10 Ways to get 100 Medium followers without being popular on Social Media
2 min readApr 9, 2022
- Write Listicles like this one. That is, an article that is actually just a list with a number in the title indicating the number of bullet points.
- Clickbait. To use or not to use? (E.g. Find out why Will smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.’) Might get you some reads, but it may not yield many followers.
- Participate in ‘Follow-for-follow.’ Works with a roughly 66% success rate from my experience. That is, for every follow I gave, I got 0.66 back based on my 76 followers and 114 following (at time of writing). But shouldn’t it be about the writing and talent?
- Leave claps and thoughtful Comments. People want to know how their creative work has touched you and want your feedback. That can lead to a follow, or who knows? Maybe even a friend, partner or proofreader.
- Use your own photos instead of the same ol’ stock images we all use.
- Ask for followers. The people who do this, that make it into my feed, all have found great success in doing so. Please don’t do this. You’re competing with millions of others for views, so write something interesting!
- Publish an about me article. I have noticed a few people find success in publishing an article about themselves and the kind of content they like to publish. I find it to be very tacky. Do write an ‘About me’ section on your profile, but I don’t recommend writing an article about yourself unless you’re the central character of an idea, story, or something along those lines.
- Don’t suck at writing. Maybe you just don’t have what it takes. Ask for feedback. I put this this far down because I am not sure how much of a popularity contest Medium is. That is why I put the bit about not having a social media following in the title. I know that some people could garner follows just by sharing their Medium content to their social network (e.g. Instagram, Twitter, etc.)
- Blackmail and threats of violence. You better clap for me or I’ll leave a SINGLE CLAP on all of your published work! Remember you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
- Write whatever you find interesting. Odds are that other people will find it interesting too!
