Hey, it's @shayne

Most people around here know that I like to give new members of Steemit the best advice I can.

Well, I'm kind of creating a series of things NOT to do. Here are the other posts so far.

• Steemit Tips: How NOT To Behave on Steemit -- Plagiarism

• Steemit Tips: How NOT To Behave on Steemit -- Following and Followers

This isn't to say that I know everything, but I have been able to prove real results in the last month of really trying to work it on Steemit. So let me give you this little bit of advice:

Stop Follow-Begging!

What is follow-begging?

It's when someone goes to another person's post and leaves a comment with the intention of getting people to follow them back.

Usually looks something like this:

Hey, cool post! I followed you. Return the favor.

No.

No. No. NO.

Please, stop doing this. I'm asking you nicely. Not only does it look lame but it will actually hurt your ability to grow your following here.

(And trust me, I realize that by writing this I'm going to get comments that will copy and past exactly what I said not to do. Funny, guys. Real funny)

But but but I'm just asking! Is it so wrong to ask?

No, there's nothing ethically wrong with begging people to follow you.

But it's bad taste.

Like you, people posts content on Steemit because they want people to see it.

This is a good place to build an authentic audience, unlike places like YouTube and Twitter where a good portion of your followers aren't even humans.

So when you leave a generic copy + paste script as a comment asking people to follow you, it's obvious that you didn't even look at the content. You're just posting. And that's going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.

So QUIT IT

Seriously. Stop.

You're doing yourself and the Steemit community a disservice. I would even go so far as to call follow-begging a kind of soft abuse of the community.

It's a good way of signaling to everyone else that you're not an authentic person.

This might attract people who are just interested in doing "follow4follow" deals, but for people who are actually invested in this platform or who are actually producing real content, it makes you like like exactly the person not to follow.

What should I do, then?

Easy answer: authentically engage with the Steemit community.

Leaving comments is great. Do that. Leave lots of comments. Especially if you're new -- leave as many comments as you possibly can!

But here's the super-secret fool-proof trick that will really make your followers grow... ACTUALLY LOOK AT THE POST YOU ARE COMMENTING ON.

If it's an article, read it. If it's a video, watch it. Be a real person and treat others like they are real people.

You're going to develop a great following here if you are authentic and honest, and you treat others like they are authentic and honest, too.

What I do with follow-beggars

*

I ignore you.

And that's a damn shame for you, because I try to engage with every comment I get on my blog.

I will go into a lengthy conversation or debate with you if you're bringing up something that stirs me up personally. And if you continue to be engaging and interesting, I'll probably follow you an become your friend because I'll want to know whats on your mind.

But if you are constantly follow-begging, I'm not going to click on your profile, I'm not going to upvote your post, I'm not going to follow you. I'm going to ignore you like you never existed, because you are not treating me like a person, and that's not what friends do.

In fact, I might even go a step further and click your profile and check your comments, and if I see a bunch of follow-begging or link-begging I'll just mute your account so I never have to see you again.

And believe me, there are lots of people like me here on Steemit.

So act accordingly.

What do you think?

Are you tired of follow-begging? Am I being clear in what I'm saying here?

Leave a comment below and tell me all about it.

Follow me @shayne