Post Promotion Tips: Here's What You Should Do

Post promotion doesn't work anymore, at least in ways we expect it to be.

If you're active on Discord, you'll notice that some people just hop on a certain channel then leave a link to their post and then they're gone. Without reading what the channel is all about, they're like leaving a poop around with moderators cleaning after their mess. Please, I beg you people, don't do that!

I understand that the underlying intention was to have eyes on our posts. We all want ATTENTION. That's what social media is all about after all. People's attention has become a commodity and it has been capitalized. That's why we earn rewards from our posts. So, to have eyes on our posts, we wanted to share its links anywhere. We wanted it to spread far and wide. That's understandable because we are all hoping that someone with big enough Hive Power will see our post through the link we've shared and upvote it to trending. That's a good plan - IN THEORY.

In reality, however, it doesn't work linearly that way. The thing is, only a very few people with big enough influence on the chain would care about your content. My first question would be: What is your content all about and why should I care? That might sound harsh, but that's how things really work. What makes your content different from the myriad of contents out there? If it's about you and your life, my next question would be: Who are you and what makes you special that I should read your content? Again, that sounds harsh because it is really harsh. That's reality, folks!

If you're a Filipino and you're new to Hive, please learn from the mistakes of the people who came here before you and avoid them. How to do that? Well, read my blog for starters. No, seriously, I'm trying to help you get settled in faster than we were before. I want you to avoid our mistakes that cost us a lot of frustrations before. Now that I'm getting serious with all these "trying to help" efforts, you can read the following:

_{Quality is Rare But Consistency is Rarer}

_{Quality Travel Content: Tips, Observations, and Nuances}

_{Always Tap to Your Sources of Motivation}

Back to the context of post promotion on Discord channels, for me it doesn't work anymore. In fact, post promotion in any form for the sake of expecting an upvote in return doesn't work unless you're using bid bots. If you're a newbie and you want to increase both engagement and upvotes in your post, please avoid dropping links to any Discord channel without reading what's in the channel first. You're in the risk of a downvote if you do that. I completely abandoned the idea of post promotion in Discord because it's a total waste of effort. Here's what you should do instead:

_{This is assuming that you already read the 3 three posts I linked above and that your posts already qualify in the standards of curators for quality content. Quality doesn't automatically translate to bigger upvotes. There are other factors that should be considered such as your level of engagement to the community.}

1. Make Your Post Engaging

Write with a specific audience in mind. As much as possible, make it personal. Meaning, you're just like talking to your audience casually. Avoid too much nominalization. Check that term out and you'll realize that it will be the cause of the rise of zombie words which will detach your intended audience to the meaning that you want to get across. At first glance, you'll appear to be an intellectual, but further reading will have your audience lose their interest in your post.

One thing to look out to gauge your content is through the comments. If there's a comment that says you inspired them to do things through your post, it means you're successful in making your post engaging. Say for example, if your travel content make some tourists to visit your country, then you have an engaging travel content.

2. Share Your Post on Twitter (#POSH Initiative)

#POSH (Proof of Share) is an initiative by @ocd to promote your content to your friends and followers. They might get interested to join Hive through your post. This is the reason why making your post engaging is important. In return for sharing, @ocd and @ocdb might upvote your post at a higher percentage. Again, there's no assurance that you will be upvoted by those accounts. Quality is still the ultimate criterion.

As there's still no guarantee of an upvote, just don't expect anything. I can still see some who would comment in @ocd's Discord channel, asking why they haven't receive any upvote. Where did they got that audacity to question the curators' judgment?

Even if there's no assurance of an upvote, I can still say that this much better than dropping your links on Discord channels. This initiative helps draw more outside eyes to Hive. I realized that only a few Filipino Hivers are doing this. You should start sharing your posts on Twitter, Facebook, or any conventional social media out there.

3. Join in Communities of Your Interest

This is probably one of the best things that happened in Hive. With communities that are specific for any niche out there, curation efforts are now easier compared before. Meaning, if you post your content in specific communities, there's a greater probability that it will be upvoted by people who curate in your chosen niche.

There are also general communities like OCD and GEMS if you want to post in communities with no specific content to curate. Plus, the upvotes in those communities are larger compared to other communities as long as your content are of high quality. Be warned that curators in those communities are no longer focusing within the community alone. They are also curating contents from different communities. I would say that have good mix of both. Diversify your posting habit and don't just focus in one community.

Posting in communities will help you attract people of the same interest to check out your post. It's a good way to gain new and like-minded friends.

4. Make Sure to Reply the Comments in Your Post and Comment in Other's Posts

Right now, there's not much incentive if you comment in someone's post, but its value is intangible and could not be easily quantified. Don't be a hermit content creator. Reach out to people and show that you read and care about their posts by commenting well-thought words. Generic comments such as "nice post" are regarded as spam so avoid those type of comments. Show the author that you really read the content and don't just fake it. It might entice that particular author to check out your blog.

If you feel that you're too busy to comment other people's posts, at least allocate time to reply the comments in your post. Engage in a discussion through the comments. I will to every comment in post because aside from the idea that I care other people's take on my post, it also drives the engagement up which adds value to the post.

5. Join in Challenges, Initiatives, and Contests

This is basic for newbies in order to get noticed. Joining in challenges and contests will help you get that attention that you crave. For example, @theycallmedan pops up some initiatives from time to time with an assured upvote percentage. Make sure to join in contests that you're confident in joining. If you win, you'll be mentioned by the contest organizer so you'll have additional eyes to check out your post.

Since I specialized in travel content, I always check out @invisusmundi and @travelfeed's contests. It has one of the biggest reward pools in the whole chain. Make sure to check that out. If you win, you'll have some liquid rewards which you could power up to increase your influence. If not, you are assured of a small token for your efforts. Not a bad deal, I assure you.

P.S. Be a global virtual citizen. Leave your nationalism behind when you're in the platform. I might discuss further in a post, but make sure you're not just focused in the community of your country. It creates a virtual bubble which is not really helpful in the long run.

_{Note: Images and designs are from Canva that are free to modify and use.}

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines) and the rest of the world even if he's still a poor corporate slave with tons of bills to pay and two siblings to support in college.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

True, for newbies they thought that by posting the link of their post through discord. They can assure the upvotes already. Well... I was like that before which is not true.

The purpose in discord is having people to interact. Posting in discord as well your link is just a 50/50 percentage that will receive and upvotes. However it's not that bad either because when there is people idolize your way ow writing. It will be easy for them to visit your post.

Conclusion, newbies won't spend too much time in reading longer blogs. They know that it will help them but still they chose not to. Mentality? Hmmm not sure but maybe it's true. Anyway this post is not just for newbies. This is for the people who loves to learn new. Thanks for this by the way.