Social media has become an essential communication in many people’s lives. Connecting with friends, family and strangers who share common interests online has become commonplace. Joining a new social network can be exciting and intimidating, especially one built on open-source technology. There is a central company behind Nostr working around the clock to onboard users and educate them on how to get the most out of this network.
Unfortunately, your experience with any client relies on you.
Once you’ve set up a Nostr account, you’ll be forced to learn the ins and outs, and your first point of order would be to start to build your network by finding users to follow.
Nostr accounts are NGU technology.
We’ve seen unprecedented growth in the use of social media over the past decade, with social media sites collectively providing people with a platform to connect with others, create meaningful conversations and share information in real time. It’s safe to say people can’t resist sharing memes, or arguing with one another online, so social media sites will never be short of users.
With 3.2 billion people using social media in 2020 and the average person having 5.54 social media profiles, it’s evident that these platforms have taken over the world.
Nostr being the new kid on the block, is no different, with over 600 000 private keys with active bios already created, and the growth is showing no sign of slowing down. This growth means that there are more people to interact with, but it also makes finding them in public feeds a lot harder, which is why curating your follower feed is so important.
Nostr directories
If you’ve logged into Nostr and your feed is looking rather bare, or you’re frustrated with trying to find users to follow to build up a Nostr account, that is worth logging into each day to check the latest updates. Then you’re going to have to do a little bit of grunt work, but there are ways to make it a little easier.
Web directories have been a staple tool since the dawn of the internet; a website that does all the work for you by compiling, organising, and data on a particular niche will always be a valuable place to start. Nostr is no different, with several directories springing up and curating accounts to make it easier to find users.
Nostr directory
Nostr directory is a public directory that allows anyone to sign in and list their Nostr pub key on the website and connect their other social accounts, like Twitter.
Nostr directory also has a nifty feature that lets you sign in with your Twitter account, and it will populate a list of users you already follow that have already submitted their Nostr npub to the directory. You can choose those you wish to follow or select all and conduct a mass follow.
That should be more than enough to seed your account so you can start seeing regular posts in your feed, and you can start engaging with users who are regularly posting on Nostr.
Note: Don’t only use the service to find followers, but feel free to add yourself to the directory so other users can find you once they join Nostr.
Bitcoin Nostr directory
Bitcoin Nostr is a curated directory of popular accounts from bitcoin Twitter that have migrated to Nostr. If you like to keep up with certain bitcoin companies and personalities, this site will have quite a few household names in bitcoin.
Copy the npub key of your favourite bitcoin accounts, paste it into your Nostr client and click follow, then watch as your Nostr feed gets a heavy dose of orange pilling.
Nostr band
Nostr Band is Nostr based search engine and curation tool that will come in handy if you’re going to get the most out of your Nostr account.
- You can use the search function to search for specific users or content and then follow those users.
- Alternatively, you can use Nostr Bands recommendations to find popular accounts or popular posts that will lead you to new accounts.
Visit the account, grab their npub on Nostr band and add them to your follow list through your preferred client.
Use Twitter search
If you’re a Twitter user, you can use the native search option and filter your search with terms like:
- Nostr
- Npub
- #plebchain
- #bitcoinnostr
This should provide you with a healthy list of posts of users sharing their npub keys, copy the keys and paste it into your nostr client search or append it to a Nostr profile link and directly land on their Nostr account page and click follow.
Use stacker news search
If you’re a Stacker news user, you can mimic and repeat the same process using these terms.
- Nostr
- Npub
- #plebchain
- #bitcoinnostr
This should provide you find several Stack News users who have shared their npub on post. Again copy the keys and paste them into your nostr client search or append it to a Nostr profile link and directly land on their Nostr account page and click follow.
Explore uncharted territory
Whether you’re looking for a fun way to connect with friends online, or a new way to increase your professional opportunities and network, or you only want to learn about a brand new way of communicating online, then Nostr is the ideal playground for you. So get ready to jump in, make friends, and expand your horizons as you explore the exciting prospects of a new social network!
Do your own research.
If you’d like to try out Nostr or want to learn more about it, we recommend checking out the following resources to kickstart your research.
Are you on Nostr?
If you are a Nostr user and want to hang out and chat with us or follow our content on your preferred Nostr front end, feel free to add us using our PubKey below.
7ecd3fe6353ec4c53672793e81445c2a319ccf0a298a91d77adcfa386b52f30d
The Bitcoin Manual’s Nostr Pubkey
Please give us your notes.
If you have used Nostr, which client do you prefer and why? How do you find Nostr followers? Are there any tips and tricks you know for sourcing followers that you think deserve mention?
Let us know in the comments down below.
