This post refers to a story that @hisnameisolllie posted here - https://steemit.com/steemit-future/@hisnameisolllie/one-thing-that-is-important-to-steemit-s-longevity-inspiried-by-anyx-tragedy-of-the-commons

It is a really good post, and recommend up voting as it sparks a great conversation and thought pattern, well it did for me anyway.

Introduction

In reading the post by @hisnameisolllie, I find something that seems to be confirmed in the replies, is that there is a fear of an unbalanced Steemit community, where whales dictate and influence drastically as they do now, and on the opposing end, dolphins can’t catch a nibble. Valid fear.

The discussion also touched on what @dollarvigilante sparked when he joined and posted his now infamous, How I Made $15,000 in 12 Hours on the New Blockchain Based Social Media Site Steemit – post found here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@dollarvigilante/how-i-made-usd15-000-in-12-hours-on-the-new-blockchain-based-social-media-site-steemit

This post raised the question, “How should Steemit.com be sold?”. Meaning, how should it be marketed? Users agree that it shouldn’t be a get quick rich scheme type, because of the challenges posed above that despondent dolphins have and leave.

Being on Steemit, actively now I have seen the trends, and have gotten familiar with the major topic points. I also am under no illusion that I am going to get rich overnight, but I accept the possibility that I could. I have a comfortable understanding of how use the platform comfortably without any kind of fear or doubt or even expectation.

What has really struck me are the users. With regards to the topic of discussion, and the levels of discussions of the users are very much unified. I think this is fascinating! I feel the subjects all have an understanding to them that leans towards freedom. There is a higher level of enlightenment. (I know some of these words are used negatively and egotistically, they were words first, treat them as such.). The topics are also pretty much of the same categories every day, for now.

You have to be a bit enlightened if you understand a blockchain technology because you probably understand the need for that technology was born out of suppression.

We Need More Tribes

Seth Godin, Author, not to be confused with Seth Rogen, Stoner, Legend, Actor, wrote a book called Tribes. The book is about how society is split into two camps. Followers, and Leaders, collectively known as a tribe. Steemit is a tribe. The founders of the Steemit tribe are the leaders, and they built a platform that they think is cool to use and beneficial in many aspects for themselves, and everyone else and so do I. I am therefore a follower.

What Steemit needs now are more leaders within it. Currently, the majority of users who were attracted to Steemit are the early adopters who are now talking about how awesome Steemit is, and even write long blog posts about it could be improved. The founders, and whales are going to like those discussions because they know they still have work to do to constantly improve the platform.

The founders didn’t attract the farmer who just started using Instagram a week ago. Nor has it attracted the lost teenagers who create fake Facebook accounts to get attention and cause havoc. Or the successful businessmen and women who take pride in their dress code and appearance, and love to share where they went for dinner and which airline has the sexiest attendants. Or the political activist from Zimbabwe who lives under oppression of freedom of expression, with Facebook, WhatsApp, and other communications being blocked.

Did you know that people dress up in furry animal costumes and have sex (its a fetish). These people are leaders. It only took one person, ok, two people to say, "We want to dress up as a furry animal and have sex", and other people were told about this, and like it, and then they became followers. There are leaders for people who take pleasure in dressing up in a furry animal costume and have sex.

What about the leaders and followers for nail technicians, aspiring musicians, video bloggers all over YouTube, cat lovers, dog lovers, fail lovers, gun lovers, war lovers, film buffs, actors, plumbers, and all their followers. I am pretty sure there are no leaders for these groups yet, but I bet there are followers, and followers who can become leaders.

We Need More Leaders like YOU!

What is needed on Steemit are more leaders in various topics, specialities, opinions ext. The leaders who are being attracted now are leaders in fields similar to that of decentralized, blockchain enlightened, modern IT hippies. this field is small, and is difficult to attract more users with because there is a small percentage of people out there who know what a blockchain is, let alone know that Steemit exists.

Steemit.com should be sold like this: Be yourself. Be a leader.

Its the only way to conduct yourself on Steemit. You are the most unique thing on this platform, and guess what, you know you the most... well you should.

Be yourself – We should always allow ourselves and our fellow Steemers to be ourselves in the moments we post blogs. We are all on a journey, and the journey is long and hard and has its challenges. Steemit records the moments we want to share, lets celebrate that fact always.

Be a leader - By being yourself, and loving yourself and your thoughts, you will undoubtedly attract people who like you for who you are. They will like your interests, be attracted to your views on your specialised topics to either agree, or challenge. Followers of the Tribe yourself, will look to you for many things like, who you are, what you stand for, what you know, what you understand, believe in, creatively produce, encouragement, education, help, and give you up votes (but dont worry about that, ever).

Be Yourself

My advice to the dolphins, be yourself, don’t think about the money. Ok. That sounds hard. Then work on being yourself, but don’t do it for the money. Do it for tribe yourself.

The effect that will have on Steemit would be amazing to watch. I think we will see Tribes, or in this case, schools of fish. We will have Leaders in these schools, whales, and we will have their dolphins. We will have whales who influence topics on cars, whales who influence topics about restaurants, whales who influence topics about sports, or even a specific sports team. We already have film makers on here I think, but they will be the whales of the future schools of dolphins. At the moment, whales arent interested in people dressing up in furry animal costumes having sex. To the the dolphins of the furry animal sex club, good news, stick around and you can be the whale furry animal!

There will be an economy within these schools and topics that, thanks to the Steemit platform, will flourish organically, and driven by the schools of dolphins. You may find a dolphin joins a specific school where there are only whales to up vote them because there are not many dolphins who join that specific school. That dolphins experience will be significantly different to mine now.

So that’s my short piece on this. I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I enjoyed telling it.

Be yourself. Be a leader of Tribe insert_name_here.

Side Note: It will be interesting when I take to Facebook to market Steemit thanks to the up-votes I received for this blog. I don’t know the kind of impact I will make with $100, but it will be at least an indicator with what can be done in the future. Check it out here - https://steemit.com/crowdfunding/@spartanza/steemit-marketing-campaign-for-south-africa

Sources:
Seth Godin Quote Image: http://www.slideshare.net/mbaskills01/tribes-group1-presentation-50954395
Furry Animal Sex Image: http://whyzat.com/10-weird-sex-fetishes-that-are-more-common-than-you-think/
Snoopy Quote: http://cartoonquotes.co/be-yourself-no-one-can-say-youre/