Blogging About Art: Growing Your Presence on Steemit is Like Growing a Garden!

While we've been trying to establish our own blogging presence here on Steemit, we've also been sharing part of the "Steemit Journey" with some of the artists we work with, here at the Red Dragonfly Gallery.

As any of you who have tried sharing Steemit with friends and family might have experienced, we're often met with a fair degree of skepticism. 

Objections generally run the range from "that's very complicated" to the more extreme "that looks like a scam to me!" If you've been here for a while, you of course realize that such objections are unfounded... but it can be difficult to persuade people otherwise.

Why So Impatient?

One of the other common threads we seem to encounter is impatience. 

Once persuaded that Steemit really is a good idea, a lot of people just want to know how soon they are "going to start making money." If you think about it, this is actually slightly odd given that most people who are familiar with any kind of blogging and social media already know that it requires patience and perseverance to build and establish a following.

It took us several years to build our Facebook page and twitter following. 

Steemit is no different.

So when we try to explain how Steemit "works" and what it takes in terms of time and effort, we usually use the analogy of "growing a garden," in an attempt to remove some of the anxiety factor from the equation.

We find it to be a very useful analogy since it can also be applied to describe the different types of users people might on Steemit... about whom we get certain number of inquiries-- often along the lines of "but these other people are doing such-and-such, isn't that CHEATING?"

The following outline is by means meant to be all-inclusive-- merely a series of suggestions for someone who's seriously interested in building a long term presence here on Steemit, and hopefully earning a few rewards along the way. These steps would be less applicable to someone who's either here "just for fun," or whose primary objective is just to make money rather than create an actual social media presence.

WHY are You Here? Planning Your "Garden"

Planning a blog? WHY? 

Well, there's a pretty good reason. Odds are you are trying to get known for something. Most likely that "something" is your art.

For example, the Red Dragonfly is an art gallery, so our objective in starting a blog here was primarily to establish a social media presence in a new venue, to promote our artists' work, to find new artists whose work to include in our showroom and generally to promote and support art and artists here on Steemit.

As an artist, you might define your "garden" as a place to build a new audience, or a place to share your creative process with the world, or even a new online sales venue. Most likely, that also means pictures of kittens and taco recipes are a little "off topic" for you.

Note that in each of these descriptions, we're not really mentioning "earning rewards," as we're viewing any income as a consequence to doing the above, not the primary objective. 

Publishing Your Content-- What and When to "Sow"

Possibly the best and most reliable way to build a following is to publish consistently good quality content on a fairly consistent schedule.

Since we're assuming your primary interest here is art, set yourself the objective of sharing something new connected to art maybe 3-4 times a week, at least in the beginning. You may feel like you can do more, but it's better to spread out your content and develop a routine than blow all your energy and enthusiasm up front, and then fizzle out.

Besides, putting out a huge number of good posts as a newcomer without a following is not the best way to spend your energy.

Getting back to the garden analogy, spreading out what you want to grow across the seasons helps ensure you have food all year long. The idea here is to gradually develop stability.

Stay on task!

It can often be tempting to write about something other than art because people with other focuses seem to be "doing better." For example, posts about cryptocurrency can be very popular here... but that's not going to help you build a following for your art.

Interact and Engage: Tending to Your Garden

There are several parts to growing a following-- and keep in mind that you are trying to grow an authentic and dedicated following for your art and creativity

It can be tempting to just go out and follow "a bunch of people" without much thought, because you're anxious to get started... but that's really not the best approach. Instead, we suggest looking for people who are also posting interesting content about art, as well as those who make meaningful comments on other people's posts about art. 

Don't worry if the numbers seem to grow slowly at first-- you're trying to assemble a quality audience that might be sincerely interested in what you have to offer.

Leave meaningful comments on posts you sincerely appreciate! Ten well-placed and sincere comments are worth far more than 100 random "nice posts!" scattered all over the place.

Another important part of commenting is to always "curate" the comments you get on your own posts! In the context of building a loyal audience, it is just "good manners" to interact with those who took the time to leave a comment. And do give an upvote-- however small-- to those who leave particularly meaningful comments on your posts. 

Managing Your Followers - or "Pulling Weeds"

If you look at the Red Dragonfly's profile, you'll notice we follow far fewer people than follow us.

Experience has taught us that it becomes extremely difficult and time consuming to keep of with the posts of a large number of people. Unless you're doing social media as a full-time occupation, keeping up with more than a few hundred people's posts is difficult.

If you look at some of the most successful publishers on Steemit, you'll often notice that they follow far fewer people than are following them. This is typically the result of being very selective, and putting their curating efforts into some of the best content in the community.

From time to time, it is also a good idea to systematically have a look at your list of people you're following to see if they are still active. Often people will start on Steemit with great enthusiasm and then suddenly stop posting. No need to carry "dead wood" around; it makes life more manageable to detach people who are no longer active.

Have Patience-- You Don't Harvest the Same Day You Sow!

Once again, patience is of the essence. You'll find that most of the consistently successful bloggers on Steemit have histories of continuous contribution and interaction. They don't give up, just because it seems like things are "not happening."

It took us some 4-5 months before we started getting a steady number of comments on most of our posts, and unless you're exceptionally active the same will probably hold true for you.

One of the things you can do to help move the process along is to become part of one of the many external "interest" groups on Steemit. Many of them have Facebook groups, or their own Discord or Slack channels.

For example, the Red Dragonfly has been helped considerably by its membership in @sndbox, Steemit's premier creative incubator. 

If you're more likely to keep up with something less formal, another good way to help build a following is by participating in some of the many art or photography challenges in our community. 

In bringing this to a close, the garden analogy is also true of the timing of success: We tend to plant in the spring in order to harvest in the fall. We've now been here for a little over seven months and are just now finding a measure of stability.

Thank you for reading! Red Dragonfly is a proud member of the @sndbox creative initiative.

The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.