at any rate.

For that reason, it is my suggestion to those making use of mainstream social media platforms to gain traction for Steemit and Steem as a whole, possibly try and take a slightly different approach to things - some of them, specifically X related and others which are more generalised.

As Examples:

People hate marketing -

It does not matter what it is about, how good the deal is, or how much YOU think people are going to want it… X is not a supermarket and if people think you are trying to “sell” them something, they will literally give you a wide birth most of the time. This is one of the main reasons why links on X choke your traction and reach. Unless you have built up a huge community already which gives you active engagement - you are doing yourself a MASSIVE disservice by sharing your content with a link directly.

X does not give anything with a link good reach and not only that, but over an extended period of time it seems to begin affecting your profile engagement as a whole, therefore everything you post begins to dwindle.

But beyond just the statistics, it is also about the psychology of the people on the platform. As I said - people hate marketing… and if they constantly feel like you are trying to “shove a concept” down their throats, rather than engaging on a genuine level - they will eventually switch off from your content completely. There are a few workarounds for this kind of thing on X which seem to level the playing field a little.

Don’t share your links -

not in the primary “X” anyway. Do it as a comment to the main share - ie. a thread. BUT, don’t do it straight away, ie. don’t do it at the same time that you push the main content out. Do it after about an hour. Many say that is the sweet spot - though I have not tested this extensively - I can vouch for the fact that adding the link in as a part of a thread does seem to alleviate a little of the “reach throttling” which seems to happen when you share the link in the main X.

So what do you post in the primary “X” then?! Whatever it is… make it short and sweet! I don’t care how much Elon “appears” to praise the “longer content” - it just NEVER gets the same kind of reach as the shorter - so I still stick by the “minimise characters as much as possible” approach. You can also easily indicate there is "more" to the X as I have done with emoji's in the example down below.

Make it catchy and attention grabbing -

and definitely not the entire length of your post title… because some of the post titles I see on Steemit are enough to do anybody's head in, with all the “contest rules and regulations”. (Something I also think could do with a massive re-think) it is noisy, messy and highly unappealing to any reader… but that is a subject for another conversation.

Basically, just keep it brief and then take one of your best pics from the article and use that as the image for the first part of the “X” Let me give a visual example… which I have created from a recent post of mine so that you can see what I chose to pull from that.

Part 1 of the X

Part 2 of the X

Content Balance -

If all you are going to do is throw out links to your Steemit content - why on earth would anybody want to follow you… other than other people on Steemit already, and whilst that may be a part of the objective behind sharing in the first place, it certainly isn’t going to do anything groundbreaking for reaching new people.

People want (and need) to ENJOY what you are sharing. They need to connect with it on some level! So find a balance between what is promotional and what speaks for you as an individual… because THAT is where the true reach lies. If you want to attract people who are passionate about writing, blogging and sharing - then THOSE are the people you want to nurture relationships with online - not "day traders" and "airdrop junkies" - unless they write decent content about it, lol.

So say “Good Morning” to your community with just a nice photo you took or a fun or inspirational quote - anything! Share other content about life, your life or “stuff” in general that appeals to you and is also somewhat connected and relevant to the kind of content that you share when you write on Steemit. Let me give you a visual example…

Another interesting little facet of X is hashtags -

Unlike platforms like Instagram where hashtags have been known and advised to be used in mass quantities (although I believe that is changing now too) - X is a little different… One hashtag is best, two max! And DON’T add useless hashtags! #thiswassomuchfun is not going to do anything for your reach - except demonstrate that you have no clue how hashtags actually work.

You need to use hashtags that people are searching or that are VERY specific to the topic at hand.If you write something about gardening, it is no use you use a tag like #gardeningissomuchfun - nobody is looking for that. #gardening #nature #flowers = BINGO! But like I say… only one would be first prize. And if you are going to do your shares in thread form like I have suggested above… then you can use the first part for the primary hashtag and the thread addition to include the #steemit tag if you so wish.But just remain aware that any more than two hashtags per thread section is too much on X.

As you begin to type a niche specific hastag, X will generally predictively prompt the ones closest to or matching that, which are currently popular on the platform, so you can definitely use those as a guide for relevancy.

There are also a lot of people who believe that you don’t need hashtags on X at all and that you will come up in search results simply by using relevant words in a sentence - and there is a lot of truth in that - tried and tested myself over the years - HOWEVER - if you do not have a very large community of followers, this approach can hinder your reach too because the words you need to use in the X content may BE about “art” but may not actually have that word in it. So that is where the #tag makes sense.

As outlined in the sample below - by writing my X and then adding the hashtags, I extend my "content reach" by default because it now includes: fire + wine + perfect + writing and then two separate hashtags of a slightly different nature - #steemit #writinglife (which was prompted as I began to enter the tag "writing")

Go full circle -

Different things appeal to different people, so try and create an “array” of X content. Something funny, something personally relatable, something motivational or inspiring and then also the content you wish to get eyes on. Not all at once obviously, lol - I mean “rotate” the type of content you share on X.

Don’t be spammy -

I did not follow you to see endless shares of other people's content (the same applies here too I suppose, lol) so just do that in moderation. Some people do this by the truck load and it is very off putting to anyone scrolling their feed.

Engagement -

People are never going to see what you share if you don't actively engage with other people on the platform. If you are not spending a minimum of 20 minutes per day engaging with others, then you are just going backwards slowly. Truth be told - on X, it is your “replies” to stuff that gets you seen. Saying things like "Good morning" gets people to say that to you in return - when you respond, it draws attention back to your original X. The same can be said for doing things like asking questions.

You may be thinking that a lot of what I have mentioned here in this post has absolutely nothing to do with Steemit or the promotion of your content on the platform - but it does. The thing is, you want to get your overall performance on X (or any other social media platform for that matter) to excel. You want your "general" reach to be positive and to steadily grow... and if all you are going to do is share link after link - you are never going to get that right.

It is all the "other stuff" that will improve the BIGGER PICTURE in the long run and THAT is the result you are after. That is the result that we are ALL after - including the official Steemit.com account.

*If people feel a natural gravitation toward you and the content you share - then they are going to be FAR more likely to click on a link when you do share one - or to go and have a look at something which you suggest to them... such as "If you love writing and sharing, you should consider sharing your stories on Steemit - it is a wonderful writers community!"

To my mind - the mention of crypto or coins should be the last thing on everyone's mind. Many people still have strong reservations about crypto and blockchain technology in general... so I think a FAR more subtle approach in from a different vantage point will ultimately attract a different kind of user. One which is ACTUALLY coming here for the content and everything else becomes a bonus as they learn and discover what it is all about along the way.

Well, that is my ten cents anyway - use it, don't use it :)

As a parting thought -

There was a story of a guy on TikTok once - an elderly chap who used to just sit and read excerpts from old historical books and show people some of his rare books from his collection. Nothing else - that is all he did. He sat at his desk, in his "library" and read. He did not even have a clickable link to ANYWHERE on his profile - nothing at all! He just read - and the people came. and then they kept coming! "Moons Rare Books" I think he goes by. He now has over 35 million followers. He does not even HAVE to sell anything and he's making a fortune from his videos alone. Though I am pretty sure he has NO problem selling some of his books at a pretty price now... Catch my drift?! :)*

❤❤❤

Until next time...
Much Love from Country Bumpkinland, South Africa xxx
Jaynielea

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