How to Succeed on Medium
In August 2012, Evan William developed an online publishing platform called Medium. Writers enjoy using the platform as it is user-friendly and serves as a great way to share their stories.
Medium is one of the first long-form content publishing platforms that gave voice to creative writers, independent journalists and even authors. It combined the creativity of writing with the collaborative powers of social networking.
Medium is a great way to see how your audience will react to your content, as its users tend to read and interact with your stories actively.
Here are a few tips (and tools) on how to succeed on Medium:
Engage with the Community
Publishing on Medium is not about broadcasting your stories. It’s about finding like-minded writers and growing together with them.
The more engaging you are on the medium platform is, the more users will want to interact with you. Get their attention so that they follow you on social media and start looking out for your content.
To find great writers to interact with, start with the tool called Top Writers. It tracks most active writers and allows you to quickly connect to them on Medium, Twitter and Facebook.
Use Medium’s reading list to keep an eye on interesting stories and engage with them when you have a minute.
You can also manage your Medium reading list in Google Docs which is what I do because it also helps me to keep track of my favorite authors and record my future content ideas and references.
Reading a lot on Medium will also help you to become a better writer. An excellent way to improve your writing skills is by looking at what others in your niche are doing. Do not duplicate what they do, but look at what they are offering, build on it with your ideas and add more value.
Always Follow and Engage Back
Always return the favor of following those who follow and engage with your content. Also, try to add meaningful contributions to their posts: Comment, tweet, clap, etc.
This will help in not only attracting their following to your stories but also in building stronger relationships you may need in the future. Medium is all about building partnerships and collaborating.
Boost Your Content Performance with Social Ads
Medium has given up on their native ads back in 2018 but you can still promote your articles through Twitter and Facebook advertising platforms.
You do not need to break the bank to boost your Medium content on social media but investing $10 into generating some clicks and engagements is not a bad idea.
Promoting your Medium stories on social media will help you get your account in front of your target audience. And if you do your job right, those newly acquired readers will like your content enough to subscribe and come back on a regular basis.
Here’s a detailed guide on Facebook advertising as well as what to do prior to launching Twitter ads.
There are of course more ways to promote your content, especially going forward, when you have already built a few dedicated readers:
- Find creative ways to bring your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook followers to your Medium stories. For example, you can repurpose your Medium stories into multiple captions and broadcast through your social media channels prompting your followers to want to know more.
- Encourage your readers to promote your content by adding a simple CTA to invite your readers to comment on tweet your story.
- Use email marketing to engage your audience and offer so much value that they will keep coming back.
If you are a WordPress blogger, and consider adding Medium into your mix of marketing channels, here’s a detailed guide on how the two differ and how they can be combined.
Publish Fresh Content Consistently
Publishing content regularly will bring your content in front of your audience. Inconsistency may cause your audience to give up on you and move on to other publications.
Regular posts will not only keep your audience engaged, but also trigger Medium algorithms by showing that you are serious about your presence and adding value to the platform.
Generally, niche question research never fails to help me find engaging content ideas, so always keep this idea handy:
If you lack ideas on what to write about, consider using Text Optimizer which is a semantic analysis tool that suggests related topics and questions. It is a great way to come up with interesting and engaging content ideas:
Don’t forget to make your content highly visual: Always choose an attention-grabbing featured image. Here’s a good collection of sites to find the best one, so spend some time browsing around.
Keep an eye on your Medium analytics: Look at your content that performs well and those articles that under-performs. Update better-performing content to keep it up-to-date and promote it again to bring it back in from of your community.
[“Read ratio” is a good indicator as to how well your content holds your readers’ attention]
Use your Medium analytics to learn more about your target audience and what they are looking for. Try covering related topics and writing content that is similar in style.
Lastly, have fun, express yourself in your content, and let your readers to be drawn to your personality. Don’t try too hard: Just be you.
Image source: Medium
