Welcome to Steemit! - An Introductory Guide for Creatives
Hello Creatives, Welcome to Steemit!
This post was written for YOU - the internet surfer, blogger, link-sharer, artist, educator, designer, curator or the simply crypto-curious.
Steemit is a new social media website.
As appearances go, Steemit.com looks and acts a lot like the website Reddit.com. We’ve got a “trending” front-page where you can see a wide range of popular daily content... there are individual profiles, post feeds, followers and so on... But there’s one big difference that allows Steemit to stand above any other social media network today. Here, you are rewarded for sharing content... And we cannot emphasize that enough… Likes (called “upvotes”) = carry actual value. Every single day - you are rewarded for creating content, discovering, curating and commenting.
Gamify The Social Media Experience
Engagement is rewarded. If you like a post that someone has shared, simply click the “upvote” ^ button to express your approval. It’s the same as a “like” on Facebook, except your click = currency.
Voting on the posts of others doesn’t take any currency away from you. It's free, and fun to play this social-media-style game.
Steemit.com is powered by the same technology behind Bitcoin. There’s a local currency used here called “STEEM” which (like Bitcoin) is digital money.
Both Bitcoin and STEEM are organized through a data-sharing technology called “blockchain”. You might have heard that word used before in the news with respect to big companies like Microsoft, Blackrock or IBM. For these guys, blockchain is exciting because it allows for super fast, secure and even smart sharing of data. Moving information from A to B via blockchain can happen in just seconds, as opposed to in hours or even days. For example; think of how long it takes to deposit a check in your bank account… you give a bank teller a check and then wait 3-5 business days for that money to appear. When you move currency through the STEEM blockchain a transaction takes just a couple of seconds. [ Mic drop. ]
So blockchain tech isn't just disruptive for the social media landscape, it could reinvent the way data is shared, secured and distributed globally. We could be on the verge of an entirely new world wide web, built properly and more efficiently for the 21st century!
The STEEM blockchain generates a new "pool" of currency every day. When you publish content on Steemit, you receive upvotes. Votes direct a percentage of that reward pool to your account. The whole process is very similar to how Bitcoin operates, where miners receive Bitcoin as a reward for their work (processing transactions). With STEEM, instead of rewarding miners, the blockchain rewards bloggers!
As we @sndbox are writing this post, 1 STEEM token is worth about $1.00 dollar. So 4 STEEM = $4.00 USD. As an example: when you see a post that’s worth $10.00, that author will be awarded 10 STEEM.
How do Steem Tokens carry $ value in USD?
Like Bitcoin, you can trade STEEM on a digital currency exchange. (Similar to how you can buy or invest in the Euro, Yuan, Rupee or USD.) There are hundreds of tokens out there that are available to buy and trade. The dollar value is supported by demand for the token and frequency of exchange for other assets.
However, STEEM is not just a straight up currency like Bitcoin. Steem is tied to a social media platform. Content and engagement influence value. STEEM's value movement is tied directly to the happenings and content shared on Steemit.com. Value can go up or down based on a change to the blockchain, a mention in the news, a new STEEM-powered project or feature. Another way to look at it is like a share of stock. If you're a shareholder of Facebook, the value of your stock fluctuates when the company announces a surprise boost of new users joining the platform or a new feature. Ultimately, the value ties back to the engagement and frequency of material created on the platform.
Content is valuable!
You publish so much stuff on the web everyday, why aren't you getting paid for all that hard work and time spent? Social media companies make a lot of money off of your effort and what do they give you in return? The value-factor of Steemit makes for an entirely new (but seemingly obvious) online environment. Having something at stake creates a very different social-media experience. The community here empowers good content while spammy posts fall into the background. Steemians take a lot of pride in their community and in the support of good authors and content creators!
Community is Key
When the platform was just a couple months old there was a welcome banner that heralded Steemit as “the internet’s first small town.” That has always stuck with us. Why? Users here (referred to as “Steemians”) really do treat Steemit like a small town. You’ll find that we are extremely supportive and constructive. There’s no incentive for nasty comments, so we have very few of them. Steemians just want this social platform to be a success! It’s a brand new experiment, a totally new economy and a new way to engage and empower one another!
You can connect with people. Not just high-school friends, neighbors or work colleagues. Steemit helps you find people with like-minded interests and ideas and encourages you to engage with them. Comments receive rewards, so people truly take the time needed to compose thoughtful responses and feedback. You don't see that extra effort anywhere else on the web. Steemit might just be the first true social media platform.
This is the central reason why we are writing this to you, today. We want YOU to be a part of this. We need your own unique perspective of the world, your talent, passion and engagement to help build a stronger future for Steemit.
Welcome to Steemit!
Let’s build something together. We hope that you will consider becoming a member of this community! It’s entirely free to join, in fact, Steemit will even give you a few tokens to get started. We look forward to hearing from you. Welcome!
1. Sign up. Then say hello! introduceyourself.
Create a post and tell us a little bit about you.
2. Explore! Scroll around and find content that you like.
Follow a few people. Read a handful of posts. Comment and engage!
3. Connect! Reach out and begin a conversation.
See where it takes you...
Sndbox Looking Forward
Hello everyone! @sndbox here. Our team will be using this introduction post to recruit new talented creatives to the Steemit community. This 2.0 version has been improved and updated from @voronoi's original post, here! Our hope is that you all can use this as a resource to explain STEEM and Steemit to Newbies as well! Each week, our team will be posting descriptive and explanatory posts just like this one. Be sure to follow us @sndbox and stay tuned for more. STEEM on!
You are really doing a good job here. Follow earned!
Thank you so much for the support @steemboys! Steem on!
just followed you.pls follow back
I'm a newbie, and man, this should be stickied somewhere in big bold letters.
That means a lot coming from a newbie, thanks! We're very glad you found it helpful :)
I really enjoy blogging on steemit. It's not all about the money anymore. It's communicating with very interesting people all over the world and learning, that's exciting to me.
Absolutely! Ultimately, it's not about the value, its about the quality of content and conversation. This website has something that no other platform has... dialogue. It's a real social media website that is challenging folks to break beyond surface level interaction. And with complete strangers! What a fascinating experiment...
I am posting really heartfelt and interesting things, or so I thought. Can you take a look and let me know why my blog has gone grey? @Kimmydee2 feedback would be much appreciated. I thought this would be a great creative outlet, not for the money (but it is a nice perk), but to share with others. I'm a bit disheartened this morning. Your post was really helpful, thank you!
I have included a link to this article in my latest post https://steemit.com/art/@obxidiana/i-have-always-preferred-the-reflection-of-life-to-life-itself-or-or-incredible-cgi-art-or-or-meet-zaoeyo - about the incredible artist Zaoeyo, who I'm hoping I can talk into joining us here on Steemit. I think I should send him this post!!
Wonderful! Thank you. And absolutely, please feel free to use this post as you reach out to others who might benefit from this community (and vice versa). Building Steemit is a team effort!
good introduction. just shared it on fb )
Yes, nice work! Here's hoping it bridges some folks over from Facebook! Why create so much content for a company and not receive any kind of reward or share of the pie? It's a simple shift in thinking about how value is shared on the web, but a very disruptive one.
Welcome to Steem Community @sndbox! As a gentle reminder, please keep your master password safe. The best practise is to use your private posting key to login to Steemit when posting; and the private active key for wallet related transactions.
In the New Steemians project, we help new members of steem by education and resteeeming their articles. Get your articles resteemed too for maximum exposure. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch
Good tips for newbies!
Very helpful post. This is a great platform. I highly recommend investing a bit of money in Steem Power to boost your upvoting power! Well worth it.
Does anyone know which exchanges currently trade Steem and Steem Dollars?
Isn't that a bit undemocratic if people can effectively "buy" upvotes? Why is that even a feature?
I do get your point. There are people who become auto whales by investing 40k or more!
What's an "auto whale"?
I think it is a bot that votes for a high steem power user
I consider it like investing in a sole proprietorship. Vesting interest in Steemit means one has skin in the game. It is a brilliant system.
What game do they have skin in exactly? I don't know if it's a brilliant system or not - to me it seems confusing and the value proposition is still unclear to me.
Point taken.
Welcome to Steemit, @sndbox
Logo inspired by Google creative sandbox?
Ha! First time seeing this one... I'd say ours is a bit more creative ;)
😊
I'm rooting for your initiative to take-off. You are a key component in Steemit breaking out of the vice of 250K users.
Please give me a shout, if there is something that you will like me to do to help.
Very kind of you. It's an exciting time to be a part of the Steemit community, for all of us! We'll push through that 250k mark together :)
Que articulo te mandaste!!! Up! Followed!
Thank you very much. Aquí hay una versión en español... Gracias!
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@anomadsoul/hola-amigos-bienvenidos-a-steemit
The whole concept of replacing social capital (others' opinion of you in RL) with Steem on the web is interesting. It should be pretty intuitive for people, since the underlying principles align closely with the way interactions work in everyday life.
One might not think this is the case, but human communities are basically blockchains.
"Is this guy cool?
-Yeah, he's cool."
"Huh, you guys think I'm cool? Heck, that's pretty cool. You guys are cool!"
Consensus, validating that one's opinion of a person is in line with others, is an integral part of human interaction. There's no dollar sign attached to any of this, but our brains, for sure, are keeping track of some sort of social currency.
I just hope that the explicit addition of "value" to one's contributions is not going to make the platform too mercenary. Where everyone's nice, but only because it pays. Like I've said, that's pretty much how it works in RL, but one can only hope it's not the only way to interact.
In any case, this is an extremely interesting experiment. It was going to happen eventually, if only because it has so much potential in studying what could happen if the internet was the default means of communication.
It's like FB, but honest about it's intentions. Same mechanisms, but quantified much more concretely.
It's interesting because we think the pairing of incentivized communication with anonymity could be the secret sauce the internet has been missing. It's not just roses and sunshine, the anonymous nature of this platform helps folks engage in surprisingly authentic dialogue.
It's one big (global) social experiment, let's see what happens!
I agree re your concern of this becoming quite a mercantile platform. I see the same thing with LinkedIn and in some circles on Twitter, too - people just patting each others' backs and producing and sharing feel-good, positive drivel and rarely saying what they mean. I think that's why Facebook is still popular and so successful, it feels personal and more like you can be yourself.
All that said, I am not too sure what the intrinsic value of these Steemit tokens are? I mean, if it's essentially just a counter of my upvotes, then how is that not just tradable Reddit karma? And why should it even be tradeable? Just so someone can buy karma and gloat? I don't get it.