Hello Steemians!

Thanks for everyone's support - I have made it to 200 followers in only 3 weeks! Quite an achievement considering I only have 74 friends on Facebook and I don't use Twitter, Instagram or have a Youtube channel. I thought it would be a good chance to share what has and hasn't worked for me so far in building a genuine following

Introduce yourself

Most people (Including myself) jump onto to this exciting new platform and want to start blogging straight away. However I think it is best to get to know the platform a bit first. Explore some of the different topics and start commenting on people's blogs - what's popular? What kind of content is gaining lots of attention. Once you are familiar I think it's time to write your #introduceyourself post. Make the most of this - it is your chance to make a great first impression. Consider talking about your background/interests and what brought you to Steemit. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people not talking about what they are going to be blogging about on Steemit - give people a reason to follow you. Make sure to include some pictures of yourself and make it different - you want to stand out!

Socialise!

Yes Steemit is a social media platform. And the way you make new friends is to socialise! Start exploring and commenting on people's blogs - offer insight and ask questions. People on here are friendly and willing to help newbies on Steemit. Avoid leaving comments such as ‘Good post’ or ‘Thanks I enjoyed this’ - go deeper and talk about what it is you enjoyed or what you gained from reading their post. This starts discussion and gets people interested in what you are about. I suggest sticking to the topics you are interested in/knowledgable about and those you plan to blog about yourself - it is easier to be genuine and add value if you know something about the topic! For me this meant browsing the education sections (I am an early childhood teacher) and browsing and commenting on my interests which include music, health and cryptocurrency. Also as a bonus you can earn money when people upvote your comments - who doesn’t like that right?!

Lastly I can't stress how important it is to reply to peoples comments. I think if they have spent time reading your blog the least you can do is reply to that - show them you appreciate them reading and appreciate their opinion. It amazes me how many people don't do this - someone will comment on their post, sometimes with a questions and the author hasn't replied.

Engage in different communities on Steemit

There are a wide range of different communities here on Steemit that you can jump in and explore from photography to writing and blogging. These are a fun and engaging way to meet people who have similar interests.
I have joined in with the 5 minute free write run by @mariannewest and love it! Each day Marianne posts a ‘prompt’ and you have 5 minutes to craft a story. It's great to see others take on the prompt.
I am starting to explore some of the photography groups as I am new to photography and keen to learn. One I have stumbled across is #colorphotography. I suggest that when you join in with these that you engage with the community - commenting on other peoples stories and blogs.

Using bots strategically

There are two different types of bots that I have experimented with so far - upvote bots and resteem bots. There is some debate within Steemit about these and whether they are ‘ethical’. I think they are fine if you use them strategically and not on every single post. I have been using upvote bots on posts where I want to reach a wider audience. If I am just blogging for my own personal growth I don't bother (such as my 28 day sugar detox) - and if people find this valuable then its a bonus. I also don’t see any value in using bots when posting in communities like #freewrite or any other contests.

Upvote bots

My aim when I use an upvote bot is to get my article into the ‘hot’ page where it is much more likely to get viewed - I see it as a form of advertising. There is a promote tab which I haven't even visited myself as it sounds to much like a ‘sales’ tab to me - I could be wrong! There are plenty of upvote bots around I suggest checking out steembottracker.com for a comprehensive list. I have had success with Minnowbooster and Smartsteem so far. I wrote an article about using Minnowbooster:
Should you be using and upvote bot - an introduction guide for minnows

Resteem bots

I am still relatively new to using resteem bots but the idea is that you send a small amount of SBD to a resteem account (with lots of followers and they will resteem your article. The resteem bots that I have tested so far are:
@resteembot - send your reputation score/1000 to their account in SBD (e.g for me this is 0.042) and get resteemed to over 5000 stemians - note: you must follow @resteembot for 3 hours before requesting your first resteem
@resteemy - send 0.1SBD to their account and get resteemed to over 4000 followers.

I may end up writing a post in more depth about resteem bots as I gain more experience with these.

Quality over quantity

This is something I am learning as I go. I think when you're new to Steemit your excited and want to share as much content as possible (more is surely better right?!). As I learn more I think that spending more time on each post is more valuable in the long run - it will be more thoughtful and engaging. Also if you look at a lot of the ‘whales’ they don’t all post a lot.

Have fun!

Last point is to have fun on Steemit! People can tell if you are genuine and enjoying yourself or if you are just trying to make money. I have started a #captionthis contest where I put up a new picture everyday and the caption with the most amount of upvoted wins some SBD. This is new to me but is proving to be a lot of fun - I love reading all the captions!

I have written a few other articles for newbies to Steemit as I am learning - feel free to check them out:

Why it's important to use #tags correctly -an introduction
Whats the difference between Steem, Steem power and Steem dollars (SBD)
Where does the money come from on Steemit?
The self upvote dilemma - why you shouldnt be upvoting your own comments