Having a Solid Foundation

Building a strong online community is like building a home, you need to have a strong foundation if you want a solid house. When you first start out you need to be active and find your niche. This means regularly sharing high-quality content that will provide value to the community and your followers. You should always try to be more personalized meaning respond to questions and thank people every once in a while for sharing their input or even when they are sharing your content. This shows you are engaged and committed to the members of your community and remember, sometimes it's the little things that have a big impact on people. One of the keys to a solid foundation on Steemit is built on a two-way communication system with your followers. Letting them know that they are valued shows them you are paying attention and the level of accessibility will help turn followers into community members.

Engage Learn and Connect with your Community

Steemit has a ton of resources to help you grow and get your content out there. One of these resources is the Steem Chat. There you can interact with people that have the same interests as you and it's a great place to share ideas and get positive feedback. The discord channels are another great way to connect with people, to get started you can check out @PAL @Minnowsunite, @whaleshares @steemgigs, @esteem and @steemspeak, they are all great rooms and are moderated by great people, each room is unique. It's also important to engage with the content your followers share, don't just up vote material because you see a high reputation or because they are trending, up vote because you mean it. Be generous and reward the people in the community who stand out and bring great content to the platform. This means up voting and leaving positive comments on their post. This will encourage new members to write more posts and it shows them that you are out there watching and that you appreciate their work. All of this will pay off as other members will start to see the benefits of what being an active and engaging member of the steemit community can do for them.

Help Others and Make Trusting Relationships

Helping others and building trust is one of the most important things you can do on Steemit and this is what separates us from other social media sites. Please don't go around whining and complaining about your posts not making money the first week you are here! The money should be the last thing on your mind, instead take the time to write posts from the heart and to make quality lasting relationships here. We have so much great talent here that you can achieve this by meeting people with common interests and helping them out. For example, we have a tag called @steemgigs where you can ask for help or help others with projects ranging from coding a website to making graphic designs and much more. For others, you can build trust by helping build up the Steemit community, a few ideas are giving back with a giveaway, have a meet and greet, just giving because your gut tells you its the right thing to do or even the simple action of resteeming someone's post can help and mean a lot to someone. Steemit is also a very rewarding place and once you commit to something you are passionate about you should always see it through because the benefits are great. Even though we can call this a virtual place the same rules apply as everyday life, be real and be honest.

Earning all of this isn't going to be easy but once you create quality content, build trust, help others, engage and contribute, your own community and followers will come naturally. Great things take time to build especially when you are dealing with such a talented bunch of people. So Steem on and most importantly be yourself and have fun when you are community building. Please don't write these tips off as being too basic. Instead, I ask you to check your current community building skills and if you have anything you can contribute please share them with us because uplifting tips are always welcomed and appreciated.

I hope you enjoyed. Please Upvote, Resteem, and Follow me @road2wisdom