How to increase engagement on Hive (and specifically on photography posts)!

3 days ago

Hello photographers of Hive!
Do you remember your first photography posts on Hive?
I do remember mine. It was a short blog where I shared some pictures I took from some birds. I was proud of these photos since I was able to shoot the birds and even a mouse really close because I had placed my camera near the feeding place and used my phone to make the photo.

After I had posted the blog, I started receiving upvotes. Soon I received over 100 upvotes and a hand full of comments. And the blog generated my first rewards on Hive. I was really excited by this!
But when I checked the comments, I got a bit disappointed.
Although my blog got curated by Qurator and a defaul HiveBuzz message, but there were no meaningful responses.
And rewards are nice, but to me a meaningful comment on your photography post can be really valuable too.

As a photographer you want to know what people think about your photographs. What do they like. Do they have tips for improvement?
I really missed that engagement when I started out on Hive.

User retention

I often hear that Hive needs more users and there are quite a lot of initiatives to draw the attention of users and get them to create new accounts. When these new users create an account and write an introduction posts they are often overwhelmed with the number of comments. This is mainly because of the #introduction tag I think. But after that it can become very quiet since these new users haven't created a network yet and their blogs disappear in the large stream of blogs that gets published every day.
I think that users will be more active when there will be more engagement with them. And maybe these new users will even spread the word and attract even more users. Who knows?

Engagement on photography posts

I've been trying to improve engagement on photography posts in the past. I created the Hive Photographers Discord Channel (come join us if you are a photographer too) and I introduced the #aap tag. These letters stand for Ask A Photographer and photographers could add this tag to their posts when they wanted constructive feedback on their photography posts.
Although some photographers started using the tag it never really worked out the way I had in mind. It didn't really increase the comments under photography blogs.

Listing photography posts without any comments!

This week I came up with another idea when I was playing a bit with HiveSQL. I had made a query that listed some photography posts in the two largest photography communities: Photography Lovers (24,286 subscribers and 510 active users) and Photography (7,822 subscribers 38 active users).

I changed the query to filter the blogs hadn't received a single comment.
It came back with quite a big list of blogs. Among them were a couple of blogs that were recently posted, so that got me thinking.
Then I adjusted the query to only show the blogs that were between 3 and 7 days old and still hadn't received a single comment.
I also set the a minimum body length of 1000 to prevent single photo blog posts to be listed.
The query looks like this:

SELECT 
    'https://peakd.com' + Comments.url, Comments.author, Accounts.created, Comments.created, 
    Comments.children, Accounts.post_count, Comments.body_length
FROM 
    Comments
JOIN Accounts ON Accounts.name = Comments.author
WHERE 
    Comments.depth = 0
   -- AND Accounts.created >= DATEADD(DAY, -30, GETDATE())
    AND Comments.created >= DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETUTCDATE())
    AND Comments.created <= DATEADD(DAY, -3, GETUTCDATE())
    AND body_length >= 1000
    AND children < 1
    AND (Comments.url LIKE '%hive-194913%' OR Comments.url LIKE '%hive-119845%')

I ran it and this was the result; 34 photography blogs that didn't receive a single comment!

Automation

I'm already running a scheduled HiveSQL query for my @topcomment curation service, so I thought I could also make one for this purpose.
So I've scheduled an hourly SQL Query that selects 3-day-old photography blogs without a single comments and places them in the #engagement channel in the Hive Photographers Discord Channel

It looks like this:

I would ask every Hive photographer to join the Discord channel and check out the #engagement channel to see if there is a post you can leave a nice comment on.

It can be just a simple "Cool photographs" comment. Nothing is worse than no comment at all.
But it would be even better if you tell the author what you think about the photographs and maybe even give them some advice how they could improve their shots (we photographers always want to improve, don't we?).
If it is a new Hiver, you could give them some advise as well.
It will just take a little bit of time and it can make someone's day!

Rewarding great comments

As many of you might know I'm running the @topcomment curation service. Our curation team rewards high quality comments. Since I'll be actively watching the #engagement channel in the Hive Photographers Discord Channel there is a big chance that high quality comments on those posts will receive upvotes. Either from the Topcomment curation service as from me personally.

Again; I really think engagement is very important for user retention and growth.
With this initiative we could support a large group of Hivers; the photographers.

Who is with me?

FriendlyMoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
Check out my projects below!

Topcomment is an initiative to reward high quality comments.

For all Hive Photographers: come join our Hive Photographer Discord Channel

A weekly blog with an overview of all the photography contests on Hive. #photocontests.

Share anything about cycling in the Cycling Community

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11 comments

@forestbound55

3 days ago

I think meaningful comments are a really important part. They show that people haven't just skimmed your post, but have really engaged with it. And that's exactly what gives you a feeling of satisfaction. Knowing that even the words you've written won't disappear into emptiness. But I also think that if you're new here, like me, then the whole thing has to develop first. People who have been here for a while probably want to see consistency, especially with new people. I can't say for sure whether that's the case, since I'm still in the early stages here myself and have a lot to learn. It's very overwhelming at first. That's why I won't rush into anything.

The Discord channel you created is a good thing. I think I need to reactivate my Discord account!🙃✌️

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@friendlymoose74

3 days ago

But I also think that if you're new here, like me, then the whole thing has to develop first

People that are longer on Hive have a bigger network, so most of the times more engagement. But also they sometimes get no replies on their posts. It's a Hive thing that needs to be improved (I think).

See you in the Discord channel 👍

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@fernwehninja68

3 days ago(edited)

this is really a good motivation for me, I am regularly active on upvoting, however, I need to train my brain how to be consistent on posting, I prefer to take time and write quality blog content based on my interest and yet open to explore other contents that is useful and educational. Hey @friendlymoose heel erg bedankt! :) reposting

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@friendlymoose74

3 days ago

The focus on Hive mainly is on creating blogs while there often aren't a lot of comments.
Graag gedaan!

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@dubble68

3 days ago

This is a wonderful idea! Comments and engagement goes such a long way here on Hive, my posts don't get many replies mostly just my friends being curtious but when you get a new commentor who has read through the words you've written it's such a different feeling. Inspires you to keep going with Hive especially in the earlier days when things are very confusing and foreign to many!

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@friendlymoose74

2 days ago

Thanks!

my posts don't get many replies mostly just my friends being curtious but when you get a new commentor who has read through the words you've written it's such a different feeling.

This indeed! And this initiative should make people comment on older posts that haven't received any comment at all.

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@dubble68

2 days ago

It definitely will, it's a lovely thing you've done!

Going to show some love to the posts when I'm back at my computer later tonight, take care!

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@cherokee4life64

3 days ago

I LOVE THIS. So glad I found your Leading Lines contest and it opened me up to a whole other avenue in Hive!

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@xuwi61

3 days ago

Comments are the best way of engaging and growing account on Hive but usually I am a bit disappointed from the meaningless comments that is written even without reading or watching the post.

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@cryptozeug53

3 days ago(edited)

Great idea, respect for all that work.
I just joined the discord.

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@friendlymoose74

3 days ago

Thanks! And welcome to the club 😊

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@ph110277

2 days ago

Not a bad idea at all... Sometimes, the problem is also in the new people that joined HIVE... Or better-said in a way how they got onboarded, with a "promise of what"... A lot of times, they come because someone said to them "Come here to blog and earn money!"... and that was it... I find that as a major obstacle... There is no "step 2" in the story... because of that, people get lost and quit...

So, your idea is good, if you point them in a direction where they can find more information (and answers) about WHY they don't have comments/upvotes... For us, it's simple, but for them, it's not... Of course, even if some know that they should engage with others and support others, some will quit as they are lazy, but some will stay...

Keep doing what you are doing and brainstorming how we can help! 💪

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@friendlymoose74

2 days ago

There is no "step 2" in the story... because of that, people get lost and quit...

We don't need more users, we need more active users. And when nobody responds to your blogs, you can feel not welcome. So interaction with newbies is very important. Especially after their first blog.

I've also tried this script for all posts (not only photography), but it resulted in so much junk that it wouldn't be useful 🤨

I thought I could at least help some fellow photographers.

Thanks for your comment!

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@ph110277

yesterday

I've also tried this script for all posts (not only photography), but it resulted in so much junk that it wouldn't be useful 🤨

Oh, I believe you! While searching for good content, I see a lot of that...

We need more filters!! 😃

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@incublus77

2 days ago

I'm glad you're actively using HiveSQL, man, so we can discover new gems. Not every post deserves comments, but sometimes the ones that deserve comments don't get them.

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@friendlymoose74

2 days ago

I discovered some interesting photographers that have potention already.
By interacting with them I hope they will continue posting.

And you're right, not every post deserves a comment. Although telling someone what they can improve to make a better post is also a valuable comment.

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@sofathana74

yesterday

I also believe that the moderators of the communities should be more active, doing for example initiatives, contests, etc., that stimulate the users, this creates more interaction and engagement, I have seen that it works in many communities. Greetings!

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@friendlymoose74

18 hours ago

True, moderators could be more active sometimes, but I know from my own experience that managing a community is time consuming.

And for engagament by commenting on blogs you do need other community members.

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@nanixxx74

2 days ago

It's a great idea! I'll be there supporting, because I like to get feedback on my photos.
And I know they will appreciate it too and who knows if something changes for the better.
I love your dynamism and everything you are always doing for the community in general.
There could be many reasons why these posts don't get comments... But I think it may be mainly because they don't interact enough to create engagement.
And their reasons can be many, ranging from deliberate to that they find it difficult to do so because of shyness, or that they have too little time to dedicate to Hive. Life sometimes imposes tougher challenges and people work and end up exhausted... I don't know, I'm thinking of everything that could be.
Anyway, I am one of those who believe that those who have a real interest find the time to do the right thing and contribute in a meaningful way.

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@friendlymoose74

2 days ago

Thank you for your positive feedback!
I don't think it is often the 'fault' of the author, nor the commenters.
I think it's just a matter that some blogs don't get seen a lot. Blogs disappear quickly in the busier communities and streams and when you don't have a lot of followers yet, your post can be missed.

Thanks for joining me in this!

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@grindle77

2 days ago

A great idea tbh, anything helps, but I think it is down to auto-votes, not many on here come for engagement, I think they see a regular uploader who does quite well with votes, and they jump on the band wagon to make some passive income.

I spend more time than I should, editing and creating a narrative on an upload, culling my shots to a max of 30 and trying to keep to under 500 words. always tag quite a few photo related communities. Most of the little actual engagement I get though are through worldmappin and curangel. and a lot of those ar AI generated LOL

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