I admit it Steemians I tried.....

I really made a conscious effort to tell people about Steem, I begged, bartered and even bribed- but dangit....

THEY JUST WON'T JOIN!

Okay, pity party over. Let me preface this and break it down for you. I'll keep this to 3 minutes of your time tops

As a tribe we all want to grow this corner of the internet. Lets face it- this is a pretty useful site on here and as a preface I will be bringing up some common criticisms about the platform I also will be bringing up some very useful solutions as well. If you like/dislike that's cool. At the end of the day I just want people understand my perspective

Lets take it back to the old school
Lets take it to Union Square

How did I first hear about Steemit was through my local #Bitcoin meetup group in WNY @birdinc, @adept & the Social Scientist @alxgraham. In the mix of learning about all the #crypto out there one of them pulls me to the side and says:

'Hey you should really try this Steemit site too. Its where a lot of crypto information gets exchanged and it can pay you as well'

'Hm okay' +1 Belief point

Like many people I couldn't get my head around a magical site that is going to pay me to do what I do on other sites as well.

Before I knew it the conversation or 'Excited Debate' as it is frequently referred to went on to other coins, tech etc.
One of the members told me
'Oh yea next week we'll have a rapper from around here who makes a living off this site'

WTF?? +1 Belief point

I know I told you 3 mins just bear with me. It gets better. If you are really stressed for time bc you need to check your #cryptokittes jump to the end. I won't judge (JK, yes I will)

@mrviquez was the person they were referring to. His story, which I wouldn't do justice can be told by him. The big point about his introduction is that he SHOWED & TOLD how he and others benefit from Steemit from front-to-back. +3 Belief points

I STILL WASN'T SOLD

It wasn't until I starting really posting to the blog that it still hit a point of conviction.

At this point I would love to hear what got you the reader to join and even invest into Steem. Maybe collectively we can find a high percentage sequence to help the Steemarketers to get further into societies Ethos.

Here's the way to bring people on

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From the people I have dragged kicking and screaming on here here's what I have found:

• They must be technically adept From getting a user image on here to realizing that it is not as user friendly as FB or Insta they have to be willing to overcome that initial learning curve. In addition to being comfortable using crypto. That is two barriers to entry right there. Maybe the people at busy will have this figured out.

Solution- Target people who are "trolls" and have time to learn the medium along with technically proficient or have the ambition to be technically proficient people.

• They must have a strong 'why' Question: What does Steem as a medium offer that the others (FB, Insta, Reddit & Snap) don't?
  It does not offer ease of use, or is it as visually appealing as the other mediums. That's my honest take- So an ideal candidate would need a strong 'why' to look past all of that in order to be an active user.

Solution- Do you know someone who is already an active blogger, traveler or evangelist? Let them know that they can get quicker monetization using their material on Steemit in addition to their current medium. Have them judge the results. I feel there is more to this answer, but that is a deeper dive.

• Brand Identity Without brand repetition you can't grow this thing. All the marketing that I been exposed to are random acts of people at malls and such handing out cards. If you the reader have heard of something else, I'd love to know. In all sincerety without some bigger press or a micro celeb with a high social score- Steem is just treading water.

Solution- Lure/Develop more D.tube celebs on here. If you have a party on campus then get a sponsorship from Steem. Shoot if you are an artist yourself let people know you accept SBD as payment or you have them as giveaways. Also link your posts CONSISTENTLY to FB & Twitter. (By the way I LOVE INSTASHOT)

• Secret Sauce* I'll tell you this at the end of this post. It's probably the most IMPORTANT portion of this formula. Read below and I'll include it.

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If you read above I was at (5)belief points before I really started taking this seriously and to be quite honest it took me more around 6-7 points to truthfully get in the habit. Here's what pushed me over.

As I was telling other people about Steemit, the people @birdinc and @mrviquez kept showing me how my account with my small starting amount had kept growing and they kept supporting me with upvotes. That was very encouraging- but what happened next was even more powerful.

All the people that I had been telling about Steemit, the friends and co-workers who I had been coaching about crypto kept asking me about my next Steemit post.

It was accountability that made me change

When people ask you "Whats next for you, when your personal brand is tied to something, it only makes sense to keep at it. When one of the most important people in your life @taanee says "Dude why aren't you doing this more?" It speaks volumes

So thank you for reading this and thanks to all the people who have conisistently shown support for all the minnows out there. If you liked this post I'm sure you will like my blog post: Is Crypto Bigger than Hip Hop

Be sure to follow everyone I mentioned in the article

Oh yea:
If you are in Buffalo and you go to the Bitcoin meetup
Tell 'em @SaintJames sent ya!